Feliz Navidad

Christmas celebrations officially ceased in Cuba when Fidel Castro declared the country an atheist state in 1969 and banned this festival from being celebrated. When pope John Paul II visited Cuba in January 1998, after Fidel Castro had visited him in the Vatican two years earlier, relations significantly improved between the catholic church and Cuba. Despite Catholicism being repressed initially in the aftermath of the revolution, Cuba is the only communist country with which the Vatican never broke off diplomatic relations. As a symbolic gesture to honour the pope’s visit, Castro decreed Christmas a national holiday for the first time in nearly 3 decades after the Vatican increased the pressure on the Cuban government to do so. John Paul II’s spokesman who spoke with Fidel Castro personally said that when Fidel Castro finally agreed to celebrate Christmas as an official holiday in Cuba he added that it might be for 1998 only as the holiday would be difficult to uphold due to the fact that it fell into the middle of the sugar cane harvesting season. This was the official reason given for suspending the holiday originally as the Cuban government insisted that the Cuban Revolution never had an anti-religious spirit. However, years later, the holiday is still officially celebrated although it remains somewhat in the shadow of the New Year’s celebration which coincides with the commemoration of the Cuban Revolution.

Cuban salsa is in many ways connected to the history and culture of Cuba and as such has seen various influences from the way Christmas has been treated in Cuba. While Christians continued to celebrate Christmas in Cuba even when it was not an official holiday, its importance declined and the majority of Cuban traditions and songs that influenced Cuban salsa are therefore from the pre-revolutionary period. During the time where Christmas was no longer a holiday in Cuba, Santería became more important and its influence on salsa can be seen in many ways (more on this to follow in later posts). As Cuban salsa was still in its infancy before the Christmas ban, Christmas songs from this period are usually centered around other dance styles such as Son, Guaracha, Rumba and Cha Cha Cha such as the famous album by La Sonora Matancera ‎– Navidades Con La Sonora (Christmas with the Sonora).

In recent years, Christmas has gained in popularity and importance in Cuba, partly due to tourism but also due to the relaxation of political tensions between the U.S. and Cuba so new Christmas influences can be expected to leave their mark on future Rueda moves, timba songs and the general culture surrounding Cuban salsa.

Tiempo España Dance Academy Social Events

Last Sunday we had a Christmas party at Carlton village hall to spend some time with our students and celebrate together before our winter break around the Christmas period. This was the first social dancing event we have organised and given how fast we have been growing over the last year and how good our students are becoming we are eager to organise many more opportunities for social dancing in 2017.
While we may not be able to give students the chance to dance socially in all our locations we are keen to offer regular salsa events and workshops in the future in various locations so that everyone gets the chance to practice their moves without having to drive too far.

Given we have only been teaching Cuban salsa in Yorkshire for just over a year we are extremely proud to have so many students already who are as passionate about Cuban salsa as we are and it is nice to see that more and more people are getting ready for social dancing. It was very nice to see how easily our students from all our classes mixed and that everyone was happy to dance with each other which made for a great atmosphere. Pictures and videos of our first event can be seen on our facebook group page.

Our aim is to bring Cuban salsa dancers in Yorkshire together on a regular basis while keeping the entry prices low so that it remains affordable for people in our community. While we may use a different structure for special events and workshops, our events will be based predominantly on Cuban salsa although elements of other Cuban dances such as Son or Rumba may be introduced over time.
Most events will start with a Rueda class which will be a 1h workshop where we will teach predominantly new moves which we do not teach in any of our ordinary classes. These classes will be a great way to warm up for the social dancing afterwards and they will generally enhance the training received in our regular classes.

There are no plans at the moment to provide classes for absolute beginners at our social dance events as complete beginners can join our weekly group classes at any point for free. This being said, our Rueda classes at the start of most social events will be suitable for all students at any level as long as they are happy with Paso Casino, Di Le Que No, Enchufla and Vacilala. That is, any advanced level 2 to level 7 student will be able to join the Rueda class at the start of our events and learn some new moves that we do not normally teach in class.

Dancing socially is a great way to meet new people and find out who else is interested in Cuban salsa in the region. It is one of the key components to becoming a good dancer in addition to taking regular classes. We will try our best to accommodate our students by providing more social dance opportunities in the future that will enhance their dance training and allow them to practice what they have learned in class.

Leader’s Misconceptions (Part 1)

Being a leader when dancing any form of dance is certainly an entirely different experience to being a follower. In Cuban salsa more so than any other dance form I have seen so far it is at least in its modern form completely acceptable for women to dance as leaders and for leaders to dance as followers. While this may not always have been the case historically, it is now entirely up to the dancer whether they want to lead or follow and many dance schools including Tiempo España Dance Academy encourage all their students to learn both leading and following. This becomes especially important when learning such moves as “Confusion” where the leaders and followers will switch within the same dance. Doing this will actually teach leaders how to lead better as they will be more aware of what the followers are doing and vice versa. This is one of the biggest misconceptions in beginner’s classes as most men will just default to learning the leaders steps and most women will want to see the follower steps initially even though men and women will eventually see both steps and it is irrelevant which role they start with.

Another big misconception is the fact that leaders often believe that they will have to lead the followers through entire moves from start to finish which is definitely not the case. A good follower will learn to respond to key moments in the dance which tell them all the cues they need to figure out which move is coming next. Therefore all a leader needs to do to lead a move well is to give clear signals at the right moments. These moves can be very subtle and do not need to be strong or prolonged in any way. As long as the signals are clear and happen at the correct moment then a follower will understand the moves being led perfectly and will not require any additional guidance. It is in fact possible to lead moves using only one finger which is an exercise we sometimes do in class and for certain moves it is even possible to lead without touching each other at all using only the body position as guidance. While some very good dancers will lead with their hands much more than they need to, it is their personal choice to do this or maybe just a result of how they were taught initially but for good followers it is not necessary to receive more than the key signals. They can in fact find this annoying or even patronising if they are led consistently throughout a move rather than receiving the opportunity to display their skill by interpreting and responding to the signals correctly. Followers who demand of their leaders that they give prolonged support or “stronger” guidance are usually followers who have not yet mastered the skill of quickly responding to the right signals. Dance couples who have been dancing together for a long time and very skillfull dancers can be so subtle in the way they are communicating the moves to each other that it is nearly impossible for spectators to see how the signals are given and received which is what makes the dance look so smooth so this is something most dancers ultimately aspire to.

Tiempo España Dance Academy C.I.C.

Since the idea for Tiempo España Dance Academy was born it has grown considerably to a point where recommendations are now our primary source of new students across our various locations. From our first classes in Eggborough with just a few students we now run classes of often significant sizes in 6 locations around Yorkshire (Carlton, Selby, York, Leeds, Tadcaster & Hambleton) with our Leeds class running twice a week on Saturdays and on Wednesdays.

Team building days and wedding performances continue to increase in popularity and we now run private classes throughout the week. The 11th of December will see our first Cuban salsa party including a one hour Rueda class which will be the start of Tiempo España Dance Academy organising Cuban salsa events around Yorkshire so that our students have more opportunities to practise what they learnt in class.
It has been a real pleasure for both Aimi and myself to grow our dance school from its early days to the stage it has reached today. We are proud of our many students who have gone from being absolute beginners to become great dancers, ready to go social dancing whenever there is an event on.

While we were worried initially that teaching Cuban salsa every day of the week would eventually decrease the enthusiasm we feel for this dance, we continue to love every moment of it and would love to teach even more classes if we could. Unfortunately, like any company, we are restricted by financial constraints and have had to decline lessons in the past such as private classes in too remote locations, group classes in smaller villages where the initial interest did not cover the costs etc. It has been our utmost desire to be able to teach Cuban salsa to anyone who is interested in the region we live in and create a community of dancers that share our passion for this wonderful dance. After some small bureaucratic difficulties we are now in a position to follow this dream with our new company: Tiempo España Dance Academy C.I.C.

C.I.C. stands for community interest company which is a company structure in the UK that allows companies to maximise aspects that benefit the community which do not have to be monetary by nature. We will run our C.I.C. alongside but completely independently of Tiempo España Dance Academy to be able to offer the community we live in increased services especially to people who are not able to come to our ordinary classes for whatever reason.

Our normal partnership Tiempo España Dance Academy will continue to engage in the activities we have offered in the past such as organising group and private lessons, salsa events, wedding first dances, corporate team building days etc.
On the other hand, our new company Tiempo España Dance Academy C.I.C. will work closely with councils and charities around Yorkshire to provide benefits to the community in areas that were unattainable to our normal partnership in the past. These activities will of course depend on the available funding but some of the communities we would like to provide dance classes for are listed as follows:
- Disabled people
- People with learning difficulties
- People with a low household income who cannot afford dance lessons
- Mothers and/or fathers with small children who could bring their kids along to class
- Daytime or night-time rather than evening classes for shift workers
- Classes for people living in remote locations or people without a car
- Pensioners and people with reduced mobility who would prefer slower classes which are not too strenuous i.e. those limited by medical conditions etc

It is our hope that this newly formed C.I.C. will make our biggest hobby accessible to a wider pool of people to share our passion in an area they would not have the chance to experience otherwise and we are very excited to start the next chapter in our endeavour to bring Cuban salsa to Yorkshire.