Rumba and Son Workshop by Reynaldo Gonzales

Oct 10 2009 12:00 pm

What: Rumba and Son Workshop
When: Saturday, October 10th
           Rumba workshop - 12:00 PM to 1:30 PM
           Son workshop - 1:45 PM to 3:15 PM
Where: The ArtFare ( 55 N. 6th Ave. )
Price: $15 per class

About Reynaldo
Reynaldo was born in Matanzas, Cuba, and has been dancing, singing and playing percussion since early childhood. After graduating from the Escuela para Instructores de Arte in 1984, he became one of the principal dancers and choreographers for the prominent Cuban group Afro-Cuba de Matanzas and toured with the group to the U.S. in 1996. He has taught Afro-Cuban dance, percussion and song ever since his arrival to the U.S. He has a VAST knowledge of ritual dances, chants and rhythms of Yoruba, Bantu, Abakua, Palo and Iyesa.  Rey embodies a profound wealth of knowledge in the legacy of Afro-Cuban folklore from the cradle of African culture in Cuba.

He has worked on numerous projects in the United States and abroad including, Humbolt University, George Mason University, MA, Indiana University, University of Colorado, Tufts University, MA, Harvard University, MA ,Tanglewood Festival, MA, Simphony Hall, MA,  Ravinia Festival, IL, Barbican Festival, London,  Oporto Festival, Oporto,Portugal, Sidney Opera House, Sidney, Australia.

Reynaldo was a principal singer, percussionist and dancer in the travelling production, La Passion Seguen San Marcos (St. Mark’s Passion) a sprawling work that is part music, part theater and part dance. The production interprets a new vision of Christ's death that embraces Bahian Brazilian drums, the Afro-Brazilian stringed percussion instrument berimbau, West African call-and-response singing, Cuban song, Argentine tango, Spanish flamenco and Jewish cantillation. 

Reynaldo currently resides in the Boston area where he continues to move audiences and inspire students with his unrelenting energy, extraordinary talents and vast knowledge.

Worshop Description
The Rumba classes will be accompanied by live music.
Women should bring a full circle skirt (or as full as possible) and wear comfortable dance clothing with bare feet or dance shoes.

Men should wear lose fitting comfortable clothes and bare feet or dance shoes

Rumba, which emerged at the end of the last century, in the barrios on the outskirts of Matanzas and Havana, is unique to Cuba. 

The newly freed slaves who moved to the urban areas settled in communal housing known as solares. The common areas, such as the patio, were the meeting places, from which the Rumba emerged.  The Rumba is a secular form. (Party music or street music celebrated without religious significance.) Although the gestures, rhythms and styles are influenced by ritual dance and music, the Rumba emerged as a new artistic form of self-expression. 

Rumba Forms

The Rumba is interpreted in three forms: guaguancó, columbia and yambú.  Because of the complexity of the dance and time limitation, the forms that will be covered are the ones danced by couples.

Students will learn the basic movement patterns independently  and then pairs will be brought together to practice the patterns as couples.

GUAGUANCO   is danced by a couple and is normally a medium, to fast paced rhythm. The dance involves a playful mockery of the mating scene between a rooster and a hen.  With movements that recall sexual possession, the man moves his waist, his hand, a leg, his handkerchief toward the woman.  This gesture is known as the vacuna or vacunao (literally translated as vaccination).  The woman dances seductively always trying to avoid the vacunao protecting her pelvic area with her skirt, hand or scarf with a covering gesture, while sustaining the rhythm.  If she does not manage to escape the vacunao, the woman responds with a gesture of defeat and a very brief pause in movement.  The action resumes and usually continues a very long time.
YAMBÚ  is a slower, seductive rhythm danced by a couple.  This rhythm was created for older generations and is danced with regal grace and skill. The flavor of the dance retains a sense of pure flirtation and elegance.  Unlike the Guaguancó, the male never makes a vacunao gesture of capture toward the female.  Yambú is also called rumba de cajón.  The English translation of cajón is crate or box.
The cajónes are used in place of, or in addition to drums.  This evolved during a period when slaves were prohibited from playing drums, so they substituted wooden boxes that were used for packing.  The boxes used for salted cod were most popular because they provided the right bass tones.  
COLUMBIA  is a very fast 6/8 rhythm, which retains the same format as the guaguancó with the lowest drum maintaining the foundational rhythm and the highest drum interacting with the dancers.  The Columbia begins with short satirical phrases that sometimes come from the vocabulary of the palero rituals from Yorubá or Abakúa.  The dance is  very acrobatic and displays the skills and creativity of the individual men who take turns displaying their flare and prowess in a competitive forum. 
 

The son classes will be accompanied by recorded music.

There are no special clothing requirements. Comfortable dance or athletic wear and dance shoes or bare feet are recommended.

SON - for many years an insignificant urban folk form, Son has become the most influential Cuban music of the 20th century.  This was the first popular music to feature instrumental and vocal improvisation and to incorporate the Afro-Cuban drum, the bongó, representing a significant turning point in Cuban popular culture. The vocalization reflects direct influence from African call and response patterns with improvisation by a lead singer.  The urban dance style was performed with a couple holding each other in a very close embrace, touching torsos but never the groin area.  The movement is focused in the upper body with free and sensual movement of the hips.
 
Students will explore the clave pattern and how it relates to key elements of the Son

Basic movement patterns will be taught  independently  and then pairs will be brought together to practice the syncopated movement as couples.
 
Cuban “Salsa”

The origins of the popular Cuban dances are in the dances of the preceding generations, such as the dances used in Santeria rituals, Yuka, Makuta, all of the styles of Rumba, the Salon  dances like Contradanza, Danza, Danzón, Danzonete, Son, Mambo, Chá chá chá, Mozambique, Pilón, Koyudde and others.  Not only are these the sources of energy in Cuba’s most recent dance performances, they have also left deep impressions on Cuban popular cultural traditions in general.

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