History
The Rumba dance is the slowest of the five competitive International Latin Dances: the paso doble, the samba, the cha-cha, and the Jive being the others. The ballroom Rumba was danced in pre-revolutionary Cuba to a certain type of music called the bolero-son. A Rumba craze developed through the 1930s. The dance was introduced into dance salons in America and Europe in the 1930s and was characterized by variable tempo, sometimes nearly twice as fast as the modern ballroom rumba.
The modern international style of dancing the rumba derives from studies made by dance teacher Monsieur Pierre of London. He visited Cuba several times in the mid 1900s to find out how and what Cubans were dancing at the time. Competition figures are often complex, and this is where competition dance separates from social dance.
Songs You May Recognize
There are a large variety of songs that are Rumbas and many that you will recognize. Some popular songs are listed below. At practices and dances we use a mixture of traditional music as well as modern music.
- Beautiful Girl – INXS
- And I Love Her – The Beatles
- Black Magic Woman – Santana