MIDTERM EXAMINATION COVERAGE

Description
Bolero is a slow, beautiful, expressive dance that is somewhat of a
hybrid. It combines the dance patterns of Rumba with the rise and fall action
of the Waltz. It is danced to music in 4/4 time, at a tempo slower than
Rumba. Bolero is the slowest of all the American Style Rhythm dances.
It can be danced by either as a solo or a couple, and has many timings
depending whether you are in Spain, Cuba, Mexico, or around the world.
Bolero is often called the “Cuban Dance of Love” and is believed to have
evolved from Afro-Cuban and Spanish folk dances such as the Danzon,
Beguine and Fandango. Originally it was danced in its classical form, to the
constant beat of drums.
Danzon is the freer more spontaneous version of “Danza” which came to
Cuba in the 18th century as “Contradanza” from Spain which came from
“Contredanse” at the French Court in the 17th century. It has the typical
instruments of Chamber music – violins etc with the addition of African
drums. Danzon was danced by wealthy Cuban society where very small steps
are taken, the women producing a subtle tilting of the hips by bending and
straightening the knees.
First sung in Creole French, the Beguine developed as ballroom music
on the islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique. The Martinique beguine dance
is a slow close dance with a roll of the hips. The most famous interpretation
of it was in 1938 with Artie Shaw’s rendition of Cole Porter’s “Begin the
Beguine.”
Styles of Bolero
1. Fandango: Fandango is a style of folk and flamenco music and dance.
It arose as a dance of courtship in Andalusia in southern Spain early in the
18th century. Originally, the Fandango was always danced by only two
persons who never touched each other with the body or the hand, only
facing each other. This courtship dance is one of “The Chase,” basically boy
sees girl, girl snubs boy, girl chases boy, and then runs away. The Fandango
has been portrayed in many ballets as well. By the 19th century the
Fandango was replaced by the Jota, Sevillana and Boléro.
2. Cuban Boléro was derived from the old Spanish Boléro. The term
“Boléro” stems from the Spanish verb “Volar” meaning “to fly,” exemplified
in the elegant moves of the dancers. Cuban composer Pepe Sanchez
composed the first known Cuban Bolero, entitled Tristeza (“Sadness”) in
1883. Cuban Boléro is a different dance than Spanish Boléro as the music
and rhythms were changed by Cubans from 3/4 to 2/4 and then 4/4 time
and is danced closer to a Rumba style. By the early 1900s, the immensely
 popular Bolero reached Mexico and Latin America, eventually gaining
recognition in North America by the late 1920s.
3. The American Bolero was made popular in the United States when
French composer Maurice Ravel wrote his composition in 1928.
Contemporary Boleros are a ballad style with slow tempos and sentimental
lyrics usually with Spanish vocals and soft percussion.
History

The credit of this dance goes to Sebastiano Carezo, in

Spain, around 1780. Dancer Sebastiano Carezo is credited for inventing
Spanish Boléro in 1780. Danced in 3/4 time, as a modification of the
Fandango with the gracefulness retained and the objectionable parts
omitted.
Cuban Bolero originated in Santiago de Cuba in the mid-19th century,
but is quite different from the Spanish version. You can find more
information about the history of Bolero here. After being in Cuba for some
time, the dance traveled to Mexico and other areas in Latin America, and
from there, the world.
Dance Characteristics
Bolero is a slow dance characterized by smooth, gliding movement,
dramatic arm styling and a romantic feel. Bolero is a mixture of 3 dances:
Tango (contra body movement), Waltz (body rise and fall) and Rumba (Cuban
motion and slow Latin music).
There is also the concept of ‘drop and drift’ used on forward and back
breaks, left-turning slip pivots and extended movements such as larger side
steps. The Bolero frame is wider than a typical Rhythm frames and is a blend
between the Smooth and Rhythm frame with the distance between the
partners only a few inches apart or light body contact.

Cha Cha Cha is a popular social dance characterized by the "cha-cha-

cha" rhythm during the 'chassé' (side-close-side step). Although originally
called the Cha Cha Cha it is now commonly referred to simply as the Cha Cha.

The waltz (from German Walzer [ˈvalt͡sɐ̯]) is a ballroom and folk dance,
normally in triple (help·info) time, performed primarily in closed position.
 Tango is a partner dance, and social dance that originated in the 1880s
along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay.
It was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries, where natives
mixed with slave and European immigrant populations.[2] The tango is the
result of a combination of the German Waltz, Czech Polka, Polish Mazurka, and
Bohemian Schottische with the Spanish-Cuban Habanera, African Candombe,
and Argentinian Milonga.[3] The tango was frequently practiced in the brothels
and bars of ports, where business owners employed bands to entertain their
patrons with music.[4] The tango then spread to the rest of the world.[5] Many
variations of this dance currently exist around the world.

Rhumba, also known as ballroom rumba, is a genre of ballroom music

and dance that appeared in the East Coast of the United States during the
1930s. It combined American big band music with Afro-Cuban rhythms,
primarily the son cubano, but also conga and rumba. Although taking its name
from the latter, ballroom rumba differs completely from Cuban rumba in both
its music and its dance. Hence, authors prefer the Americanized spelling of the
word (rhumba) to distinguish between them.
As a ballroom dance, the samba is a partner dance. Ballroom samba,
even more than other ballroom dances, is very disconnected from the origins
and evolution of the music and dance that gives it its name.
Most steps are danced with a slight downward bouncing or dropping action.
This action is created through the bending and straightening of the knees, with
bending occurring on the beats of 1 and 2, and the straightening occurring
between. However, unlike the bouncing of, e.g., Polka, there is no considerable
bobbing. Also, Samba has a specific hip action, different from that in other
ballroom Latin dances (Rumba and Cha-Cha-Cha).
Mambo is a Latin dance of Cuba which was developed in the 1940s when
the music genre of the same name became popular throughout Latin America.
The original ballroom dance which emerged in Cuba and Mexico was related to
the danzón, albeit faster and less rigid. In the United States, it
replaced rhumba as the most fashionable Latin dance. Later on, with the
advent of salsa and its more sophisticated dance, a new type of mambo dance
including breaking steps was popularized in New York. This form received the
name of "salsa on 2", "mambo on 2" or "modern mambo".
The quickstep is a light-hearted dance of the standard ballroom dances.
The movement of the dance is fast and powerfully flowing and sprinkled
with syncopations. The upbeat melodies that quickstep is danced to make it
suitable for both formal and informal events. Quickstep was developed in the
1920s in New York City and was first danced by Caribbean and African
dancers. Its origins are in combination of slow foxtrot combined with
the Charleston, a dance which was one of the precursors to what today is
called swing dancing.
The Jive originated in the United States in the 1930's and refers to a
style of ballroom dancing included in DanceSport categories of competition.
African Americans began performing a series of steps to Swing and Rock & Roll
music and therefore created what we know today as the Jive.
Viennese waltz (German: Wiener Walzer) is a genre of ballroom dance.
At least four different meanings are recognized. In the historically first sense,
the name may refer to several versions of the waltz, including the earliest
waltzes done in ballroom dancing, danced to the music of Viennese waltz.
What is now called the Viennese waltz is the original form of the waltz. It was
the first ballroom dance performed in the closed hold or "waltz" position. The
dance that is popularly known as the waltz is actually the English or slow
waltz, danced at approximately 90 beats per minute with 3 beats to the bar
(the international standard of 30 measures per minute), while the Viennese
waltz is danced at about 180 beats (58-60 measures) per minute. To this day
however, in Germany, Austria, Scandinavia, and France, the
words Walzer (German), vals (Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish),
and valse (French) still implicitly refer to the original dance and not the slow
waltz.