Music | ReVista

Cuba’s Tumba Francesa Diaspora Dance, Colonial Legacy

Oct 26, 2007 | Dance, The Diaspora Dances

I arrive at Santiago de Cuba’s Teatro Oriente to see a small crowd of locals and tourists waiting in front to buy tickets. We are here to see a performance by Ballet Folklórico Cutumba, one of eastern Cuba’s premier folkloric dance troupes. Although the theater is run down and no longer has electricity or running water, its former elegance is apparent. As we enter, we see lush but tattered velvet drapes flank the stage and ornate architectural …

Danza Galesa en la Patagonia

Oct 26, 2007 | Dance, The Diaspora Dances

Tal vez sorprenda al lector el título de este artículo, como también sorprende a todo aquel desprevenido viajero que llega al Valle Inferior del Río Chubut, en la Patagonia Argentina. Encontrar nombres de pueblos y zonas rurales en idioma galés, niños que aprenden el idioma desde su primera infancia, jóvenes que bailan danzas galesas, alguna bandera blanca y verde con un enorme dragón rojo flameando en un mástil; afinadas voces …

Tropical Interludes: The Role of the Rumbera in Mexican Cine de la Época Dorada

Oct 25, 2007 | Dance, The Diaspora Dances

In a popular song from the start of the mambo boom (late 1940s-early 1950s), Cuban musician Benny Moré flirtatiously described the dancing talent of Mexican and Cuban women. He sang in his golden voice, “Pero qué bonito y sabroso bailan el mambo las mexicanas, mueven la cintura y los hombros igualito a las cubanas.” (“Mexican women dance mambo so wonderfully and so full of rhythm, they move their waists and shoulders …

Dancing in the Diaspora: El Baile de los Negritos

Oct 25, 2007 | Dance, The Diaspora Dances

English + EspañolDance unites Yucuaiquín, a small town in eastern El Salvador, with the city of Somerville in eastern Massachusetts. Traditionally a city of Greek, Irish, Italian, and Portuguese immigrants, the only quality Somerville had in common with Yucuaiquín before the 1980s was a population with vibrant Catholic beliefs and traditions. The hundreds of Yucuaiquinenses that found their way to Somerville in the past …

The Fun of Forró

Oct 25, 2007 | Dance, The Diaspora Dances

I went with my friend Denise and her boyfriend to the Gafieira Estudantina for a night of forró. Last year, I used to see the Estudantina’s hand-painted dance banner hanging from its second-floor balcony, whenever I was walking around the Praca Tiradentes in Rio de Janeiro. But I’d never been up there. The Estudantina, it turns out, is one of Rio’s old ballroom dance halls (gafieiras)—founded in 1932. Denise told me her mother used to …

Theme: Music

Cuba’s Tumba Francesa Diaspora Dance, Colonial Legacy

Danza Galesa en la Patagonia

Tropical Interludes: The Role of the Rumbera in Mexican Cine de la Época Dorada

Dancing in the Diaspora: El Baile de los Negritos

The Fun of Forró