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Felicitaciones!!!
Nunca
había leído un comentario tan exacto de lo que es nuestra
Rueda de Casino. Y aunque en estas cosas de actividades populares que
envuelven grupos de personas y donde los sentimientos artísticos
dominan, nadie sabe nada en cuanto a fecha de origen y/o lugar. SI!!
Y por seguro, la gente que participaron en aquellos "amaneceres"
de dichas tendencias, pueden atestiguar mejor de las cosas que sucedian
y por qué sucedían.
Yo tengo 56 años y soy un humilde hombre cubano, que vivió
de muchacho aquellos tiempos, y por eso te felicito en tu descripción
de Rueda de Casino.
Cuba, antes de Castro, era sin duda, lo que han tratado de hacer en
Hawai hoy día, un verdadero paraíso.
Habían dos vuelos que viajaban de Nueva York a la Habana, uno
el jueves y el otro en viernes, y de nuevo, ambos lo hacían en
día sábado (siempre el día más congregado),
para que los millonarios "del norte", como solían decir
mis padres, fueran a gastar dinero y a admirar las "nalgas"
de la mujer típica cubana (mezcla de español y negra)
La gente iba a Tropicana, a Sam Susie (ambos Casinos de Juego y Cabarets),
genialidades de Arquitectura para su tiempo y derroche de fortunas inmensas
en marmol, granite y maderas preciosas (estos dos, en las afueras de
la Habana) que eran los colosos del dinero y de los "Casinos"
a los que te refieres, donde la "clase" sobraba, y donde ademas
se hacían derroches de ropas de lino fino (el más caro
este), además de hilo de hasta 400 puntos/pulgada pero extremadamente
finos, para las guayaberas que para aquellos tiempos costaban hasta
30 pesos una guayabera (una fortuna de dinero cuando un pasaje de avión
Miami-Habana costaba 25 dolares. (Era tan rica Cuba que nadie aceptaba
dolares pagando en lugar de pesos, pues el peso cubano valía
dos centavos más que el dolar). Imagínate eso!! Podrás
oir todo lo que quieras de Cuba, malo o bueno, verdad o mentira, cuentos
o realidades, pero, ¿¿¿Qué te dice que el
hecho de que la moneda llegara a ser mas fuerte que el "endiosado"
Dollar ??? La prensa de ese tiempo lo atestigua.
Volviendo al tema: En ese estado riquísimo de Sociedad y Negocios
aquí y allá, en el area de las playas se empezaron a crear
Casinos pues, al Tropicano y Sam Susie, estar situados en Marianao (como
decir Miami o los Angeles), los ricos de esos tiempos crearon Centros
playeros.
Asi aparecieron El Casino Deportivo, Miramar Yatch Club, etc., donde
se trajo desde las calles de la Habana ese baile madre llamado SON (((
no danzón, es mentira, pues este ni aun se bailaba completo,
de hecho cada pieza que ejecutaba la orquesta tenía momentos
donde la mujer hacía mover (después de parar de bailar)
por mas o menos un minuto completo un abanico floreado y, muy femeninamente
"refrescaba" a su compañero con dicho abanico sin hacerle
creer que lo que realmente quería hacer era "calentarlo"
))).
El son, por su parte era más de caderas y bien "sato"
(no he visto americana bailar con tanta satería cubana como lo
hace Lexi St Laurent, que quiero y respeto mucho) y se refina un poco
al llegar a aquellos casinos donde coreógrafos de Tropicana de
aquel tiempo, (Un tal VIDAL de apellido) creó pasos como "métele
el dedo", "bikinea", "sácala a Pasear ",
"arriba", "abajo", "adiós", etc.,
( todavía me acuerdo) y hacían la RUEDA DE BAILE DE LOS
CASINOS como se decía en aquel tiempo.
Tenía la principal característica que la "cantaba"
(ordenar los steps) un hombre desde afuera de la rueda que era el que
mejor podía notar la belleza de lo que estaba pasando.
Por último, el que "cantaba", tenía que conocer
muy bien esas técnicas porque, era más famoso, el que
más "seguido" cantaba la rueda (ordenar pasos uno tras
otro, más seguido) pues era como un derroche de conocedor de
pasos, y además mantenía la rueda en un espíritu
muy activo, muy intenso espiritualmente, en otras palabras, podía
llegar a sentirse lo que siente la mulata que se ha hecho tan rica en
fama, que ya no es mujer, sino un delirio que ha llegado a Japon, a
Australia, a Norway, y AL MUNDO.
Por eso es que te escribo a tí, por que sé respetar a
cualquiera que hace una cosa tan sencilla como expresar que siente The
Ultimate Compliment por que alguien le diga que baila y se mueve
como un cubano. ¿¿O no es además sencillo decir
que baila tango como un argentino o Rock & Roll como un americano??
Lo que si "ofende", es utilizar el Son o la Rueda de Casino
para "dar clases" y hacer dinero, y no bailar como lo hacen
Lexi, Enriquito y Carla (que también quiero mucho) , etc....
y seguro, muchos más por ahí.
Para aprender a "hacer negocios y tumbar a la gente" venga
a los Estados Unidos, para conocer de Arte y Belleza, Europa. Para bailar
Casino o Son, se nace, no cuesta nada. Es un feeling que te envuelve,
no simplemente que te guste, no es que bailes cuando te saquen a bailar,
Se baila !!
Para tí, Jacira, mis mejores deseos de que triunfes, y si deseas
oir un poco mas, y no te aburre esta lectura, dejame saber, que si es
rueda, (preguntale a Enriquito) SON o feeling, allí yo quiero
estar.
Gracias,
Carlos Garcés
Hola SalsaPower,
Leí
su artículo sobre el origen de la rueda de casino y quisiera
anexar algo que me contaron dos bailarines y profesores cubanos con
los que trabajé 6 años como su alumno en la Universidad
del Valle en Cali, Colombia.
Además
de los casinos, la idea era entre los jóvenes desafiarse en la
complicación de pasos (recuérdese la rumba columbia o
guaguancó), que por la caracteristicas de ser baile de jóvenes
y clubes, estaríamos hablando de manifestación cultural
urbana. Es decir como el brake dance en estados unidos (esto es interpretación
mía).
Pero volviendo
al tema diré que antes de la rueda cada música tenía
su forma de ser bailada: Danzón, Cha cha chá, mambo. Y
en eso se centraban los músicos, que su producción llegara
facil al público, estaríamos hablando entonces de coreografiar.
La rueda tiene una diferencia con lo anterior y es que es posible "utilizar"
los pasos para diferentes músicas, aunque aquí en Cali
Colombia esté asociada a la timba. Además porque el bailador
aporta a la rueda, la enriquece, lo que la hace flexible y accesible
para el bailador, quien observa su en torno y lo traduce en giros (balsero,
p.ej.).
Diría
entonces la rueda se convierte hoy en espacios de socialización
importante en las grandes ciudades.
Saludos,
Alexander
Arias Calero, Baila y Sociólogo
"Bailar
siempre sera una pregunta y no una respuesta para vivir"
Dear
Jacira:
Herein some thoughts on your attempt at setting the social
phenomena around “Rueda de casino” or “Casino rueda”
within a particular line of thinking, which could very
well be described as a conversation starter with little
historical import.
First off the matter of naming social phenomena, which
impinges in at least two issues in your editorial; to
wit, the wrongful conflation of Salsa with Cuban music
and the so-called backwardness of English grammatical
structure in relation to the Spanish one. Let us talk
about the latter one first and leave the delicious pounding
of the exclusive Cubanization of Salsa for later.
Languages, as well as cultures, or anything else for
that matter, develop according to their own logic and
experiences that do not have to absolutely correspond
to any other or even anything else. German grammar would
seem barbaric or even illogic to a Spanish speaker, Mandarin
Chinese has thousands of characters, Hungarian is no
walk in the park, Bushman speak in clicks that sound
like someone with two castanets imbedded in the mouth
and Navajo verb forms, after being attached to a gazillion
amount of prefixes, must agree with the subject, and
both the direct and the indirect object. Which one is
more backward in relation to the other? Why? Who cares?
Is the grammatical structure of English “a bit backwards
from Spanish?” Perhaps to an ideological Spanish speaker,
otherwise, the best type of communication between human
beings relies on effectiveness and economy of expression
in relation to the conveyance of meaning. That is one
of the reasons why religious dictums such as “God is
love” or “If you do not keep your master’s teaching in
your heart will you not become your own deceiver?” are
more effective in passing on meaning than any Summa or
commentary seeking to explain them. There are very good
grounds for English, for example, being the business
language of the world. One could immediately think of
its economy of expression, its malleability that lends
itself to abbreviation and a facility to serve its purpose
without getting laden with affected purisms. Therefore,
for the intellectually challenged “Rueda de casino” would
be the GC Spanish term and “Casino rueda” an adaptation
under English influences that rose from the people themselves
to facilitate the process of communication about this
dancing and cultural phenomena. Which one should be used?
Whichever you want or like! You say “tomatoe” and I say
tomato. Hehehe…
As for Salsa, let us begin with a simple expression:
Salsa≠Cuban music. Salsa proper is the
way of doing music, mostly from varying degrees of Cuban,
Puerto Rican, Spanish-Caribbean and North American stock,
stemming from New York from the mid 60’s onwards that
corresponds to its own social, intellectual, musical
and cultural contexts that differ significantly from
anything commonly mistaken as “purely” Cuban. From there,
it became what Venezuelan author César Miguel Rondón
rightly called, in his famed and almost definitive work
on Salsa, the urban music of the Spanish Caribbean. Salsa
has its own social, economic, cultural, linguistic, artistic,
ethnic and musical identity from which many are increasingly
leeching off polluting the dialogue about these matters.
Surely, much more could be said on this matter but suffice
it to say that merely equating or reducing Salsa to Cuban
music says more about the ideological and political intentions,
prejudices and limitations of those purveying such misinformation
than the actual truth of the matter at hand.
“Casino” dancers in pre-dictatorship Cuba, for example,
were not dancing to Salsa; they were dancing to various
forms of readily identifiable Cuban musical genres. Contemporary
“Casino” dancers, on the other hand, more often than
not, dance to Salsa music and not to contemporary Cuban
music. Of course, it would be possible to do a “Rueda”
with Timba, but one often sees Frankie Ruiz, Grupo Niche
or Conexión Latina working out far better for such purposes
than Klimax or Manolito y su Trabuco. “Rueda de casino”
is not “the roots of what you can see danced in Miami,
and around the world today,” as you state, unless you
are exclusively talking about the “ruedero” environment,
in which case, it would be the truth. “Rueda” was and
still is a fringe growth within Latin dance musical developments
and was not even as dominant in Cuba as you make it to
be. Who was dancing “Rueda” in New York during the ‘50’s?
Who was dancing “Rueda” in Puerto Rico during the ‘60’s?
Who was dancing “Rueda” in Venezuela during the ‘70’s?
Hell, who was dancing “Rueda” in Cuba during the ‘80’s!
The dancing frame of reference for the complex represented
by the Salsa phenomena has more in common with dancing
styles coming out of New York, Puerto Rico and the Spanish
Caribbean than anything that happened in Cuban Casinos.
As a matter of fact, “Rueda de casino” has been recently
revived from its actual historical obscurity rather than
being a somewhat leading form of dancing pattern or point
of reference for those audiences that enjoy dancing to
that which is properly called Salsa and some forms of
Cuban music. Tracing the roots of “Casino rueda” dancing
to Danzón, Son, Guaguancó and Mambo is quite misleading
as all those musical genres have their own complex interactions
and points of social, cultural and historical interjections
that connect at times, albeit remaining separate at others.
They also developed in many alternate ways outside of
Cuba with and without direct connection to their Cuban
predecessors. Cachao, by the way, was not simply the
inventor of the Mambo and Pérez Prado its popularizer
as many mistakenly believe. The best scholarship on these
matters has conclusively shown that what became the Mambo
was already in the air so to speak and there are even
recordings of a Cuban pianist derided in his country
for his “strange way of playing,” that preceded anything
that Cachao did with Arcaño y sus Maravillas in or out
of the Tropicana. That strange piano playing and its
concomitant musical vision forced said pianist to move
to Mexico to seek better fortunes. The name of the pianist
was Pérez Prado.
Your comments on the different names, as well as the
cultural and social relations for the dancing moves present
throughout the “Casino rueda” environment are quite enjoyable
and enlightening; except, of course, for the unfortunate
comment about Cubans allegedly not wanting to name turns
after the so-called “Aguas negras del imperialismo.”
Cubans, as you well know, are not allowed freedom of
expression and it is actually quite sad that Coca Cola,
which is the base for the universally known drink “Cuba
libre” cannot be even freely sold and marketed in such
an economically backward country. The fact that a Cuban
named Roberto Goizueta was one of the most important
figures in the development and growth of Coca Cola as
a product throughout the world adds a further note of
irony to your comment about the sad state of affairs
in Cuba under Castroite abuse.
One has to genuinely celebrate “Casino de rueda” for
what it does and is: a form of entertainment to be enjoyed
while dancing your cares away. The minute it becomes
a subject and object of serious scholarly study and reflection,
it is best to leave such matters to proven authorities
in the field while staying clear from lay interpretations
that have more to do with assorted mutations of the “feel
good curriculum” and leftist mental defects than the
truth.
Bechou and call a 69 for me next time you are in a Rueda…
Vaaaaciiiilaaa!
JAQO@salsapower.com
Jacira
Responds to Jaqo:
In the interest
of brevity:
1. Regarding
the grammatical structure of English being backwards from Spanish, perhaps
the word, "backward" was not my best choice. I simply
meant that the grammatical structure was inverse, such as when we say,
"Casa blanca" and in English they say "White house".
2. I
never meant to equate Salsa to Cuban music, simply that Salsa had many
of its roots in Cuban music. Larry Harlow actually does a very
nice job of explaining how Salsa got started...you can read about it
in my interview with him, "Between
the Sheets with Larry Harlow".
3.
You state,“Rueda
de casino” is not “the roots of what you can see danced
in Miami, and around the world today,” as you state,
unless you are exclusively talking about the “ruedero”
environment, in which case, it would be the truth."...Actually,
I was talking about the Rueda environment
around the world.
4.
I won't dispute you on the history or who invented Mambo.
I'm not a musicologist nor historian. I am a dancer.
5.
Your assumption that Coca-Cola cannot be purchased in
Cuba is mistaken. I've personally consumed this
product in Cuba, and it is readily available, albeit
produced in Mexico. Although its imported price
is somewhat out of the reach of most of the local populace
at about US$0.50 a can, it is still substantially cheaper
than the same "aguas negras del imperialismo"
that I drank in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which cost about
US$2.00 a can.
6.
I agree that Rueda de Casino is a wonderful form of entertainment
to be enjoyed while dancing your cares away, as you say,
but it left the realm of being a frivolous pastime once
people got organized, formalized the training, created
a list of steps and standardized some of them.
The proliferation of schools teaching Casino style salsa
and Rueda around the world is proof positive that it
has grown into much more than just a "feel good
curriculum". If there is any doubt in your mind
as to whether this is a field that warrants (even if
up to now it has not received it) serious study, just
check out all of the SalsaCity
pages where you will find extensive listings
of schools all over the world that are teaching this
dance style. It was precisely to combat this mistaken
notion that Casino style was somehow inferior to the
NY style or the LA style that SalsaPower was created.
Casino
style Salsa and Rueda de Casino are valid dance forms
in and of themselves that have not been given the recognition
they deserve.
--Jacira
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This page was last updated on:
10-Sep-2008
