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Reviews for the product - ACADEMY OF CUBAN FOLKLORE AND DANCE PRESENTS 'SON CUBANO' (Back to product)

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The Cubans call it El Son - literally, the sound of Cuba.

Lee Knights - 29/12/2011

It is difficult to overestimate the importance of son as both music and dance form within Cuba, while it is also one of the island's most influential cultural exports.

Son Cubano hails from the rural communities of Eastern Cuba, bringing together both African and Spanish influences, embodied by the Spanish guitar and the African bongo. A couple dance, son began as "son montuno", danced with a side step and a strong tilting upper body movement, simulating drawing water from a well. Later, son travelled to the cities, transforming into “son urbano”. Here, the dance (and music) became more elegant and sophisticated, with tight footwork and an accentuated hip movement.

In fact, it was son that inspired dance teacher Monsieur Pierre (Pierre Zurcher-Margolle) and Doris Lavelle to create ballroom rumba when they visited Cuba in the 40s-50's. Cuban rumba, on the other hand, is unlike its eponymous European counterpart, both as a music and dance genre.

This DVD offers a totally authentic insight into Cuban son, filmed on location in informal and atmospheric settings in Cuba. Master dance instructor José Alfredo Carrión and members of the Ballet Folklórico de Santiago demonstrate basic to intermediate steps and figures with and without music. There is also an account of the history of son, with all sections delivered in Spanish with an English voice over.

The starting point is a demonstration of how to dance son in time with the clave, the instrument that provides the music’s all important rhythm. The clave – the key to son music – is two wooden sticks that are banged together five times over two 4-beat bars of music. The basic step is initiated on the 4th beat of the 1st bar, with a constant empathic emaphasis on the 4th beat as well as the 2nd beat throughout the dance.

It is all delivered with typical Cuban style and panache – the settings look like a spare room in someone’s house in Havana. If you like your instructional DVDs to be formal, set in crisp clinical studios with technicalities explained in depth, this is probably not the one for you.

For dancers looking to go deeper into Cuban dance and music, this DVD is as rare as hen’s teeth. This is an opportunity to get inside the main fore-runner of salsa and unearth the roots of Latin Amercian ballroom rumba. This gives the real flavour of Cuba and Cuban son, and instruction is full bodied and full on. Get yourself set up with a bottle of rum, a mojito or two, empanadas, black beans and more - plus a willing Cuban partner if you’re lucky - and enjoy.

Lee Knights, wwwlondonsalsascene.co.uk

The Cubans call it El Son - literally, the sound of Cuba.

Lee Knights - 29/10/2011

It is difficult to overestimate the importance of son as both music and dance form within Cuba, while it is also one of the island's most influential cultural exports.

Son Cubano hails from the rural communities of Eastern Cuba, bringing together both African and Spanish influences, embodied by the Spanish guitar and the African bongo. A couple dance, son began as "son montuno";, danced with a side step and a strong tilting upper body movement, simulating drawing water from a well. Later, son travelled to the cities, transforming into “son urbano”. Here, the dance (and music) became more elegant and sophisticated, with tight footwork and an accentuated hip movement.

In fact, it was son that inspired dance teacher Monsieur Pierre (Pierre Zurcher-Margolle) and Doris Lavelle to create ballroom rumba when they visited Cuba in the 40s-50's. Cuban rumba, on the other hand, is unlike its eponymous European counterpart, both as a music and dance genre.

This DVD offers a totally authentic insight into Cuban son, filmed on location in informal and atmospheric settings in Cuba. Master dance instructor José Alfredo Carrión and members of the Ballet Folklórico de Santiago demonstrate basic to intermediate steps and figures with and without music. There is also an account of the history of son, with all sections delivered in Spanish with an English voice over.

The starting point is a demonstration of how to dance son in time with the clave, the instrument that provides the music’s all important rhythm. The clave – the key to son music – is two wooden sticks that are banged together five times over two 4-beat bars of music. The basic step is initiated on the 4th beat of the 1st bar, with a constant empathic emphasis on the 4th beat as well as the 2nd beat throughout the dance.

It is all delivered with typical Cuban style and panache – the settings look like a spare room in someone’s house in Havana. If you like your instructional DVDs to be formal, set in crisp clinical studios with technicalities explained in depth, this is probably not the one for you.

For dancers looking to go deeper into Cuban dance and music, this DVD is as rare as hen’s teeth. This is an opportunity to get inside the main fore-runner of salsa and unearth the roots of Latin Amercian ballroom rumba. This gives the real flavour of Cuba and Cuban son, and instruction is full bodied and full on. Get yourself set up with a bottle of rum, a mojito or two, empanadas, black beans and more - plus a willing Cuban partner if you’re lucky - and enjoy.

Lee Knights, wwwlondonsalsascene.co.uk

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