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Let's Dance the Mambo!

by Irv & Betty Easterday

The Mambo is an outgrowth of the Cuban Rumba, and, like the Rumba and other West Indian dances, uses more of the body in performing the dance than was formerly thought proper.

The characteristic figure in Mambo is really a "Rumba Movement." It consists of placing the foot, no weight, knee bent, followed by straightening the knee and the foot taking the weight. As one knee bends with that hip low, the other straightens with that hip high. It is done on both a slow step and a quick step.

Latin Hip
The leg that is straight has the weight.
The leg with the weight is always straight.

The leading and following is somewhat different from conservative ballroom dancing. The partners are farther apart from each other, and although the man sometimes places his right arm around the woman's waist, in most cases, he holds his partner away from him, her right hand with his left, and sometimes they are completely on their own and away from each other.

The original Mambo started on the fourth beat of the bar, and this syncopation distinguished it from all other West Indian dances. However, in Round Dancing, we begin figures with a "quick" on beat one of each bar. The rhythm of Mambo for Round Dancing then is "quick, quick, slow." In common with all other West Indian dances, all Mambo steps are short and taken on the flat foot, but with delayed weight change, and danced within a small area. Remember, when one knee bends with that hip low, the other knee straightens with the hip high.

Most of the figures are taken from the Rumba syllabus. However, the characteristic hip movement, foot placement, and tempo of music make the Mambo an individual rhythm.




Taken from clinic notes prepared for the Roundalab annual convention, 2005.




dingbat


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