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"What a rare find. If
you really want the truth about “Latin” dancing,
it’s right here!"
Fran Chesleigh -
NY dance teacher & historian
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| DANZA
CHARANGUERO
popular dances of Cuba
danzón - son - mambo - chachachá - casino
with the Charanga Orquesta
ESTRELLAS CUBANAS
DVD
73 minutes of dance & music
52 minutes of interviews with English subtitles
filmed in Havana, Cuba
genres presented:
danzón, son, mambo, chachachá, casino
subtitles in English
"Danza Charanguero" is a spirited celebration of Cuba's
popular music and dance heritage focusing on the danzón, son, mambo,
chachachá, and salsa-casino. It is these evocative music and dance
genres that, in different eras, have erupted onto the world scene, making
Cuba one of the few countries whose music and dance has become adopted
and practiced internationally.
Filmed in a beautiful outdoor patio in Old Havana, this relaxed party-performance
features a gathering of seasoned "charangueros" (music and dance
enthusiasts) drawn from the professional and aficionado dance World of
Havana. Inspiring the party is the legendary twelve member orchestra "Estrellas
Cubanas", with their classic charanga sound of violin, flute, piano,
bass, and percussion.
Accompanying the DVD are extensive interviews with several of the participants
who talk about their artistic lives and go into depth about the evolution
and rich history of their music and dance tradition .
DVD chapters:
1. contradanza (music only)
- La Comparsa
composer: Ernesto Lecuona
2. danzón -Virgin
de Regla
composer: Pablo O'Farrill
3. son (slow tempo) - Tocoloro
composer: Arsenio Rodriguez
4. chachachá - Goza
Conmigo
composer: Tregar Otton
5.
son (medium tempo) - El Paralitico
composer: Miguel Matamoros
6. bolero - Si Te Contara
composer: Félix Reina
7. mambo (Cuban mambo)
- Mambo America
composer: Antonio Sanchéz
8. danzón - Fefita
composer: José Urfé
9. salsa-casino - La Escoba
Barrendera
composer: Rodulfo Vaillant
10. danzón - son - conga
- Popurrí Cubano
composer: various
featured dance artists:
many are members and alumni of
Conjunto Folklórico Nacional de Cuba
male dancers:
Domingo Pau Despaine
Ricardo "Santa Cruz" Gómez
Dionisio Paul
Juan Garcia Fernández
Isaías Rojas Ramirez
Carlos Pérez Estrada
Aurelio Calderin
female dancers:
Zoila Rizo Sánchez
Miriam Izquierdo
Alicia Santo Soto
Yacelis Sánchez
Llousi Mabel Gutierrez
Dolores Perez Herrera
extras on the DVD include 52 minutes of informative interviews
with:
Juan Garcia Fernández - folklorist and past director
of Conjunto Folklórico Nacional de Cuba
~ the evolution of popular Cuban music
~ the evolution of popular Cuban dance
~ the significance of dancing atiempo / contratiempo
Carlos Pérez Estrada - dance aficionado
in Havana since 1950's ~ dance life '50s-present
Ernesto Oviedo - singer with Estrellas Cubanas
~ artistic background & critique on the Cuban music scene today
for
more info on danzón
read this pdf article by John Santos
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view movie clip
photo gallery
click on image to view next photo
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Sue Miller, Bandleader Charanga
del Norte
’Danza Charanguero’ is an informative and charming presentation
of the various styles of traditional dance music from Cuba. Top Charanga
band Estrellas Cubanas play music in styles such as contradanza, danzón,
mambo, chachachá, son, bolero and casino accompanied by professional
dancers from the Conjunto Folklórico Nacional de Cuba amongst others
and also by amateur dance enthusiasts from the Asociación Cubana
de Amigos del Danzón.
Cuba’s popular dance styles evolved alongside the music and this symbiotic
relationship is beautifully illustrated by this DVD as you can clearly see
the relationship between the different styles of the music and the dancers’
feet. For example dance enthusiast Carlos Pérez Estrada, in his interview,
explains that in order to dance danzón you really have to listen
to the music, listen out for the three introductory parts (in the ‘paseo’
couples circulate with fans (‘abanicos’) and meet and greet
each other) before dancing in couples to the more open ‘cha’
section.
There’s much to offer both the musician and the dancer in this DVD
as there are close-up shots of the dancers’ footwork as well as the
musicians themselves and although the basic steps for each of the styles
is present throughout, all the couples have their own different interpretations
of the dances and are not formulaic. Musically the styles are exemplified
by classic compositions by Félix Reina (a famous violinist and previous
director of Estrellas Cubanas), Ernesto Lecuona, Pablo O’ Farrill,
José Urfé and Arsenio Rodriguez. The string section is one
of Havana’s finest with players such as Wenceslao Rodriguez, Arsel
Depestre, Ricardo Cortés and Santiago Linares and the rhythm section
swings to the impressive timbale playing of Zenen Arrascaeta who is great
to watch and whose rim shots and ‘abanico’ figures are to die
for! The Thelonius Monk style playing of pianist Marco Jorrín is
crisp and melodic and his solo on Lecuona’s Comparsa is quite simply
beautiful.
A stand out on this DVD is the singing of Ernesto Oviedo de la Portilla,
who introduces all the numbers and also gives interviews about the history
of Estrellas Cubanas, his own musical background and about Cuban dance music
today and before the revolution. His rendition of the bolero ‘Si Te
Contara’ is both passionate and elegant - a dignified and moving performance
that clearly illustrates why he is one of Cuba’s finest singers of
traditional Cuban music.
There is also an in-depth interview with Juan Garcia Fernández, former
director of the Conjunto Folklórico Nacional, who outlines the development
of Cuban dance music from the contradanza to the danzón and the influence
of the son on the charanga formation.
The interview with dance aficionado Carlos Pérez, with his friend
Aurelio nodding in agreement in the background struck me as particularly
Cuban and reminds me of the wonderful clientèle that come to all
Charanga matinée performances at the many Asociaciones Culturales
in Cuba. Here, often on a Sunday afternoon, dapper gentlemen in waistcoats
and panama hats and ladies in pretty dresses still, even today, dance flirtatiously
and elegantly to danzón, chachachá and pachanga.
This DVD will be of great interest to all musicians and dancers interested
in Cuba’s popular music dance styles - highly recommended!"
Fabio from salsaIsgood.com
"Boogalu Productions have made a considerable effort in recent years
to document a large section of the Cuban dancing and music tradition and
made it available to the outside world; this is a great service to dancers,
and especially to US dancers who rarely travel to Cuba. If you can not afford
to travel to Havana, this DVD offers you the possibility of tasting a social
dance evening which, for the lovers of raw dancing, is much better than
the many expensive shows for tourists you may see nowadays in the trendy
night clubs in Havana. In actual fact, what is contained in the DVD is hard
to find even if you do travel to Havana, since the producers have made an
effort to reunite in a single venue a band and several dancers with considerable
knowledge of some 80 years of Cuban music; here, they attempt to re-create
the atmosphere which has characterised Havana popular culture for several
decades. This is by no means easy to find in Havana today in standard tourist
circles.
This DVD covers several dances, starting as far back as Contradanza, passing
through Danzon, Cha Cha Cha, Bolero, Mambo, and reaching Salsa Casino, a
certain chronological progression of what made today’s salsa,. The
dancers stick to a very traditional style of dance (remember they try to
show it to you as it was done then), which means very simple steps and no
turns or complicated figures. There are interesting things to pick: you
will clearly see how in the days of Contradanza, Danzon and Bolero, ‘africanity’
was still seen as something to transcend, so no hips movement for the women
and a very elegant and restrained posture for the men. You will then see
some resemblance of more modern style taking shape through Cha Cha Cha and
Son, and we can start to notice where Dile Que No and other simple crucial
elements come from. You may then get a shock in seeing Mambo.. well, the
way they danced it then was VERY different from what we intend for mambo
today, as popularised by the NY tradition, but then we reach more familiar
territories with Casino etc..
Interviews with the musicians and dancers tell us about the days gone by
and give other interesting aspects of the cultural background."
Fran Chesleigh, NY dance teacher and historian
"Part of my habit as an experienced dance teacher is to continually
examine and learn from the traditions of the past, so I that I can more
accurately pass such information along to my students. Recently, I purchased
a DVD, titled Danza Charanguero, from Boogalu Productions, a company, which
offers a wide range of DVDs, CDs and books about the music, dance and culture
of Cuba. I expected this DVD to be an entertaining visual and musical experience,
but for me it proved to be much more than that. As I watched the deceptively
simple, rhythmically precise, musically transcendent dancing of these social
dancers in Cuba – many of them from the older generation, I was immediately
transported back to the 1940”s and ‘50’s here in New York,
when the goal of all elite “Latin” dancers was to dance contratiempo
(or as we then called it “on two”) – in accordance with
what we were taught was the prevalent style in Cuba at that time. This special
way of responding to what we in the United States called “Mambo”
(Cubans called it “el son” or simply “el sistema cubana
de bailar” – the Cuban method of dancing) was quite difficult
for most of us to learn, and good role models were hard to find. But we
persevered until finally we were able to consistently maintain the rhythm
in this unique way. For those of us who succeeded, we achieved ecstasy every
time we hit the dance floor. For people who hadn’t yet found the right
count, those who didn’t give up in frustration felt they were on a
mission to press doggedly on until at last they got the right rhythm, and
“joined the club.” Sometimes it took months, sometimes years.
But we wanted it, and we got it!
Today, dancing contratiempo has been all but completely lost (at least in
the United States). But here it is again for everyone’s viewing pleasure.
If you want to see where our current “salsa” tradition originated
from, just watch and learn from this DVD. I’ve held screenings for
some of my students, so they could see for themselves what the older generation
had to offer, and I think some of them are finally realizing just how important
it is to keep this priceless tradition alive. is to keep this priceless
tradition alive.
As if that isn’t motivation enough for owning this gem of a DVD, there
are three absolutely must-see interviews with leading exponents of Cuban
music and dance: Carlos Perez Estrada, an engaging, passionate social dancer
of the older generation, who stills lives and breathes dancing: Ernesto
Oviedo, son of the famous tresero Isaac Oviedo and singer with Estrellas
Cubanas (the band which provides the wonderful, timeless live music for
the DVD); and Juan Garcia Fernandez, former director of Conjunto Folklorico
Nacional de Cuba – whose expertise in the history of Cuban music and
dance is unparalleled, and whose generosity in describing the evolution
and technique of Cuban dancing is nothing short of a priceless gift.
In the past, I’ve searched far and wide for examples of the true contratiempo
style, and until now have found only a few meager examples here and there.
But with this DVD we suddenly have not only an extended look at the actual
style, we have actual, in-depth interviews clearly providing a detailed
explanation of the music and dance. What a rare find. If you really want
the truth about “Latin” dancing, it’s right here! "
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