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A
Concise History of Latin American Dancing in the UK- Part II
Notes
from years 1931-1955
Pre
World War Two
1931
As previously stated, Pierre's dances consisted of the Argentine Tango,
early forms of the Paso Doble and Samba but in the late 20's a Cuban
Bandleader, one Alcedes Castellanos, was playing and teaching a new
dance in Paris called the Rumba. Pierre immediately went there to acquire
the dance in order to extend his repertoire.
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Pierre,
who introduced the Latin American Dances to the Society |
He
made many visits with Miss Lavelle in the early 30's and they taught
and demonstrated it with much success. However, the dance appeared to
be somewhat limited but they had to wait until after the war to discover
on visits to Cuba, the home of the dance, that the reason for the limitation
was that they were dancing the Square Rumba.
1932
The Rumba demonstrated in London by Monsieur and Madame Chapouls.
1933
Rumba music introduced to London by Don Azpiazu and his Band.
1934
Pierre made the first definite reference to Rumba rhythm which he counted
in 'quicks and slows' as against the later numerical count.
1936
The Imperial Society adopted standard steps for the Rumba although the
profession, generally, took little interest for nearly 10 years, unlike
the dancing public who were taking every available opportunity to learn
the dance.
Wartime
(1939-1945)
There
were no more visits to Paris, but when the American servicemen came
to England they brought a new dance to brighten the wartime gloom. The
Jive, purely American dancing to 'Swing' music. At that time (1943)
the only teachers were the GI's themselves but it became very popular
wherever they were stationed and remained so after they left.
They
were particularly encouraged to Greek Street where Pierre and Miss Lavelle
absorbed the new techniques, with its figures, names and routines.
A
wartime blow to the larger London dance venues was the Ministry of Defence
restriction in the numbers allowed to attend due to the high casualty
risk from night and day Air Raids. The restriction also applied to high
density gatherings at cinemas, theatres, football matches etc.
Unfortunately,
the dance world was to justify the restrictions when the Café
de Paris in London's West End suffered a direct hit which cost the life
of the band leader, Ken 'Snakehips' Johnson and several of the dancers
and band members.
However,
to its credit, dancing continued to flourish in the studios generally
and in the dance halls of the provinces, enabling a full resumption
on the cessation of hostilities.
Post
War
1947
This was the year of the 'great discovery' since, due to the dissatisfaction
with the Rumba as then danced, Pierre took advantage of the lifting
of travel restrictions to visit Cuba. Quoting from Miss Lavelle's diary,
on dancing with Suzy of Pepe and Suzy Riviera, the then Cuban champions,
the first thing she said was "you are out of time". So he
had a lesson every day and danced at the Acadamias every night. He returned
after six weeks having lost a stone in weight but a happy man.
The
explanation was that Europeans, due to their Ballroom heritage, commenced
to dance on beat one whereas the Cubans began on beat two and it is
this all-important difference which captures the spirit of true Latin.
The
new timing was not well received and Pierre said, 'It will take them
five years to accept'. He was three years out, it took eight.
For
the record, from there on out, the 'count' at Greek Street was 2, 3,
4, the 1 only being spoken, of necessity, when using such figures as
The Spiral and The Curl. I (and no doubt most of her pupils) can still
remember Miss Lavelle's 'counting voice', and its overriding emphasis
on the initial two of each bar with a lower inflection on the 3, 4,
sometimes using the word 'cruise' in place of 4 to extend the fourth
beat.
1948
Pierre introduced to the UK what he called 'The Cuban System of Ballroom
Rumba'.
1951
Pierre, Miss Lavelle and Mr James Arnell, a talented cameraman and Latin
American dancer, teamed up to pay the first of their visits to Cuba
to enhance their Rumba technique, with a prior stop-over in New York
for a closer look at the dance scene in America.
The
visits ceased when Castro came over and they later learned that their
friends and teachers had fled the country, most of them to the USA,
mainly in and around Miami.
Their
findings were as follows:
a) The Americans were dancing the Triple Lindy (their name for the Jive)
and the Mambo (their version of the Rumba but to a much faster tempo
with exaggerated solo work albeit commencing on the second beat).
It
seemed to them at that time that we were two years ahead in formulating
a syllabus for these two dances.
b)
In Cuba, the Mambo was compared to the Rumba and it emerged that both
were founded on the Bolero. They were impressed with the neatness of
the dancing, no exaggerated hip movements, but very rhythmic. Out of
the many Rumba lessons taken in Havana, from (amongst others) Senor
Pepe Llorenz and his wife Aida, they gained many new figures and refined
the old ones.
They
also found that, for effect only, Cuban dance bands were adding extra
beats into Rumba music, but since their patrons were instinctive dancers,
they marked these beats with their feet and thus the Cha Cha Cha began
to form, although it was not until the mid 1950's that the separation
was finalised.
However,
more of that later.
It
soon became their joint opinion that Rumba variations originating from
Cuba contained more natural rhythm than those made up in other countries.
1953
The trio journeyed to Brazil to polish and extend the Samba, where they
found three different styles housed in separate types of dance halls:
Gafierias: These were popular halls, mainly for 'locals'.
Dancings: Mainly for tourists.
Schools of Samba: Founded by ethnic groups in the hills outside Rio
de Janeiro.
In
view of this diversity it was almost impossible to compose a syllabus
consisting entirely of authentic figures, but, with what they already
had, plus the new knowledge, after a year or two's usage, they evolved
a revised syllabus based on, I quote, the 'most Ballroomlike and teachable
steps', which proved acceptable.
1955
The technique used and proposed by Pierre and Miss Lavelle was formally
adopted.
As
a postscript to this section and for interest I would like to pass on
one of Pierre's comments made in the mid 50's to the effect that 'an
essential condition for the enjoyment of Latin American dancing is a
keen sense of rhythm which can be developed or improved by prolonged
listening to correct music', which is still as true today as it was
50 years ago.
Irene
Evans
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