Thursday, October 13, 2011
Danzón
This video example shows a couple dancing danzón. Watching the video, it's hard to believe that this style of dance caused such an uproar in Cuba. However, the closeness and slight hip movements were enough to raise eyebrows in the 19th century. Danzón is still considered Cuba's "official" dance, but it is rarely performed. It's definitely interesting to see the evolution and how reggaeton is creating similar controversy in Cuba today. It seems like every century, there's some form of scandalous dance or music that eventually seems completely harmless. In 100 years, will people look back on the gyrations associated with reggaeton as completely innocent like we do with danzón today?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I was kind of surprised after watching this clip. When I hear the title "Danzón" I imagined a more upbeat type of dance, especially since it was described as a scandalous type of dance. This doesn't seem very scandalous to mean...there is barely any extravagant movements going on here.
ReplyDeleteIf you didn't tell me that this was Danzón, I wouldn't have known it was. Its very slow and reminds me of some type of ballroom dance, minus the hip movements. When I think of Danzón I usually think of a more fast tempo and upbeat rhythms and dance. Its crazy to think that this dance was so scandalous it doesn't seem like it would be. I know reggaeton is seen as a scandalous dance but for more obvious reasons (sexual dance moves). I guess since it's a more traditional Cuban Danzón it's more slower. I agree, it definitely is crazy to see how dance styles have changed over the years.
ReplyDelete