Caribbean Dance History: Study Guide - Fall 2011

Caribbean Dance History: Study Guide - Fall 2011

CREATIVE AND FESTIVAL ARTS CENTRE

STUDY GUIDE FOR CARIBBEAN DANCEFall Semester

Jorge Luis Morejón, Ph.D., Lecturer

October 20th, 2011

University of the West Indies, St. Augustine.

Trinidad and Tobago



Caribbean Dance: UNIT 4African Influences on Caribbean Dance: Ethnic Dances, Afro-Cuban Haitian, Rumba and Carnival.


Study Guide: Questions and Answers
1. Who was the person who proposed the importation of African slaves to our continent?

Fryer Bartolome de las Casas

2. What was his rational?

He was restless about the welfare of Cuba’s indigenous people, the Tainos and thought that by bringing African slaves the “Indians” would be treated better.

3. Which document was used by him to formalize his proposition?

This document was “Memorial de los Remedios” (Memorial of Remedies), the document that started African slavery in the Americas.

4. What did he propose in that document?

He proposed to the Spanish Crown the following: “that in place of the Indians that were supposed to be in such communities, supply each one with twenty Negroes, or other slaves in the mines” (Guerra 59).

5. Was this the first instance of slave in the history of Humanity?

Cuban choreographer and scholar Ramiro Guerra explains that this document was not a premise for Spain, country that inherited the institution of slavery from early Roman conquests in Northern Africa. Later, Romans were seconded by the Arabs and berberians who had open a pirate trafficking of Ethiopians, Mauritanians and Negros from beyond the Sahara to sale them in Europe. The slave traffic also included white Christians captured on the ships that navigated the Mediterranean and in the European coastal towns to provide the Moors’ caliphates, which extended all the way to Granada.

6. What was the direct consequence of Las Casas attempt to solve the Taino people’s situation?

Ironically, Las Casas could not have imagined that far from solving the indigenous people’s problem, he opened the door to the most inhumane traffic to take place with the start of the XVI century all the way to the XIX century.

7. What was the positive aspect of this inhumane trade?

The slave trade poured on the coasts of the American continent a great number of Africans whose descendants would actively participate in the gestation of America’s men’s and women’s cultural identity.

8. When did the Atlantic Slave Trade begin? What was the importance of such historical event?

The Atlantic Slave Trade began in 1518. Africans descendants have been key in the gestation of America’s men’s and women’s cultural identity which includes most importantly the music and dances.

9. What was the most influential ethnic group brought from Africa to Cuba?

The Bantu peoples, from south of the equator, northern Angola, southern Zaire, and southern Congo were the most influential in Cuba and all of Afro-America.

10. What religion did they (or do they) practice?

They formed the religion Palo Monte (palo literally means stick, but also tree, whereas monte means mountain, scrubland, woodland or the bush) which still survives in Cuba. They were introduced throughout the period of slave trade.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPQ063RioIc (9:51 min)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMsLej6zoMk&feature=related (0.47)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcigBrd08AY&feature=related (2:19)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lavx6mt22fM&feature=related (2:42)

11. Who was the second major ethnic group to arrive from Africa to Cuba?

The Yoruba people were the second major ethnic group brought to Cuba from Africa.

12. Where were they from?

They were mainly from what is now southwestern Nigeria.

13. What religious practice did they embrace?

The Yoruba brought religious practices which were formed into the religion called Santeria or Regla de Ocha in Cuba.



14. What were the major deities or orishas worshipped in the Yoruba pantheon in Cuba?

They were Eleggua, Yemaya, Chango, Ochun, Oggun, Babalu Aye, Oya, Ochosi

Eleggua

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWiOXWKFxS8&feature=related (2:27)

Yemaya

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnmFqm4Nq4Y&feature=related (0:52)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KndrrwJiAdY&feature=related

Chango

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UElodBNwQIA&feature=related (0:35)

Ochun

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqYiVcNF-m8&feature=related (3:39)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZKD0c1wfE4&feature=related

Oggun

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vJBmKKiFt4&feature=related (0:31)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1f2LniY9zM&feature=related

Babalu Aye

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6dfvXKgP7A&feature=related (2:45)



Other Orishas whose dances were not covered during the practice class

Oya

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDS4no2xLoQ&feature=related (5:51)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=215OLyndNHI&NR=1

Ochosi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPV892BHVVs&feature=related (1:00)



15. Folk Dance movements derive from the manifestation of the deities/orishas/saints religion or Santeria. What deities have specific movements and what elements do they represent?



Eleggua: he opens the ways, reason why he is always the first orishas to enter the ceremony of Fest of Saints. His colors are red and black or black and white. He dances with a hook made out of a tree branch. He is manifested in the personality of a child or an old man.

Yemaya: She is the mother of all the orishas. She is the queen of the ocean. She wears blue.

Chango: He is the playboy of the pantheon. Most men want to emulate Chango’s sensual ways of dancing. He owns the lightening and the thunder. He dresses in red. He dances with an ax.

Ochun: Ochun is the sensual goddess. She wears yellow, jewelry and dances with a fan. She is the queen of the river, other fresh water sources and honey.

Oggun: Oggun is the king of metals. He dances with a machete. He wears green and a raffia skirt. He is physically robust and powerful.

Babalu Aye: Is the soaring oricha. He wears purple and sometimes yute. He is the lord of the plagues.



16. Who were the Abakua and what makes them different form the rest of the ethnic groups?

They were from southeastern Nigeria. The began arriving in Cuba around 1762. They formed the only African secret society to survive the passage - the Abakua secret society.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKa5OvH6moU&feature=related ( 0.23 to 1:10)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usXxGf5zIvY (0:58)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l12ZjxL8ITg&NR=1

17. What was another major African ethnic group and where were they from?

The Arara people were from the Dahomey Kingdom, which was in present day Benin. They brought the religion known in Cuba as Regla Arara, but this religious practice has been largely assimilated by Santeria.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3uWRJH5Nw8&feature=related (10:36)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHF2XDHtfqE&feature=related (9:41)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5xFTSHBjMk (1:49)

18. The proximity with Haiti brought to Cuba another ethnic group of African origin. Which group is this?

This other group was the Afro-Cuban-Hatian

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au8RmaGk36s (1:14)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06PzkM2pdYY&feature=related (3:54)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8lHupr3nW8&feature=related (9:49)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFgZF7orxlU&feature=related (0:52)

19. What was the first African dance created in Cuba?

Rumba

20. The rumba complex has three dances. Could you name them?

They are Yambu, Guaguanco and Columbia.

Yambu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV4Im-dOweI&feature=related

Guaguanco

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdgURtb83VM

Columbia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6j3DKlILE0&feature=related

21. What are their main characteristics?

Yambu: It is a ver slow dance. It describes a type of courting game in which the man, through a series of steps tries, to get to the woman’s genital area while she blocks him with her skirt.

Guaguanco: The same idea as in Yambu, but it is faster and full of improvisational dance steps that describe the creativity and dexterity of the dancers.

Columbia: It is a friendly rivalry between two o more men displayed through the execution of complicated and extremely fast dance steps.



22. Could you summarize the dance contributions made by Africans in Cuba?

The Bantu people brought the Palo dances, the Yoruba brought the oricha or orisha dances, the Abakua the dance of the Ireme (or little devil) and the Arara people the Arara dances all of which are still practiced. The Afro-Cubans created rumba and its different elements: Yambu, Guaguanco and Columbia. Other influences came to Cuba via Haiti, such as French Tumba. Overall, the African influence is present in Cuban classical and popular music. Besides the rumba, it has influenced the danzon, the son, the guaracha or salsa, the mambo and the cha-cha-cha. It has also influenced Cuba’s classical and contemporary dance by permeating the styles of Cuban Ballet Technique, Cuban Flamenco Technique and Cuban Contemporary Technique. Africans’ most important presence can be seen during the Cuban carnivals and parrandas (parang) and their comparsas or street dances.