“Salsa con Afro”: Remembering and Reenacting Afro-Cuban Roots in the Global Cuban and Latin Dance Communities

Abstract

On Latin dance scenes worldwide, within performances and social manifestations of salsa or casino, one can find dancers of various nationalities, ethnic origins, and backgrounds performing the steps of Yemayá or Eleguá. These are some of the deities of the orisha pantheon, but most of these dancers will neither be trained in folkloric dance nor be practitioners of the Afro-Cuban religious tradition to which these deities and their dances pertain. Similarly, the same dancers may also include steps from Afro-Cuban rumba in their practice, although they may have never danced rumba in its original context. This chapter examines the increasing use of movements borrowed from Afro-Cuban rumba and religious dances in both Cuban and international salsa repertoires. For some, this trend represents a homage to Cuban folklore and an expression of the embodied memory of Cubans dancing, re-anchoring a seemingly placeless “salsa” back within its forgotten Afro-Cuban roots. But for others, the frequent and out-of-context inclusion of these dances within salsa formats has resulted in the diffusion of a caricature of Cuban dance, trivialising deeply important aspects of Cuban culture for the sake of commercial interests. Issues around who may include these movements, when, why, and how are discussed throughout this work.