Salsa Dancing From Coast to Coast
On The Art Of Mambo!
The Conga Drums: Heartbeat of The Mambo!
I suppose because I became aware of this music, which is now popularly known as “Salsa,” when it was universally called “Afro-Cuban” music I continue to think of the dance form as Mambo. This dance, though perfected in New York City, is obviously an extension of the Danzon the national dance of Cuba. The accelerated tempo of the Mambo and the complexity of the turns in partners dancing reflect the complexity and break neck pace of the milieu in the great American City where this style of dancing reached its apotheosis.
The First couple are New Yorkers, the male is Puerto Rican and the female is my daughter Makeda, an all Afro-American girl whose roots go back twenty generations or more in this country. Yet she dances as if her heritage is Afro-Latin. The dancing here is in a club and completely improvised.Makeda’s mastery of the Mambo is a function of several factors and confirms what anthropologists have long argued regarding the fusion of cultures. First of all Makeda is a trained dancer who has formally studied various genres of dance ranging from classical ballet, modern dance, Afro-Cuban, Puerto-Rican Bomba, Haitian traditional dances, Congolese dance, etc.
And secondly, she grew up among Afro-Indio peoples from the Caribbean and South America, and developed a love for their cultures from cuisine to music, and especially dance! And finally, she was raised in a household where the music was played and her father played the conga drums and danced the Mambo. All of the influence contributed to her mastery of Afro-Latin Dance. She dances with some of the best musicians and dancers of the genre.
As the reader can see from my pictures of Latin dancers in far away San Francisco, her New York City approach to the dance has become the dominant trend in the genre. I was surprised to find such skilled dancers in Frisco, and I have attempted to capture their grace, passion and elegance in these poignant images.
Live At Club Caribe: In Spanish Harlem!
Makeda: Queen Of the Mambo Dancing with Armando
Popi Chuela!
At Gonzalez Y Gonzalez!
Moving In Sync
Dancing As One
The Mambo In Black Harlem!
In The Ballroom Of the Adam Clayton Powell Building
They Come At All Ages
And And Shake their Groove Thang!
In The Mission District Of San Francisco!
Dancing With Elegance
On the Dance Floor Age Nor Race Matters!
Only The Exquisite Ectasy Of the Dance!
But Whether In New York
OR In San Francisco
The Mambo Is Mui Caliente!!
And And Graceful Beyond Descriptio
In the Mambo
The Men Control The Dance
Whether Playing the Conga Drums Or Dancing
The Mambo is Intoxicating!
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Photo’s and Text by: Playthell Benjamin
* Excerpted from his forthcoming book “The Art Of Mambo”
