Swing (Feb-Dec 1952)

(iGusta Hallar? FROM diplomats to cane strippers; school girls to fishermen — every Latin American can dance! The twenty republics, the colonies and islands all have characteristic dances. Some of them are pure Spanish; many are a combi' nation of Spanish melody and African or Indian rhythms; others are nothing more than African drumbeat, unmingled and provocative. The rumba, the tango, conga and samba are pretty much ballroom standards across our own northern latitudes. But certain Caribbean, Central and South American dances can only excite Yankee wonder. The rumba developed among the Cuban country people, who, in the intricate movements of the dance often imitate a man riding horseback or shoeing a mule, while the dry rattle of the maracas and the clicking claves maintain the enchanting rumba beat. The conga, too, is Cuban. The long, swaying, gaily costumed street carnival conga can involve hundreds of people moving in bizarre unity, so that the line itself seems to be doing the dance. Another important contribution from the queen of the Antilles is the Bolero in such songs as "Besame" and "Quiereme Mucho," both now a part of our own popular music tradition. In the Dominican Republic, the merengue is not the frothy white topping of a lemon pie, but the national dance form. With little melody, it depends mainly on the sensitive and amazingly fast fingers of the drummer who scorns the use of sticks as he controls both pitch and rhythm to an ecstasy with his hands. The beguine, which lent its pulsations to the American hit tune, "Begin the Beguine," is the dance of French Martinique. Up the curving island chain in Haiti, an Afro-French mixture hotly colors the native music, and demoniac voodoo drums inspire the humble folk to physical exhaustion. Dances dating prior to the landing of Columbus may still be seen in isolated regions of Mexico. Indians perform the Yaqui Deer Dance with dried cocoons rattling around painted ankles. Tribesmen erect a consecrated pole, and with great ceremony salute the four winds from its top. Then to the music of the flying pole dance, and lifted by ropes circling their waists, they fly around and around the pole — thirteen times before reaching the ground. Another ritual, the Jarabe Tapatio has become the national folk dance, its gay melodies and bright foot pattern revolving about a wide brimmed sombrero tossed onto the floor. Every South American country has its traditional dances. Chileans dance the zamacueca, familiarly known as the cueca. It capered across the border into Peru where, during a war with Chile, it was renamed the marinera. The waltz-like bambuco is a favorite with Colombians. In rural Argentina, it's the gato (cat) that is danced most frequently. In the cities, the tango is favored. "La Cumparsita" first danced to in Buenos Aires, made the tango a world rage. And in languid Brazil, Portugal and Africa have met to give birth to the samba. The Brazilian melting pot has equal passion for the maxixc, the congada, the batuque and the marcha. A drum throbs out its eruptive rhythms for West Indians celebrating the harvest of the sugar cane; for fun-loving Brazilians in a carnival parade; for ritual dances in primitive Central America; and in the cooler clime of Patagonia stateliness prevails. Wherever the place, the romantic lands below our southern shores express every mood and trait in rhythm, melody and step, in an ever creative folk art. —Elizabeth SearU Lamb