The second time I went to Cuba was in 1993. It was very emotional seeing people suffer
with no food and clothes. I managed to study the Cuban folkloric dance in Havana. I
remember seeing teachers waiting for talented artists, but instead, they saw regular
touristy students. The musicians wanted to see advanced drummers but unfortunately that
year they all were beginners.
The Cuban Fokloric Dance includes many styles of Rumba, Salsa, and Santaria. Santaria is a
religion with beautiful songs and dances to the Gods, called Orichas.
The Santaria teacher is a true dancer who would improvise at the end of a class to show
how the Orisha is expressed with the music. I met Martin who was playing drums and was
origionally a lead dancer in the company. Martin liked my dancing and showed me how to
improvise the woman's dance in the Rumba.
Martin told me a story about dancing the warrior Santaria, Chango. He says he expressed
himself best when he was Chango, and told the story to the tourists watching. Martin was
the lead dancer in the middle while the rest of the men represented Chango fighting as
well. Chango yells and moves with a fierce force while their arms holding battle axes
plunge around their bodies. Martin was dancing in the middle of the group and he was taken
over by Chango. His timing was different so that when he went down to the ground, the
other dancers swung their axes downward. Martin got up at that point, and they slashed
both sides of his head. Martin was overcome by Chango and kept dancing with blood all over
his face like a crazy warrior. That is because he was Chango and now he has a scar on each
temple of his head to prove it.
I still study the Afro-Cuban dance and want to go back to Cuba. Every year the dance tour
gets more and more expensive. I can not afford it. If anybody knows of cheaper places to
stay, please e-mail me. |
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