Mambo has its religious origin in Cuba by the Haitian, but it wasn't popular until it came to Mexico and being blended with the ballroom. What we now call Mambo is an American dance which look really like Salsa except that Salsa may break at 1, 2 or 3 while Mambo only breaks on 1. In dance books, or in studio, we see then the two like twins and they are taught at the same time. Since they share the same basic footwork, learning two the same time doesn't sound bad. However, is this Salsa-like dance the Mambo?
Of course not, otherwise we won't be giving them two different names. Undoubtedly, both of them were actually 'Street Latin', right before Perex Prado 'invented' his Mambo music, this Cuban-blended ballroom dance was called Latin Jazz. At the earliest time, Mambo had a lot more complicated footwork. Mambo, as many may already known, that Mambo was the voodoo priestess, the mambos performed their ritual dance in three forms: single, double, and triple. The triple became the chasse which was then adopted in a number of dances. The Mambo movements were merged into the ballroom when Latin bands of Palladium Ballroom brought their home music to the grand hall.
Dance evolves along with the music trend changes. At the time when Mambo music became a craze, the dance, Mambo also caught attention. It was a dance with three rhythms (single, double, triple) but no footwork or pattern at all, dancers were taken by the music and let the music inspired their movements using the three rhythms- exactly the way Street Dancers do today, except that they used Mambo music. Latino people usually 'started' the foot on 2, but the dance actually started on 1 as they moved hip before moving the feet. Finally, these improvisation became too popular that dance masters needed to organize them into a systematic syllabus so as to promote it commercially. When improvisation of the three rhythms were made under a syllabus, you can imagine how complicated the dance would be.
It merged with the Cuban Rhumba (not today's Rumba), retained the single Mambo rhythm, and fitted itself into the Rock music, and became a forward/backward and side step dance. Through time, as music changes and slower down, plus the effort of dance instructors who standardized the steps and insisted to give a ballroom hold, it finally becomes today's NY Mambo on 2.
Mambo and other dances
Yes, we mostly put Mambo and Salsa together, but Rumba should be the one that looks identical to (single) Mambo. Apart from the tempo, the two shared the same rhythm; it is in fact a (single) Mambo in its slowest form. Salsa, on the other hand is the 'American' version of (Single) Mambo in its slower form. It is 'American' because Mambo doesn't start at feet but the hips, but Americans count the 1 and take the step on it and hold on 4 and 8 and yes Salsa is fast but Mambo is faster. Cha Cha Cha is another Mambo-mutated dance that takes the triple and was known as Triple Mambo at the beginning. Surprisingly, the Jive is also influenced. At the time when Mambo subsided, the Roc n Roll came to rock the world, dancers kept the triple rhythm and it later became the Jive chasse. The difference between the Cha Cha Cha and Jive is that the former starts with the hips and steps on 2 while the latter starts on 1 with a rock step.
So can we come to a conclusion that Mambo is more authentic than the others? Ummm, not really. As said before, Mambo has been 'Americanized' to be an 'acceptable' and 'decent' dance when it arrived the Palladium Ballroom. Same reason, all the Latin dances that accompanied with a syllabus do not appear very authentic. Then maybe those start on 2 are more Latino as they tend to start the hip beat first. Maybe, but t maybe when we need to argue which form is more authentic, we already lose the Latino-ness. The true Latin dance let dancers interpret the music and express themselves freely. At the time it emerge, it was just emotional movements made into a series. Dance is ever changing, even we think the old-school way is more authentic, we will not abundant the systematic dances that have taken centuries to establish. It doesn't make the studying of dance history worthless, it only gives us a fuller understanding of the dances and thus help us to create our own choreography.
In the end, I would like to highlight this textbook quote: no Cuban hip action, no Latin dancing. If you want to dance a more Latino way, the best is to practice your Cuban hips.
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