Cuban Salsa: The Mother of all Cuban Son
This iconic video clip is from the 1939 film, “Another Thin Man”. The dancers, René Rivero Guillén and Ramona Ajón (Estella), where originally from Matanzas in Cuba.
The video clip is fabulous, mesmerizing. The Mother of all Cuban Son. There is only one problem. The dance is completely dominated by the Leader.
This is a common problem in Cuban social dances like Son and Casino. They are too often not couple dances but Macho dances with the Follow reduced to an assistant, a helper to the Lead.
Let us modernize Son and Cuban Salsa into Follow-Centric dance styles with a fifty-fifty Lead/Follow balance. We should not accept that women are second class citizens even on the social dance floor.
If we don’t get a better Lead/Follow balance, the best Followers move on to other social dances where they are more equal, like Jazz, Lindy Hop and Swing dances, Brazilian Zouk, Kizomba, Tango, Bachata, Salsa on 1, Salsa on 2, Ballroom Standard Dances, etc.
In all these dance styles, generally speaking, the Followers are much better off than in Son and Casino where many Leaders have a tendency to steal the show for themselves.
The Lead’s main role, also in Son and Cuban Salsa, should be to create the frame and set the stage for the Follow to shine as an equal partner. The Lead’s focus should be on how good he is at making the Follow dance with him.
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One of my first dance teachers emphasized to us the basic priorities of partner dancing —
When dancing salsa or son I not infrequently do a “Tornillo”, but you can also put the LADY into a tornillo. With a little whispered instruction most of them really enjoy it, or at least get a kick out of trying it.
Also, the leader putting himself into a stationary “bracing” stance and having the lady do side-to-side hip-twists (sometimes referred to as side-to-side “swivels” or “hip swivels”) is another way of letting her steal the show. (Some ladies don’t like these hip twists, but most do.)