The Cuban Rumba Complex

When asked to think of the Cuban rumba—or la rumba Cubana—images of the ballroom dance called the rhumba often come to mind. Although the Cuban rumba does involve dance (in most cases) and both have been influenced by Spanish rhythm, the Cuban rumna has nothing to do with ballroom dancing. Rather, it is one of a number of African-Caribbean performative arts and stands alone as a rich, traditional genre of folklore native to Cuba (Daniel 1991).

The Cuban rumba is referred to as a dance complex, because it cannot be boiled down to a single genre, but is, instead, a combination of texts, including music, dance, and traditional celebratory event. A person may "dance rumba," "play rumba," or "attend a rumba," and its performance may include singing and chanting, instrumentation, and dancing, or any combination of two or more forms of rumba text (Daniel 1991). For example, a rumba performance may involve vocalization and instrumentation without dance, instrumentation and dance without vocalization, or a combination of all three.

Rich in form and history, the Cuban rumba has evolved into three types, each of which share common elements but differ in notable ways. These are:

• yambú rumba, characterized by the Matancera style;
• guaguancó rumba, characterized by the Habanera style;
• and the columbia rumba, characterized by the Santiaguera, de salon, and del campo styles (Daniel 1991).

The following pages break down the formal and contextual elements of music and dance as they are performed in the Cuban rumba, illuminating the common and divergent aspects of the complex's three types of rumba. Later, we will look at los rumberos, those who perform the rumba.

Next: The Music