Loved this dance video ....

timberamayor said:
I can dance casino to rock, but that is what they called the dance from the 50s and on. The term salsa came later, in the 70s as you know in reference to the music and then later the dance and then came the term Cuban salsa since Cubans didn't dance the way people in the US did.
Click to expand...
Sounds like Cuban salsa is not necessarily the same as Casino then? Can Cuban salsa be danced to rock?
 
Lemnon said:
Guys how do you define casino? From what I know/has been taught to me, that doesn't look like casino. That's cuban salsa. In casino you have the "anticipation", in this video the guy never does that. Maybe this has to do with how casino has been marketed in Europe, I don't know. Basically from what I know, in casino there is very little solo dancing, and there is this thing that teachers here call "anticipation". Meanwhile in salsa dancing there isn't this anticipation and generally you are more free. What do I miss?
Click to expand...

'Cuban salsa' is simply how casino and timba have been marketed to non-Cubans, because salsa music and dance were famous throughout the world. Is casino as sold to foreigners different to casino as it was before foreigners got interested? Of course. Whether that means it's no longer casino is debateable - by that logic today's salsa dance is no longer salsa either.
 
TikiTaka said:
Isn't Casino a dance than can be danced to non-son based music?
Click to expand...

Casino appeared (late 1950s) just before son-based music went out of popularity in Cuba. Although I have heard that the 70s and 80s were a golden age for casino in Cuba, the only evidence I can find completely contradicts that. I've also read that back in the day they would dance casino in Cuba to rock. Yet casino's resurgence in the 80s coincides with a revival in Cuba of son-based music.

Therefore I suspect that casino can be danced to anything but it has probably always been closely associated with son-based music.
 
TikiTaka said:
Cuban music from the 70s don't sound very son-based to me. I guess people danced Casino to this.


And Son Cubano to son music.

But modern Timba often seems to be very son-based
Click to expand...

Well there was son-based music in Cuba in the 70s, some of which was popular and some of which remains highly obscure. But there really wasn't much of it. Those who were producing it were pioneers of what was to come in the 90s.

What did people dance casino to in the 70s? Probably the little bits of progressive son-based music that were coming out in Cuba i.e. Van Van, Orquesta Ritmo Oriental and Irakere. Maybe rock as well.

Yes timba is son-based.
 
Last edited:
DJ Yuca said:
'Cuban salsa' is simply how casino and timba have been marketed to non-Cubans, because salsa music and dance were famous throughout the world. Is casino as sold to foreigners different to casino as it was before foreigners got interested? Of course. Whether that means it's no longer casino is debateable - by that logic today's salsa dance is no longer salsa either.
Click to expand...
Well. If it's danced contratiempo, to a "son moderno" is it Casino or Son?
 
TikiTaka said:
Although if you ask @DJ Yuca cuban salsa is only danced to reggaeton :p
Click to expand...

There are definitely promoters of Cuban salsa who make sure a lot of timba is played at their events, with a little son moderno and timbatón. But I think nowadays the majority of Cuban salsa promoters want a mix of timba, timbatón and reggaeton. Of course plenty have gone down the dreaded SBK road.
 
Last edited:
TikiTaka said:
Well. If it's danced contratiempo, to a "son moderno" is it Casino or Son?
Click to expand...

It's casino. However in my limited experience, many regional Cuban salsa teachers don't bother teaching contratiempo. Considering the music they have at their events it's no surprise.
 
timberamayor said:
I can dance casino to rock, but that is what they called the dance from the 50s and on. The term salsa came later, in the 70s as you know in reference to the music and then later the dance and then came the term Cuban salsa since Cubans didn't dance the way people in the US did.
Click to expand...

The term salsa appeared in NY at the beginning of the 70s and soon conquered the whole of Latin America - except Cuba. In fact the only people listening to US/PR salsa in Cuba in the 70s may have been the likes of Juan Formell and Adalberto Álvarez. Eventually in the 90s tourists in Cuba started asking for salsa classes and it was only a matter of time before the term became popular in reference to casino and timba.
 
So would people call this casino or Cuban salsa? This is from the early 80s, although I don't know the exact year. I don't know where to find video of what people were dancing to in the 70s.

 
Last edited:
If casino had become popular worldwide in the same way it was popular in Cuba then there would have been lots of gigs for timba bands, lots of timba records being sold, maybe lots of venues playing timba records, and foreigners would have been happy to learn the basics of casino then go out dancing. Instead the vast majority of foreigners want a never-ending series of ever-more-challenging dance classes, with social dancing at the weekend to pre-recorded music and occasional live gigs.

And in the UK a lot of Cuban salsa events actually used to play the same appalling non-salsa tracks that I used to hear at many linear events.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top