Mambo
Genevieve Thiers

The mambo is a very popular and sensual dance, with African and Cuban rhythms. Mambo is actually a name for a bantu drum. The word "mambo" means "conversation with the Gods," and these drums were used for sacred and ritual purposes. The mambo is a spin-off of the English country dance, which made its way to Cuba through immigrants. It was named the danza, or the dance of Cuba, and gradually its beat and movement became saturated with African and Cuban rhythms, creating an entirely new beat and style.

Mambo's origin lies in the early 1900's in Cuba. Oresta Lopez, a composer and cellist, created a piece known as the "mambo" mixing everyday Cuban rhythms with the African and south American aspects on the street. The result was a new fusion, and one that supported a continuous beat. Mambo became ever more popular when Prado Perez, a famous bandleader and a friend to Lopez, marketed his music under the name "mambo." It contained big brass and drum sound, and incorporated fast beats and runs on the instruments. In 1951, Perez Prado and his Orchestra took a tour of the United States, establishing Perez as a mambo king and mambo's as America's latest craze. Perez was actually the first to market the "Mambo #5," now popular again in the 1990's! Dancing houses and clubs began to improvise steps to the beat created, and the mambo was born.

This popularity spread to the United Stated very rapidly. It was actually not the first Cuban-African dance to achieve popularity in the United Stated. The rumba was introduced in the 1930's to the American public, and it took on like wildfire. During the mid-1900's, people danced up a mambo storm in Miami, New York and San Francisco. The mambo was especially popular in New York dance halls, where dancers twisted and turned and threw their partners, arms, legs and hands in the air to win dance competitions. Mambo bands developed intense rivalries as to who could create the best mambo rhythm. Players like Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie and Bob Hope were all part of this friendly competition.
Mambo is written to music in 4/4 time, but some of these beats call for the partner to hold. The first step on every 4/4 beat has no movement, followed by quick-quick-slow beats. Mambo is characterized by the hip movements that it entails. While moving forward and backwards to the beat, dancers "sway" with the hips, creating a fluid motion that flows with the music. The mambo can exist in different forms. One form, the triple mambo, is so fast that the beat is accelerated to three times its normal rate. Out of this fast-stepping dance came another genre, the cha-cha. What many people do not know is that the cha-cha is actually still a form of the mambo. Its music and beat structure make it a surefire relation.

Modern mambo is considered a New York creation. The fluidity of the dance entered the mambo scene shortly after its emergence into New York. The five note, two bar rhythm pattern known as the clave was the backbone of the dance, and from this New Yorkers like Lenny Dale, Cuban Pete and Killer Joe Piro added steps from jazz, tap and swing. Mambo today exists mainly in competition. When dancing the mambo with a partner in competition, many couples strive for a sensual, Latin look. The mambo is quite different form other dances because it is blatantly sensual, instead of dramatic, fast, or flowing.

Love, Peace, & Cross-Body Leads…