Rumba

Rumba is both a family of music rhythms and a dance style that originated in Africa and traveled via the

Rumba is both a family of music rhythms and a dance style that originated in Africa and traveled via the slave trade to Cuba and the New World. The so-called rumba rhythm, a variation of the African standard pattern or clave rhythm, is the additive grouping of an eight pulse bar (one 4/4 measure) into 3+3+2 or, less often, 3+5 (van der Merwe 1989, p.321). Its variants include the bossa nova rhythm. Original Cuban rumba is highly polyrhythmic, and as such is often far more complex than the examples cited above.

There are several ballroom dances which are also called Rumba (also spelled Rhumba) and Bolero, based on Cuban Rumba and Son. In American-style ballroom dancing, bolero is basically a slow version of the International-style back-and-forth (also known as slotted) rumba but without the hip or Cuban motion and with added rise and fall. Ballroom rumba is danced in either a box-step style or a back and forth style with the hip motion. Also, still another variant of Rumba music and dance was popularized in the United States in 1930s, which was almost twice as fast, as exemplified by the popular tune, The Peanut Vendor. This type of "Big Band Rumba" was also known as Rhumba. The latter term still survives, with no clearly agreed upon meaning; one may find it applied to Ballroom, Big Band, and Cuban rumbas. Rumba is also called as "woman's dance", because it absolutely presents women's body line beautifully. Besides, the interaction, emotion and the soft rhythm between the partners make another appropriate name called "Love dance."