On Saturday, 9th October, Cape Town Swing and La Diosa join forces to bring you an incredible night of swing and salsa.
A strange combination, you might think: two different dances with entirely different music from different parts of the world. Nowadays, the swing and salsa scenes appear to attract incompatible crowds, with swing stereotypically thought of as “niche”, “alternative”, and “playful”, while salsa is considered “passionate”, “sensual”, and spicy”. Swing is all about the bounce, while salsa sways.
But these two seemingly disparate dances actually have a lot in common, as Kim Snyders of CTS and Candice Potts of La Diosa endeavour to reflect in their Harlem X Havana collaboration.
When I asked Candice why she wanted to bring the two dances together for a night, she responded,
“Salsa and swing actually have very similar roots, especially the salsa that I’m teaching, which is salsa on 2. It originated in New York, so that’s why I was very keen to collaborate”.
Indeed, the two dances share a vital chapter in dance and music history, in which their Harlem roots grew intertwined at venues like the Savoy and Palladium Ballrooms.
Harlem has always been home to many different ethnicities and cultures. It began as a Dutch village in 1658, and throughout its boom-and-bust cycles, populations have shifted and changed. Predominantly a Jewish and Italian American population in the 19th century, a large wave of African-Americans fleeing the racist South settled here during the great migration of the early 20th century. This led to the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s and 30s. This Afro-American movement should not be understated. It created an atmosphere of intellectualism, culture, art and self-expression among severely oppressed people—no wonder the “roaring 20s” has remained so emblematic.
The Savoy Ballroom, “The heartbeat of Harlem” (poet Langston Hughs), opened amid all this, and it was a roaring, resounding success. New York Age, March 20, 1926, reported that the Savoy had to turn away 2000 people on its opening night! It was open for business– and a lot of dancing – every night of the week. This is where swing dance really took off: it was a rebellion against the restrictive ballroom-style dances of the past, in which partners were not allowed to break apart but had to stay in a closed dance hold. Charleston and Lindy Hop reflected the liberation, creativity and self-expression of the times. As racism and the Great Depression ravaged the U.S.A., the Savoy ballroom offered a place where people could be free. It was known as “The Home of Happy Feet”.
Throughout this time, New York – Harlem in particular – saw the continuous arrival of Puerto Rican immigrants. Migration had already begun in 1898, following the United States’ cession of the island from Spain, which also ended the Spanish-American War. The subsequent political and economic dependency on America, together with the impact of World War II, caused ongoing migration to the U.S.A., where Puerto Ricans would make up 9% of East Harlem’s population (source). With decades of American presence and occupation in Cuba and Puerto Rico and migration from those countries to the U.S.A., there would have been plenty of cultural exchange, including music and dance.
Along with other Latin American migrants, the Puerto Ricans brought the son Cubano, the foundational music style for salsa, which combines Spanish guitar with African percussion elements. Of course, where there is music, there is dance, and the son and rumba that emerged from Cuba blended European and African influences to create the mambo, which would later become what we know today as salsa.
In the Harlem ballrooms, both Lindy hop and mambo lit up the dancefloor. The intercultural exchange and the liberation of creativity and self-expression allowed the styles to merge and steal from each other. There were no strict lines between styles; none of the dances were formally taught but acquired through observation and experimentation and simply enjoying the freedom of movement. This is a key element that both Kim and Candice wish to convey with Harlem X Havana:
“Dance is such a wonderful expression of both individuality and connection. And salsa and Lindy hop both epitomise this. Bringing these two dance styles together for one night serves as a celebration of their dynamic music, history and community”, said Kim.
Candice pointed out that there are many similarities between the two dances, showing a clear historical cross-pollination:
“A lot of our footwork elements have the same names, even. There’s a move called Suzy Q, which they also have in swing, and there are a lot of swing elements in Cuban salsa that’s now developed into salsa on 2”.
This forum details the salsa moves the author believes swing influenced and suggests reasons for the cross-pollination, such as the popularity of jazz music and swing dancing in Columbia and Mexico in the 1950s and 60s. Radio and film spread American culture around the world, and of course, there were close ties between Cuba and the U.S.A., so it is natural that the dances of the two countries were influenced by each other. The Americans gifted swing and the Latinos salsa, and in the process, the two dances merged and shaped each other.
This video shows both Lindy hop and mambo at the Savoy Ballroom. Notice how mambo shares Lindy hop’s open position, allowing the dancer to break away from their partner and have a creative, expressive and improvised conversation. The spontaneity and playfulness usually associated with Lindy hop can be seen in footage of mambo dancers at the Palladium. Much of the dances are spent in a breakaway position, known as a “shine” in salsa. Shines are a great opportunity for both leaders and followers to interpret the music in their own way, but also tune into each other’s moves and play together, just like the break-away solo jazz of Lindy hop.
It was at the Palladium that swing and salsa really started to meld. Between the mid-1940s and 1960s, New York City saw a huge new wave of Puerto Rican immigrants—nearly 900,000 (source). They laid musical and dance foundations in their new home, which were heavily influenced by their Afro-Latin roots and the swing jazz that was so popular in New York.
According to Latin music promoter and publisher Izzy Sanabria in the documentary TV series “Latin Music USA”, “Salsa provided a rhythm and music that we could live by, breathe and make love to… It was the essence of the Latino soul”.
As seen on the Harlem dancefloors, the urban folk son had already developed into the more upbeat mambo. But in the 1940s, Machito and his Afro-Cubans, a popular band of the time, revolutionised the dance. What follows is an extract from Iván Román’s article entitled How Salsa Music Took Root in New York City
Mario Bauzá, the band’s Cuban-born founder and musical director, had been drawn to the freedom and energy of Harlem. After settling there in the 1930s, he was soon playing trumpet and arranging tunes for big band jazz ensembles under leaders like Chick Webb and Cab Calloway.
He later recruited his brother-in-law, Francisco Gutiérrez Grillo, to be Machito, the singer and frontman of the new band with a unique Latin sound.
That sound, says longtime musician and educator Bobby Sanabria, was the first time a big band used a trio of drums from Cuba to drive an Afro-Cuban beat: the bongos created by creoles; the timbales derived from the timpani (or kettle drums) in Europe; and the congas, a newcomer to popular music with the most direct connection to West Africa’s rhythms and culture.
And long before it became culturally popular to embrace African roots, the band’s name purposely made a point. “I’m of African descent. And the rhythms that produce the music we play is African,” Bauzá explained in “Latin Music USA.” “You ever hear the expression lemon meringue pie? That’s exactly what this is. Jazz in the top and the Afro-Cuban rhythm at the bottom.”
His band was the headline act in 1947 at the inaugural Latin night at The Palladium Ballroom, located on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, which would soon be hailed as “the home of the mambo.” Police closed streets around the club to handle hundreds of fans, many dancing in line while waiting to get in.
Transit workers, bank executives, seamstresses and professionals—all dressed to the nines—shattered racial, ethnic and class barriers as they moved their hips to pulsating drums and blasting trumpets. The well-known rivalry among the big three featured bands—led respectively by Machito, handsome crooner Tito Rodriguez and timbales virtuoso and showman Tito Puente—pushed mambo’s cultural currency in the city to new heights.
The Palladium became a spot for the “in crowd” to be seen. After curtain calls on Broadway’s Wednesday matinees, celebrities came to party. Sammy Davis Jr. sat in on bongos. Marlon Brando got high marks for his licks on a conga. Jazz trumpeter and bandleader Dizzy Gillespie, who later fused the African-based sound to some of his own Bebop jazz, showed up with singer Sarah Vaughn. Dean Martin, Rita Hayworth, Kim Novak were also in the mix—among other stars. According to one of the club’s professional dancers, Pedro “Cuban Pete” Aguilar, Ava Gardner would come in and pick men to dance with her. “I had the privilege of dancing one number with Elizabeth Taylor,” he shared in The Palladium: Where Mambo Was King.
So, here we see the perfect marriage of jazz and mambo, which shows just how interconnected the history of swing and salsa really is, contrary to what many people believe, including people from the two dance communities themselves. Let’s not forget that American jazz and Cuban son both grew from African roots, so finding their way towards each other seems natural and gratifying. By bringing the dances together again, Harlem X Havana will emphasise commonalities and a shared history.
When I asked Kim about her motivation for the collaboration with La Diosa, she said,
“Over the last year or so, we’ve had many conversations about different dances, the narratives that arise around them, and just how enriching it can be to broaden your movement horizons. Many of our CTS dancers are also active in the salsa scene, so creating a space where they – and others – can marry and share their two passions was a no-brainer.”
When I asked Candice what values she believes La Diosa and CTS share, she responded,
“I would say it’s community-based, building a very close-knit community focusing on friendship, connection and self-expression. I think we have a very similar outlook on that.”
This sentiment is perfectly congruent with the legacy of the Savoy and Palladium ballrooms, where the racial and social boundaries of the outside world melted away, and a shared love of dance and music forged a sense of community.
I’m so excited to see two dances that I love unite. In my opinion, mixing styles enriches a dance rather than endangers it, and why keep them separate when they share such a rich history? Jazz and salsa music, and their respective dances, have their roots in Africa before taking on a new form in Harlem and Havana. Here we are in Africa, celebrating commonalities, differences and freedom of expression through dance.
And what do Kim and Candice hope to achieve from the night?
“Just to grow both scenes, I think. To have cross-pollination between styles and to bring dances together and experience new ways of dancing and connecting”, said Candice.
“We want to create a joyful experience that nurtures self-expression and bridges gaps between dance communities. We hope those who attend walk away with a couple of new moves, new additions to their playlist and possibly some new friends. This is an opportunity for dancers (both novice and experienced) to explore and grow their dance and music vocabulary and just celebrate the art of dance”, said Kim.
