November 19, 2011
Ciudad de Matanzas, Cuba
DANZÓN WITH THE CUBAN STARS
Last night, I attended the GALA INAUGURAL CUBADANZÓN 2011. It was held in the movie theater el Teatro Velásquez, which is on the main plaza of the City of Matanzas.
From the seminary, the entire downtown area, with all the shops and restaurants, is five or six blocks down the hill and another six blocks to the left, turning toward the bridges and the bay. I can walk there in about 10 minutes.
Before arriving on the square, I could hear the sounds of live music: the Matanzas Symphony Orchestra. They were set up on one corner of the large rectangular Plaza de la Libertad, right across from the entrance to the theater. A large crowd was gathered around. I crossed the street and first went to the ticket booth, paid my 5 pesos in moneda nacional (about 20 cents) for my ticket, and was told by the young girl in the booth that the orchestra was a prelude to the show, while the dance competitors rehearsed inside.
It was the first time I’d heard this professional local orchestra, which was fabulous. This evening, they played a number of dance tunes, many of which I recognized (Berlin and Gershwin, among others from that golden age), followed by dance tunes I did not recognize.
I noticed two pairs of dancers, quite elderly and quite elegantly dressed. The women held fans that they opened and waved as the men promenaded them around to the first part of the music.
As the couples passed one another, they smiled and nodded. At the first shift in the music, each couple paused, facing one another, and politely conversed. At the second change in the music, the woman in the pair quickly flip-closed her fan, passed it from her right hand to her left hand, then lightly touched it on her partner’s right shoulder while raising her other hand to meet her partner’s raised left arm--all in one fluent movement, as they began to dance to particular beat of this third danzón rhythm.
After a few minutes of dancing, smiling face to face, bodies surprisingly close to one another, the music shifted again, signaling the return to the promenade. These three movements were repeated several times throughout each danzón, with the dance rhythm becoming a bit more enthusiastic each time. It was truly beautiful. And these two local couples dancing under the stars to the symphony orchestra were merely a prelude to the 20 pairs about to compete indoors to the sounds of a live band.
The 20 pairs were the winners of local competitions from all over the island. The men each wore the pair number, hung over his shoulders so that it could be seen from front and back. The master of ceremonies introduced each pair by number, names, and region. There was one couple representing each province, including Isla de la Juventud.
Two of the pairs were white; four or five were black; and the rest were mulatto, or mixed mulatto and black. There were no mixed white-black or white-mulatto dance partners. (This is quite similar to what I just read in Ben Corbett’s “This Is Cuba: An Outlaw Culture Survives,” in which he writes that Cuba’s racial mix is 51 percent mulatto, 11 percent black, and 37 percent white.)
Pair numbers 1 through 10 danced on the stage first, to three or four separate danzónes, which took about 45 minutes. Then they sat down to watch pairs 11 through 20. I was sitting right in the center of the front row, surrounded by many of the competitors and their family and fans, who had traveled with them. It was quite colorful, listening to some of the comments.
The costumes worn by the dancing pairs were equally colorful, but very conservative, in comparison, to those of the ballroom dance competitors, not to mention the gaudy things worn on “Dancing with the Stars.” Actually, they weren’t costumes at all. The older women wore mostly simple but elegant below-the-knee dresses, some heavily sequined or shiny. Some wore beautiful shawls, Spanish mantillas. The fans tended to match the dress.
The shoes were what stood out the most, to me, at least. The younger women all wore rather flashy shoes with extremely high heels, and their partners were equally flashy in their dress and demeanor.
The older dancing pairs, like the ones outdoors, were dressed more sedately. Sometimes, the couple was color-coordinated. One pair wore all shiny coffee tones. Two women wore red dresses. Three or four pairs donned black-and-white combinations.
My favorite dance couple, No. 14, of course, was sadly not very well coordinated, he in an ancient and impeccably white shiny suit, she in a poorly contrasting light-yellow long top and matching skirt, and very thick-soled sparkly sandals with straps. But their inner glow, and the way they smiled at one another when they danced, easily outshone their outward appearance.
The competition continues this evening. I’m taking my camera.
With love from Cuba,
Elisa
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