Not a direct connection to kizomba, just a curious similarity!

This is the amazing Cuban dancer Yasim Coronado Veranes showing how one dances danzón – which is a precursor of son, which is a precursor of casino, which is a precursor of salsa. We’re talking end of 19th century here. He explains that one of the classical danzón songs spoke of dancing “on a single little floor tile” (“en un ladrillito”).

Danzón basic step - amazingly similar to #kizomba !

To me it’s amazing how the feeling is so similar to the basic side-to-side (AKA “basic 2”) in kizomba / semba.

Of course one could argue that any side-to-side can’t be very different, and still… the feeling is there. The “ladrillito” is there. The stretchy, “sticky” stepping is there! And it’s very interesting to me that typically beginners need some time to learn to step like that. So it’s not a given that side-to-side necessarily has to be like this.

Even, the historic descriptions of danzón mention the sensuality of dancing together, without making big movements. Not all couple dances follow that!


UPDATE 2024/04: only now I realized that at 0:10 and 0:11 Yasim is actually doing shuffle / contratempo. Once again, beginners take some real practice to do this right, but Yasim did it here as something “natural”. This is beyond fascinating to me.

Also, a comment asked how would this look like with a partner, which of course is a great question! This was recorded in the middle of a party so I didn’t think of asking further. I will.


Expanded from a Facebook post published originally on January 21, 2020

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