Ballroom Samba?

Question

I personally play in two samba bands and learned a little bit of samba dancing while I was in Brasil. Yet I came back and played a samba parade, and was put down by a couple people that what we did were not samba, and that he real samba required partners and good/steady/upright form. I knew that Brasilian Samba came before ballroom but didn't argue in return at that moment.

However, I did feel a sense of cultural disrespect that from the two ballroom dancers who commented to me. I wonder why they think they were the ones who got it right? Of course, not all ballroom dancers think that way I am sure.

Another question is regarding Cuban Rumba and ballroom Rumba. The two are not even the same dance, yet they share the same name. Why is that? Cuban Rumba was formed way earlier than Ballroom Rumba..., if two styles are different, why should they be sharing the same name?

Answer 1

I might guess that those who commented on your samba are beginner or intermediate (at best!) dancers of ballroom.

It is typical of many beginner competitive ballroom dancers to be judging and unaccepting of other styles or schooles.
It is nothing more than ignorance, and hopefully, it is temporary for any given person (unless, of course, you run into a jerk). What happens is once ballroom dancers get into serious training their coach is tough on them. Coach points out some specifics as mistakes and wants it to be corrected. Beginners take it as an absolute and unquiestionable truth. This is just a learning stage. Once the dancers get the technique devoloped enough they can think about artistic expression a lot more. It becomes art again. They again start to see beyond technique. They grow out of judjing everyone on the basis of the technique commonly accepted in dancesport. Just forgive them or ignore them.

You can think about it it this way: they imagine themselves on a competiotion floor all the time. And they took you into their imagination too. However, dancesport samba is really a sport. Judges are looking for speed. The technique was developed for speed. Dances who are not trained for speed.... well... don't have speed. Also, on the competition floor you need to be the most noticeable. With this in mind, you select the forms and lines.

Yeah, even some social dancers fall into thinking that they know what's "correct".

Yes, it is true that Cuban Rumba is a predecessor or balloom rumba, as far as I know. Just like vintage Waltz is a predecesor of ballroom waltz. Even though it is danced to the same music, you might as well think of them as different dances. Neither is more correct or less correct. Just different.

Oh, you say why should they be sharing the same name? Simply because one has developes from the other. To be precise, the name is not exactly the same. There is Brasilian Samba and International Ballroom Samba. There is Cuban Rumba, Ballroom Rumba of Latin American Program in International Style, and Latin American Ballroom Rumba in American Style. So they are only sharing family name, so to speak.

Smiles.

Answer 2

as a ballroom dancer, im more familiar with the ballroom samba and rumba, yet i know about the braziliam samba and cuban rumba as my friend, who cannot find a partner, dances.. hmm.. now how to translate.. somewhat single person ballroom.

In my opinion, dance overall should be what two people share, because two people, when dancing as a pair, can show twice more than one. At the other hand, when i dance alone, i can express myself better, not my pair, but only me.

I can dance, for instance, cha cha, alone and in pair. Its the same cha cha, yet the styles are completely different. But its still cha cha.

The most important thing is not what you dance, but that you dance.

Answer 3

Man, I had a lot of questions like yours! Being a brazilian myself and loving dance (including the ballroom dances), those questions are sure to come up!
What I settled with is that these are fact, we just got to accept it:
- Ballroom dancers are in majority very stuck up. They have very defined rules for their dances and like to put everything in the same rules set. They tend to disdain any partner dance that does not have similar posture and rules set. (I'm also a ballroom dancer, it's just a steotype, not an attack)
-Every ballroom dance has been inspired in some folk dance. Since the Latin ones are based on cultural dances that still exist and are maybe more known than the ballroom version, they tend to be the most confusing. Ballroom dancers should know that, since even inside ballroom dances there are international versions of a lot of dances that carry the same name and are completly different. But because there are very few of them that knows about the real samba, they are ignorant to the fact that what they do is not samba.
-Samba was born in Brazil. It is a brazilian treasure if you will. If there is a right way to dance it, it's your way, learned in Brazil (although I have rarely seen a non-brazilian do it right, no offense).
-What they do in ballroom is an outrage to be called samba to any brazilian who sees it. But the fact is, there is no patents on popular names, and they can call it whatever they want, and will continue to call it samba! If you talk to ballroom dancers, that's what samba means. If you talk to brazilians, Samba means samba. In the doubt, I call it ballroom samba and brazilian samba.

I bet the same thing applies to cuban ramba! That's just the way it is.

By the way, Ballroom dance is not even danced to Samba. Samba is actually a rythm that has a very specific and dificult timing, and ususally very fast. Most sambas are too fast for the ballroom dance so it is danced to other rythms and music that I'm not sure how to qualify them. But rarely is it even going to be brazilian music.