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Boogalu Prod: R. Borell: Cuban Dance Instruction

This is my favourite DVD from Boogalu Production: it contains unique material, very detailed instruction (which is not always easy to find in Cuban dancing) and an implicit tour into the history of salsa which is extremely instructive; the result is a must have, in my opinion, for serious salsa dancers at least from an educational perspective.

The DVD teaches 3 dances, Danzon, Son and Cha Cha Cha, covering what has been the ‘fashion of the day’ in Cuba from early 1900 to roughly the 50s. The instructor is a senior Cuban dancer, speaking a very good English, helped by a younger female demonstrator. Each dance is taught in its genuine, original form, at least as close to it as you are likely to ever find on any video recording. For each dance you will be shown the expected posture, attitude, basic steps and basic elements, all of which is in really clear detail, with all parts broken down for both the male and female dancer.

There is no turn pattern or challenging move to learn; as a result a superficial look at the DVD may lead you to think that there is much repetition in the explanation of the 3 dances, the only difference being the basic steps.. but this would miss the core value of the product. First, a crucial difference between the dances lies in the posture, the attitude and the relationship between the dances. Second, if you believe that here there is nothing much to learn except the basic steps you would miss the importance that the right posture and attitude and the attention to the relationship between dancers and music makes in the difference between an average and a good dancer (this is the concept which gives the name to the DVD itself). Third, you would miss the ‘historic’ treasure hidden in the DVD, which shows how salsa evolved from the rigid and constrained movement of Danzon (similar to old fashioned tango), when looking at moving like a white person was basically expected, to the introduction of hip movement in Son, which implicitly meant more acceptance of being ‘black’ and which was further developed in Cha Cha Cha, (notice also how the opening and closing of the dance position in Son is a precursor of the Dile Que No we use today). Finally it would be a pity to lose sight of the fact that 2 dancers may look good and have fun even by dancing 3 different dances by doing only basic steps. The demonstration of the three dances are a pleasure to watch from this perspective.

Review by Fabio from SalsaIsGood

DVD available through www.salsa-dvds.com