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This had its origin with the African Negro slaves imported into Cuba, whose
dances emphasized the movements of the body rather than the feet. The tune was
considered less important than the complex cross rhythms, being provided by a
percussion of pots, spoons, bottles, etc. .
It evolved in Havanna in the 19th century by combination with the Contradanza .
The name \'Rumba\' possibly derives from the term \'rumboso orquestra\' which was
used for a dance band in 1807, although in Spanish, the word \'rumbo\'
means \'route\', \'rumba\' means \'heap pile\', and \'rhum\' is of course an
intoxicating liquor popular in the Caribbean, any of which might have been used
descriptively when the dance was being formed. The name has also been claimed
to be derived from the Spanish word for \'Carousel\'.
The rural form of the Rumba in Cuba was described as a pantomime of barnyard
animals, and was an exhibition rather than a participation dance The
maintenance of steady level shoulders while dancing was possibly derived from
the way the slaves moved while carring heavy burdens. The step called
the \'Cucaracha\' was stomping on cockroaches. The \'Spot Turn\' was walking around
the rim of a cartwheel. The popular Rumba tune \'La Paloma\' was known in Cuba in
1866.
The Rumba was introduced into the U.S.A. in the 1930\'s as a composite of this
rural Rumba with the Guaracha, the Cuban Bolero (unrelated to the Spanish
Bolero) and the Son.
The British dance teacher Pierre Lavelle visited Havanna in 1947 and discovered
that the Rumba was danced with the break step on beat 2 of the bar, rather than
on beat 1 as in the American Rumba. He brought this back to Britain, together
with the names of the many steps he learned from Pepe Rivera in Havanna. These
together with dancing the break on beat 2 rather than beat 1, have become part
of the standard International Cuban Rumba.
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