The cuban action is the fundamental action in rumba; however, not many couples have such in their choreography; and that is what competitors are judged.
A rumba walk, that fits to the percussion of the music, will stress the fact that once we get the pendulum action in the hip it develops into a rotation. The process is like we have neutral position, pendulum position, and the rotation; then a new walk in neutral position, pendulum position, and a rotation; and this repeats in the next new walk. This is what we often call hip action. The actual action starts at the half beat of the count: 2&3&4&1&, during the & beat the pendulum starts, but a lot mistake it as stepping on 2 then throw the hip at & all in a sudden. It actually starts and has its own beat. It develops into the rotary action at the end of the &. The whole thing is split into the a(quarter beat), 2&a3&a4&a1. The quarter beat is what we count the rotary action beat. If we do forward walk turn, the turn happens at the time the rotary action comes (the a beat).
The cuban action, the rotary action, or sometimes refers to as figure eight action, occurs in every motion in rumba, forward walk, back walks, turns or even in a static place action, the hip keeps having these cuban motions, and the upper body incorporates. It is a movement you feel body weights release onto the bone, so we also call it a bone action.
Emotional movements
Also there are emotional movements. When you breathe, the stomach contracts and releases, the spine relaxes, the weight goes low. This has nothing to do with rhythm. But it comes rhythmically- at the emotional movement, the body movements can be infectious, and the body expression is the signal for the lady. Therefore, these emotional movements fit into music. It tells the fact that man should learn to lead with emotional movements, and not only by explicit arm movements. Once the connection is established, the couple should be able to sense the motions. The subtle movements from emotions helps shape the dance and enrich the dance.
Once you know what makes up the dance rumba, you should apply the basic movement (cuban motion) in the basic steps. This incorporation of the basic principle of the characteristics of the dance is in fact what we are looking for in the dance.
The Connection
We move individually and correctly, it is not quite easy but with a lot of practice, you should probably manage it. However, a big present that man is generous enough to offer to lady is the hand. And, because of this hand, a connection is developed at the centre (the hand hold): the lady is able to move further than she can do normally. For instance, in a forward walk, she doesn't need to check her own body so early, instead she lets the body move continuously and flex before she comes back to the centre.
To efficiently lead the lady, the man has to give sufficient information (signal) for the lady on how he wants her to move. In giving out the signals, man should not attempt to use only muscular power, but to hint it with the motion of the torso. Priority is to change body weight, or if need to increase speed, increase body speed. Leading with CBM position is quite necessary if man is not to pull & push the lady.
Say for example, we always mention that we should use the hip to drive body forward, you may not feel the separation of the body clearly, but when it is a turn, it is obvious that leading with just the arm will likely to overdo the turn and lady may not be able to follow in time and fall over. The correct way is to check the hip then change the upper body’s direction before the next walk. Also mind that when going forward, head level almost just over the foot when you move. The couple should feel each other's weight through correct body movement i.e. moving hip before moving body or just arms.
Most importantly, lady always has a choice to decide whether or not she follows the man. Thus, leading not by muscular power but by movement, momentum makes much more sense than just using the arms to pull her along. Because of this little faith in leading, the couple should establish the elasticity feeling using the connection so as to create the ‘Man action, lady reaction’ kind of dance.
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