ABSTRACT
Hanging out with Dreiser in his shared second floor flat in Centro Habana on Christmas Day 2005, he shared with me photos and stories of what rumba rhythm and dance mean to him. During our conversation, he also demonstrated various styles of Cuban rumba: yambu, guaguancó and la columbia. In Cuba, rumba means, literally, to make a party. As a style of Cuban music and dance it differs significantly from the ballroom version of rumba, or rhumba, known widely throughout the world. On this day, Dreiser first demonstrated the couples’ rumba dances yambu and guaguancó; the main difference between the two is tempo. Then, he showed off his impressive la columbia skills. La columbia is a competitive, acrobatic solo dance predominantly practiced by men although there have been, and are, famous female la columbia dancers as well.
