What’s in a Name? A reflection on the colonial roots of ballroom dances

If you have ever searched for a dance video in Youtube with keywords such as: samba, rumba, cha cha, or tango; you would have most likely found the ballroom versions of these dances with a few links to the ‘authentic’ Latin dances as well. If you took the time to read the comments underneath those videos, you would also discover a fierce debate between many Latinos passionate about their dances and ballroom aficionados about whether the ballroom versions of the dances constitute actual derivatives of the originals and whether or not that is an issue worthy of discussion. I, like many other career dancers usually dismiss the whole conversation as trivial to my craft and a pointless debate. However, with my recent introduction to the discipline of dance studies my opinion began to change.

See full article below on the World Dance Council website:

What’s in a name? By David Outevsky