Salsa World: A Global Dance in Local Contexts. (2024)

Salsa World: A Global Dance in Local Contexts

Edited by Sydney Hutchinson.

Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2014

ISBN: 978-1-4399-1006-1

229 pages; $89.50 [cloth & electronic]

Since the 1990s, the phenomenon of salsa has increasingly becomerelated to dance more than to musical production, although a foray intoextant academic literature seems to overlook this rise in popularity.Salsa World is thus long overdue and a much-welcomed addition tomusic/dance scholarship written in the English language. This collectionis a study of a global phenomenon as constructed by people grounded inparticular locales: various sites in the United States and LatinAmerica, two countries in Europe, and one in Asia. The breadth of placeis refreshing, but it is the knowledge and expertise that each of thevarious authors contributes that makes this book a versatile edition forscholars interested in the processes and particularities ofmedia-influenced, commodity-driven cosmopolitan formations, as well assalsa and popular (partner) dance in general. Editor andethnomusicologist Sydney Hutchinson gathered essays from scholars beyondthe fields of ethnomusicology and anthropology to create a solid andexcellent overview of the diversity and influence of this dance. Herintroduction alone provides a concise and thorough history of salsadance suited for readers of any specialization.

The collection claims to focus on studio dancers (bailarines) andtheir connection to a global community of salsa dancers, but it does notfulfill only this aim. Instead, the majority of the authors confront theinherent difficulty of making a clear demarcation between street, orsocial, dancers (bailadores) and their formally trained counterparts.The chapters address salsa as it changed from social "dancing"into "a dance," along with its associated constructions ofidentities (p. 11).

Hutchinson divides the book into three parts, organized bygeographic area: the United States, Latin America, and"beyond," though all three sections are bound by two conceptsintroduced by Hutchinson: dance accents, the traces that "movementdialects" (from Joanna Bosse 2008) leave on the individual'sbody and serve as an identifier (p. 3); and kinetopia, the dialecticalrelationship between localities and movement practices mediated throughthe body, simultaneously a "conceptual and physical space" (p.15). The latter draws upon Foucault's heterotopias ([1967] 2002)and the former upon Pierre Bourdieu's habitus and hexis (1970,1977). Most of the authors incorporate ideas similar to or based uponthose of Bourdieu's Distinction (1984) and various theories ofcosmopolitanism--for example, those of James Clifford (1998) and ThomasTurino (2000). Last, but no less important, many of the authors havebeen inspired by the seminal work of sociologist Angel G. QuinteroRivera, whose work is currently only available in Spanish (1999, 2009).Class, race, and ethnicity surface in many of the chapters, but thetopics of authenticity and interpretation arise as the most salientissues of the collection.

The first section, on the United States, begins with a revision byHutchinson of her landmark article, originally published in CENTROJournal (2004), about New York-style "On-2." Hutchinson tracesthe historical and social background of salsa dancing, from itsbeginnings as mambo in the 1930s, through the nearly mythical Palladiumdays of the 1950s, to the present era beginning in the 1990s. Shedetails the distinctive style, musical tastes, and "scene," orsubculture, of New York-style salsa dancing--a local style that hasgiven rise to a global commodity She evidences the syncretic foundationsof this style and its departure over time from the traditionalmusician/dancer relationship. The chapter includes TUBS (Time Unit BoxSystem) notation and Arthur Murray-style footprint diagrams that willaid those not familiar with common salsa counting and dance steps. As adancer competent with many of the styles this book discusses, I amconfused by Hutchinson's opinion that Eddie Torres's steppingpattern places the first and fifth step "a half beat ahead oftime" (p. 36). The connection of beat-to-step correspondence seemsdirectly related to individual skill level and musicality, hence a greatvariety of correspondences exist even within one song.

The next two chapters also analyze hybrid formations in urbansettings. Folklorist Katherine Borland focuses on the culturalinclusiveness of and personal styles present in New Jersey salsa, instark contrast to New York style. Borland examines the background ofsome of the major contributors to the New Jersey scene to draw attentionto the "hybrid nature of local cultures" as well as thevarious social needs salsa teachers fulfill (p. 48). AnthropologistJonathon S. Marion falls short of describing the multitude of"complex social and cultural contexts within which dancerscocreated L.A. salsa" (p. 74), but to fulfill this aim wouldrequire more space than one allotted chapter within an editedcollection. Instead, Marion provides a well-articulated history of thedevelopment of studio dancers' L.A. salsa scene and dance style,despite the chapter being somewhat theory-laden.

Ethnomusicologist Joanna Bosse's excellent chapter shifts thestudy of cosmopolitanism from the urban to the less urban, offering adifferent perspective than most of those in this collection.Surprisingly, or not, the phenomena surrounding salsa practices she fnds in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, is common to many small"towns" of the United States. Bosse's work complimentsthe mainly urban and coastal emphasis of current salsa research andshows that class and commerce issues can be more important thanethnicity--a crucial argument in the spread of standardized versions ofsalsa dance.

Dance scholar Barbara Balbuena Guiterrez's chapter on salsa inCuba opens the Latin America section of the book. This chapter,translated by Hutchinson, provides a superb overview of the history ofsalsa dancing in Cuba, with attention paid to various and particularstyles of dance. This chapter offers what is seldom seen inEnglish-language salsa scholarship--a Cuban perspective. The chapterwould have benef ted from more musical examples to explicate thedifferences Balbuena Guiterrez details, but otherwise the chapter is astrong and appreciated addition to dance scholarship.

Priscilla Renta, a doctoral candidate in performance studies,writes about commercialization and sabor in Puerto Rico in a chapterthat borders on romanticization--but how can it not be so whendiscussing the elusive concepts of sabor and sentimiento? Renta adroitlytackles how the globalization of salsa dance is changing its aestheticfoundations while she provides a solid basis for future discussions ofsabor. Interestingly, she believes that the embodiment of sabor may wellturn dominant Europeanist aesthetic constructions on their head, makingroom for Africanist ideals (p. 137), a belief that I would love to seecome to fruition.

Linguist, anthropologist, music researcher, and professor of socialcommunication Alejandro Ulloa Sanmiguel's chapter on salsa in Cali,Colombia, translated by Hutchinson, concisely details the uniquehistory, dance and music styles, and categorization(s) of dancers inthis non-Caribbean salsa "capital." Whys and hows abound.Ulloa Sanmiguel legitimizes the Caleno style of salsa against thedominant styles that fall within "the clave canon," a mootargument for anyone that has witnessed the unique power and vitalitythat Cali's dancers embody, but one that must be voiced in a globalmilieu of more popular styles such as those that originated in New Yorkand L.A.

Rossy Diaz, a graduate student in art history and criticism, sharesher perspectives, as well as her research from the Institute ofCaribbean Studies in Santo Domingo, of salsa dance in the capital of theDominican Republic. This chapter, translated by Hutchinson, provides thebackground of salsa in a country known more for its merengue andbachata. Diaz emphasizes that "local conceptions of salsa" arerelated to two cultural processes: the son tradition of the barrios andthe formation of a New York-Dominican culture that later influencednational life as a whole (p. 159). The information within the chaptervacillates at times, especially when discussing "street" styleand social class, and Diaz does not elaborate on the dance having a"basis in clave." Overall, however, Diaz's contributionto the collection is concise and insightful.

The final portion of the collection, "beyond," offersthree perspectives from cities (and regions) where salsa dance styleshave been imported instead of created. Here the studio-trained dancerreigns, and "dancing" most clearly becomes "adance." Sociologist Saul Escalona's chapter on salsa inFrance, translated by Hutchinson, focuses on the industry and exoticismof salsa in Paris. In a scene where mastery of dancing usurps the spiritof salsa, he asks if the dance is more of a "bodily therapy thanthe discovery of another culture" (p. 175). Isabel Llana, adoctoral candidate in journalism and communication, covers Barcelona andSpain in her chapter, which is also translated by Hutchinson (making thetotal translations Hutchinson provides for the collection five). Thescene is similar to the one described by Escalona, but exhibitsparticular (Latin American) nationalisms and, interestingly, theirrelated prejudices. The chapter is weakened by a persistent binary ofSpanish vs. others, but otherwise lays out a brief and concise portraitof salsa dance, with its conflicts of categorization, for her region.The final chapter of the book, by Latin American scholar Kengo Iwanaga,focuses on habitus, Tokyo's (and Japan's) systemization ofsalsa dance, and the effects of partner dance on Japanese bodilypractices.

The collection is well organized and edited; the translations aresmooth and considerate of each author's nuance of language. Eachchapter has its own endnotes and references. There is a thorough,twelve-page index.

Ulloa Sanmiguel argues that Caleno-style salsa is a "differentmode of embodying rhythm and music, or another way of feeling, anothersensibility expressed through dance" (p. 151), but this statementconveys the intent of the entire collection: the authors elucidate theunique agency of the inhabitants of each locale and demonstrate howdiverse and intimate experiences of salsa dance simultaneously buildboth local and global communities.

REVIEWED BY JANICE MAHINKA, THE GRADUATE CENTER, CUNY AND BOROUGHOF MANHATTAN COMMUNITY COLLEGE, CUNY

REFERENCES

Bosse, Joanne. 2008. Salsa dance and the transformation of style:An tthnographic study of move ment and meaning in a cross culturalcontext. Dance Research journal 40(1):45-64.

Bourdieu, Pierre. 1970. The Berber house, or the world reversed.Social Science 9(April):151-70.

--. 1977. Outline of a Theory of Practice. Trans. Richard Nice. NewYork: Cambridge University Press.

--. 1984. Distinction: = Social Critique of the judgment of Taste.Trans. Richard Nice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Clifford, James. 1997. Routes: Travel and Translation in LateTwentieth Century. Cambridge, MA; Harvard University Press.

Foucault, Michel. [1967] 2002. Of Other Spaces. In The VisualCulture Reader, ed. Nicholas Mirzoeff, 229-42. 2nd ed. New York:Routledge.

Hutchinson, Sydney. 2004. Mambo on 2: The birth of a new form ofdance in New York City. CENTRO: Journal of the Center for Puerto RicanStudies 16(2):109-37.

Quintero Rivera, Angel G. 1999. !Salsa, sabory control! Sociologiade la musica "tropical." 2nd ed. Mexico, DF: Siglo Veintiuno.

--. 2009. Cuerpo y cultura: Las musicas mulatasy la subversion delbaile. Madrid: Iberoamericana.

Turino, Thomas. 2000. Nationalists, Cosmopolitans, and PopularMusic in Zimbabwe. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.