Noel Hernandez & Partner dancing Cuban Son in a class. No partner needed for beginner class
Son – pronounced as in ‘sawn’ or ‘lawn’. Son is a style of Cuban music and the dance is known by the same name.
Perhaps the most significant contribution of son music and dance is its influence on present day Latin music and dance. Son specifically is considered to be the foundation on which salsa was created. It is slower and gentler than salsa and the steps flow beautifully with the rhythm making it intuitively satisfying to move to within the music.
Thanks to the Buena Vista Social Club album, film, and follow-up solo albums there has been a revival of the traditional son and a rediscovery of older son performers who had often fallen by the wayside. It has introduced the Cuban son to younger generations of people from around the world that had never heard of son.
An important contribution of the son was the introduction of the drum to mainstream music. The increase in popularity of the son unveiled the huge potential of music with Afro-Cuban rhythms. Additionally, genres of the later 1940s such as mambo manifest many characteristics derived from son.
Although the son continues to be a very important musical foundation for all kinds of Latin music it is no longer a popular music genre in Cuba. Younger generations of Cubans prefer the faster, dance-oriented music such as timba or salsa. Older generations continue to preserve the son as one of the music genres they listen to, specifically in Oriente, where they tend to maintain more traditional versions of the son compared to Havana.
In our class you’ll be learning basic steps so you don’t need a partner but son is normally a very beautiful partner dance. Here is a classic example of a son dance. This includes the classic move where one partner walks around while the other spins slowly down to the floor and back up – you need to be bendy for that! Cuban Son Dance
Here is a more showy example from a stage performance Professional Cuban Son.
Noel Hernandez & Yescica Livesey
Tutor: Noel Hernandez
Ullapool welcomes back the OFFICIAL PROFESSIONAL UK SALSA CHAMPION 2010!
Noel is a highly trained professional dancer and choreographer from Remedios, Cuba.
He started dancing at the age of 5 and went on to perform throughout his own country with various dance troupes until he completed his professional teaching degree. He has trained several of Cubas highly acclaimed dancers, including the Cuban National Ballets’ Principal male dancer, Dany Miguel Hernandez Acosta, and has prepared hundreds of youngsters for the School of Performing Arts in Havana. He has also won an array of National Awards for his own dance performances, and for his own dance troupe ‘El Guije’. Noel has studied all types of Popular Cuban Rhythms such as Salsa, Mambo, Cha cha cha, Rumba, Pilon, Mozambique, Son, Danzon, Afro-Cuban Folklore, including Bachata, Reggaeton, Merengue, Samba and Tango. He settled in Inverness in November 2007 and recently moved to Bury, Greater Manchester where he continues to delight new students with his unique style of teaching.
His classes are fun, friendly and without pressure. All we ask you to do is relax and feel the music, and succumb to the Latin Magic!!
