On Son Timing (Part 1)
watch the clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsUB66i_bsw

General

• first header "a lesson", the featured dancers are students of the Performing Arts, classically trained but with little inherent knowledge of dancing Son i.e. not all Cubans can dance Son
• they have very good control over their bodies and know how to effect a borad range of movements
• they find understanding clave easy, possibly because of their training, and just as likely because they have been culturally immersed in it
• some of the body-isolation exercises they use in the warm-up, we have covered already
• second header "in the beginning was the feet" is a rhythmic practice to 3-2 Son clave using a variation of the pedalling exercise (the practice of champions!)
• third header "now we play the Cuban clave" implies only one kind of clave in Cuba which is not accurate, as we have discussed
• the instructor has the son clave naturalised i.e. he doesn't need to think about it and speaks freely while playing. The students on the other hand, do not (love the funky chicken)
• he calls for an accent on the last beat of the 3-side (called the 'ponche' or punch), hence the wobbly graphic of the number 3
• fourth header "a little example" the music added post-filming has not been fully synched
• they use a latin basic without a side step which is not the traditional basic
• typical understated/elegant hold
• joint cascade through the body
• the female's dance height is a shade high despite the hip action (compare with the teacher) probably due to contemporary/ballet training, therefore the hip action must be partially forced
• the lead contact is directed through the palm on the follower's back
• also as mentioned in class, the teacher's movement of the elbows comes as an extension of the whole body cascade. Later you will see that some of the students force the arm action
• notice how he marks time twice onto his left leg (the movement motif he uses is derived from the danzón)
• fifth header "the torso" (love the bitchy look too), the student energises the torso through tiliting and upward movement from the base of shoulder-blades (the pointy movement of shoulders are the giveaway). Compare that with the horizontal displacement we covered in our body isolation briefing: the chap in the black and orange top has the best action of the students
• sixth header "another example" here you can see the student couple forcing the arm action, as their elbows travel early out of sequence with their body cascade
• seventh header "the hold" occurs as we discussed
• eighth header "the example" the timing is incorrectly synchronised: the sidestep should occur on the clave ponche (beats 4 and 8), but if you listen to the clave in the music and watch the student in blue playing clave, you'll find that they're not aligned

Miscellaneous

• EGREM is the state-owned music recording facility and label
• the instructor/maestro is dressed in all-white, a culturally significant colour (of the Orisha Obatalá) implying virtuosity
• a well filmed but let down by the sound synchronisation; a particularly heinous crime in this context as a dance video
• remember, these are performing arts students and not full-fledged Son dancers.

Loo Yeo