Race, Gender, and Class Embodied in Cuban Dance

Abstract

Dance "houses" or embodies physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual information within culturally specific movement sequences. I Although all dances have varied movements, their movements, songs, and rhythms can be analyzed to demonstrate connections between dance and other arenas ofsocial life; this is the charge of dance anthropology. In this paper, I use the anthropological perspective and methodology to discuss what the dance rumba indicates in terms of race, gender, and class in Cuban society.