Mambo

The mambo is a Latin dance originating in Cuba that was created in response to the fusion of Swing and Cuban music. Its creation is attributed to Perez Prado who was the first to market his music as “mambo”. He introduced the dance in 1943 at La Tropicana night club in Havana. The dance’s name, “mambo”

means “conversations with the gods”.

Interestingly enough, today what we call the “mambo” is not the original dance Perez Prado came up with. His dance had no specific steps, dancers rather “felt the music” having sound and movement merge within the body. When the dance became popular in the U.S. professional dance teachers thought it too extreme and undisciplined so they standardized it to the ballroom classic it is today.

In Action

This video offers great examples of how some of the U.S. dance professionals could view the mambo as "extreme" (during the solos) and also how they "tamed" the dance into more convenient steps.