Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part III of a three part pancocojams series on Conga music, Conga troupes (comparsas) and the Conga line (dance).
This post provides an excerpt from an online article about the history of the conga line dance and showcases five YouTube videos of Conga lines outside of Cuba. Selected comments from some the discussion thread for some of these videos are included in this post.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2019/05/three-wikipedia-article-excerpts-about.html for Part I of this series. Part I presents an excerpt from a Wikipedia articles about Santiago de Cuba. This pancocojams post also presents excerpts from a Wikipedia article about Conga music and about the annual Carnival of Santiago de Cuba.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2019/05/information-about-history-of-conga.html for Part II of this series. Part II provides an excerpt from an online article about the history of the conga dance. That pancocojams post also showcases seven YouTube videos of Cuban Conga troupes (comparsas).
The content of this post is presented for historical and cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post. Thanks also to all those who are featured in these videos and thanks to the publishers of these videos on YouTube.
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ARTICLE EXCERPT ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE CONGA LINE DANCE
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conga_line
"The conga line is a novelty line dance that was derived from the Cuban carnival dance of the same name and became popular in the US in the 1930s and 1950s. The dancers form a long, processing line, which would usually turn into a circle. It has three shuffle steps on the beat, followed by a kick that is slightly ahead of the fourth beat. The conga, a term sometimes mistakenly believed to be derived from the African region of Congo, is both a lyrical and danceable genre, rooted in the music of carnival troupes or comparsas.[1]
[...]
Description
The conga dance style is more of a march, which is characterized by its distinctive conga drum rhythm. It differs from the Cuban rumba, which uses more hip movements and shows the sensually aggressive attitude of each dancer. Conga music is played with a staccato beat as its base, which gives rhythm to the movements of the dancers. Conga dancers lift their legs in time with the rhythm of the music, marking each beat with the strong motion of their body.
The basic dance steps start from left leg 1-2-3 kick then repeat, opposite. Originally, a band member wearing a drum would venture onto the dance floor and begin zig-zagging around while drumming out the rhythm. Dancers would start joining up behind the drummer, forming a line that moved like a slithering snake in an open circle. The line (or the circular chain) would grow longer and the drumming more intense until it finally stopped. The dance has two styles, which is a single line form and partners. The single line is more popular in Cuba.[2]
[...]
Beginning in the late 1930s and booming in the 1940s, it became wildly popular in the US, due in no small measure to Hollywood's "Latin" musicals.[1] RKO Pictures' offerings were particularly influential, notably Too Many Girls (1940), in which Desi Arnaz appeared as a conga-playing Argentine student.[1] Spanish-Catalan bandleader Xavier Cugat, who gave Arnaz his musical start, helped to popularize the dance, but the biggest impact belonged to Arnaz himself.[1] It is prominently featured in the 1941 Deanna Durbin film, It Started With Eve, in which Durbin and Charles Laughton dance it together in a nightclub.
With its simple march step, the interlinking of dancers circling about in single file, and one-two-three-bump rhythm with the fourth beat strongly marked, the dance was not only attractive but also readily accessible to US and other foreign audiences. The dance started to gain a foothold in the US around 1929, when the original La Conga nightclub opened its doors in Manhattan. It is believed that the La Conga was at Broadway and 51st Street.[2] By 1937, the conga was well known in New York.
The widespread popularity of the dance resulted in many cultural references in contemporary media. For example, the conga line was a recurring theme in Warner Bros. animated cartoons of the 1940s.
This music and dance form has become totally assimilated into Cuba's musical heritage and has been used in many film soundtracks in the US and Mexico.[3] One of the earliest and most successful of 20th-century Cuban musical exports, the conga lacked the polyrhythmic sophistication of the son, mambo, or salsa but served to nurture the future receptivity of an international public to the wider gamut of Cuban musical styles.[1]"
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SHOWCASE VIDEOS
Video #1: Desi Arnaz Conga
Kelime, Published on Aug 28, 2012
From the RKO movie "Too Many Girls"
-snip-
Here are two comments from this video's discussion thread, with numbers added for referencing purposes only:
1. hebneh, 2015
"I thought I spotted Lucy in the crowd at the very start of this clip, but then I thought - no, I'm just thinking that's her because she was married to Desi. But the shot near the end shows she really IS there, ironically.
I assume this musical number occurred because the Conga was a big fad in the USA in 1939-1940. But it's an odd mix of Cuban music, a college pep rally (with Desi dressed incongruously in a football uniform) and a western setting that presumably is supposed to be someplace like Arizona."
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REPLY
2. my2cents2u, 2016
"This is where they met (she was 29, he was 23), resulting in a whirlwind romance and marriage. Desi was actually hugely responsible for the conga craze. You're close on the location - it's set in New Mexico."
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Video #2: conga line military circa 1940's
Sonny Watson, Published on Dec 10, 2012
Conga Dancers strut their stuff at a military dance.
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Video #3: Gloria Estefan - Conga (from Live and Unwrapped)
Gloria Estefan, Published on Sep 10, 2013
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Video #4: Weekend at Bernie's 2 The Conga Line
The Red Devil, Published on Nov 11, 2015
Weekend at Bernie's [movie] 2 - The Conga Line Scene
-snip-
Here are two comments from this video's discussion thread, with numbers added for referencing purposes only:
1. bizarroeddie1, 2015
"name of the song, please. can't find it anywhere."
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REPLY
2. MattsYT, 2015
"+bizarroeddie1 Momma let go"
-snip-
Another commenter referred to "Momma Let Go" as a Reggae song.
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Video #5: Cuban Conga Line
Mike Sipe, Published on Jun 2, 2016
The conga line is a novelty dance that was derived from the Cuban carnival dance of the same name and became popular in the US in the 1930s and 1950s.
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This concludes Part III of this pancocojams series.
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