Lyme-Old Lyme Students Get A Feel For The Rhythm of Life in Cuba

A Press Release from Lyme-Old Lyme High School.

On Friday, April 26, Spanish students at the Lyme-Old Lyme High School were immersed in a unique Cuban cultural event that they won’t soon forget. Yesenia Fernandez-Selier and Hunter Houde, co-founders of Global Rhythms-Cuba, presented two sessions on the history of Cuban dance and music that included a combination of lecture, dance instruction and dance performance.  

The lecture was presented in Spanish, challenging the students’ listening and comprehension skills. Students learned about the blending of cultures on the island nation of Cuba throughout its history.

After more than two hundred years of Spanish colonization, the English captured Havana during the eighteenth century and began the cultivation of sugar cane. The demand for labor to operate sugar and tobacco plantations and livestock farms led to the growth of African slavery and eventually to the resulting unique mix of cultures that created Afro-Cuban music and dance.

Students watched films of traditional Cuban folkloric dances and learned the significance of those dances to the people who practice them. To illustrate the development of modern popular dances, students viewed films of Cuban music and dance leading up to the present day with a clip of a Rhumba dance that has elements very similar to modern hip-hop dance.  

After the lecture, students were invited onto the stage for a dance workshop taught in Spanish in which they learned basic Salsa steps and participated in a group conga dance. The energy and enthusiasm on the part of the students motivated the adults to join the dancing and soon everyone in the auditorium was moving to the beat of the music.  

The final portion of the presentation featured traditional dance performances by Hunter and Yesenia. They showed a fine selection of Cuban sacred and secular dances. They performed individually two Orishas, representing the Santeria deities, and two Cuban Rhumbas, Columbia and Guaguanco, that they performed together.  

After the performance, students had an opportunity to ask questions and one hand quickly shot up. “Can we dance some more?”  

Global Rhythms-Cuba is a dance and cultural organization whose mission is to use Afro-Cuban music and dance as a means to bridge the cultural past and present. By offering education about the traditional Afro-Cuban roots of many popular dances, they hope to create a better understanding of the source of inspiration for the music and dance and ultimately a stronger connection between cultures. For more information visit their Website: www.globalrhythmsashe.com