Rumba hit the ice in 1938, in the process acquiring an "H" in its name that binds it quite closely to its time and context. Name notwithstanding, this r(h)umba shouldn't be confused with the later-established International and American ballroom forms, and the pattern might, in its own way, be the purest legacy existing of the style's first introduction to American and European society. This first wave came not through exposure to the actual Afro-Cuban dance (which is a very different entity), but popular new Cuban music -- and, at that, in possible error, with hit song's "El Manisero (The Peanut Vendor)" identified to its American audiences as a rumba rather than a son. The dance that subsequently emerged may have been characterized by a certain style of music and movement, but what it was not bound by was tempo. The possibility for an upbeat rumba, while anathema to its subsequent ballroom development, was actually preserved in its compulsory dance counterpart, with its 176 bpm tempo requirement a rather startling contrast to International rumba's range of around 96-112 or even the faster-paced American's of 120-144.
So what was created by Walter Gregory in London lived on through a standard compulsory pattern, demonstrated here by Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon:
Despite the couple's chemistry, the dance by its general nature is peppy and fairly devoid of the lusty tensions and conflicts by which both ballroom and Afro-Cuban form of the dance are characterized, to say nothing of its choreographic questionability. It has little to do with the dance outlined here, and certainly juxtaposing it against this example of a basic rumba from Franco Formica and Oxana Lebedew does little to justify the pattern's name:
But while ice dance may have liked its r(h)umba kicky and killian-heavy, the ballroom would take the greater share of influence in later years.
Much discussion of on-ice rumba zeroes in upon a program some expected to become the pattern for a revised take on the compulsory: Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean's "Historia de un Amor" original dance, one of the vehicles of their 1994 Olympic comeback:
This piece is closer to a recognizable rumba than any compulsory pattern, but there's enough that's very much bound to the competitive ice. Most notably, the frequent closed holds, typically emblematic of a faithful recreation of ballroom, unusually here run somewhat counter to rumba's more open holds and separations. Certain choreographic flourishes, like the knee bends from 1:22-1:26, while well-suited to the music, don't contribute strongly to the rumba flavor and would serve equally well in any dramatic piece. For the limitations imposed on it, though, this program does convey direct Latin movement where it can. The hip sway is immediately noticed and present throughout, and the turns are a familiar touch, as is the somewhat languid pot-stirrer at 2:53. There are obvious injections of Latin passion with moments at 1:18 and 1:38. It is, overall, more of an ice dance rumba -- one much more familiar than the compulsory version -- than a rumba on ice, but its style is certainly drawn from its source dance.
The rumba returned to the original dance in 1999-00 and 2005-06, though in both cases in required combination with at least one additional (faster) Latin rhythm. Such a rule makes it trickier to scout out lengthy-enough examples of the style's further on-ice development, but a few can be spotted, and reflect a gradually growing influence from ballroom. The 1999-00 OD from Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas -- scored in part, incidentally, to "Historia de un Amor" -- includes an authentic leg-wrap; Dubreuil and Lauzon's 2005-06 salsa/rumba combo must grapple with the inclusion of quite a few more required elements than the previous examples necessitated, but does incorporate a lot of rumba-esque flourish into its slow section.
But even as the feeling of an International ballroom rumba intensified, the choreographic division between that made for the ice and that for the floor certainly remained. Take a careful look, for example, at this 2010 exhibition performance from the high-profile if short-lived coupling of ballroom champion Slavik Krylklyvy and Anna Melnikova:
While there's much here to take into consideration, a few movements worth noting upfront are the opening pose at 0:52 and the rotational lift at 1:04, as well as the in-hold side-by-side work beginning at 3:01. There's also a fairly spectacular pot-stirrer at 3:47 which points up the possibly surprising fact that certain rotational footwork seems destined to be more smoothly executed on floor than ice. Overall, while rumbas designed for exhibition can take on a variety of elements and tricks while remaining in the simple framework of tempo, attitude, and general quality of movement, this particular piece presents a nice choreographic selection -- and is also one of the more-viewed strictly ballroom examples on YouTube.
When the rhumba was revived as the source pattern for the 2011-12 short dance, the vast majority of teams elected to pair it with the samba or another of the recommended quicker rhythms. And one team, working with choreographer Romain Haguenauer, went a very different route, choosing instead to highlight the rumba of the rhumba:
Any actual choreographic inspiration behind Alexandra Paul and Mitch Islam's program is unknown, but watching in conjunction with the above sample is interesting. The style is, like previous goes at rumba, designed to echo that of the floor, but certain elements are more striking than others. The rotational move at 1:44 is the most obvious derivation; the brief pot-stirrer at 2:20 and leg-wrap at 0:53 are slightly more general callbacks to ballroom Latin as seen in the other ice dance programs, much as particular moments in the no-touch step sequence, like the arm motions from 2:58-2:59 and hip and shoulder sway at about 3:04, are also suggestive. The quick flip lift at 3:27, though imperfect, can in ballroom context perhaps be considered a very simplified take on something like the movement at 1:20 in Slavik and Anna's dance. In this same context, even Paul and Islam's straight-line lift at 1:23 -- a particular element of the team's carried through several programs and dance genres over the seasons -- echoes just a little something along the lines of 4:21-4:23 in Slavik and Anna's performance. There's also a bit more in the general way of rumba movement here: the transition to the quicker "Havana Slide" -- less pure rumba than the 2046 Theme of the program's first half -- provides an opportunity for a few seconds of side-by-side in-hold "walking" movement.
Paul's costuming also, incidentally, seems a particularly rumba-inspired choice here.
R(h)umba's history on the ice is both long and relatively challenged. But development certainly points to a growing effort to blend the recognizable components of ballroom work with ice dance's restrictions. A true rumba can not be replicated, but the attempts to honor it more fully can provide a basis for more thorough experimentation in future. And by 2020, perhaps some revolutionary team will even sustain a high-speed pot-stirrer for three seconds or more.
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