/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/DANCE-MEXICO: Ballrooms Surviving with Older Rhythms, Clientele

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Diego Cevallos

MEXICO CITY, Nov 14 2000 (IPS) - Far from the latest trends, and with a live band and no alcohol, ballrooms in Mexico are surviving, thanks to a faithful, though increasingly older public.

Each week, Tuesday through Sunday, groups of men and women, many dressed in carefully maintained old suits and dresses, white patent leather or tinsel-coloured shoes, and perhaps a hat, get together at the local ballroom to go through their musical rituals.

Ballrooms with names like Califas, Los Angeles, El Colonia and El California welcome dancers who spend hours swaying to the rhythm of ‘danzón,’ cha-cha-cha, rumba, mambo, cumbia, and a bit of salsa.

At times more than 100 couples crowd the dance floors of these halls,á located in the densely populated neighbourhoods of the Mexican capital.

The couples, illuminated by intense neon lights in a broad, open space, enjoying live music and animated by soft drinks, make their dance steps, learned through years of practice or at dance schools.

For younger people, the dancehalls are strange places, as the orchestra plays no modern music, there are no special decorations, or dim lights. What’s more, alcohol consumption is not allowed.

The young, especially those with some money, rarely go to the dancehalls; many considering them places only for “rucos” (the elderly).

And therein lies the uncertainty facing these treasure houses of Mexican culture.

“Modernisation is on the verge of stopping the rhythm” of the ballrooms, says anthropologist Amparo Sevilla, who has conducted research on the phenomenon.

Competing with dozens of nightclubs and other places to dance, the ballrooms have become a rare species, many of which survive only because their obsessed owners spend money out of their own pockets to keep them operating, she said.

For less than five dollars, dancers buy their ticket for the ballroom, where no one stays up all night, though people dance for hours – as long as it is before midnight.

“I love to come, because here nobody bothers me about being alone, a single woman, but it is also safe, and I enjoy dancing to the good music,” said Matilde, a customer at El California.

Joel, 70, a man of great vitality and rhythm, explained that “this type of dancing is a science in itself, because you have to learn how to lead the lady, in order to demonstrate that you can handle any style”.

At El California, it is common to see several couples dancing in synch as they follow the beat of a 12-piece band.

Joel says it was at El California that he met his wife 30 years ago, and that his children, now ages 24 and 28, learned to dance the ‘danzón,’ which originated in Cuba, there.

Now a widower, Joel comes back twice a week to talk with old friends and “move the body a little”. His children, meanwhile, prefer the nightclub scene.

The dancehalls, famous from the 1940s through the 1960s, are places for older people to gather, but there are also some younger people who want to learn how to dance, enjoy the alcohol-free atmosphere and escape the throbbing music of the discotheques, Sevilla explained.

Nevertheless, the newer generations are less and less interested in the older music and the ancient ballrooms.

For many of the customers, going to the ballroom is a form of therapy that helps them forget the economic and romantic frustrations caused by life in the big city and by the passage of time, she added.

Municipal authorities reported that ballroom owners have approached them in recent years to ask for financial support to keep their businesses alive.

Given that they are locales which hold a rich cultural history, the authorities offered to consider some form of backing, but it has yet to be finalised.

Periodically, the dancehalls are rented out for cultural events or for special dances, such as the old system of “fichas” (cards), used now in fundraisers.

The cards are sold, giving the buyer the right to dance one number with some well-known political or artistic figure. In the past, the dance cards were used in some brothels, but were also common in ballrooms.

“If El California or other dancehalls disappear they will take with them the only thing some people enjoy,” commented Joel. “It would be a great loss for the city and for our history.”

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/DANCE-MEXICO: Ballrooms Surviving with Older Rhythms, Clientele

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Diego Cevallos

MEXICO CITY, Nov 14 2000 (IPS) - Far from the latest trends, and with a live band and no alcohol, ballrooms in Mexico are surviving, thanks to a faithful, though increasingly older public.
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