The conga line is a Cuba

Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

n carnival

Carnival

Carnaval is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnaval typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party...

 march that was first developed in Cuba and became popular in the United States in the 1930s and 1950s. The dancers form a long, processing line. It has three shuffle steps on the beat, followed by a kick that is slightly ahead of the fourth beat. The conga, a term widely 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.

Origin

Some say the conga dance was created by the African people who were taken from Congo Africa as slaves in Cuba. They started the dance while they were chained together, and it has an important associations with Afro-Cuban

Afro-Cuban

The term Afro-Cuban refers to Cubans of Sub Saharan African ancestry, and to historical or cultural elements in Cuba thought to emanate from this community...

 Santería

Santería

Santería is a syncretic religion of West African and Caribbean origin influenced by Roman Catholic Christianity, also known as Regla de Ocha, La Regla Lucumi, or Lukumi. Its liturgical language, a dialect of Yoruba, is also known as Lucumi....

 religion. Others say the conga dance was not a slave-chain dance, but there was dancing and chanting during Easter when the congas during the festivities followed the processions of the Virgin Mary. The music and dance was also performed originally in carnival processions and African slave celebrations. The conga dance was originally a street dance in Cuba. The style was appropriated by politicians during the early years of republic in an attempt to appeal to the masses before election. During the Machado

Machado

-People:*Alicia Machado, Venezuelan Miss Universe*Staney Machado, RN Podar Physical Education Teacher*Anderson Machado, United States baseball player*Antonio Machado, Spanish poet*Bernardino Machado, Portuguese statesman...

 dictatorships in Cuba, Havana

Havana

Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...

 citizens were forbidden to dance the conga, because rival groups would work themselves to high excitement and explode into street fighting. When Fulgencio Batista

Fulgencio Batista

Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar was the United States-aligned Cuban President, dictator and military leader who served as the leader of Cuba from 1933 to 1944 and from 1952 to 1959, before being overthrown as a result of the Cuban Revolution....

 became president in the 1940s, he permitted people to dance congas during elections, but a police permit was required.

Western popularity

Conga dance was a part of the Congo slaves' religion, but people from the United States during 1930s found the dance interesting, because it was fun and easy to dance to. There was no hustle in trying to learn the dance; just follow the steps of the person in front as it goes along. Beginning in the late 1930s, and intensely in the 1940s, it became wildly popular in the United States, due in no small measure to Hollywood's "Latin" musicals. RKO's offerings were particularly influential, notably Too Many Girls (1940), in which Desi Arnaz

Desi Arnaz

Desi Arnaz was a Cuban-born American musician, actor and television producer. While he gained international renown for leading a Latin music band, the Desi Arnaz Orchestra, he is probably best known for his role as Ricky Ricardo on the American TV series I Love Lucy, starring with Lucille Ball, to...

 appeared as a conga-playing Argentine student. Spanish-Catalan band-leader Xavier Cugat

Xavier Cugat

Xavier Cugat was a Spanish-American bandleader who spent his formative years in Havana, Cuba. A trained violinist and arranger, he was a key personality in the spread of Latin music in United States popular music. He was also a cartoonist and a successful businessman...

, who gave Arnaz his musical start, helped to popularize the dance, but the biggest impact belonged to Arnaz himself. With its simple march step, the interlinking of dancers snaking about in single file, and one-two-three-hump rhythm with the fourth beat strongly marked. The dance was not only attractive, but also readily accessible to United States and other foreign audiences. The other important aspect of the dance that was interesting was the music. The instrument use by musicians and even the rhythm they play was interesting. The dance started to gain some popularity in the United States around 1929 when the original La Conga Nightclub opened its doors. It was believe the La Conga Nightclub was located at Broadway and 51st street in New York. 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.

Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

 animated cartoons of the 1940s.

The conga dance style is more of a march, which is characterized by its distinctive conga drum rhythm. It differs from the rumba

Rumba

Rumba is a family of percussive rhythms, song and dance that originated in Cuba as a combination of the musical traditions of Africans brought to Cuba as slaves and Spanish colonizers. The name derives from the Cuban Spanish word rumbo which means "party" or "spree". It is secular, with no...

, 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 steps start from left leg 1-2-3 kick then repeat, opposite. Originally a band member, wearing a drum and beating would venture onto the dance floor. He would start zigzagging around the floor with his drum and the dancer would start to follow him behind doing the dance like a slithering snake. The line grows and the drums would intensify until the drum just stopped played. The dance has no fancy ending like many other dances do. The dance has two styles, which is a single line form and partners. The single line is more popular in Cuba. However the conga line was done much earlier and was introduced at a wedding Reception (Frieda's) as early as 1905 by the "Gloriosky Old Maids", specifically Prudence Adams.

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

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

. One of the earliest and most successful of twentieth-century Cuban musical exports, the conga lacked the polyrhythmic sophistication of the son

Son (music)

The Son cubano is a style of music that originated in Cuba and gained worldwide popularity in the 1930s. Son combines the structure and elements of Spanish canción and the Spanish guitar with African rhythms and percussion instruments of Bantu and Arará origin...

, mambo, or salsa

Salsa music

Salsa music is a genre of music, generally defined as a modern style of playing Cuban Son, Son Montuno, and Guaracha with touches from other genres of music...

, but served to nurture the future receptivity of an international public to the wider gamut of Cuban musical styles.

Spontaneous Conga Line

A spontaneous conga line is observed when a conga line is formed when the traditional English conga song is not playing.