Essential reading for those interested in Latin American music and dance—and an intellectual feast for those concerned with processes of cultural hybridization and appropriation—Chasteen’s book is an enticing read: accessible, very well informed, and original. Its central thesis is that, in the diasporic networks of the black Atlantic, African hip-swinging met European couple dancing to produce New World dances that were viewed as socially transgressive and licentious, especially by the middle and upper strata of New World and European societies. Chasteen further speculates that Africans, too, would have found it licentious (p. 197).
These hybrid dances emerged early in the colonial encounter, and later some (despite initial middle-class disapproval) became national rhythms. Chasteen focuses on Brazilian maxixe and samba, Argentinean milonga and tango, and Cuban danzón. He explores them in Rio, Buenos Aires, and Havana in the late nineteenth century, delving into the history of carnival, theater, and black cabildos...
