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Cuban-style Salsa: Intersections of Tourism-led Entrepreneurship and Dancing Personal Development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 February 2025

Ruxandra Ana Open the ORCID record for Ruxandra Ana [Opens in a new window]
Ruxandra Ana*
Affiliation:
University of Łódź, Poland
*
[email protected]
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Abstract

This article is an anthropological exploration of the role of dance in tourism-led entrepreneurship and tourism-led mobilities in Cuba. Based on ethnographic research and employing an autoethnographic lens, the article examines the imaginaries and gendered performances of Cubanness that play out in touristic settings as part of dance trips organized on the island for international tourists. Women are the main target audience for these dance programs, which oftentimes reveal the reproduction of racial stereotypes that contributed to the growing popularity of Cuba as a tourist destination. Dance teachers come to establish a broad spectrum of relations that are influenced by inequalities of resources and unequal access to mobility, since it is the (usually) white European and North American dancing tourists who take up space as central dancing figures, co-creating the cultural script that fetishizes Cuban Black bodies, especially in settings such as salsa schools or popular dance venues.

Keywords

Cubasalsadance tourismdance schoolsdance teachingheritagegenderlabor
Type
Article
Information
Dance Research Journal , Volume 56 , Issue 1 , April 2024 , pp. 5 - 19
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Dance Studies Association

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