The Rumba you know ( Square or Intern.style ) has its roots in Cuban Son( this is a dance and also a specific style of music ).
Out of this came Danzon , the forerunner of Sq. Rumba. In addition, Bolero was a much slower form of the Guaracha style of dance.. more lyrical and romantic.
The americans " "anglicised " the danzon and gauaracha forms to a more suitable social level .
The Intern. style that we see today, was an import by Pierre in the late 40s. He used the format from Bolero and changed the " break" ( on 3 of bolero) to "2" of the bar for the "new" style of open Rumba, as opposed to the Square .
All these forms are still being danced and taught in various parts of the world.
I,ve written several articles at length on dance evolution in the Latin genre. Most of them are based around Salsa ( thats the current trend )
I have 2 posted on Salsa Central ( just type that ,and the site will come up ), and there are 5 more being published on a new site out of Holland.. OnlineSalsa.com
If you are really interested in Cuban music ( thats what the dances are based upon ) then you may want to invest in some authentic Cuban style CDs..If yes, I can reccommend some .
What Ive written is a very superficial background..some of my articles go much deeeper into origins ( back to the 1500s )
