Wanting to go to Cuba to learn casino pinpoints, for these people who wish to travel to the island, a specific place where one can experience Cuban culture-Cuba. people for whom travel to Cuba is not an easy feat, even as some of the restrictions thaw-highlights a very clear demarcation between what I call in this essay “the places of culture.” That is, where cultures are geographically located. This “going to the source”-or the wishing of it, as is the case for many U.S. The trip to Cuba-learning from Cubans in the island-for many, is an imperative. Indeed, even as people start dancing at a dance academy somewhere in, say Poland, France, or Japan, eventually traveling to Cuba and experiencing the dance with the people who developed it becomes part of the dance experience. It makes sense: if you set out to learn a Cuban dance like casino, Cubans would logically be your points of reference and role models the people you eventually want to look like when dancing casino. Many non-Cuban casineros would consider the praise, “You dance like a Cuban” to be the pinnacle of their Cuban dance trajectory.
Recommended reading: The Fallacy of Learning to Dance Casino ‘the Cuban Way’
