Promotion of Cuban Traditional Popular Dances to High School Students

Abstract

Traditional popular culture and all its components play an important role in the comprehensive general education of the new generations. This article exposes the results of research aimed at promoting the popular traditional Cuban dances <i>Cha Cha chá</i>, <i>Pilón</i>, and <i>Mozambique </i>, among the 8th-grade students of the Conrado Benítez Mixed Center, in Cifuentes, in Cuba. The diagnostic study carried out found insufficient knowledge, in said schoolchildren, about traditional Cuban popular dances. The empirical methods used in the research were: document analysis, participant observation, surveys, interviews, and group techniques. The diagnosis of needs prepared and its analysis allowed the design and development of workshops aimed at the objective of the study. Which had as fundamental characteristics that they were in correspondence to the age of the schoolchildren, stimulated the practice of the proposed dances, and, above all, that motivated the taste for them Its evaluation validated the effectiveness of the developed workshop system for the promotion of traditional dances. The results achieved confirm the need to revitalize and promote traditional popular culture in the comprehensive education of Cuban children, adolescents, and youth. Based on this need, the use of didactic means allowed the acquisition and implementation of the knowledge achieved, by the students, in participatory events of the school and the surrounding community.