Rhumba, also known as
ballroom rumba, is a genre of ballroom music and
dance that appeared in the
East Coast of the United States during the 1930s. It combined American
big band music with Afro-Cuban rhythms, primarily the
son cubano, but also
conga and
rumba. Taking its name from the latter, ballroom rumba differs completely from Cuban rumba both in its music and dance. Hence, authors prefer the Americanized spelling of the word (
rhumba) to distinguish between them.