Roland Kavé’s Ruffled Mambo Sleeves
Object Details
- Date
- Between 1950 and 1970
- Medium
- cotton and synthetic fabrics, elastic
- Dimensions
- Measurement of single sleeve (1995.0023.0010a): 19 5/8 × 12 13/16 × 3 3/8 in. (49.9 × 32.5 × 8.5 cm)
- Measurement of single sleeve (1995.0023.0010b): 20 9/16 × 10 3/8 × 2 5/8 in. (52.2 × 26.4 × 6.6 cm)
- Cite As
- Gift of Roland Kavé
- Caption
- These ruffled sleeves shimmy and shimmer on the arms of a mambo dancer. The seven-layered sleeves repeat a pattern of black, gold lamé, and red fabric, with black on both elasticized ends. Mambo emerged from Afro-Cuban jazz in the 1940s and flourished in Mexico City and New York City in the 1950s. Dance leader Roland Kavé (1931-2017) introduced mambo to Washington, DC, donning these sleeves in performance during its peak popularity in the 1950s and 1960s. The native Washingtonian, known as DC’s “Mambo King,” taught hundreds of people to mambo on U Street Corridor dance floors, including the Casbah and the Tropical Room in the Dunbar Hotel.
- Accession Number
- 1995.0023.0010a-b
- Type
- sleeves
- See more items in
- Anacostia Community Museum Collection
- Data Source
- Anacostia Community Museum
- Restrictions & Rights
- CC0
- Metadata Usage
- CC0
- Record ID
- acm_1995.0023.0010a-b
This media is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions). You can copy, modify, and distribute this work without contacting the Smithsonian. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Open Access page.
International media Interoperability Framework
IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more.