Rueda Dance Classes

Rueda is the most social of all the Latin dances, with couples swapping and changing partners as everyone all dances together - whether watching or taking part in the dance the Rueda is dynamic and exciting and creates a great atmosphere of fun! 'Rueda' means 'wheel', and in a Rueda dance you have multiple couples all dancing together in a circle (the 'wheel'). This dance can be with as few as 2 couples, or (depending on room space!) as many as hundreds of people all dancing in unison.

As in Salsa, within each couple in the 'wheel' there is a leader (the man) and a follower (the lady), however in order to let everyone know what they are doing in Rueda there is an overall leader, called the 'cantante' or caller. The 'cantante' calls the moves, instructing the men to lead the ladies into each particular move and thus synchronizing all the couples in the Rueda wheel and forming the Rueda dance. Needless to say this dance needs extremely good communication! The dance relies on the 'cantante' calling out the next move, so everyone dancing in the wheel is alert in listening, watching, and responding to the 'caller'. In larger groups and when the music is loud, this caller can also use hand signals to instruct, and members in the group may also pass the instruction around the circle should anyone miss the call!

Rueda de Casino

'Casino' refers to the various moves and turns made by individual couples dancing to the salsa rhythm in the Rueda wheel, each 'Rueda de Casino' move having a name which corresponds to a short pattern of steps leading to dancers swapping their partners. In keeping with the fun nature of the dance, these names are often quite humorous - for example the call 'fly' involves the men clapping their hands together in front of the woman in a fly-catching manner!! Many of the moves are however very graceful and intricate, requiring good dancers and skill, and creating a beautiful, exciting, and awe inspiring dance to be a part of.

History of Rueda

Rueda is usually called 'Rueda de Casino' or 'Casino Rueda', although it is not too clear where this name comes from. However, Rueda originates from Cuba in the late 1950's, where dancers in the 'casinos deportivos' (members only clubs) used to dance to live orchestras and create new dance styles together. In Cuba the oppressive Castro regime of the time shut down gambling casinos, and many opened again as large dancing halls. Some therefore say the name 'casino' developed out of habit, with people continuing to call the dancing halls casinos long after they were shut down. To this day there is much debate regarding where exactly the name Rueda de Casino originates from, 3 most commonly cited places being the 'Santiago de Cuba', 'Casino de la playa', and 'Casino Deportivo Havana' - needless to say wherever the actual origin of this style of dance, it certainly became central to Cuban identity.

Rueda is said to have developed in these dancing casino's through friendly competitions amongst the great dancers in these halls. Each week dancers would practice, and then come together in the casinos to show off new moves. Pretty soon dancers in individual casinos began dancing these moves together and naming them, distinguishing then and making them exclusive, thus further fuelling the competitive edge and exciting development of more and more new and complex Rueda de Casino moves. The 'casino' salsa moves blended together the afro-Caribbean rhythms and dances of the culture, as well as immigrant dance cultural influences in Cuba at the time. One such influential dance is a group dance 'contra dance' which was brought to the island by the French during the 18th century, merging into 'contradanza' in the 19th century with the islands black native cultural influences. The merger of all of these cultural influences and fusions, with Cuban rhythms of 'Danzon', 'Danzonete','Son', 'Guanguanco', 'Mambo', 'cha cha cha' and 'Rumba' thus form the foundation of the Rueda de Casino and makes it an incredible and dynamic dance form.

With the Castro regime and Cuban exiles, the rueda dance form began spreading, and by the 1980's became established in the Miami salsa culture, becoming incredibly popular throughout the 1990's. From there the dance spread throughout America, and today it is a well known dance amongst Latin dancers worldwide - indeed there are now apparently more than 150 Rueda de casino moves!

In terms of style, there are two main styles of Rueda de Casino today, the Cuban style (Rueda de Cuba) which is more social and less formal, and the Miami style (Rueda de Miami) which mixes Cuban and Los Angeles style salsa moves into a more formal rule based Rueda de Casino. Just as the Rueda de Casino was dynamic and changing in the Cuban casinos, with core dance moves as well as moves distinct to different dancers and casinos, today there are also moves basic to all Rueda de Casino dancers, (e.g. 'Dile Que No' (crossbody) and 'dame' ('give me'), as well as moves distinct to different places, groups and teachers (e.g. in Chile a move called 'Entel Chile' imitates someone talking on the phone making fun of the largest phone company in that country!).

Whatever nationality or culture you are from, Rueda de Casino is to be enjoyed by all, and certainly brings with it a lot of laughter and fun. Indeed we dread to think what knots Latin Salsa Dance might get us into should a local 'Edgar Complicado' move develop!