Teaching via La Rueda

[Medira]

Hehe! That sounds like the way things go at the Canada Salsa Congress - usually on carpet for me.

I'm actually back home visiting this week and thinking about getting out for a night of salsa, even though I forgot my shoes. Where are the best places to go these days?

[cdnsalsanut]

Hi

I didn't catch that earlier post, sorry.  If you're still here in Canada, the salsa congress is on at the Sheraton center.  Or check out

tosalsa.com  clubs by day.  I like acrobat on Fridays...

Best regardes

[samina]

This thread hits home for me. I am in Florida, where casino-style salsa is popular. Meanwhile, my training in salsa is to dance in the "slot", and when I've encountered cuban salseros I've tended to become puzzled and...bored. I'm always waiting for them to "do something" with me and to send me down the track, but that space never opens up and "nothing much ever happens".

After taking a casino rueda class and then dancing with a couple casino-style salseros who took the time to explain some things, I'm understanding more about the difference. And learned that the one-on-one dancing done casino style is actually comprised of the moves/calls one learns in rueda. So...teaching rueda *is* an effective way to teach salsa, but it's casino-style (Cuban) salsa, danced on a curve, not the "slot" or "track" styles danced on1 ands on2 in NY/NJ/LA.

The casino style one-one-one *does* feel more intimate ands "groovy", less athletic, more into the pleasure of just "a man and a woman dancing".

Two days ago, I did not know this or see it this way.

[dlgodud]

One more thing with Rueda is I think you don't need to worry about paring with a person. When I tried a few years ago, we kept rotating so we did not necessary need a partner to dance with. It was fun indeed. 

[samina]

You're right, dudley.

I think it's such a great party dance...what a fun thing to do with a group. My thought at the end of the class that raced from beginner into intermediate instruction was..."More people should know about this!:

[cdnsalsanut]

I was out dancing salsa tonight at a place called 6 degrees here in Toronto.

A small group, two couples, were dancing rueda and they burned the floor. It was just too cool for school, at the end of a rather lengthy song (live band) people actually applauded, which is quite unusual because there are many good salsero's in this place. But they really rocked and it just looked like so much fun.

But I know that to dance this way, this seemlessly and well, takes tons of practice and repetition. This group had obviously been dancing together a long while. I must say I loved it. Not only were the moved quite basic but the way they moved their bodies was just lovely and it seemed built into the moves they were doing.

There is a wonderful set of dvd's I followed when i first learned to dance salsa called "quick and dirty guide to salsa". I highly recommend it to anyone interested in rueda.

[samina]

I'll check those DVDs out, thanks salsanut.

I found watching the instructors rehearse their rueda just *mesmerizng*. Really quite a sight!