¡Rueda de Casino!

What is Rueda de Casino?

Rueda de Casino ['rweda de ka'sino] noun 1 A form of Casino (known as salsa dance outside of Cuba) danced by a group of dancers forming a round (rueda is spanish for wheel). The dancers move synchronously on the commando of the cantantes. The figures often involve partner-changes and can give rise to beautiful and complex choreographies. Casino and Rueda de Casino were first danced in Cuba in mid-20th century and are the roots of all different salsa dancing styles one can see around the world.

The name Casino probably comes from the gambling halls which closed after the cuban Revolution in 1959. Some of them reopened as dancing halls, and people continued to call them Casinos. Since the fifties, Rueda de Casino has probably lost popularity in Cuba. But the last years it is experiencing a come-back, partly and paradoxically due to the success Rueda has in the rest of the world. One even can see people dancing ruedas in all different salsa dancing styles. Since a few years, the Cuban Television is showing a very popular show, Para bailar casino, where the best dancers of Cuba meet and compete to determine the best Casineros and Rueda de Casino. In 2006, this competition has been won by Casino.com a dance formation from Santiago de Cuba, directed by Yanek Revilla. For a short demonstration of what Casino and Rueda looks like when it is performed by some of the best Casineros of Cuba, click on the links below.

Now don't be afraid, our ruedas look more like this:

In a Rueda de Casino, one of the dancers, the cantante, yells out the figures the dancers have to do on the next musical cycles. Of course this supposes that the dancers know the figure the cantante is referring to. This is not always an easy thing, first one forgets figures, and second different groups of dancers use different names for the figures. There is some kind of standard for the basic figures, like Dame, Enchufala, etc., but the standardisation does not go very far. A list of figures that we dance in Ahinama's classes can be found here.

As can be seen on the video above there are a lot of partner changes in a Rueda, combined with beautiful and complex figures. Besides from giving great fun, this helps the dancers to be able to dance with just any partner. Of course everything that is done in a Rueda can be done by a couple alone without any commandoes. If you are interested in Cuban Salsa and Rueda de Casino, check out our salsa classes page. These classes take place every thursday in Luxembourg.

For more information on different dance styles take a look at these web pages: