Cuban Salsa and Rueda de Casino
The objective of my Salsa classes at all levels is to teach the fundamentals of the form - rhythm, body movement, partnering technique, and basic steps – in addition to offering relevant historical and cultural information throughout the workshops to enrich the learning experience for students. In this process, students develop both a wonderful life-long skill, and also an understanding and appreciation of the depth and breadth of Cuban Salsa past and preset.
Among the benefits of learning a social dance form, included are heightened body awareness, improved coordination, greater ease in the body, and the skills to lead and follow a partner. As comfort with the fundamentals grows through practice and participation in class, students will gradually increase their knowledge of turn patterns, footwork sequences, and ultimately develop the confidence to improvise and create. Most importantly, students will deepen their connection to their partners and to the music, expanding the potential for truly joyous and generous social dance experiences.
In an ongoing attempt to honor my teachers and what I believe is the essence of this form, I try to maintain a relaxed and non-competitive atmosphere in class. All are welcome, including those con “dos pies izquierdos”!
Cuban Salsa “Casino” is a style that developed in Cuba from the origins of Son, a social dance born in the eastern region of the island at the crossroads of colonial and Afro-Cuba. Rueda de Casino is a Rueda or “wheel” of partners dancing together in a circle, responding to the calls of the leader while switching partners in fast-paced unison.
In Cuba and Its Music: From the First Drums to the Mambo, Ned Sublette writes:
The genre called son is a Cuban synthesis: Bantu percussion, melodic rhythm, and call-and-response singing, melding with the Spanish peasant’s guitar and language. […] By offering the combination of a modern couple dance with a hip-swaying, clave-conscious African attitude with contemporary lyrics, the son became the basis of what most people think of as Latin dancing today.
Contemporary Cuban Salsa, therefore, in its myriad manifestations in Cuba and around the globe, is a constantly evolving genre rooted in a rich and diverse heritage. Melding the form and function of European social dance with Afro-Cuban groove--both musical and kinesthetic--Cuban Salsa is an open-ended form that accommodates and encourages individual interpretation and expression. Fundamental to this style are the ideas of play, creativity, musicality, and connection: between partners, among dancers in the Rueda, and between dancers and the music.
Afro-Cuban Contemporary Dance
The technique and vocabulary for this class reflects over a decade of study of the African-based dances of Cuba, Ballet, West African, and Contemporary dance, and an ongoing exploration of how these forms speak to each other. Rooted in Yoruba-based dance from Cuba and classical ballet, the technical foundation for this class focuses on the “set-point” between tension and release, and where that point is “felt” in the body in different dance expressions. The interplay between contraction and expansion, gathering energy verses sending it out, explorations of the ways rhythm, time, and space may be understood and felt differently across genres, may all offer insight into how dance embodies multiple ways of being and seeing. Questions that might arise from this process include: what can dance and various cultural forms teach us about each other and ourselves? How static or how fluid are these various body-based perspectives? What are the opportunities and what are the limits around engaging dance forms labeled “traditional,” “popular,” “sacred,” “folkloric,” “classical,” and “modern”? Is it possible to create brand new languages? If so, when, how, who is speaking, and what are the implications?
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