About Salsa Rueda
By Julio Montero

Rueda is a variant of Cuban Salsa that has become increasingly popular in Vancouver. The 'circle dance', as many people call it, is nothing but an adaptation of Cuban style one-on-one dancing to a circle format, so that the dancers can constantly exchange partners, allowing for an array of fun moves to be performed as a group. The actual name of Salsa Rueda is "Rueda de Casino", and it's a way of dancing Salsa only found in Cuban style.

Rueda is pretty much a game. A leader calls out certain moves that have to be executed by everybody else right after his/her command. The leader can run the show in such a way as to make the Rueda a super exciting and thrilling collective dance experience. This is precisely the greatest value of this dance form: it offers us the possibility of having fun together, as a group, playing and laughing, but doing our best to make it right!

A Rueda is an open invitation for everyone to join. You don't need to be an expert - as long as you know a few moves you'll be fine. If you've never danced Rueda before, it would be advisable to take some lessons, but you can take for granted you will never be frowned upon for having joined a Rueda spontaneously. This dance form is all about collective bonding, equality, unity and joy.

For more information about Rueda, contact Julio at 778-995-1719 or by email at eljabaito[at]yahoo.com