Rueda: The Facts
La Rueda de Casino (Casino Wheel) is Cuban Salsa, which is known as "Casino", danced in a circle or a "wheel".
La Rueda (The Wheel) is danced as a formation team, by a two or more couples dancing in a circle.
When only two couples are involved, it is also known as "two by two" or a "foursome".
Each couple is made up of a leader and a follower, and each leader leads the respective follower in the same way as is usual in salsa partner dancing.
The Rueda is led by a caller who tells the leaders the next move. Each move has a name, usually in Spanish, and moves can vary from simple steps, through basic turns for both leader and follower, up to complex sequences of turn patterns. Rueda moves often involve changing partners, with leaders or followers moving clockwise or anti-clockwise around the circle.
To help in a loud club setting, some Rueda moves have hand signals as well as calls. If someone doesn't hear or recognise a call, the others can relay the message.
The leaders are responsible for controlling the shape and size of the circle, which should expand and contract according to the space needed for individual moves and the distance required to be travelled as partners move around the wheel.
Consideration should also be given to other dancers because La Rueda can take up a lot of room on the dance floor.
Throughout La Rueda, the dancers should stay in step and position, according to the particular move, and in general, take small steps, particularly when stepping back.
In the Casino style of salsa dancing, the partners move relative to each other, moving around each other, swapping positions. So, when the follower moves from, say, the leader's right hand side, in front of the leader, to the leader's left hand side, the leader also moves in the appropriate direction to assist this, in this case, from the follower's left hand side, behind the follower, to the follower's right hand side.
La Rueda de Casino evolved out of the mixture of African and European cultures which influenced music and dance in Cuba. Among the many rhythmic styles that have developed out of this mixture, Son is an influencial ancestor of the Casino style of dancing. Dancing in a group also developed from the diverse cultural backgrounds of the people of Cuba. The reason for naming the dancing style Casino is obscure, but is probably due to the development of the dancing in the dance halls and casinos in Cuba in the middle of the 20th century. Dancing this style in a group, in a circle, came to be known as La Rueda de Casino.
The evolution of the dance continues within Cuba and around the world, where different groups of dancers have altered, varied and extended existing moves and invented new ones.