Cuban Casino Style Salsa
- Nowadays people refer to the music as “salsa” and the dance as “casino”. In Cuba, dancers used to get together in large halls, called ‘Casinos’, hence the name. Some say it started in Santiago de Cuba, others say it started in the famed Casino Deportivo in Havana or the Casino de la Playa.
- Cuban-style salsa, also known as Casino, is popular in many places around the world, including in Europe, Latin America, North America, and even in some countries in the Middle East such as Israel. Dancing Casino is an expression of popular social culture; Latin Americans consider casino as part of social and cultural activities centering.
Over the holidays I had been teaching private Cuban Salsa lessons to a NYLA trained follow. At our local Salsa dance club here in Edmonton called On The Rocks, the Cuban leads are more numerous than NYLA leads and my student was having trouble following Cuban leads. By having to clearly delineate between the two for my student, it became clearer what the differences are and it comes down to four things:
'Cuban Style Salsa' is a name that foreigners outside of Cuba decided to put to try to define the dance, since they couldn't tell what it was. The Dance 'Casino' has always been a style of Son. In Cuba, a popular dance known as Casino was marketed abroad as Cuban-style salsa or Salsa Cubana to distinguish it from other salsa styles when the name was popularized in the 1970s. Salsa is a Latin dance associated with the music genre of the same name which originated in the 1960s in New York City. Salsa is an amalgamation of Puerto Rican, Dominican and Cuban dances that were popular in the ballrooms and nightclubs of San Juan and la Havana by the end of the 1950s (e.g. 'casino', mambo and pachanga), as well as American jazz dances.
- Circles – Cuban salsa dancing is about moving your follow around in circles. For example, Setenta starts with the lead and follow trading places, and unlike NYLA, the follow ends facing perpendicular to the NYLA “line”. From a follow’s perspective the difficulty is that the entire first eight count to Setenta means walking out a circle. On 1,2,3, the follow turns to the right and gets into the hammer lock and on 5,6,7 the lead, pushing the follow’s hip, moves them around until they have switched positions. In Rueda de Casino, the follow needs to walk such that they are down stream and face the lead so that the following enchuflas allow the lead to end up on the right side for Guapea. However, in social Cuban dancing, the lead may take the follow around three-quarters of a circle or more, over multiple eight counts, before undoing the hammer lock. That pull on the hip to start the follow walking around is what strictly NYLA dancers misinterpret as a lead to unravel the hammer lock. Which leads me to:
- Step out the turns – NYLA dancers love nothing better then to run through a triple spin on 5,6,7 where as Cuban dancers take it slower and with accentuated hip motion, walk out a single turn. The typical problem beginner NYLA dancers face learning Cuban is that they turn much too fast and without knowing where the next “one” of 1,2,3 is, end up out of sync.
- Prep on seven – The basic NYLA prep is a downward rotation with the follow’s right hand and happens on 1,2,3 but the Cuban prep is on 7 with the follow’s hand going their left. NYLA dancers expect to “follow the hand” and step to the left on one instead of preparing to turn on 1,2,3. For a beginner NYLA dancer learning Cuban, that misstep means they get out of sync.
- The “Slot” – “Neutral Position” or “the pocket”. This is where the follow ends up on the right side of the lead, unlike NYLA, where the follow is either in front of or behind the lead. The “Pocket” is where Cubans start all sorts of moves, from Dile que no to Sacalas to Pasealas. It is also the position that Cuban follows should end up when doing a vascilala, e.g. where they are prepped on seven and then turn in place as walk around to the right.
- Body motion – NYLA follows are about flowing arms and hands with accentuated flourishes. Cuban follows are about continuous figure eights with the hips, two per eight count.
Agree? Disagree? Let me know in the comments below.
Although a fairly common ability, I have danced both NYLA and Cuban for years now and like them both. What is more uncommon is that I also have training as a follow in both NYLA and Cuban.
Sean.
Click here to email me.I took my first Rueda de Casino class in Mexico City in the summer of 2011. I signed up for it because it was the closest dance studio to my apartment, and I had no idea that Cuban salsa was different from New York salsa or the salsa that I had danced at small, crowded clubs in Central America and Peru. That fall, I spent the semester studying at the University of Havana. In Havana, I took private classes and tried to go out casino dancing as much as possible.
Cuban Salsa Youtube
I quickly became hooked.
Cuban salsa or casino is a type of salsa that was developed in recreation center of Havana in the 1950s. A group of young people decided to create their own type of salsa, with specific moves danced in partners in a large circle, or a rueda.
Casino dancing rotates along two circular axes. Between partners, Cuban salsa is not danced in a back-and-forth motion like most forms of salsa, but rather in an endless circle, with partners twirling and stepping around one another in a merry-go-round fashion.
In addition, Cuban salsa’s most famous form is the rueda de casino. Rueda is a synchronized, improvised couples’ dance, similar to a square dance from the US South. One person chooses to be the caller, and yells out moves that are well-known to the rest of the group. Women are passed along the circle from partner to partner following the cue of Dame! (Give me!).
The beauty of Cuban salsa is that you can jump in to a group of ten dancers, all from different countries, none of whom you know, and together, instantly create a beautiful, synchronized dance choreography.
No matter what city I am in, I dance Cuban salsa. In New York City, I joined an extensive community of Rueda enthusiasts, who organized outdoor dancing events in Central Park and even an annual, day-long “Ruedathon” with flash mobs at 26 spots across the city. In Washington DC, the DC Casineros danced on the Lincoln Memorial steps, and at Dupont Circle. The yearly San Francisco Rueda festival is the largest of its kind in the US, and brings together dancers from across the country and even across the world.
In recent years, Cuban salsa has become a worldwide craze. Friends and fellow dancers fly to Tokyo, Medellin, Paris, Stockholm, and, of course, Havana for rueda conferences and festivals. However, I greatly believe that the lure of Cuban salsa lies in so many reasons beyond just the beauty of the dance.
Cuban salsa creates some of the best examples of healthy communities: groups of people who learn, move, laugh, and grow together. It creates spontaneity, encourages creativity, and gets all of us moving. Whenever I meet dancers who are part of a Cuban salsa community in their city, I am surprised by how closely their reasons for loving Cuban salsa and their dance community resemble my own. Cuban salsa dancing lends itself to creating inclusive communities. It is a physical dance, but because it a friend of improvisation and creativity, it does not have strict rules of what can and cannot be done. It is flexible, and doesn’t necessitate strict form or styling. For these reasons, it attracts a wide community of ages, backgrounds, and abilities. The diversity of people that I have met and forged friendships with through Cuban dance has been just as enriching as the dance itself.
Cuban Casino Style Salsa Verde
Dancing is an amazing away to create cross-cultural connections. In Havana, head to the Jardines de 1830 on a Sunday night to see a special performance by Los Fundadores, members of the founding group of dancers who started spinning in circles as teenagers in 1950s Havana. Since then, this community of dancers has been getting together for hundreds of Sundays to show off this glorious dance.
But don’t just watch, get up there and learn. When you get home, find your nearest Cuban salsa community. I am sure that you will quickly find that the joys of Cuban salsa extend far beyond Havana, and far beyond just the dance.
Written by: Miriam Psychas
Miriam Psychas has a B.A. in History and Literature of Latin America from Harvard University, and spent a semester studying Cuban history, literature, and culture at the University of Havana. She was based in Havana for the fall of 2014 and 2015 directing a study abroad program and in 2016, traveled frequently to the island for her work in US-Cuba relations. She is an avid Cuban salsa dancer, and finds a rueda community wherever she goes!