Salsa Rueda

In my quest to learn something new everyday (no matter how small) last night I went to my first Salsa Rueda class. I'd never seen nor heard of Salsa Rueda, and to be honest my salsa sucks, but I've gotten past my fear of making a fool of myself.

Oh my god, did I have fun.

The best way to describe Rueda is "square dance salsa" where multiple couples (from 2 to dozens) dance in a circle and exchange partners according to prescribed moves called out by a caller. It originated in Cuba is also called Cuban salsa - more info on Wikipedia of course.

We only learned 5 simple moves last night, but we were exuberant when we got through a whole song. You can imagine what might happen when just one person misses a call or screws up, but in our case it was hilarious. There are hundreds of calls. For a giggle, take a look at this list. One of my favorites is "muerdela! - enchufla (turn) then bite her hand as you leave!" Sort of a kinky Simon Says for adults.

Here's a fun video (image above is from the video, not my class!) for those of you who've never seen Salsa Rueda. While this is competition level and looks tightly choreographed, somewhere in there is a caller signaling what comes next. I didn't catch any biting though.

Dame otra!