Viva Dance

Rueda? Of course! 

Javiera and David, from Viva dance, are bringing their crazy fun Rueda workshop to Salsa Tumbao 2023. Their energetic classes at Viva are always popular. They bring a sense of fun to their Rueda classes - making the Rueda a game to be played with other dancers.

In class David and Javiera demonstrate the moves and then walk you through them until they seem easy (enough...) They are really welcoming - even when you suddenly shift from follow to lead mid-class. 

Rueda - as we know - is a circle of dancers completing the same moves in unison. A caller will call a move and everyone will start the move on the next appropriate beat. Moves can be danced with the same partner - or may include a partner change - or sometimes two partner changes!

Rueda de Casino means Casino Wheel. One of the original clubs where Rueda was danced was El Club Casino Deportivo. The dancers would initially call their friends to dance in a circle, but that soon became ‘let's dance like they do in the casino’ and later ‘let’s dance a Rueda de Casino.’ 

Did you know that a Rueda can be (almost) any size? When you dance in a Rueda with only two couples, you definitely need to pay attention! 

The largest Rueda ever danced was in Tessaloniki in Greece in 2014. They  gathered 1102 people in a massive outdoor space. There were 5 concentric circles of dancers. The calls were communicated using a microphone and the dancers set a Guinness World Record. The video is amazing!

Rueda de Cuba was the original Rueda - which had only 30 calls. Rueda de Miami started in the 1980s in Miami and is a more formal style. It includes moves from Rueda de Cuba and draws on North American dances styles. Moves like Coco-Cola; Dedo and Adios, come from Rueda de Miami.

In 2014 someone organised an international Rueda flashmob. People from 67 countries, and 199 cities danced Rueda de Casino at the same time. 

We found an article called “Salsa Rueda and Mathematics”. A doctor of mathematics uses Rueda to teach mathematics! How cool is that? Her students look at the geometric patterns created during a Rueda move; the statistics of how often a dancer returns to their original partner; and how many times a dancer moves around the circle before they return to that partner and whether that is dependent on the number of dancers involved.
More here: https://www.artofmathematics.org/blogs/cvonrenesse/salsa-rueda-and-mathematics

Have a read through this crazy Wiki setup by a dance company in Edmonton, Canada. It lists (almost) every move you could possibly ever want! https://ruedawiki.org/

Ready to learn some of those moves?

Javiera is from Puerto Montt, Chile. She co-founded Puerto Montt Salsa in 2010. They had over 250 students dancing anything from Cuban Salsa to Tango to Zumba and more.  Javiera moved to Auckland in October 2014, bringing her special brand of contagious fun with her. She is the Events and Social Media Manager at Viva dance.

David is from Chile and has over 20 years experience in Latin dance. He has been actively involved in the NZ dance community since 2015, including participation in dance events, congresses, and competitions, both in New Zealand and Australia. He has managed choreographies for renowned artists from South America. Wow!

Javiera and David teach Rueda and Cuban Salsa (amongst other styles - super talented the pair of them!) at Viva Dance in Newton Road on Tuesday nights from 6.30pm.

Find Viva Dance

On Facebook: www.facebook.com/vivadancenz

Website: www.vivadance.co.nz/

Instagram: www.instagram.com/vivadancestudios/