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La Rueda de Casino - The History

Rueda de Casino is a style of salsa dancing that was created in Cuba many years ago. It is a dance for two or more couples, with one leader who calls out different movements or steps. When there are more than two couples, the dance is done in Rueda (circle shape). This kind of dance is excellent for creating a social environment amongst dancers or the people watching, it is also a lot of fun!

To find the origins of Rueda de Casino we need to journey back in time.  In the XVIII century in Cuba, one style of dance, with European origins took it's place in all the dance halls. It was called Contradanza and is another type of group dance, with several couples dancing directed by one caller called a Bastonero.

With all the fusions and mixes that the culture had been exposed to, Contradanza was also influenced by all the other immigrant cultures in Cuba of that time and at the same time, the creation of other Cuban rhythms, like Son, Danzon, Danzonete, Mambo, Cha cha cha, and Rumba created the foundation of the Casino style. Later, the Rueda de Casino appeared, showing the character of the Cuban people.

The name, Rueda de Casino has its own history. After 1959, the Government closed all Gambling Casinos and some of them reopened as dance halls. People kept calling the dance halls casinos and as a result the type of dancing done there was called Casino. The most popular place of it's time was 'Casino de la Playa' and a man called Rosendo who made his name by becoming the caller of the steps there. When this club was also closed, through it's growing popularity the dance fanned out to many other clubs like Patricio Lumunba, Rio Crystal the Nautico and many more and callers like Eloso and Juanito became household names by controlling the different groups of people at the different clubs.  This style of dance had now become part of the Cuban identity.

In the 1980's, a couple named Rosendo y Caruca, choreographers and dancers of the National TV Ballet in Cuba, brought the Casino style and Rueda to the big stage of dance, on the TV program 'Para Bailar'. Since then, Rueda has been danced all around the world. 

Now when you travel to different countries, you will find many variations and different moves introduced from all over the world.  Also the new generation of Cubans bring their style along with changing music. In Cuba they have formed an association 'La Fundabores' for the original dancers of the Rueda de Casino where they still dance and protect all the original steps danced at the Casino de la Playa all those years ago.