Rueda de Casino & Rueda Café (EN)

What's Rueda ?

Rueda de Casino (also called Rueda, Casino Rueda or Salsa Rueda) is a particular type of salsa dancing whereby all participating dance couples form and move in a circle. The dance moves all have names and are called out by one person, a caller (or "líder" or "cantante"). Many moves - a least the basic ones - also  have hand signs to complement the calls; these are useful in noisy venues, where spoken calls might not be easily heard. Many moves involve the swapping of partners.

In and around Antwerpen, different Salsa schools also teach rueda, but as everywhere else in the world, although the basis in most cases is the same, each school has its own moves, names and calls and variations. 

Rueda Café ?

In March 2010, a small group of enthousiast rueda-dancers decided to meet regularly at Casa Baila, where the owner Paul (DJ El Patron)  declared ready to give this group the necessary facilities to practise, improve and extend their rueda-knowledge.  Over the years, changes were inevitable: Paraiso Latino,  42Brasso, 't Sterckshof ... Kaleidoscoop, ...  Due to the Corona pandemie Zoom-sessions with Rueda Corona Style (without switching partners) took over for more than 40 sessions... meanwhile our locations were temporarely , later on definitively closed but actually, with the help of Salsa Charanga,  we found shelter in Kaleidoscoop, Mortsel.  From 09/06/2021 we again restarted at CC Kaleidoscoop, Molenstraat 50, 2640 Mortsel with a limited number of participants, and a mix of "Corona Style" and "Mini-Rueda", and we were fully back again in September 2021 be it with a limited number of participants ...

A facebook group "Rueda Café" has been created .. feel free to join the group and receive regular information on its activities.  Any questions ?  send a mail to me ! 

IIMPORTANT:

• The access to these practice sessions is open to anyone who has a basic knowledge rueda , a small participation fee is asked for ... the manager of the location also expects this low participation fee to be honored with one or more paying consumptions :-) ... so do not bring your own drinks with you ...

• Everyone who participates in our evening is supposed to have attended a rueda course once (and we also assume that eg a "tarro", "dile que no", "enchufla", "prima" (also known as  "adios" , "prima con la hermana/familia", ...

• Are you coming for the first time or is it a long time ago? Arrive on time so we can take full account of your knowledge !! And you are not obliged to dance for 2 hours, whenever you feel you have enough for that evening, then stop, take a drink ... and come back the next time ... The sessions are normally held in Dutch, but we are ready to translate the most important information to english if required.

• ... visiting the Antwerpen regio ? and you want to honour us with a visit to our workshop ? Send me (François Dom) a mail and you can participate such an evening as "guest" (free of charge) !

• The participants in these practice activities form a so-called "independent de facto association" in which the participants themselves are responsible for accidents that they may have or any damage they may cause during this activity; this activity is not covered by a special insurance policy.

How do we practice Rueda ?

It was decided to try to find a set of moves that would be "danceable" by most Antwerp rueda-dancers and to practise and repeat regularly so to have many people taking full benefit of this initiative. The aim is not to have as many and complex moves as possible, but to have as many dancers as possible enjoying rueda together in a nice atmosphere. In order to find a compromise between the moves of the different schools and to offer some reference point, in most cases we stick to moves that can also be found on the internet (Youtube) with a.o. special attention to the Rueda.Standard.com (RS), the Montreal Rueda Standard / Project (MRS), the Media Noche Salsa Club (MNSP) and Salsa Libre (SL) . More info on these can be found in our "Reference and Links" page 

Of course, other particular moves from the other danceschools are welcome to be included but only if participants from that other danceschool are demanding partner and for as far as there are no particular objections made by other participants.

Check our main menu (top -  left) for more detailed information on the program....  I am sorry, most of it in Dutch ... so any further questions ?  send a mail to me !