Is learning Casino Rueda good or bad for the beginner?

Up in the Air said:
What's the point of learning casino if everyone is dancing On1 at the Clubs?
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What does dancing on1 has to do with Rueda?
Rueda is a form of dancing, not music or rhythm...
It can be danced "a tiempo" (on1 or on3) or "contratiempo" (which is more on2 or even on4).

terence said:
??.. splain.
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Yeah, I didn't get this one, too.


I also think there should be partner switching, except if you get a class which is completely made up of couples, as Terrance mentioned.
 
Salsa Student said:
This seems to be a regional thing. In the U.S. it's pretty standard to rotate partners (an exception being most of the lifts classes). I understand in Europe it's common to not rotate parthers, what's it like in most of Asia?
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In Germany it seems they don't share their partners in classes. But in rueda it should be a non issue, right? :)
 
peachexploration said:
It's because Rueda is focus more on moves. Hence the caller calls them out and the group executes them. In my opinion, it's really not good for beginniners. I recommend learning good technique in one on one classes, then go on to casino rueda. Any other thoughts?
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It depends on what is meant by the term "beginners." If we're talking about people with zero Salsa skills starting from scratch, then yes I believe they are best served by getting a solid foundation in Salsa timing, lead/follow, the cross-body lead, and the other things that are taught in the first month or two of classes devoted to one-on-one Salsa dancing. However, I don't think the student needs to have fully mastered those concepts before starting Rueda and, of course, most students taking Intermediate-level Salsa classes are still "beginners" in the grand scheme of things, anyway. After the foundations are covered, then Rueda is fine for allowing technique to be further developed and, as other posters have pointed out, is especially good for new leaders (by taking the pressure off of them for having to think about putting combinations together).

I teach Rueda workshops and my studio has a soft requirement that students be at least Intermediate-level dancers before jumping into Rueda. However, that's mainly so that we don't have to spend time teaching the Salsa basics to true beginners, and attendees know that up front. Needless to say, we still have to do a lot of corrective work :eek: on technique during the workshops -- but our system really does help the flow of the workshops, as opposed to having to deal with a room full of people who thought that watching Rueda was "neat" but really don't know much at all about partner dancing.
 
I think that learning from scratch in a Rueda can be as good or as bad as learning 1-on-1, because you are learning the same concepts of timing, lead-follow, and many of the same basic elements.

Rueda has many social advantages, as I have mentioned before, but because of the fact that most moves taught are for couples, and only a minority is "Rueda exclusive", there is not much difference in terms of technical learning.

I have learned salsa dancing in a Rueda since day 1, and I can say that the whole atmosphere of the Rueda, of dancing as a group with other people, having the same trouble and working it out together, did help me in keep going back in the day.
Most clubs and schools I know teach Casino using the Rueda format from scratch to the top, maybe having 2 "basic" lessons (for those who came for the 1st time in their lives), 1 of which is in the Rueda format and the other not, running parallel to each other.
 
el_Che said:
and schools I know teach Casino using the Rueda format from scratch to the top, maybe having 2 "basic" lessons (for those who came for the 1st time in their lives), 1 of which is in the Rueda format and the other not, running parallel to each other.
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That is one advantage of rueda as the class format. We do classes with 3+ circles simultaneously so people can go to the circle of their level. The main problem with 1 on 1 classes is that some people are ahead of the class and others are behind and only those in the middle get the best return on time and money out of the class.
Also with 3+ circles its easy to send people who are not keeping up to a lower level circle instead of sending them home.
 
This is exactly the situation in the clubs and classes in my area.
There are 1-2 lessons for total beginners (these are called "basic level lessons"), and a large number of circles catering different levels of dancers; some times there are 3 more, and some times even 5 or 6 of them!
 
bailar y tocar said:
That is one advantage of rueda as the class format. We do classes with 3+ circles simultaneously so people can go to the circle of their level. The main problem with 1 on 1 classes is that some people are ahead of the class and others are behind and only those in the middle get the best return on time and money out of the class.
Also with 3+ circles its easy to send people who are not keeping up to a lower level circle instead of sending them home.
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Sorry, but I don't think this is anything intrinsic to rueda. if you had 3 levels of classes of any style you could also send people to the appropriate level instead of sendsing them home. All you need is 3 teachers.

And I bet some people will be ahead and behind the curve in your wheels as well, but that's life
 
!!! said:
Sorry, but I don't think this is anything intrinsic to rueda. if you had 3 levels of classes of any style you could also send people to the appropriate level instead of sendsing them home. All you need is 3 teachers.

And I bet some people will be ahead and behind the curve in your wheels as well, but that's life
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Agreed. I *wish* we had a large enough pool of students at every Rueda class to break into 3 circles, with a decent gender ratio in every circle, and enough qualified instructors present to fully explain the moves/technique to each different circle. Unfortunately, that's not a realistic scenario for my studio, nor, I would suspect, in most cities around the United States.
 
I think one advantage to casino dancing in general that you can get from learning move sin a rueda is that you know that you are supposed to end up lined up correctly towards the center of the circle. So if you over/under rotate you end up wrong. Not a big advantage perhaps but helpful in learning to rotate through moves.
 
The big adavantage of learning rueda: when you see a rueda you can participate. They're fun and a change from dancing in a couple.
 
I normally don't take LAon1 style or NYon2 style workshops but as I am at the Chicago Salsa Congress I did take a few and dance with mostly slot dancers at night.
The differences between the cuban moves I know and the slot moves that are taught are small except for the names and some of the hand and catch positions. Its not difficult to port over cuban moves into slot style.

It might be harder for beginners to do so though. If the leader (in Casino rueda) does not have the best technique to position themselves for a slot style move, it won't work well.
 
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