My crazy salsa friends at my birthday party last year here in Venezuela

I love salsa!

I don’t think I have mentioned it here much, but if you have ever met me in person, you most likely know that I LOVE salsa.  I started dancing social salsa winter term of my freshman year of university (2003) at University of Oregon. Since August 2012 I have been taking a weekly salsa casino class at a local salsa academy (Performance!!) in Ciudad Ojeda, Venezuela.  At every level we have to take a test (we get a grade and they publicly critique your style, moves, and timing) before they allow us to go on to the next level.

A Little Background About Salsa Casino

Salsa Casino is called Casino Rueda, or Rueda de Casino, or simply Rueda. Casino refers to the kinds of turns and breaks you might normally see in ordinary partner Salsa dancing.

When people are ready to dance casino style you will usually hear someone call (or yell if it is a large group of people)“Rueda!” When you see salsa casino done in person it looks a lot like square dancing but with sexy salsa moves.  There are many different calls for salsa casino (I think I’ve only learned about 100 so far). Some of the first calls you will learn are “dame”, “dile que no”, and “espejo” (“guapea” in Oregon).

I love it because you can meet A LOT of new people all in one night! However, you can also use the same casino moves to just dance with one person, which is also great (and more convenient for social dancing).

It is my goal to salsa in every country I visit (sometimes I have to settle for dancing by myself L).  I also like to spread the salsa love and get other people to try it too!

Here is what I am working on learning now: