Rueda De Casino Basic Steps
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- Rueda De Casino Steps
- Rueda De Casino Basic Steps For Real
- Rueda De Casino Dance
Ábaco is a dance created to follow the calls from rueda de casino, and it is perfect for rueda and casino dancers in times of social distancing. It is also a fun addition to rueda, putting ábaco dancers inside the rueda.
- Description: All the leaders face clockwise, and all the followers face anti-clockwise, one between each leader. The leader takes the follower's right hand in his left, and does a mambo step, but reversed. The left foot goes back and the right goes forward, but not very far, as the follower will be in the way.
- Festival De Pelota: 3: Enchufla three times and clapping on 6 count for 1,2 and 3: 74: Festival de Pelota en este lugar: 4: Enchufla and return immediately to same woman, clap on six step 1,2,3 times. 75: Fly: 2: Catch a fly ball on 1: 76: Guero (Spin) 3.
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Demonstration of ábaco:
ábaco inside a rueda, at the SalsaNor Rueda congress 2015
Rueda de Casino is a style of Salsa where several couples dance choreographically around a circle, with the dance moves being called by one person, a caller. This style was developed in Cuba in the 1950s More at Wikipedia. The wiki is to help all students of Rueda remember and refine their Rueda patterns, reflecting local variations,. Partners rock, in closed position, in and out of the wheel, poiting up and out, then down and into the circle with their joined hands. Continues until another call (arriba, abajo, dile que no). Arriba: Counterclockwise (forward for the leader) around the circle. Partners in closed position.
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Videos
Educational videos of ábaco figures have been being published at the rueda.casino Vimeo channel since the summer of 2020.
New dance
Ábaco is a relatively new dance, introduced in September 2015. The focus in ábaco is the social use, aiming for figures corresponding to the most common rueda calls, not necessarily to all existing rueda calls.
The common rueda figures have corresponding ábaco figures, and new figures are still added. Check the current list of existing ábaco figures (updated september 2020).
The principles of ábaco
Closed position
When a rueda is in closed position dancing “vamos arriba”, the corresponding basic step in ábaco is the diagonal step (often used in son). When there is a partner change in closed position, like in “tarro”, the ábaco will rotate left (a quarter turn) on beat 7.
Closed to open position
Changing from closed to open position in rueda is commonly done using “dile que no”. In ábaco “dile que no” corresponds to the step “a lo cubano”.
Note that “dile que no” does not include a partner change, so the abaco does not rotate in this figure.
Open position
In open position, the basic step in rueda is “guapea“. In ábaco this is also “guapea”, based on the womens footwork, i.e. stepping back on the right foot on beat 1.
Rueda De Casino Basic Steps Pdf
Partner change
The traffic rules in ábaco follows the rueda in the sense that a regular partner change in the rueda (dame una, enchufla y dame, etc.) corresponds to a quarter turn left in abaco. Hence “dame dos” in rueda corresponds to rotating two quarter turns left, i.le. a half turn left, in abaco. And “dame una arriba” corresponds to rotating a quarter turn right. Note that everyone in the abaco rotates individually, the abaco as a grid does not move.
In a rueda the order of a partner change is to first change the partner, and then do a “dile que no”. In ábaco this order is the oposite, starting with “dile que no” and then rotating.
In rueda figures like “enchufla y quedate” there is no partner change. The consequence in ábaco is that there is no rotation after the “dile que no” in this figure.
Styling
Figures that apply some styling elements (like dame directo, patin, patineta, etc.), use different styling for men and women, following the Cuban dance traditions.
Rueda De Casino Steps
For example, in “dame directo” the women push their arms forward as women do in mambo, and the men pull their pants they way men do in rumba.
Casino figures / complicated rueda figures
How will rueda figures like “setenta” and “amistad” that includes quite a bit partner work work in ábaco? This is not all worked out yet, but for the most common Rueda commands there will be ábaco figures. For example short animations that does not necessarily imitate the rueda figure.
Exceptions
There are no languages without exceptions. In abaco there are a few exceptions to the basic logic:
- Dame directo
There is no rotation in dame directo, even though there is a partner change in the rueda figure dame directo. - Adios
There is no dile que no at the end, even though the rueda figure adios finishes with dile que no.
Dancing ábaco socially
Time will show how ábaco will be used. But here are a few ideas to start with.
- When using ábaco together with a rueda, the caller should know abaco quite well, at least know which commands will work well for the abaco. Otherwise there will too many calls that are unknown to the people dancing ábaco .
- It is important that everyone can hear the caller well, preferably using a microphone. The ábaco will rotate, so reading lips or hand signs is not an option.
- ábaco can be used also without a rueda, for animation, warm-up, etc.
This might also help remembering the different figures, and also to improve the movement in the differnt figures.
How to get started?
- Study the videos, or learn the abaco figures from someone who already learned it.
- Form a group of 4 or more dancers (9-16 is perfect); it helps if most dance rueda.
- Start with open position and guapea and dile que no.
- Move on to the regular partner change – dame una, dame dos.
- Add enchufla, enchufla doble, enchufla con mambo and dame una arriba.
- Do the basic figures in closed position – al centro, vamos arriba, un tarro, dos tarros, exhíbela.
- Practice the figures to a whole song with several repetitions to help your body remember the figures.
- Now you are ready to add the other figures that you like.
- Have differnet callers call the ábaco, to make it more diverse.
- Finally, try it out together with a rueda de casino.
Why dance ábaco?
- Ábaco is a suplement to rueda de casino, it is not a replacement.
- Ábaco in the middle of a rueda can add energy to the dance.
- Ábaco allows everyone people to join the dance in a rueda setting, even though there is not a balance between lead and follow.
- Ábaco can help improving your personal dance style, by focusing on the styling elements and repeating the figures
- Ábaco can help practicing and getting used to rueda commands without being led.
- Ábaco is a new challenge, it can be fun to try new ideas and learn new dance elements.
- Ábaco can be almost instant fun for rueda dancers, because once you understand the main principles you may be able to dance a lot of the rueda commands in ábaco without too much work.
The idea
The question that trigged the abaco idea was this: When you have a large group of rueda dancers with more follows (women) than leads (men), how can you have everybody join the dance and have fun?
This question started a process of exploring the use of rueda figures in a different setting, with focus on allowing more women to join. Elements from rueda figures were forming the base, and then elements from salsa suelta, animation, Cuban mambo, line dance, and even the big apples in lindy hop were applied to abaco.
Los fundadores de ábaco are Bernt Rygg and Yuliet Estrada Linares, with help from Reidun Svabø and Yohan Corrioso.
Feel free to use ábaco, to spread it and have fun with it! If you have any suggestions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
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The PDF document attached to this post is the result of a bit of reflection led while defining my Cuban salsa/Casino teaching programme at intermediate level. It also covers some of the material I teach at intermediate level during a few salsa congresses in the UK.
At beginners level, we usually teach some basic steps and Enchufla/Dile que No/Vuelta, with lots of emphasis on making people feel comfortable, welcome, confident and entertained, and only limited emphasis on technicality. Then, at intermediate level, the question arises: what tools should you give your Cuban salsa students to help them learn the longer routines more efficiently once they reach the higher levels? What is going to help them for the rest of their salsa life?
Through observation and analysis, the following list of 12 moves came up, which cover a large proportion of the 'situations' met in longer routines. Learning them allows to approach Cuban salsa as a foreign language: while beginner's moves are like a basic alphabet, the 12 moves are like the words which would be used to compose longer sentences at higher levels. From the learner's perspective, knowing these moves does help to 'decode' longer routines more efficiently by training the perception of elementary moves in longer routines. From the teacher's perspective, each of the 12 moves is also an occasion to focus on one particular technical skill such as space awareness, leading/following, particular turn techniques etc.
This list of moves is given here as a handout to help Cuban salsa students remembering the classes, but it is also hoped that it will help other teachers defining their own syllabus. This list is probably neither exhaustive nor perfect, and certainly does not aim at defining any rigid truth about Casino. I would actually be highly interested in your feedback and comments (cf instructions below on how to leave a comment on this website). Is that an adequate list? Should other basic moves be added to complete this list of 'Lego blocks' to construct and de-construct Casino moves while teaching or learning Cuban salsa? Please tell us what you think!
The handout can be downloaded from this link: The 12 basic moves of Cuban salsa, PDF handout
To leave a comment, please click on the title of this post. This will lead you to the post's page. Please scroll down: the comments fields are located at the bottom of the page. Then fill the form, press preview and then press send. Please note that the comments will be reviewed and moderated, and we reserve the right to accept or reject their publication on this website. Thanks in advance for your contributions!
-DJ Sacha
PS: Yielding to popular demand, here are some youtube links. But:
PLEASE NOTE / DISCLAIMER: These videos are only here to give a rough visual impression of the move, which is more effective than a textual description. We do not guarantee that the execution depicted in these videos is standard or even 'correct': that's only whatever we could find on Youtube. Please do consult with a qualified teacher to verify and polish your moves.
1) Enchufla and 2) Dile que No
3) Vuelta a.k.a. Hecho a.k.a. Pimienta
I usually teach these moves as '4 moves for the price of 1': vuelta led with left hand, or led with right hand, or vacilala (no hands) or sombrero (two hands) are essentially the same move with hand variations.
Vuelta a.k.a Pimienta:
Sombrero:
Vuelta Vacilala:
4) Enchufla Ronde (Enchufla y Escondete)
6) Paseala al Frente
6) Sacala / Exhibela
7) Paseala por Abajo y por Atras
8) Adios con la Prima
9) Cubanito, Cubanita, El Uno, El Dos
Cubanito/Cubanita are pre-requisites to El Uno/El Dos:
El Uno:
El Dos: essentially Cubanito followed by a full Sombrero:
Rueda De Casino Basic Steps For Real
10) Enrocate
I usually teach Enrocate as a pre-requisite to a 'safe' Coca-Cola, and to help people to get the directions right: