Weekly Videos (Full Album)

Week 12 (Choreography Video / Music)

Congratulations all of you for completing the Ritmos Latinos Beginner Casino Syllabus!

Final Choreography: Our song is Mujer de Otro which fits into the category of rare and highly sought after slow but exciting Timba (dance genre of cuban slasa msuic). Because I will not be able to join y'all at the final performance, I have embedded my calls into the song. Those that made it to rehearsal this week got plenty of practice dancing the sequences and studying the important moments in the music. I still suggest that everyone listen to the song by themselves (at least 1 time) without practicing the movements to really pay attention to the evolution of the song and the trumpet hits (which we are always doing a nice movement, clap, or shout with). Then I suggest watching the video and dancing along (with or without a partner) to bring the music into your body. If there is a move you don't remember, check out the weekly summaries on our class page and refresh the move by reading the description and watching the video. 

Most importantly, when you perform, remember that you're having fun and doing something you enjoy, so SMILE :D

Philosophical Note: As you've heard me say before, this semesters class was partially an experiment to see if and how we could update the beginners class to be more consistent with the form of Casino de Rueda that is being danced across the country today. This, of course, comes with some consequences I want you all to be aware of as you go out to dance Casino within the greater Tucson dance community. 1) There are a couple moves listed on the above syllabus (i.e. Evelyn, Enchufla con Vuelta and the group moves listed for class 10) that we didn't get to and may be called out in the wild. 2) Some dancers in Tucson will be dancing and calling Rueda in a different style and that is OK (I don't want you to think you're wrong or they're wrong, we just have different ways of executing the same moves)! Fortunately, I believe you've all learned the most fundamental trait of all dancers; Flexibility. If you encounter something new or different, you now have the bearings and awareness to Copy, Adapt, Fudge, and Try, new things on the fly. Most important is that you keep dancing and having fun!

It has been an honor for Keren and I to instruct you these past 12 weeks. Thank you all for sticking with it and bringing such positive energy and focus! Please consider joining again next semester either again with Beginners (it's common to take this class more than once) or moving into our Intermediate classes (or both!).

¡Bulla Ritmos!

Week 11 (No Class – Thanksgiving)

Week 10 (Video)

Dancing in the Rain!

A big bulla to those that stuck it out through our rainy and slippery but totally fun dance class this week. To my surprise, this was our second to last class due to a little thing called Thanksgiving.  So, instead of throwing a bunch of new stuff at you and then hoping we all remember in two weeks, this week we focused on solidify the advanced moves we covered last week while developing our musical sense and reaction time.

We primarily focused on being able to weave Exhibela into unexpected  contexts and we taught one new ornamentation, the Rodeo!

Rodeo is a move that you can execute whenever a partnership is approaching a closed position on 5-6-7 (i.e. follows going towards leads right shoulder). When this move is called, instead of catching the follow (leads) or pivoting and getting ready for DQN (follows), the lead will raise their had over their head and leave the pathway open for the follows to walk past that right shoulder. Leaders we then execute our Rombo (Cross left over 1 - back 2 - step 3, Cross right behind 5 - front 6 -step 7) while guiding the follow around us and back to our shoulder (where you should be able to do another Rodeo or catch and prep for DQN). Follows the trick here is to keep good tension in the arm and not let your body get too far away from the leader or you won't be able to travel around them and back to the shoulder in the limited time you have.

There will not be class next on Thanksgiving. I will spend the week creating our choreography and we will spend our final class drilling it and enjoying all the awesome moves we've learned this semester!! :D

Week 9 (Video)

Now that we've learned the fundamentals, we start building up our repertoire by combining these basics into larger moves!

We learned a move early on in this class from the closed position called Exhibela. This week we showed how we can weave Exhibela's into many more of our moves by recognizing when we are in a closed position and keeping our ears open to respond to the call. For example, when we do a move like Vacilala that brings the follow to the leads right shoulder, instead of moving back to Guapea with a DQN, instead I may call for an Exhibela which you should be able to do, because the first three steps of the DQN is essentially the same thing!

Building on this, I taught how to do an Enchufla - Exhibela where transitioning of moving on to the next partner, leads bring their partner back to their shoulder and do the Exhibela with that same partner. VERY IMPORTANT: In all of these contexts, after the Exhibela, you finish with a DQN to open back up to the Guapea side.

Another move we taught this week was Pa'ti Pa'mi (which was very similar to Adios Con La Hermana) with the major difference being that you start the move with an Enchufla, then leads walk-walk-pivot into the circle and continue as usual.

Finally I got the circle moving fast with a Dame Dos. Not to be confused with Dame con Dos (which is a Dame with 2 claps). Dame Dos is a like a Dame, but you SKIP a partner, so leads you end up with the partner 2 over to your right. The only way to make this happen smoothly is to stay very aware (keep your ears open) and really push open and start stepping in the right direction when you hear the call and are finishing your high-five during the Guapea on 5-6-7. Follows, your leads are coming, if they're arriving late, just keep your DQN footwork going and keep your heads up to help avoid collisions :D

It was so fun to teach so much in one class! There is plenty more to come!

Week 8 (No Video)

Now that we have covered the core material behind more advanced Rueda movement patters, we spent this class reviewing all of the awesome things we learned! I think many of you, like me, became amazed by how much we've covered in just 8 weeks of classes. You are all becoming skilled and confident dancers! Keren and I are very happy with your progress and are ready to show some fun alterations to moves and group moves that we can try together in the coming weeks.

Please try to keep coming to our review sessions at 6:30 to make sure that everything is locking into place. And do try to attend our next social on Saturday Nov. 18 where I'll go more in depth regarding partner dancing outside of the Rueda and how the music can tell us what types of moves we want to be dancing at a given moment.

A couple more weeks until our awesome End of Semester Party! Let's keep it up!!

Week 7 (Video)

This was the week of Vacilala's!

After a couple repetitive weeks for the follows, we've brought some new turns to the table! The Vacilala is another common turn sequence that will become the basis of many advanced moves. Resulting from a pull and flick by the leads towards your follows right shoulder, follows will execute a traveling turn that changes place with your leader and brings you into their right shoulder for a DQN. When we broke down the move, we saw that the follows step towards the leader on 1, the flick sends them to face the leader (backs to the center of the circle) on 2, and do a half  turn on 3 (ending facing the center of the circle). On 5 the follows should do one more half turn to again face their leader, then step towards the leaders right shoulder on 6, step again on 7, and pivot into their shoulder and arm on 8 (ready for a DQN).

Leaders you focus on keeping your footwork as you execute the pull and flick on 1 and 2 respectively and fill in the space that the partner left on 3. 5-6-7, you extend your right arm to pick up the follow as they approach your shoulder, and then finish with a DQN.

Each move we learned this week was a variation of this same sequence. The Vacilala has no hand connection after the flick. The Vacilala Con La Mano keeps the hand connection after the flick. The Vacilala Right to Right (R2R) switches the leaders hand connection and keeps the hand connected for the whole move. The Sombrero starts with a hand switch (like R2R) and also connects the left hands under the right hands to result in this little windmill turn; finishing with arms around each others necks like best buds.

We love these moves and will call them frequently! If you don't feel great about them yet, don't worry! You'll get plenty of practice (especially if you come to review at 6:30)

Week 6 (Video)

This was the week of Adios!

The Adios is our final common partner change that we'll be teaching in this class. For this move, leads bring their follow towards them on 1-2-3 and connect into a nice, noble, frame. On 4, the beat where no one should be stepping, you continue your momentum to turn your chest towards the center of the circle (or the outside follows) and on 5-6-7 leads step under your right hand connection, towards the center of the circle, let go of your connection with your current partner and walk towards your next partner. This next partner should be the same partner you would be with if you had done a dame or enchufla. At this point, same as dame and enchufla, leads pick up their next partner with a DQN.

The next move we taught was a more advanced variation that results with staying with the same partner, so NO partner change. The Adios Con La Hermana. The only thing about this move that resembles an adios is the very beginning where the couple comes together and connects and the lead steps under their left arm. This time however, rather than disconnecting with both hands and moving on to the next partner, leads only drop their right arm (which should be connected with the follows left shoulder blade), keeping the left hand connection, and walk into the center of the circle with a step-step-step-pivot to face your follow. Now the partnership should be facing each other and everyone should be like spokes of a wheel pointing towards the center with leads on the inside. From here, lead an enchufla where you switch places on 1-2-3 (pivot on 4 with the enchufla footwork) and, instead of moving on, leads step in place while bringing the follow towards your shoulder where you will find yourself in a momentary closed position. To end the move you do a DQN with your current partner. This move demonstrates a very classic sequence of movements that you'll see in social Casino dancing. I want you all to think about how you're always stepping forward and changing direction with pivots.

Finally we taught another very fun move, that DOES include a partner change. The Toda La Familia or Aidos Familia. This move is exactly the same as the adios con la hermana until the very end. At the end of this move, instead of bringing the follow to your shoulder, leads being the follow to their elbow and hook elbows like a square dance. You then have 1 phrase (8 counts) to walk all the way around each other and separate towards your next partner. The partner you're heading to is the same as we always do for dame, enchufla and now adios.

We're starting to get quite a repertoire of awesome moves! Make sure you're coming early for review if you need the practice :D

Week 5 (Video)

This was the week of Enchufla!

What was first introduced as a basic footwork has now been brought into the circle. The enchufla is a classic and frequently called movement pattern, that, at its most basic, results in a partner change. For this move, both the leads and follows execute the enchufla footwork (walk walk walk pivot) to pass by each other with the leads on the outside of the circle and the follows on the inside, pivoting back towards your partner and walking past each other again, this time with leads towards the inside of the circle, moving on to your next partner. If all goes well, you should be facing the partner that you would have gone to with a dame.  At this point you pick up your partner with the Dile Que No (DQN) footwork which we have practiced so much during the week of dames.

In addition to the basic enchufla, we learned enchufla doble and enchufla triple. For these moves, you don't change partners right away (although you do still end with a partner change), instead the leads must catch the shoulder of their follow as they are walking past each other on 1-2-3 and send them back across in front of you to their original spot on 5-6-7. For the doble, you catch the shoulder once and then, right away do a regular enchufla, moving on to the next partner, and for the triple you catch the shoulder twice before moving on.

Finally we taught Enchufla We Will Rock You, which is a more showy fun group move. It is a simple alteration to the basic enchufla, where instead of picking up the partner right away with the DQN, both leads and follows approach their new partners with Stop Stomp Clap and Stop Stomp Clap, then do the DQN.

Week 4 (Video)

This week was the Week of Dame's and y'all did awesome!

We spent the class working on the move Dame which was introduced in Week 3 as a way to change partners once you're in Guapea. This move starts by the couple opening up to face the center of the circle on 7 and 8 and requires a bit of extra pressure when the hands come together on 5 during your Guapea.

Leads: starting on your left foot (as always) step towards your partner and find their shoulder blade with your left hand (if your hands are free i.e. not clapping) on 1 and stay in place on 2-3 while guiding your follow into the circle in front of your right shoulder. On 567 guide your follow to cross your body with your right hand while offering your left hand for them to pick up. Your footwork on 567 will be to step to the right with the right foot on 5 and step in place and rotate to face your follow on 6-7.

Follows: Footwork for 123 will consist of one step in place and the next two forward planting your right foot towards the center of the circle on 3 and pivoting  on 4 to face perpendicular to your leads so you're read to cross in front of them. 5, one nice step across your leader, 6 another traveling step that helps you turn to look at your partner and 7 step in place and face your partner. Your armwork will be to find your leads right shoulder with your left hand as soon as possible on the 123 and then find and connect your right hand with the leads left on 567 so you're ready to go back into guapea.

Beyond Dame, we learned some clapping alterations which increase the complexity slightly: con Uno, con Dos, con Tres. These claps mean that the leads will be later and later to connect with the follows shoulder, so it becomes increasingly important that follows find their partners shoulder to help them guide across.

Dame Festival strings all of the clapping dame's back to back to back to back (last one being a pecho or grunt from the leads)

Finally we taught Siete (Double)  which is a fun alteration to the guapea where the lead's keep doing the same footwork while wrapping their follows in towards them, catching their right shoulder on 5 (much as you would have pressed into their hand) and opening them back up on 5-6-7.

Week 5 is the week of Enchuflas! Get ready :D

Week 3 (Video 1, Video 2)

We're moving right along and the moves are already starting to pile up!

This week we spent some much needed time solidifying our foundation in the closed position (guarrachea side) with lot's of practice on getting in and out of the Llevala Pa'bajo and showing off with those lovely Exhibela. We finished learning our full suit of partner changes on the guarrachea side which are Dame Un Tarra (Sin Solta, Pa'fuera, Pa'atras). And, most importantly, we began to open the door to our next fundamental dancing position Guapea also known as Open position.

We taught Dile Que No, a move executed out of Llevela Pa'bajo, which brings the follow across the lead (to the other side) and opens the couple up to the circle with outside hands (left leads, right follows) held and chests facing the partner and slightly open towards the center of the circle. This new Open position that Dile Que No brings us to requires a new basic step; the Guapea. For the follows this step is the same as the salsa basic that we have been warming up with at the beginning of each class where you step back (away from the lead) with your right foot on 1 and forward (towards the lead) on 5. Leads, we are mirroring the follows in this, such that we are also stepping back with our left foot (away from the follow) on 1 and forward with our right foot (towards the follow) on 5. On the beat 5 when both the follow and lead have stepped into each other, we will meet in the middle for a little "high five" with our free hand (right leads, left follows). This is not an actual high five, more of a press into each other such that we can change our partners momentum.

We are going to learn loads of moves from this new home base, but or now we introduced the total basics:

 1) Dile Que Si: This is how we get back to our closed position (guarrachea side) and involves the couple stepping into each other on 1-2-3 and connecting then turning halfway around on 5-6-7 bringing you right into guarrachea.

 2) Dame: This is our primary partner change from the guarrachea side. This move starts from our guapea where on 5 (while the couple is pressing into the "high five") we give a little extra push so that we can open up and all face our bodies towards the center of the circle. Leads will then take a step towards the next follow and place their right hand on the follows left shoulder blade and the follows will execute the same footwork they performed for Dile Que No and cut across the leaders body landing ready for the Guapea basic step.

Week 4 is going to be the Week of Dames so don't worry if it's not perfect yet! You all are progressing so well, we're loving being your teachers!!

-Robert

Week 2 (Video 1, Video 2)

Hi all! Great job this week! We got through some tough material :D,

This week reviewed our basic footwork from Week 1 and pushed onward towards a new basic footwork; the Enchufla footwork. The enchufla footwork is an essential tool that is at the heart of many movements you will see done (and go on to do yourself) in Casino dancing. I think of this footwork as a pacing walk; step step step pivot step step step pivot (1-2-3, 4, 5-6-7, 8, leads start left on 1 follows start right). The pivot should always be in the natural direction, i.e. if you have your left foot stepped ahead of your right, then it should be easiest to pivot over your right shoulder to start walking the other way on your right foot.

The enchufla footwork was used by the follows this week in the Llevala Pa'bajo. The Pa'bajo is wonderful home-base from which we can execute a number of moves. During this moves, the leads are using their Guarrachea footwork to keep their body in place while they guide their follows across and back (from leads right shoulder to left shoulder) while the follows use the enchufla footwork to cross back and forth. From the Llevala Pa'bajo, we then learned the Exhibela (doble) which means to exhibit the follows. This move starts the same as the Pa'bajo except for an indication by the leads that there will be a change by dropping their left arm down on the 1. Following this indication, the follows will continue to walk across the leads on 1-2-3 with their enchufla footwork, but instead of pivoting on the 4, they will seek the opening made by the leads now raised left hand and continue past it with a small step forward on the 5 and quickly turning (right) back towards the leads on 6, one more step towards the leads shoulder on 7 and finishing with a nice pivot on 8 leaving you right back where you started the Llevala Pa'bajo. The trick with this move follows is to not step to far out away from the lead so that it is easy to get back to them. Leads just keep your footwork going, remember to indicate that the turn is going to happen by dropping that left arm on 1 and raising it slightly above the follows head by beat 3  so that it is clear that they should step through that opening. If the call is to do an Exhibela Doble, this "should" be just as easy as doing the move again because hopefully you've landed right where you started at the end of the first move. [Video 1]

The final move we taught (rather quickly) was the Dame un Taro Pa' Fuera. This move is an extension of the Dame un Taro, where, instead of landing at the next follow, leads will pass them on the right and arrive at the follow that was initially two couples away. Follows just remember to keep your footwork and timing and stay in place (unless I ask for something crazy like to do this move while we are in Caminamos Pa'arriba or Pa'bajo). Leads make sure to leave your first follow towards the inside of the circle and pass the next follow on the outside of the follow. [Video 2]

Thanks for another awesome class! Let's keep it up!

-Robert

Week 1 (Video)

Keren and I were super impressed with the huge turnout and amazing focus of our first class of the semester! You all were so engaged and quick learners that we not only finished all of the moves we had prepared to teach but also added two extra moves.  In response, I've developed an ambitious syllabus that has been posted above. We're excited to work with you all and develop you into dancers who will all be comfortable going out to enjoy a dance to live music amongst friends and strangers.

This week we covered the basic footwork and for Guarrachea (step in place to the tempo) Pa'l Medio (2-step), Salsa basic (forward and back), and Side Basic (Side middle middle).  We discussed the timing of salsa music and dance; that we count 8-beats and step on 1-2-3 and 5-6-7. Steps are always alternating; Leads step left on 1 and right on 5, and follows step right on 1 and left on 5. After covering the footwork, we brought you into the Rueda (the circle) and partnered you up. We should you how to connect with your partner which we call making a frame. The frame is made by the leads right hand finding the follows left scapula (shoulder blade) with their arm held up and rounded as if they're holding a yoga ball. The leads left arm is up with hand slightly out and approximately eye level. The follow should lightly rest their left arm over the leads right with elbows connected and right hand finding the leads shoulder (this connection should be strong enough to feel the position of the lead but not heavy as to weigh down the leads right arm). Follows right hand should be offered hand up to match the shape that the leads left arm is making. The hand connection should be with the leads thumb in the palm of the follows hand and the fingers lightly wrapping around the hand. Follows can loosely relax their fingers over the  thumb. The connection should be loose for easy separation. In frame, we learned how to step together to the music with Guarachea.

This dance is a called dance, where the circle leader (probably Keren or me for now) will call a move on the beat 1 and starting on the beat 1 of the next phrase (count 1-8) you will execute the move. We change partners with Dame un Taro which has the leads stepping under their arm on 3 and progressing forward towards the next follow on 5-6-7. Caminamos Pa'arriba is the call for moving the circle counter clockwise or forward from the leads perspective. Caminamos Pa'bajo is the call for moving the circle clockwise or backward from the leads perspective. Quedate is the call to stop dancing. Dame un Taro Sin Soltar is a partner change as before with the modification where we don't let go with our previous follow (leaders should find the shoulder blade of the next follow while leaving their left hand with the right of their previous partner).  Recoje is the call to recover or reset our connection with our partner (for now I will only call this to complete Sin Soltar.  And finally we learned Derecha which was a right turn around the follows that takes two phases to complete.

To those who make it here, please let me know how you feel about the descriptions and whether you find them useful written like this :D

- Robert