Rueda de Casino has gradually become popular all over the world; today there are groups and lessons in countless cities and small towns.  In the United States, this growth was facilitated when the first Casino Rueda teachers out of Miami, including Ramani Nicola and Jerry & Marlene Haramboure began teaching at the famous Club Mystique.  They worked with the likes of Rene Gueits and Henry Herrera and many others who later opened up schools of their own.  And the movie Dance With Me starring Vanessa Williams and Chayanne, released in l998, and also helped popularize the dance in the US. 

Salsa Lovers Dance Studio and Salsa Racing Dance Studio, run by Rene and Henry respectively, began not only teaching Rueda de Casino, but also running performance teams and producing instructional videos.  Their videos are sold to dancers all over the world, and the moves on these early DVDs helped create a common core syllabus for groups everywhere.  And other groups and organizations have done likewise.  For example, Boogalu Productions (Boogalu.com) has filmed Ruedas in Cuba and created very popular instructional videos that are also sold all over the world.

Salsa Racing and Salsa Lovers Studios also sponsor "Congresses" (conventions) which provide Casineros from all corners of the globe a chance to meet and dance together, show each other steps, and share ideas.  In recent years, Rueda Congresses/Events have sprung up in a number of additional places, including, for example, one in Vancouver Canada (DanceRueda.com in the spring), the West Coast Cuban Salsa Extravaganza (around New Year's Eve; http://salsaextravaganza.intellicontact.com/pwd/salsa_dance_party_pot_luck_salsa_classes.html), a Norwegian Rueda Congress (Sept. 07), etc.  Also, many Salsa and Rueda dance instructors travel all over the world to giving classes and workshops.  For example, Henry Herrera has done a lot of teaching outside the country as have many others, such as Eric Freeman of Boulder Colorado (check out: Salsaville.com) who has taught extensively in Europe.  He was kind enough to put me in touch with lots of teachers in Europe such as Charles Wood of www.Salsatap.com and many others.   On all continents where people live, and you can find Rueda groups, many that put their own spin on the dance in one way or another.


A living art form, the dance has evolved in many directions. Some groups emphasize the Afro-Cuban elements and roots of the dance. Others emphasize group moves and formations, while still others focus on partnership moves--which are also great for one on one Salsa! Some groups tell stories through Rueda performances, while others don't prepare a choreography, preferring "open calling" of moves the group knows. There are also all women's teams, where half of the women lead and half follow---like the group from California that won the competition at the 2005 Rueda Congress in Miami.

The flexibility of the dance makes growth and evolution possible in a variety of directions, and this in turn allows a great deal of artistic expression. Groups typically make up some of their own moves or blends of moves, often naming a step after someone who invented it or added a special touch. It is rumored, for example, the move La Jenny, honors a Miami dancer named Jenny who styled it with a cute knee bend on beat 7. 

**************************************************
Dancers have thought to use Rueda dancing in many innovative ways and have danced in unusual places:

In NYC group of Casineros planned to protest a radio station that they felt didn't play enough timba music by dancing Rueda around the building that houses the station. (Unfortunately, this unique protest could not take place because the police refused to grant the necessary permit.  But the idea of using dance as a form of protest is quite unique!)

A couple of companies use Casino Rueda dancing in team building programs offered to corporations, organizations, and schools  (www.TeamBuildingThroughLatinDance.com).

Alain Soto, a Cuban Rueda teacher in San Francisco, reports that when he was in Cuba, he and his friends sometimes danced Ruedas in bodies of water---both in the ocean and in pools!

In contrast, Arizona Rueda teachers Paul and Nadine Giessler did Rueda in knee deep snow around a campfire, about 15 miles outside of Flagstaff at an elevation of 8000'!

In Los Angeles, California, Tania De La Pena started a "Rueda In The Park" program in Griffith Park, offering free Rueda instruction there. The program has now been extended to several park locations in Los Angeles County. They even do joint outdoor events like the one in 2007 with The Echo Park Cuban Fesival ("Presencia Cubana en Los Angeles"), sponsored by the Parks and Recreation Department of Los Angeles.

In NY city as well, Casineros have danced at Central Park, at Union Square and at the pier on Charles Street. An avid Casino dancer in NYC, Shabnam reports, "We combine an ipod with some speakers and people bring batteries, and we make our own parties if there is not much going on or if the weather is nice."

A Rueda teacher named Jim Sowers (San Francisco, CA) and his friend Rachel Kalmar have done Rueda moves on heelys--the shoes with wheels on them like skates.

Erin Brandt has run workshops on something mildly akin to styling in Rueda dancing. The workshop title is: "Play in Rueda Dancing."  Most easily done to slow tempos, she advises students on funny, playful maneuvers that can be done during standard and (even simple) moves to add a sense of fun to the dance.

In 2000-2001, Jim also rode his motorcycle across Africa, and taught the first-ever African Rueda group in Nairobi, Kenya. The group Jim trained did a performance at the Carnivore Restaurant in Nairobi.

Along with Marlon Mayorga, Jim Sowers has also taught Rueda at a halfway house in the United States. (Jim calls that one of his more satisfying gigs because the students were so appreciative.)

Superbowl 2006 was held in Miami and Casino Rueda was performed as part of the entertainment. This of course was seen by viewers all over the country!

Groups of Rueda dancers have tried to break the Guinness Book of World Records by creating the largest circle either world-wide or city-wide. Efforts to break a record have been made in Miami, Florida (at a Congress), in Singapore (at a 2006 Salsa Festival), in Washington DC (in 2007 at a Rueda Fiesta), in the city of Groningen in the Netherlands, and no doubt elsewhere as well. 

**************************************************
As the popularity of this dance has spread, it has had an impact on many other styles of dance: 

In the early 2000's, Elaine Hewlett and Jeff Miller adapted Casino Rueda to create a swing version of the dance that is now widely done. They developed instructional DVDs that standardized the dance and helped it spread.

An extensive Bachata Rueda syllabus has been developed, and it is taught at Congresses and in workshops in many cities. Instructional DVDs are sold for this dance as well. (ruedadebachata.com and bachatarueda.com).  Rueda de Bachata was created in Boston by Seemore Johnson and Cristina Pujol in 2003, and it has also been taught in many cities by Jorge Elizondo.

An older version of swing dancing called Balboa, has also been adapted for Rueda. Created by Joel & Allison Ply, that is called Bal-Rueda (see 2plyswing.com).

A Washington D.C. dance partnership, Anthony ("Figgy") Jones & Linda Allen, who teach and perform Hand Dancing, were shown the "Carnival" family of moves by their students who also dance Rueda de Casino. Figgy liked the moves so much, they watched some Rueda videos on the DanceInTime website and selected Carnival Unisex to incorporate into a Hand Dance competition choreography routine!

Hadar Harel, a Rueda teacher in NYC went to a show at Lincoln Center in NY where she saw Rueda moves incorporated into a modern dance!! An Israeli choreographer named Emanuel Gat included some Casino Rueda steps in a modern dance done to The Rite of Spring, a famous piece of classical music.

Cha Cha Rueda and Son Rueda have been done too!
***************************************

Members of Casino Rueda groups are generally a highly diverse set of people----by all measures. Groups often have members who originally came from an array of different countries; so it's an international community in more way than one!   They are brought together by a deep and abiding love for Salsa music and dance. One group in Syracuse NY directed by Brian Bromka calls themselves Lafamiliadelasalsa reflecting how those dancers feel about their group! A slogan at the bottom of their website says: "...bridging cultures through dance, one step at a time!"

Different Rueda groups join together, in turn, for a variety of events (e.g. Congresses, "step exchanges" where dancers share favorite moves with other groups), etc. Essentially, the dance creates mini communities that connect to each other through their common interest. A Rueda teacher named Rebecca Pearl (NY, San Diego, and beyond) commented once that she regards teaching Rueda as a form of community-building.

Indeed, the documentary film produced by Sarita Streng and Eric Johnson furthers the effort to bring dance to an increasingly wide global community. Their work, filming video for many hours in Cuba and then editing the material over the course of months, contributes to the growing awareness of this dance around the world.
When Rueda dancers go out of town, they often look up where they can do this dance in the city they are visiting. Many find that knowing the dance is like speaking a common language with others----they are welcomed and easily slide into the Rueda community anywhere! 

As this dance has permeated the globe, a common theme has been echoed by a number of Casineros. They say that the dancing not only brings them joy but is therapeutic in one way or another. They feel good, forget their troubles, get exercise they need, lower their blood pressure, meet a new social circle, etc.

In fact, a couple of teachers have planned to use the word "therapy" in the name of their Salsa schools. In NYC, teachers Chris Rogicki and Erin Brandt were planning to work together and create a Rueda school named Salsa Therapy, though this didn't work out due to Erin's move to California. And a Richmond teacher, Ashton Feliciano, who teaches Salsa, Rueda and Ballroom with his wife Anne Marie, has run a studio named  Dance Therapy Studios LLC for a number of years. Ashton chose this name after so many students mentioned that dancing was therapeutic for them.

Remarkably, this dance which began in Cuba in the mid-1900s became a world-wide phenomenon. It has swept the globe and captured the hearts of those who dance it!