Here's a great casino rueda video clip (yeah....from YouTube) done by a casino rueda club in Aalborg, Austria. Casino rueda really is done around the world!
What's valuable about this video clip is that they do lots of good, solid, basic casino rueda patterns. they also do them 'on 1' and they stay on the correct beat during the entire video. I think you'll like it. Here it is (and then I'll make some comments:
- They start of, coming in, with 'son montuno'. Notice that in some cases a lady is dancing 'lead'. That's not uncommon in casino rueda groups.
- At 18 (seconds.....see the timer on the video) they do their first 'dame'.
- It's actually a 'dame dos'....the leader skips the next girl and goes to the girl beyond her. Watch for it!
- At around 27, the caller calls 'sombrero' (Spanish for 'hat'). Notice that sombrero, just by itself, does not include a change of partners.
- At 38 there's a real basic 'dame'.
- At 44 they do what is definately an 'enchufla'. The addition of two claps makes it, I think, an 'enchufla con dos'....('enchufla with two').
- At 50 they do another enchufla. This time with 3 claps. I don't know....maybe I missed the enchufla with just 1 clap! What I don't like here is that they don't start the claps on the 5. I think it's more difficult timing to start the claps on any beats other than the 1 or the 5. In our group that's the way I want to do it (and also the way it's been done in all the other ruedas I've seen).
- Right before the 1 minute mark, they start something that I believe is called 'Toca la T' (i.e. cross the T). Rumbanana.org used to have a video of that pattern on their site but they no longer do. I don't consider that a basic pattern.
- At 1:14 you'll see'em start an 'adios'.
- At 1:20 you'll see'em do something called 'adio arriba' (goodbye 'up'.....it means here...'the other way'). Normally the partner changes dictate the leader goes counter-clockwise but thee are several moves, where 'arriba' is called, which dictate that the leader moves clockwise. It's a great call to keep the leaders 'on their toes' (i.e. alert).
- At 1: 27/28.....I don't know what that is. Some sort of enchufla.
- At 1:40 you see another 'enchufla arriba'.
- At 1:49 you see something called 'tranca'. Tranca means 'gate'. I might not be correct in the complete name but I know it's a phrase that contains the word 'tranca'. Looks pretty good doesn't it?
- At 1:58 notice that they go into a 'dame dos'......the leader skips the next girl and goes to the next one. See....once you learn a few of the basics you can use them to embellish the more complicated patterns. That's one reason why learning the basics is so important.
- At 2:06 notice that they do a pattern that (probably) contains the word 'bulla'.
- At 2:26 they start a pattern that starts with a 'sombrero' but is some variation of it. I don't know what it's called. I've seen it done in regular salsa.....i.e. where the leader reaches under the lady's arm with his right hand.
- At this point also notice that they're not dancing on the best of surfaces. It's like......grass!
- At 2:47 they start something that might be called an 'enchufla doble arriba'. I'm not sure though. You can almost hear the call on the video. Also notice how the leader has to really hustle (i.e. move fast!) to make it where he's going.
- Then follows a couple of patterns which I don't recognize at all but at 2:07 they do something called 'Evelyn'......it's a basic pattern that's really pretty simple. Kinda like a 'spot turn' in regular salsa.
- At 3:09 notice that whatever the call is, it results in the guy switching places with the girl.
There's a few different calls that get that result and it's a good way to creat variety in the appearance of the formation. - At 3:10 you see what I think is an 'exhibela doble'. Exhibela's are basically underarm turns but because of the direction the lady is moving in rueda's (i.e. relative to the circle and her partner) it looks cuter than the in regular salsa.
- At 3:22 you see another 'dame dos'.
- At 3:30 they do something that, again, results in the couples switching sides.
- Then at 3:34 they do some patterns facing outside the circle. That not common but it's probably not that hard to do if you know the calls (but I've never done it that I recall).
- And then they end it with that cute little 'sit in my lap' thing that the guy at Macondo showed us last week.
Pretty cool video clip, eh?
With maybe one or two exceptions, everything they did here was stuff we could learn in a couple of hours. Imagine us doing something like that out here on the street in Hongdae. You think we wouldn't be locally famous immediately??!! I know we would.
The last thing I'd like to point out about this video is the music. Casino rueda music is best done to funky salsa. To me, all salsa isn't funky. Probably most of the salsa they play around here isn't. A lot of it is pretty good....for regular salsa. But it ain't 'funky'. And that's one of the reasons why I like casino rueda. You can have a fun time and put on a great 'show' without having to be a dance professional.
The fun of doing that is what I hope that we can share with others as our group grows.
All we gotta do is get started. So........I hope we get started soon. See you Monday?
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