The upcoming 2 Hour Casino Rueda Crashcourse

Yeah, it's a big deal in my mind!  I'm instigating an event to try to get casino rueda kicked off in Seoul in some way that I can fit into. 

A friend of mine that I met through my blog, Hyun Pil Hwan (AKA: Pillhwan), has a dance studio and he's a very progressive and open minded guy (and a good dancer too).  He's graciously offered to host the workshop, for free, at his studio on Saturday, 4-6 pm, July 25.

His studio is absolutely gorgeous.  It's also only about 3 or 4 minutes from the the Yangjae subway station.  The only requirement we've set for attending the workshop is that you already know your basic salsa steps.  We'll take it from there.

When I say 'we', I'm referring to me, Suki, Neon and Michelle.

Suki referrs to the teacher and ladyfriend of mine who I know from Seattle.  She's one of the reuda gals I knew back in the states.  She surprised me a few months ago when I discovered that she was coming over here to teach English and, as it turned out, she teaches just a bit 'up the road' from me.  She's actually a little closer to Seoul than I am.  She's a bit rusty on her rueda but she's got a lot of it in her head and she said she'll participate and help as much as she can.

Neon is a Korean fellow who has a small circle of friends who have been doing rueda on their own for awhile here in Seoul.  His group isn't big but he does have a good style and dances regularly.

Michelle is a young lady in the www.korealatinandsalsa.com group with me.  She's very open minded and loves kizomba and rueda too.  She's helping me review and practice the patterns that I used to know and she'll no doubt be a big assist at the actual workshop.

If we have any success at this workshop at all, I'm hoping we can do it again later.....bigger and better.  And eventually get Jorge Elizanda or Nick Van Eyck or Sandra Sleeper or some other 'name brand' instructor over here to teach us.

Here's a letter wherein I've come up with a fairly 'final' list of the patterns I'm going to try to cover.  I wanted to find videos of all the patterns but couldn't, or haven't yet.  If you see any here that you know where I can find a video of, I'd sure like to have the URL for the video.  I'm trying to make it as easy and painless as possible for people to attend the workshop.  We've got a lot of good salsa dancers in Seoul but rueda hasn't really taken much of a hold here yet.

Here's the letter/list:

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Ok Casineros y Casineras:

Here's that list. In the interest of saving time Im just going to put the URL rather than the video itself. In some cases I might add some comments. But here's the list first (VY=has video, VN=no video):

Guapea VY

dame con manos VN

dame y no llegues VN

son montuno VY

llevela abajo VY

taro VN

Exhibela VY

exhibela dos VY

dile que no VY

.....con bulla VY

suena VN

bulla VY

el fly VY

mata la cucaracha VN (stomp the cockroach)

enchufla VY

.....con bulla

enchufla doble VY

enchufle de mentira (fake enchufla) VN

enchufle que no (enchufla but don't come back) VN

enchufle con vuelta (enchufla with a turn) VN

pelota con dos (ball with two) VY

pelota loco (crazy pelota)

pa'ti pa' mi (from you and from me) VY

adios (Bye bye!) VY)

adios con la hermana (Goodbye with the sister) VY

photo VN

turnstile VN

el uno VY

Dedo (the finger) VY

dos y uno (two and one) VY

sombrero (hat) VY

medio sombrero (half a hat) VN

Beso (kiss) VY

Balsero (one who floats on a balsa raft) VY

Montana (mountain) VY

abrazala (Hug me) VY

vacila (the plug) VY

vacila y dame (Plug her and gimme a new one) VN

vacila y dos (Plug her plus 2) VN

siete (Seven....Seagrams Seven)) VY

siete con coca cola (7 with Coke)

Now, here's the videos I've been able to find....and some notes I added.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuLtPXDAbcA

Notice that they start out, up to .05 doing 'para el media'. That's a beginning move you do in the process of switching from regular salsa dance to getting synchronized as a group.

Up to .11 they're doing something called 'son montuno'. It's just a counter-clockwise rotation of the group.

From roughlly .12 to .16 that's called 'llevela abajo'. It's also a nice move to do in regular salsa to break the monotony of the basic.

From .17 to .22 they do a couple of right hand turns, for the ladies, called 'exhibela'. Here's "

Exhibela doble" from the Italiano. You'll also notice that they start out doing 'llevela abajo'.

At .22, that's what we call a crossbody lead but in casino it's called 'dile que no' (tell her no!). You usually do lots of those in casino.

Notice at .49 you actually hear the caller say 'dame'....'gimme'.....that means the partners change/switch. You do that a lot in casino. That's how you get to dance with everybody.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6R2GFe3ZL8

Notice in this video how casual it is. Everybody is talking to each other as they dance. At 1:04 you'll hear the caller say 'otra'. That mean 'another' or 'do it again'.

At 1:10, notice the caller says 'dame arriba'. That means change partners 'the other way' or 'up' or something like that. It adds variety becasue you do it with several other calls too.

Notice at 1:20 he say 'dame', meaning to go to the next girl but after that he says 'pasea' which means the guy brings the girls around him (full circle). It's the big black guy....you'll see him do it. Then notice at 2:48, right after he calls a regular 'dame', he calls 'dos'....meaning the guys skip the next girl and instead move to the one beyond her (or...the 'second' girl). We add 'dos' to some other patterns too.

Here's a

"Paseala" from another source and a bit clearer although it's not in a rueda context. It's not as hard as it looks. The guys just gotta lead her through.

Notice at 2:58 he calls something 'arriba'...i.e. back the other way. Then notice at 2:59 he makes a little kissing sign. That's 'beso' or 'besito'. He calls a 'dame' right after that....I think with just the hand signal.

Here's another

"Besito" from a different source.

This is a nice video because it shows the tighness of a small group of people/friends having fun with rueda. Onlookers pick up on that and want to be part of it. That's where we, (Korealatinandsalsa) have a nice head start...i.e. we already know each other.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUseeCeA4gc

This video has a bunch of patterns in it. The guy is from up in Toronto and has probably had free casino pattern videos on the web longer than anybody else. His videos are very good too.

"Dile que no'.... at .48 .

"Enchufla" (AKA: enchufe or enchufle). He calls this an crossbody inside turn but it's the same thing as 'Enchufla'. It's very common in casino and there's many variations of it.

"Siete" at 1:30. A quick pattern. Often mixed with coca-cola and called 'siete con coca-cola (at 1:45).

"Setenta" is at 2:03. This is probably about as complicated as we'll get. We'll do other patterns of similar length but none more complicated. We'll do more complicated patterns as the group evolves.

"Setenta y Uno" is at 2:32. Almost the same thing as "Setenta". The guy just does something different with his right forearm at the end.

"Exhibela" at 3:42....explanation of when it's usually called. It's same as a right hand turn for the ladies.

"El Dos" at 4:56......one of the ones we'll do.

"El Dedo".....at 5:22. Four parts. Uses two enchuflas.

"Sombrero". At 6:11. Just like the sombrero we learn in regular salsa. Has several variations.

"Abanico"...mean's 'fan'. At 6:38. One of those variations of 'sombrero' I mentioned. In two parts. Guy and girl both change positions once.

"Balsero". At 7:02. Sorta like sombrero except the gal does it twice and sorta circumnativates the guy. 3 parts.

"Evelyn". At 7:48. 2 Parts...quick, clean and nice. Guy switches hands once.

The 'basic' in Casino style salsa is called 'Guapea'. I think it means 'fighting' or something like that. It does sorta look like it.

Here it is from SalsaLovers.

Here's

"Dame Una" (or just 'dame') from Salsa Lovers. Very good because it shows two couples.

Here's

"Pa'ti, Pa'mi" from the Italiano. Notice that the lady's just doing back-rocks basically. And here's the same move from Yamambodance.

Here's "

Enchufla Doble" from Yamambodance. I especially like the way he shows the 'lead' (i.e. the guy) moving on the next partner. In most of the 'enchufla' moves, the guy does get a new partner but you normally won't see that aspect of it when it's only one couple exhibiting the patterns.

Here it is from Salsa Lovers in Miami. Excellent video. This actually comes from a video that people pay for (like I did). It probably shouldn't be on YouTube.

Here's "

Adios" from Medianochesalsa (Middle of the Night Salsa).

Here's is one that everybody learns pretty quick and is fun...Adios Con La Hermana. And here it is from SalsaLovers.

Here's

"Siete Con Coca-Cola" from SalsaLovers.

Here's Balsero. Same as the one above but from this Italian guy. It's meaning comes from the Cuban immigrants who floated to Florida on balsa rafts...barely.

Here's Montana. You'll notice that it and several other start with crossed hands. One of the things you'll want to remember as you learn the patterns is whether the crossed hands is right over left or vice versa. It'll make a difference!!

And here's another

"Montana".

Abrazala ('Hug her!') is nice too and not too difficult. As most of these moves are, the biggest obstacle is just having somebody to practice with. Here's Abrazala by the Italian guy

Here's

"Vacila". Very basic to lots and lots of casino movements.

Here's

"El Doce" from the Italiano. It's kinda realted to El Uno and El Dos in it's structure. Not counting the repetitiions, it's 5 units long.

"Bulla"

means 'shout'. If you're a teacher you probably already know how to do that.

This is as correct as I can make it for now. I hope you enjoy it and/or it's of some benefit. For my next trick.......I'll be posting more videos of people dancing casino rueda.

I would appreciate it very much if as many of you as possible would help me spread the word about this workshop.

Best regards,

Art Williams

Skype: wanderingsalsero

CP: 010 5822 2277

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