Rueda de Casino: the dance that unites and is born in Cuba
If you've ever felt the thrill of changing partners to the rhythm of a “dame”, “enchufla” or “sombrero”, you know that the rueda de casino isn't just a form of salsa dancing: it's pure collective magic. And like many of the most beautiful things in Latin music...it was born in Cuba.
A humble and explosive origin
The rueda de casino has its roots in the 1950s in Havana, within the so-called solares - those shared courtyards where life and music mingled without filters. In those gatherings, groups of friends began to improvise figures in a circle, changing partners with fluidity and joy. Thus was born this form of dancing which, in time, would spread all over the world.
What makes the wheel so special?
The casino wheel is much more than following synchronised steps. It is constant communication, listening and reacting. Each figure is an opportunity to laugh, to be surprised, to flow with the group. What at first glance looks like chaos, is actually pure complicity. And although there is a leader who gives the voices, each person is essential for the wheel to work.
A metaphor for the Cuban spirit
In Cuba, the rueda reflects how people live: in community, with rhythm, with spontaneity. Nobody dances alone. There is connection, mischief, improvisation. Each rueda has its own stamp, its own energy. You can see young people dancing it in a square at sunset or veterans who don't need to rehearse to move as one.
Between the street and the stage
The rueda that is danced in the Cuban streets and the one that is presented in the congresses of the world are sisters with different personalities. The first is free, playful, organic. The second, more structured, seeks spectacle and perfection. But both drink from the same source: Cuban popular energy.
And why live it in Cuba?
Because learning rueda in Cuba is more than just taking classes. It is to participate in a living ritual, surrounded by those who have grown up dancing it. It is to truly understand what it means to feel the music beyond the steps. It is to let yourself be carried away by a rhythm that cannot be explained, it is contagious.
And you, have you already joined a wheel?
At Dance Travelling we don't just dance, we integrate. On every trip to Cuba you have the opportunity to learn rueda from the hands of those who live it from the inside. And not in a rehearsal room, but in the squares, the parties, the neighbourhoods... where it all began.
Sign up for our upcoming trips and discover why the rueda de casino is much more than a dance: it is a celebration of the collective Cuban soul.
