One of the main difficulties for Cuban salsa teachers at the
start of their career is usually the hurdle of training themselves on how to
call Ruedas which can be much more complex than learning how to dance or even
how to teach another dance. It is one of the key obstacles to overcome when
venturing into Cuban salsa and a distinct difficulty for teachers of this dance
compared to other forms of dancing. I.e. one thing that never seizes to amaze
me is the fact that many students or even teachers can follow Ruedas for years
without ever wondering what makes a Rueda run smoothly, how to call a Rueda,
what the timing of calls involves as opposed to the timing of leading and
performing moves etc. I have gone to many Cross-body salsa or bachata classes
and events for instance where teachers will use Ruedas as a warm-up or to get
the crowd excited on a slower night without realising that Ruedas are a very
difficult and quickly executed dance form that depend hugely on the skill level
and experience of the cantante rather than something that can just be picked up
by anyone with the ability to teach a few salsa moves. As a result, a lot of
Ruedas are called out of rhythm or at the wrong time giving people too much or
too little time to prepare for the next move. They usually involve a lot of
basic steps and moves without the dynamic and quick change of commands that
make this dance so energetic and sometimes involve misnomers i.e. “Cross-body
lead” for “Dame” something I have witnessed particularly in cross-body events
where people want the feel of Rueda without going through years of Cuban salsa
training.
Therefore, it is rare at best to come across a good Rueda
caller, certainly outside of Cuban salsa classes. Even in Cuban classes and
events calling a Rueda is a skill that few people master as few dance schools
give students the opportunity to call Ruedas themselves, meaning that even if
they become very good dancers or even teachers, they have no calling experience
before having to lead Ruedas after setting up a dance school themselves.
However, without any guidance on aspects such as the timing of the Rueda calls,
it is very difficult to learn this skill, particularly as new teachers will want
to look knowledgeable and experienced in front of students rather than going
through a period of trial and error where most of their Ruedas fall apart.
Similarly, students will look to the teacher for answers and guidance and
expect them to be able to call a Rueda well, so they may have little patience
when paying for a class where the teacher struggles with the calling aspect.
A caller has to not only do the right steps to the rhythm of
the music but also make sure that couples are being changed regularly to give
the Rueda a dynamic feel, to slow down the Rueda when some people get stuck and
speed it up when people start to look bored, to call moves by their correct
name in advance of doing them i.e. they already have to think about the next
move while still being in the middle of another move and they need to make sure
that the moves they are calling can actually be done in the sequence that they
are being called in. I.e. “Dame Dos” should normally be called from another
move finishing with “Di Le Que No” so that the momentum of “Di Le Que No” can
be used to skip one partner. In addition to this, more complex Rueda moves
actually require the caller to stay on top of where everybody is at any one
time and can even extend to making up moves on the spot that have a relation to
something people can engage with i.e. political satire in relation to current
affairs. This amount of simultaneous tasks seems insurmountable for many new
teachers and to add to this the complexity of signalling moves is simply too
much. This means most new teachers choose to ignore this aspect rather than
spend months on learning how to multitask hand signs in addition to everything
else they already have to do – all for a skill that students may not actually
immediately appreciate.
That being said, I find few things more exhilarating than
leading a Rueda where the images in my head are executed flawlessly by students
in a class, forming patterns and shapes of ever increasing complexity in front
of me while my mind is already thinking about the next patterns a few moves
ahead. It is like a game of speed chess where you plan your moves in advance
while watching all the components unfold themselves with very little time
available.
Our most advanced Casino classes are therefore designed to
not only contain complex moves but also to teach students how and when to call
Ruedas and what hand signs are involved as well as giving them a background of
the moves and hand signs and the reason why these are so useful. I hope this
will pass on the feeling I get when calling a Rueda to the next generation of
teachers as well as provide people with the necessary skill set and experience
to call Ruedas well and use the hand signs for better communication between the
caller and the dancers, leading ultimately to a higher level of dancing.
