Also known as casino
Cuban salsa, known in Cuba as casino
A social partner dance: improvised rather than choreographed, circular rather than linear, and tied closely to Cuban music. It is where we tell beginners to start.
The short answer
What makes it Cuban
The honest answer is that we keep going back. Stephen has travelled to Cuba and the Dominican Republic more times than is entirely sensible, learning from the people who grew up with it. Nikoletta spent years inside the Sydney Cuban scene before that, teaching at Latin Spirit, Tropical Soul and Buena Vista Dance, and performing at venues including La Bodeguita del Medio.
We are not claiming to be Cuban. We are saying we learned it from Cubans, and we teach it the way they taught us.
In practice, what makes the dance Cuban is that it is built for a social floor rather than a stage. Nothing is memorised in advance. The lead offers something, the follow answers it, and the pair works out where the song is going together. That is why partner communication matters more than knowing a lot of moves, and it is why we rotate partners the whole way through a class.
Cuban salsa is Cuban social culture expressed as a dance. It is less structured than the styles built for teaching and performing, and that is the point of it rather than a gap in it.
How it differs from the salsa you have probably seen
Most salsa taught outside Cuba is linear: the couple travels up and down an imaginary line, like a slot. Cuban salsa turns around a shared centre instead, so the pair rotates rather than travelling.
The deeper difference is what each style is organised around. Linear salsa is built on turn patterns and spins, and it rewards executing them cleanly. Cuban salsa is built on the connection between two people and the song, and it rewards noticing things. Neither is harder. They are aiming at different pleasures.
The other visible difference is what the dance draws on. Cuban dancers move in and out of other Cuban forms without announcing it: son, rumba, cha cha cha, mambo, and reggaeton in the newer music. None of that is a separate class. It is vocabulary you pick up because it is in the music.
Good to know
- Beginners can start on any Monday. There are no fixed intake dates.
- No partner required – partners rotate through the class.
- Free social dancing runs from 6:00pm, before class.
Timba, clave and two partners
The music
The music that Cuban salsa is danced to is largely timba, which blends traditional Latin rhythms with Afro-Cuban beats. It is busier than the salsa most people have heard, with breaks and changes of gear that a dancer is expected to notice.
Underneath all of it is the clave, a repeating pattern that everything else is arranged around. You will hear congas, bongos and timbales carrying it. Once you can pick the clave out of a song you stop counting, because the music is counting for you, and that is the moment most people say the dance changed for them.
The name casino, incidentally, is generally held to come from the casinos deportivos, the sports and social clubs of mid-century Havana where the dance took shape. That is the usual account rather than a documented one, and you will hear it told a few different ways.
When we dance we have two partners: the person in front of us, and the music.
For people who grew up with it that second partnership arrives without anybody teaching it. For the rest of us it has to be built deliberately, and the way to build it is to listen to a lot of it away from class. This is the salsa and bachata we like. Put it on in the car.
What to listen for
- The clave, the repeating pattern everything sits on.
- Congas, bongos and timbales carrying it.
- The breaks, where the whole band stops and starts again.
Where to begin
Why we tell beginners to start here
Salsa is the genre most widely played at Latin dance events, here and overseas. If you learn one thing first, learn the one that most rooms are going to play most of the night.
It is also the least intimidating way in. There is a beginner level in the Monday class, no partner is needed, and the basic step is a weight change that takes about four minutes to learn. Nothing about Cuban salsa requires you to be coordinated before you start.
Once you have the basics, Rueda de Casino, which is Cuban salsa danced in a circle of couples following a caller, is the obvious next thing. It runs straight after the salsa class on the same night.
Where we teach it
Cuban salsa is the 6:30pm – 7:30pm class every Monday at Robina Community Centre, with beginner, improver and intermediate levels in the room at once. It is also available as a private lesson at our Nerang studio if you would rather start one to one.
Your first Monday
- Turn up, pay at the door, no booking.
- First class $15 for new students.
- Read what actually happens before you come.