Juan Gómez Barranco, director of the Rueda de Casino Project, explained that the main objective of the initiative is, through teaching and practice, to promote this dance and Cuban music among fans around the world.
The opening took place in the gardens of the 1830 Restaurant, the main space of the project, which will soon become the headquarters of the school that will open every day with three class schedules, reported its director.
Students from other foreign centers and Cubans who want to learn will be received, he said.
Known as Juanito “El Abuelo” (76 years old) among the founders, he drew attention to the importance of integrating Cubans and foreigners into this school, “and what better than dancing.”
We are going to organize discussions, conferences, about the history of the classic casino, its beginnings, because this way of dancing has been around and the schools have created their own steps, they have put their own imprint on it, he expressed.
He commented that the same in Cuba as in other countries, some salsa schools have created new movements and steps, but the usual ones, the classics, are respected, and in the end all dancers are united by the dance floor.
We want it to be danced like in Cuba, perhaps out of chauvinism, but it is good that there are other steps, this style has evolved to the rhythm of the music, the fundamental thing is that it is performed with the heart, that identifies the casino and the casino owners, assured Gómez .
In the activity, national and Chilean dancers from the Antofa Latina school, from the city of Antofagasta, merged in a large casino wheel to the rhythm of Cuban music.
In the 1950s, the casino emerged, a dance similar to the “Son” with greater speed, variety of steps and elegance.
Created in the dance hall of the Casino Deportivo de La Habana, from which it took its name, a private society that brought together a large community of dancers.
According to historians, the dance began to spread after the revolutionary triumph of 1959 and the Literacy Campaign, 1961, helped it quickly become known throughout the country. Over the years its popularity increased, becoming an identifying element of the Cuban nation.
With the salsa boom at the end of the 70’s, the casino became international; by then, in addition to being a dance between couples, it had evolved to give rise to the so-called Casino Wheels made up of two or more couples under the orders of a guide, who perform complex choreographies that today have followers in many countries around the world.
jha/mml
){kind=link}