The Salsa Center has been a Godsend since moving to Lexington. (I'm not originally from here and only knew a few people when I moved.) Dancing has helped me get in shape, lose some weight, find Spanish speaking friends, and connect with Cuban culture.
I didn't know when I signed up, but there are several different styles of salsa - Colombian, Cuban, Puerto Rican, West Coast, Miami, New York, Rueda de Casino. I'm now totally obsessed with Rueda de Casino which comes from Cuba.
So what is Rueda de Casino? It is Cuban style salsa danced in a group with a caller. It started in Cuba, made its way to Miami, and then exploded from there into world-wide popularity. I've danced in 3 International Rueda de Casino Flash mobs that had hundreds of groups around the globe participate. And when I was in Munich over the summer I found a studio one Saturday night where I danced in a huge rueda with about 60 other people.
The studio I dance with is truly international. I have met and danced with people from Cuba, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, France, Germany, Turkey, Japan, China and Greece. A lot of them have become good friends. We get together to dance but also for dinner and board games. We meet up at local festivals. We even threw the best baby shower ever with dancing and karaoke for a fellow dance who was 9 months pregnant and still coming to class.
All the calls are in Spanish and a lot of them are the same no matter where you go although there are some variations. Our sombrero in Lexington is called Casate in Munich and their sombrero is a completely different pattern. But patterns like setenta and setenta y uno seem to be universal. There is even a pattern called Kentucky!
What I love about rueda is that it forms community. You have to work together with your partner and the other people in the rueda in order for it to run smoothly. I taught two short lessons on what Rueda de Casino is and how to use in your classroom this summer during the Kentucky Center for Performing Arts Academy on Integrating the Arts and World Languages (more on that later...) and within 15 minutes of dancing we were all laughing, smiling, and having fun. I even had two teachers who had never met before that day hugging each other.
Then we compared and contrasted that dance and music with our own culture in Eastern Kentucky with artist Carla Gover. She talked about play party games, square dancing, clogging, and even played banjo for us. I grew up in Ohio but my dad's side of the family comes from Appalachia so it was really awesome to see how to connect my own and students' culture with the target culture.
Then we compared and contrasted that dance and music with our own culture in Eastern Kentucky with artist Carla Gover. She talked about play party games, square dancing, clogging, and even played banjo for us. I grew up in Ohio but my dad's side of the family comes from Appalachia so it was really awesome to see how to connect my own and students' culture with the target culture.
So that's one way I keep up with my Spanish and connect with Latin American culture here in Central Kentucky. What do you do to interact and connect with culture? If you're a non-native speaker like me how and where do you practice your Spanish? Leave a comment below!
And more to come on how I have and hope to continue to incorporate dance into my classroom...stay tuned!
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