What makes our classes unique?
At Dame2Salsa, we teach Cuban rueda as, in our humble opinion, it is the best way to learn Cuban salsa. As all the moves are performed together in a circle at the same time, helping students assimilate the rhythm better. This also helps to internalize the rhythmic patterns of salsa in far less classes. As you change partners constantly, our students will get used to dancing with different kinds of partners, which in turn gets them ready for social dancing (clubs, dance events, etc.). And after all, salsa is a social dance!
In salsa, as is true in many ballroom dances, there are two roles: the one who leads (lead or leader) and the one who follows (follow or follower). Conventionally, the leader role has been performed by the man and the follower role by the woman. However, both teachers dance both roles, and the choice of learning a role is entirely up to the student and never based on sex or gender. Also, we never force students to learn both roles because we believe it is more beneficial to focus on one and excel.
Our groups
Our class groups are small and balanced. We firmly believe that we can dedicate more time and attention to individual students when there are only a few people in class. This is the reason why our groups have a maximum of 16 students (some only 10!) and always two teachers in every class. We always have the same spots available for leaders and followers in a group: in a 10-student group there are spots for 5 leaders and 5 followers. This way everybody dances and students do not need to wait for their turn to dance. Signing up with a dance partner is not required, as we always take it upon ourselves to organize the groups to accommodate everyone to make up a balanced group of dancers.
At Dame2Salsa, our groups are closed, which is very difficult to find in a dance class. Once every 3-month course starts, we do not allow people to sign up until the course is over. This allows for all the students in a class to have the same level and learn consistently, at the same pace. Furthermore, it also prevents the situation where a newcomer would join in the middle of the course, probably feeling lost and stopping the progress for the rest of the class.
Our ruedas
Our ruedas are not only fun, but they have a lot of flow and there are lots of transitions. We understand there are callers who prefer ruedas with a lot of pauses and very long figures, as we also do that in level 1 for obvious reasons. However, from level 2 onward, our ruedas are very flowy, transition-oriented, and focused on all dancers to have an active role (and not only leaders).
We have spent years not only teaching, but also developing cuban rueda and rueda de casino. We partake on international events and congresses, we bring famed rueda teachers and we also teach our own workshops. We are your one-stop rueda shop.
Our levels
We have 5 rueda levels. This means anybody can join, no matter if they don’t know the basic step or they have been dancing rueda for very long and are tired of seeing ruedas where the calls are always the same.
Even though the general difficulty is in crescendo, each level except the first two ones (which are introductory) is thematic. To make sure that newcomers sign up for the right level for them, we do a level test or group assignment.
Every level theme is explained on our class schedule page. We normally open two groups per level, so students can come twice a week if they want to do so, or make up classes if they had to miss them.
It’s easy to discover that in our classes, it’s practically impossible not to have a good time, laugh, and lose the fear of dancing salsa and meet fellow students. However, it is quite obvious that behind it, there is a solid methodology and top-notch organization. We could say that the serious organization behind the scenes contrasts with the relaxed and playful atmosphere of the classes.
Our resources
Some people say “practice makes perfect.” However, we believe that “practice makes permanent”, including what we learn. Therefore, we offer several options for Dame2Salsa students to continue practicing after classes.
We have a Online Virtual Campus, which any Dame2Salsa student can access for free, where we have videos, step lists, extra explanations, review quizzes, and many other resources.
But there’s also the option to request extra review classes, join an extra group class, sign up to come twice a week, or even take private classes to reinforce the content. Whatever is necessary to build a solid salsa foundation!
Our meetups: Dame2Salsa on the dance floor!
We strongly advocate for practicing what is learnt in class, which is the main reason behind going dancing with our students. Every other week we plan a meetup, especially to clubs or parties where they play enough salsa. We don’t get any commission from bringing students anywhere. We just go with them because we want to and we love to dance. Some examples of where usually go: Clubs El Son, Azúcar and Bongos, alongside with private dance club Enchufla.
Sometimes, we ourselves organize salsa events in Madrid, either in a venue or, if the weather is nice, outdoors. For example, from time to time, we set up salsa at Príncipe Pío. This way, we can provide all the salsa that Madrid’s salsa dancers demand!
Here is one of the videos we made when we reopened (September 2021), precisely with salsa at La Ermita de Virgen del Puerto:
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