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Salsa Rueda Congress Of The Americas 2004-2008!

SRCA Comments

Henry,
Thank you so much for a GREAT Congress! I loved dancing with everyone and had a great time connecting with Pupy. We talked at length about African Rhythms and stories and my current recording project which I am flying out to Phoenix, Arizona to finish later this month. What a blessing to meet such wonderful people, see such great performances and have the opportunity to dance with so many wonderful people.
I am so grateful I was a part of this. Thank you!
-Amy

Great time! Thanks so much for all the effort and hard work you guys put into it! I took almost every workshop and was delighted by all the talented teachers! I am so happy Katie and Billy are there to support you! They are a powerful team in the dance congress world. Well, I can't say enough about how wonderful this event was! I hope to see you again next year!

Tonya Miller

Henry,I just wanted to congratulate you for the Salsa Rueda Congress 2008. It was the first time I attended and I really enjoyed it! Salsa Rueda is so much fun and being able to take your workshops was so refreshing! Please keep me informed of upcoming Salsa events in Miami so I can organize my trip from Houston in advance.Great Job!

Brenda Munoz

THANK YOU HENRY FOR GETTING US ALL TOGETHER!!!
Had a great time!!

Rubia))

Dear Henry.It was a pleasure to meet you at the congress and I wanted to let you know that I had a great time. Thank you for hosting such a wonderful event. I also wanted to let you know that I would be extremely interested in teaching a workshop at the next rueda congress. Please let me know if you think that this would be possible.Hi Henry.My name is Lynn Tullius from the group that represented Washington, DC. I am one of Steven Denlinger's RueadaUSA students. The Salsa Rueda congress this year was fantastic. Never have I seen so many Casineros in one room and so many people excited about Rueda. All the teachers were top notch. I came home tired and needing a vacation to recover from my vacation...but it was well worth it.

The Best: The first salsa rueda congress vastly exceeded my expectations. I have to admit they were very low going into the weekend. The professional instructors and top tier rueda callers, Ramani Nicola, Henri Herrera, Eric Suarez, Julian Meija and a couple of others made it work. Their calling style and repertoire made it both fun and inclusive. Anyone who could handle Intermediate Level I/II calls could hang in with any of the large ruedas. We're talking LARGE ruedas. Some of them had to have been about 100 couples and there had to be 2 or 3 circles to fit everyone on the dance floor. The callers and congress organizers did a good job to overcome the cliquish and reserved reputation that Miami has in the world salsa scene.

Note worthy : Only one boring evening of dance performances on Friday night. It started on time and finished quickly, THANK YOU! Saturday night was all about dancing, nothing but dancing and only about dancing. Congress organizers take note: Dancing is what we do, dancing is what we pay for, dancing is what we want. Lose the evening shows, they cut into our dance time. Do the performance shows in the afternoon.

More Note worthy.The workshops started on time. The instructors were very professional, were organized, had their music ready. All rueda workshops that I attended were danced to timba..claro que si!

A side note to all in Minneapolis on this list: I took the afro cuban rumba yambu and guaguancó workshops taught by Neri Torres of Cuba and Miami. Neri Torres' motion and isolations looked really good and one could tell that she is a very good professional performer. I wanted to compare her teaching style and approach with our own René Thompson http://www.renedance.com/ who will be continuing Afro Cuban Rumba classes here in the Twin Cities at Tapestries Folkdance Ctr on December 1, 8 and 15. http://www.tapestryfolkdance.org/. Both are graduates of Havana's Instituto Superior des Artes and used to perform professionally and tour worldwide with one of the Cuban National Dance companies. We are lucky to have René here in the Twin Cities. He is a much better instructor, as well as a musician and cultural historian and provides the full context of how the Afro Cuban Rumba is the basis and the essence of the popular cuban rhythms that we all dance to today.

We performed as a two couple team. We had practiced the moves from the rueda fresca video from http://www.boogalu.com/. I called: El Pulpo (crowd applause), Media Prima (crowd applause), Estrella Doble, Prima Enredela (missed the cue the first time, recovered with a dame con manos - tranca - los hombres...obviously the judges didn't miss the error) and finally Prima Enredela (crowd applause, got it right this time).
Time was up so I didn't get to call Team Cuba, Pantera or El Viaje. All the moves were from the video and only a few people in the room had ever seen all of them. Obviously, we didn't dance for the judges, we danced for the audience. The competition was merely a vehicle to get on a stage and demonstrate that there is a lot more rueda out there. Its not just Miami anymore. Its not just Havana anymore. The group in the video is from Santiago de Cuba. Adalante Santiago!

Hey even though I didn't end up going to the workshops it was still a great event. I am glad that you were able to put it together, who would of ever thought a rueda congress could happen... Thanks! - Mabel..

Henry,Unfortunately I wasn't able to visit the Salsa Rueda Congress.Are you going to have any videos (DVDs) from the congress
(competiotions, performances, workshops, etc) on sale. I would be verymuch interested.Thank you very much.Regards,Max Dikovitskiy

I look forward to buying the video of the Congress. And in a couple of weeks I'll give you a call, Henry. I have ideas on things I can do to help get more attendance at next year's Congress. Plus I have some other ideas that may help to make the Congress even better.Thanks so much for all the effort you put into the Congress so we could all meet each other and share what we know and what we love. Plus also thanks for the work you have done over the years in training countless Rueda dancers all over the world to help make this a world-wide movement!!

I'll write up an article soon and email it to you. I'll mail you photos to go with the article, too. You can use it any way you want to---to help publicize the event so people know about it for next year.Take care, Henry.I'll be in touch.Barb Bernstein

I want to thank you so much for having the inspiration and imagination to create such a wonderful event. My husband & I and another couple came to Miami from Binghamton, NY. We definitely plan to attend next year. The only thing we will do differently is come a few days early & stay a few days after to enjoy Miami and relax.
We plan to purchase a video when they become available. It will be wonderful to see the faces of all the amazing people we were privileged to meet, including yourself. My friend Roxanne & I had a blast at your workshop. Next year, we plan to take all the workshops you instruct. Your energy, enthusiasm and love of rueda & salsa brought the energy at the workshop to great heights!!!!Thank you again for this wonderful event. I hope to see you next year.Phyllis Deyo

Buenas Henry, Primeramente te quiero dar las gracias por todo. Me as tratado no solamente como un profesional pero tambien como un hermano. Quiero que sepas que estoy aqui cuando me nesesites. Otra vez gracias por todo y espero el proximo congresso de Rueda.Quidate mucho,Franklin Ayala tu hermano.

Henry. My wife and I attended your Rueda Congreso. We live in upstate NY and we had an absolute BLAST! We can't wait for next year's Congreso!!! Great Job to you and Billy!Maybe next year it can be held at a hotel on the beach? :) And maybe the discount on parking for Rueda participants can be better? Other than that it was fantastic. Also...in your website next year and in your program guide you should say that Videotaping is Not Allowed that way people will know ahead of time and might not bring video cameras.Anyway...thanks again for a job well done! Keep up the good work....y que Viva La Rueda!!! Siempre,John and Roxanne Mestre

Dear Henry and all at Salsa Racing!
We enjoyed the salsa reuda congress to the fullest and can assure you that we will travel with a larger group of people for the congress next year.
We will be posting an article in our newspaper here in Barbados about the event.Please do keep us informed on any new videos, events etc.
In Salsa Unity Maj-Britt/Salsita & Nicole SalsaVida Barbados

I just wanted to thank you Henry for a great time. Muchas Gracias, goze una tonga!!!!!!

The First Salsa Rueda Congress in Miami:
A Fantastic Experience For Everyone!by Barbara Bernstein
www.DanceInTimeProductions.com

The first time I visited Miami and went to a Salsa Club, it felt like everyone was speaking some special "dance language" that I knew. In Miami, Salsa dancers largely do Rueda moves, so anyone with Rueda training will feel right at home.On my first night at a Miami club, I spotted Henry Herrera dancing. Watching him with his partner about blew my mind and rocked my world. I'd never seen anything like it! He did the "drop on his knee" thing; the "leg swung over his arm" thing, plus other wild maneuvers----right there on the floor of a club! It was beyond awesome.I couldn't sleep that night, I was so wired. Back home, I described what I'd seen and immediately there was talk about a group of us going to Miami together. Since then I've visited the Miami studios with other dancers to get advanced training whenever I get the chance.Most recently, I went to Miami for the Salsa Rueda Congress run by Henry and Billy Fajardo (an exhibition Salsa and Hustle dancer). It was a marvelous experience, and had a distinctly different feel than the (strictly) Salsa Congresses I've gone to. I suppose that is to be expected. Rueda dancers are all members of some group. So the groups connected with each other which is different from the more individualistic atmosphere at a Salsa Congress.One thing about Rueda dancers: They need each other. They make friends in groups and travel in packs. If you want to dance Salsa at a nightclub, all you need is one partner. If you want to make a Rueda circle, you need to pull together a bunch of Casineros.It was a joy at the Congress to dance with scores of Rueda dancers in huge circles, while listening to the calls being blended in all sorts of ways. Many new ideas filled the weekend. The Rueda Competitions showed fascinating and original ways to present Rueda dancing. For example, one group simply had a number of couples spread evenly around the floor, all doing a preset series of steps. They moved in synchrony and didn't coalesce into a circle till well into the performance. Other groups did all sorts of formations and choreographies----facing outside the circle, creating lines and diagonals---you name it.And of course, there were many workshops including all levels of Rueda, from beginner to advanced. The Rueda teachers resemble super energetic cheerleaders. They speak loudly and at a frenetic pace, as though they are always yelling out the calls, even when they are just explaining a move! And they keep it up for the whole hour. To say these are lively classes would be an understatement. Being in a class with other Rueda dancers from all over the world, learning together, and following these energetic directions was quite a high.The two giants of Casino Rueda, Rene Gueits of Salsa Lovers Dance Studio and Henry Herrera of Salsa Racing Dance Studio, both taught some very cool Rueda moves, as did other teachers such as Julian Mejia from Atlanta, Duann Wrenn from Michigan, Frank Ayala from NY, and many others. Also notable were some other interesting workshops that were a little off the beaten path, such as Sidney Weaverling's "triples"---a series of moves for one leader with two followers; Neri Torres' Cuban Rumba and Guaguanco; Billy Fajardo's class on Salsa dips, drops and lifts; plus classes on Cha Cha, Hip Hop, Bachata Rueda, and Shines "on One," etc. There was a rich array to choose from.And there was dancing, dance talk, and Rueda circles swirling around the entire weekend. I left one workshop briefly, heading for the bathroom, and en route my eye was drawn to something unusual. It was a Rueda circle that was facing out, so that the dancers would face an audience if there were one. They did a number of moves that way and then resumed the usual position. The transition from facing in to out of the circle and vice versa was a pretty series of turns that were smoothly done.Likewise, the general dances at the Congress were laden with Rueda circles. People hopped in and were always welcome to enlarge the circles. I joined a group that was primarily from Salsa Lovers Studio as a follower. They danced fast and sharp, doing some extremely complicated moves that were wonderful! I also danced with the ladies' group out of San Francisco. I'd heard many great things about this group prior to meeting them. Their teachers and callers, Sidney Weaverling and Cora Barnes were excellent and lots of women joined the core of all female rueda circles that these ladies began. The women-only Ruedas made quite a splash at the Congress, dancing with energy, poise, and style. It was a joy to participate!The World Amateur Rueda Championship Competition was another highlight of the Congress. I had been asked months ago to be one of the judges. It turned out to be an even more exciting experience than I'd expected, as there were a couple of irregularities that the judges were asked to rule on.What happened was that in an effort to make the contest strong, the organizers were encouraging groups to enter, and one large team said they would break into two groups to help out. Everyone seemed happy to do whatever would strengthen the event, which was commendable. But after the initial round, when both of those subgroups made it to the finals, they felt that they should be able to present a choreography they'd been working on that required their entire group. Other groups were doing really nice choreographies and they didn't want to be penalized for being helpful. The judges concurred unanimously that this should be allowed.There was another small glitch regarding who was allowed to participate that was handled with openness and grace, and was promptly resolved to everyone's satisfaction. Billy Fajardo did a fine job of running all the details of the contest and dealing with everything that came up. He really deserves a pat on the back for his contribution.As a judge, it wasn't easy distinguishing between so many strong contestants. There was both a Salsa competition and a Rueda competition. They all deserve to be commended for putting together their routines and making an effort to contribute to the Congress. The producers of the event made a video, so anyone who wants to see these shows or the workshops can buy a copy from Henry at SalsaRacing.com.The performances on Friday and Saturday nights were great, too. The Miami Studios, Salsa Racing and Salsa Lovers did particularly fabulous, high energy shows and there were many other exciting performances as well. One performance featured two eleven year olds who moved like experienced Salseros. It was no surprise that they got a standing ovation. A friend sitting next to me kept saying, "Just think what they'll be able to do when they're 20!!"Everyone I exchanged contact information with has said they had a great time, and many commented that they are looking forward to next year's Congress. So the preparations have already begun! If anyone is interested in information on next year's Congress (or in competing or helping out), details should be available on the SalsaRacing.com website by late spring. See ya then!!