Reynaldo Salazar: Keeping the Circle Turning — A Cuban Master of Rueda de Casino

When people talk about “the heartbeat of a rueda,” they usually mean the music or the caller’s voice. Ask anyone who has taken a workshop with Reynaldo Salazar, though, and they’ll tell you the heartbeat is Reynaldo himself. Born and raised in Santiago de Cuba and now a globe-trotting instructor, he embodies the mix of tradition, creativity and pure joy that has carried rueda de casino from the back-yards of 1950s Havana to dance floors on every continent. This profile draws primarily on a recent in-depth interview, supplemented with a few background notes, to show how Salazar keeps the circle turning while guarding its Cuban soul.

Rueda de casino began in Havana social clubs in the late 1950s: several couples form a circle (rueda = wheel), a caller shouts figure names, and everyone moves in unison while partners fly around the ring. The format made casino (the original Cuban salsa) instantly watchable, so when Cuban television launched the contest show Para Bailar Casino in the 1970s, the dance exploded across the island and, eventually, the world. Salazar’s own story starts a few decades later, but those TV lights would shine on him too.

Reynaldo Salazar proves a dance can circle the globe without losing the flavour of the street corner where it began. He protects the classic fifty figures like museum pieces, yet keeps inventing fresh formations that push rueda forward. If you want to feel the true pulse of Cuban casino—whether you’re spinning in Santiago, Stuttgart, or Oslo —find a class with Reynaldo. It’s the quickest route to the source.

• Check his classes here on rueda.casino.
  
• Book a spot at his next international bootcamp or SalsaNor Rueda Congress.
  
• Or just gather some friends, shout your Setenta on the five, and dance it with cubanía.
  

“That,” says Maestro Salazar, “is how rueda will keep spinning for many years to come.”

Reynaldo’s first deep dive into rueda de casino came on campus of the Universidad de Oriente in Santiago de Cuba, when the already-acclaimed instructor Jorge Luna hand-picked him for the very first line-up of the Rueda de Casino All Stars. Under Luna’s mentorship—and firmly guided by his teacher’s voice—Reynaldo felt the electric rush of leading a circle of curious students through their earliest synchronised turns. That mix of youthful energy and Santiago’s omnipresent rhythms convinced him that rueda could be far more than a pastime: it could become his calling. Today he refers to himself as a “founder” because he stood in that inaugural group selected by Luna, a distinction that honours both his own roots and his mentor’s leadership.

The university project grew at lightning speed. By day Reynaldo still handled academic duties, but every evening he absorbed Luna’s lessons in timing, structure and crowd-pleasing choreography while helping rehearse sequences that pushed style and speed. Within a year, under Luna’s direction, the most dedicated students had been forged into the Rueda de Casino All Stars—a team known for fusing playful flair with razor-sharp precision. Rehearsals spilled into warm Caribbean nights, drums echoing across campus as Luna called out transitions and Reynaldo, one of the original dancers, drilled them until every hand-clap hit the beat.

What made Reynaldo stand out—even then—was the depth of technique he brought from Cuba’s broader dance heritage. Years of training in popular Cuban dances, plus a solid grounding in Afro-Cuban folklore, gave him a toolkit far richer than basic casino steps. He layered rumba body-work into standard figures, sharpened footwork with son cadence, and borrowed the dramatic flair of orisha movements to elevate simple partner swaps into theatrical moments. That technical breadth still underpins his teaching today, allowing students to feel not just the steps of rueda but the full cultural tapestry that makes the wheel spin.

The first thing Reynaldo mentions when asked what makes him proudest is figures—the endless stream of playful, inventive moves he’s added to keep the rueda fresh and exciting worldwide. Students know him as a walking cornucopia of steps: always ready with an unexpected arm wrap, a tempo flip, or a partner-swap variation no one saw coming. As a result, many of Europe’s most popular formations today—rueda torno, rueda dos líneas, and contemporary spins on llanta—all bear a distinct Salazar signature.

His newest showpiece, “llanta moderna,” takes Alberto Valdez’s classic “llanta” formation and infuses it with rapid partner rotations, contra-tiempo pauses, and rhythmic accents that challenge both musicality and team cohesion. In workshops Reynaldo breaks down the logic behind every invention, urging dancers to build on his ideas and reminding them that creativity is the engine that keeps the rueda wheel turning on the global stage.

Watch him teach and you’ll see all four rules in action. He peppers instructions with mini-history lessons—why a move is called La Prima, where Setenta came from—and slips a rumba body-roll demo right in the middle of counting “uno-dos-tres.” The result: technique, timing, and pure Cuban joy, all spinning in the same circle.

That fidelity doesn’t make him a traditionalist in the negative sense; rather, it provides the launch-pad for innovation. By locking the fundamentals in place, Salazar gives dancers a stable reference point from which to experiment—adding flourishes, mixing tempos, or weaving in formations like rueda torno or llanta moderna without eroding the dance’s identity. He often compares the process to jazz: you learn the standards first, then riff. The result is a global rueda community that can celebrate regional flavor while still sharing a common heartbeat—a heartbeat Salazar safeguards one perfectly executed dame at a time.

As previously mentioned, Reynaldo is not a stranger to experiment with structures him self and treats these cutting-edge formats as living laboratories. Rueda dos lineas and Llanta Moderna, a twist of Rueda llanta originally created by Alberto Valdez is results of Reynaldos experimentation.

Innovation, he insists, must amplify the music and the communal feel of the wheel; if a flashy cross-circle swap breaks the groove or leaves beginners stranded, it goes back to the drawing board. By framing creativity as an ongoing dialogue—testing, refining, and sharing—he keeps the dance evolving while every fresh layer stays firmly anchored to the core Cuban heartbeat.

The moment of triumph? When a mixed-nationality wheel nails a tough rueda contrario, freezes on the last beat, and the whole circle bursts out laughing to a loud “¡se acabó!”

If you’re ready to dive deeper, follow Reynaldo’s classes here on rueda.casino, join one of his international festival bootcamps, or simply grab some friends and keep the circle turning. Just remember to call your Setenta on the five, shout it loud, and dance it with cubanía. That, says Maestro Salazar, is how rueda will endure for many years to come.