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Hadn't really thought about that before.
I'm thinking that can't be the original design tho - if you really want to be exclusive, you don't work out a list of moves with your mates who live in the same town as you. The competitive bit comes in when you hear that the village up the road has a rueda group that's even more kicking than yours is :-)
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Hugh, I'm not sure that is historically correct...what is your source? (actually, I'm pretty certain it's not correct: that rueda was designed to be elitist and separatist in nature). |
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I once took a reueda class with a cuban guy, he told a similar story, that the people in different towns and villages would have their own calls so they could exclude outsiders.
its not "designed" to be elitist per say, but people wouldnt like outsiders coming in looking like better dancers. so they would make ousiders look stupid by using calls they didnt know.
Its like that even now, though not deliberatly, in ireland: in galway, midlands, and dublin, some calls are common, but others are different, some people have different names for the same thing, others do things with a dame at the end etc etc.
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Sounds like it's more about people asserting their own identity as opposed to being elitist and exclusive.
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Ok, my sources are a bit spurious, just a few Cuban/Spanish lads I know, and a WIKI website link for ( Rueda de Casino ), so apologies if I've gotten that wrong.  The difference between asserting your identity and being elitist to me is if you publish/tell visitors/neighbors to your town the move list to include people or if you keep it to yourself to exclude them. 
Certainly most history links dont mention this - just a basic born in 1950s dance halls....
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According to wikipedia (which doesn't guarantee any truth):
"Although the names of most calls are presently the same across the board, the different towns in Cuba use their own calls. This was due to the fact that when the pioneers of Rueda de Casino started, they wanted to keep others from participating in their Rueda. Nowadays many local variations of the calls can be found. They can change from town to town or even from teacher to teacher."
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True, Wiki isnt written in stone, but its more heavily monitored than it used to be, and combined with anecdotal evidence, there seems to be be some truth in it.
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So Just a couple of thoughts.
I heard from some native cubans that many moves or variations are made up from what is in the current conversation or zeitgeist. So if there is some controversy someone will invent a call like "enchufla Thierry" then everyone leads an enchfla plus imitation of handball or "enchufla venus williams" then its enchufla plus grunt. Everyone stays in step even if they dont get the call and there is somethig shared in the group - fun with friends and inclusive rather than exclusive.
There is also an etiquette about joining a rueda. Bringing yourselves to the edge of the rueda and signlling to the caller that you want to join, then waiting for an acknowledgement. Sometimes people just want to dance as a four/six/eightsome and sometimes they want to dance with all-comers welcome.
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