It’s Carnaval weekend in San Francisco, and while we can’t parade in person this year, RCR will be hosting a set of three online Carnaval Events:

1) Friday Night Rehearsal (Salsa Suelta, Footwork, + Rhythm Class) — 7:00 to 8:30pm

We’ll be teaching Ryan’s choreography to his edit of Pastilla de Menta (by Havana D Primera) during this week’s Friday night class. It’s a fun salsa suelta routine that includes elements of conga, rumba, and mambo — all con mucho ritmo. Click here to see an early version of the routine featuring the All Stars. We’ll be reviewing the same choreo on Sunday during the workout, and then dancing it together afterwards on Zoom on Sunday (see below). As usual, our Friday night class will happen LIVE on the RCR Facebook Page.

2) Sunday Carnaval Workout — 1:00 to 2:30pm (LIVE on the RCR Facebook Page)

For our weekly Salsa Workout, in addition to dancing to great Cuban music and getting some vigorous exercise, this Sunday we will be reviewing elements of some of our previous carnaval routines that we’ve developed over the years (we started in 2010). At the end of the class at 2:10pm we’ll quickly review the routine for Pastilla de Menta (see above), that we’ll be dancing together during the Zoom Carnaval Party (see below).

3) Sunday Zoom Carnaval Party — 2:30 to 3:10pm

After learning (or reviewing) the choreo for Pastilla de Menta on Friday night, and reviewing the routine at the end of the workout class on Sunday afternoon, we’ll be getting together on Zoom so we can all dance it together! Please wear past years’ RCR (or other) Carnaval costumes, your favorite RCR shirt, or just something colorful. The plan is to dance the whole routine two times to practice, and then the third time we’ll film it so that we can create a 2020 Carnaval performance video to be shared on Facebook (if you don’t want to be in the video please still join us for the Zoom party). Afterwards we can hang out on Zoom for a few minutes, appreciate each other’s costumes, reminisce about past years’ Carnavals, and enjoy some post-Carnaval drinks ;) Click here to access the Zoom party (password is all lower case, the blank in rueda con _____).

We hope you can join us for Carnaval this year online, and next year in person!!!

As always, we’re offering all online classes on a sliding-scale, by donation basis. We understand these are hard economic times for many people, so there’s no obligation, but as professional dancers we certainly do appreciate any contributions you can make ($5 - 20 suggested per class). We use Venmo (Ryan-Mead-1), PayPal (ryanandsidney@gmail.com), Zelle (3017756142), and can even accept credit card payments: https://checkout.square.site/pay/fdd1748ae19c412e8c3da8a1b1122f50). Just be sure not to use the word “Cuba” — it automatically suspends the transaction.