RCR is back at the Lake Merritt Dance Center in Oakland, hosting a Cuban Salsa Dance Party every 1st Saturday of the month. On Saturday, December 3rd we’ll be celebrating the 15th Anniversary of Rueda Con Ritmo!
The venue is the main ballroom at the Lake Merritt Dance Center which is a PERFECT venue for dancing — an amazing hardwood dance floor with lots of space to dance, beautiful decor, and a stage for live music. Here’s the schedule for the night:
7:00pm Doors Open
7:15pm Beginner (Level 1) Cuban Salsa Dance Class (with Cristina upstairs in Hall 2)
7:15pm Int/Adv Rueda Con Ritmo Dance Class (with Ryan & Sidney, LIVE percussion)
8:15pm DJ SpinCycle — Salsa y Timba Cubana
9:00pm Dance Performances
9:30pm Live Salsa with Edgardo & Candela
10:15pm DJ Ritmo & DJ SpinCycle
10:45pm Edgardo & Candela 2nd Set
11:30pm DJ Ritmo
Registration Links
Beginning Class & Party (7:15pm class, party until midnight)
Int/Adv Class & Party (7:15pm class, party until midnight)
Party Only (admission at 8:15, party until midnight)
We offer all of our classes and events on a sliding scale to make them accessible to as many people as possible (we are professional artists so if you are able to pay the regular price it is much appreciated). When you check out, you can enter either 25OFF or 50OFF as codes to receive 25% or 50% discounts.
Edgardo & Candela have been based in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1986, making them one of the longest-running salsa bands in California. For our party they will be playing a mix of covers (including by Cuban artists Los Van Van and Issac Delgado) and original music. RCR first collaborated with Candela in a combined live-music-and-dance performance 2011, and then in 2016 Edgardo wrote a song in honor of the group — “Rueda Con Ritmo” — which featured Calixto Oviedo on timbales, one of the innovators of timba percussion as a member of NG La Banda in the 90s. At our Anniversary Party, RCR will be doing a reprise performance of their choreography with Candela’s live music that went viral on Facebook.
DJ SpinCycle is a long-time friend of RCR — he danced in their first performance in 2007. He has been spinning Cuban and other Caribbean and African Diasporic music for decades.
DJ Ritmo (Ryan Mead) is co-director of Rueda Con Ritmo along with Sidney Weaverling. He went to Cuba for the first time in 2003 and has been playing, dancing to, and studying Cuban music ever since (he even wrote his Stanford thesis on Cuban music). You can read his full bio here.
The LMDC building is owned by the City of Oakland so we are required to vacate by midnight. Masks are NOT required at our event in the ballroom or Hall 3 (designated food and drink area adjacent to ballroom), but masks ARE required in the hallway and bathrooms as the space is shared with other groups.
There is absolutely no food or drink in the ballroom, including water — be sure to keep all food and drink (including water) in Hall 3.