About Us

The correct name of our organization is "Salsa Rueda Santa Cruz" or "SRSC".

SRSC is not a Salsa dance troupe but a team of 5 to 8 volunteers who all work during the day other jobs. See also 'Team and Bios' on the right.
The members of this team love and support this fun and healthy dance with its happy music and the wonderful community around it so much, that they are committed on the evenings and weekends to keep this organization together and teach Salsa dance Casino Rueda style or short 'Salsa Rueda'.
There is a core team of members with committed schedules and task and there are other team members who volunteer without the committed tasks and schedules.

As the heart of the organization is the team of teachers and supporters, so is the body the wonderful people who make up this growing community of over one hundred people every week. Bringing happiness and smiles to our students make all the efforts worthwhile. Without this wonderful community, there would not be the heart.

We perform this cultural unique Cuban Dance style in a dynamic circle to the rhythmic of Caribbean Salsa music. See also a description of Salsa Rueda is in 'History of Salsa'.

Since June 2001, "Salsa Rueda Santa Cruz" is a registered, non-political, hate-free, not-exclusive, community-oriented social dance organization of dancers, lovers and supporters of Cuban Salsa dancing Casino-Rueda style in Santa Cruz, California.
Salsa Rueda Santa Cruz is promoted by "Cruzy.org - Artists & Entertainment".

We are proud to be a member of the non-profit S.C.E.A.N. (Santa Cruz Ethnics Arts Network) and its umbrella organization and are proud to be supporters of various organizations in the community such as schools and family events, Fundraising events for 'One World Children's Fund', Hospitals, 'Save Our Shores', parades and many more. See all of our supportive efforts in 'Performances & Events' section.

We can accept tax deductible donations and grants through S.C.E.A.N. and sponsorships!

Major Recognitions and Awards:
the 2002 WE Carnival Awards, 2004 Calabash Award and 2005 TV Show Special.

-back to top

Our History

We started back in April 2001. After the teacher who started teaching Salsa Rueda in Santa Cruz, Sidney Weaverling, left Santa Cruz, a few people expressed their hope to continue dancing Salsa Rueda. They wanted to continue to participate at the upcoming yearly WE Carnival parade downtown Santa Cruz in June 2001.
Triggered by an overwhelming demand, Gilberto Reyes (Gilberto) and Christian Dieseldorff (Chris) got together and decided to support the participation at the parade.
In April 2001, Chris organized the people and the music and paid for the room for the rehearsals at Louden Nelson and Gilberto (Gilberto Reyes) was the instructor of the performing group. At that time we called ourselves 'Con Sabor'. We made T-shirts with 'Con Sabor' written on Sardines (yes, we mean fish!) as background. We had people coming from as far as Mountain View and about 20 people participated at the parade. You can see photos of our rehearsals and parade in the 'Photo Album'.
After the parade, many people suggested to continue Salsa Rueda as a club. After meetings and discussions which included Kristen Bowne and Anita Lechuga, we started our organization in July 2001. Since we did not have the funding and resources for a non-profit organization, we started as a legitimate sole proprietary registered under the name 'Salsa Rueda Santa Cruz'.
At that time Gilberto already increased the interest to Salsa Rueda dance by teaching Salsa Rueda classes at the SPA fitness center on Monday evenings at Bay Avenue in Capitola, CA.
The people who actual started the organization in July 2001 were Christian Dieseldorff and Gilberto Reyes. Chris modeled possible business structures, registered the organization, invested and assumed ownership and Gilberto looked for a place. Gilberto found a place at the newly opened Cayuga Vault. Chris supported the start up of the organization with rent and sound system. He designed the posters and flyers and managed the organization and took care of marketing. Gilberto started to teach the first classes at the Cayuga Vault on a Wednesday at 6pm with about 10 people and rapid increasing interest in the community. Both Gilberto's and Chris' enthusiasm attracted the people.
A couple of month later, Cesario Ruiz joint the team permanently. Cesario is by far a multitalented natural who started with one class in 2001 and teaches most of our classes from Beginners 1 to the Advanced class at the end of 2003. At the end of 2002 Anne Cleveland joined the team as permanent instructor until summer 2004. Her experience as teacher are a wonderful addition to our team.

The instructors are also directors and each of them contributes with their own style, music and enthusiasm to the success of our classes and performances. The directors and instructors are (in alphabetical order) Anne Cleveland, Gilberto Reyes and Cesario Ruiz. The producer and manager of the organization is Christian Dieseldorff who also teaches Beginners classes. The executive producer is Jessica Manke who has 5 years experience as professional dancer and performer at ballet companies in Virginia and Nashville in a prior career. See also 'our team & bios' of each team member.

Our classes increased from 10 people to up to 50 people in one class and we count over 100 members as of 2004. People come from as far as Monterey, Salinas, Hollister, San Jose and Mountain View to our classes and we had visitors from all over the world who joined our classes such as from Mexico, Israel, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain and Brazil. 'Salsa Rueda Santa Cruz' did not only support numerous community events actively with performances like not many others but also supported fund-raising events with financial contributions. See a complete list of our 'Performances & Events' to your left.

-back to top

Our Mission and Vision

Our Mission
Our mission is to introduce, promote and maintain the ethnic art of Salsa dance Casino-Rueda style de Cuba as a vehicle to support cultural integration to the community and offer an entertaining environment in order to bring fun and happiness to the people.

We believe that because of its nature dancing in a circle, Salsa Rueda dance unifies people of all ages, ethnics, race, religion, believes, gender and profession dancing together.

Salsa Rueda Santa Cruz is friendly and supportive to other teachers and organizations and supports community events actively and with funds in the community in order to promote and maintain 'Salsa Rueda Santa Cruz' in Santa Cruz County, the Monterey Bay Area and the Bay Area by:

1. Providing affordable dance instruction to the community
2. Maintaining and promoting the cultural aspect of Salsa Casino Rueda style.
3. Promoting fitness through a cardiovascular challenging dancing style
4. Promoting community integration by practicing an interactive dancing style
5. Providing opportunities to perform for different audiences

Our Vision
To unify people of all ages, ethnicity and professions in the dance.
Our vision is to support community and unity by building teams working on activities like dancing together Salsa Rueda and to promote creativity and individuality through dance activities.

-back to top

Our Culture and Philosophy

Our philosophy is to support others and be respectful.

The culture of our classes, dance and performances:
We want people to feel comfortable, have fun together and have a great time!
To ensure everyone feels comfortable we defined our culture and philosophy as follows:

Salsa Rueda Santa Cruz is a non-political, hate-free, non-exclusive, community-oriented social dance organization.
Over time we have built a big community which comes together to classes, dance or performances or other events. In this community we strive for a culture in which we are respectful, supportive and friendly to each other.

We try to be inclusive to everyone unless a person's behavior disrupts our culture and philosophy, disturbs others or our classes.
We do not tolerate any rude or disrespectful behavior towards anyone due to varying levels of dancing skills.
And we do not tolerate any rude or disrespectful behavior towards anyone due to (but not only): ethnicity, color of skin, religion, beliefs, gender, sexual orientation, disability and profession.

Should any misunderstanding occur, we encourage the parties to resolve them in a friendly and respectful manner. Otherwise, we encourage the parties to contact our management, so we can try to resolve any misunderstanding between the parties or try to find a solution.

We hope to maintain an environment which enables all people to have fun together and have a great time!

We support others:
Our philosophy is being respectful and supportive to other teachers and organizations who share the same mission, culture and philosophy. In that spirit we have been promoting and supporting teachers and other organizations in exchange for the same support.

Class requirements:
There is no set standard in the Salsa Rueda world regarding specific requirements or curriculum. Every region, dance club and instructor teach in their own way and style.
Because we are community oriented, we are non-exclusive and we do not represent any standards or specifications. SRSC instructors happen to know the Miami and Cuban influence on Rueda so that is what we focus on.

Our mission is not to maintain a strict tradition or standard but to bring dance and fun to the community. However, in order to be compatible to other classes as good as possible, we try to adapt to the latest requirements as set by other teachers and other areas such as Miami and Cuba.

Skill requirements:
Our skill requirements are fair guidelines developed to enable Salsa Rueda to everyone.
We know that they might not align to the requirements of other instructors and although we try to be compatible as good as possible, our mission is not to maintain a strict tradition or standard but to bring dance and fun to the community.

In order to maintain the integrity of the dance circle, we developed these guidelines to help you assess which classes to attend, and when it is time for you to ‘move up’ to the next skill level. Our instructors are happy to advise you before, during and after classes.
We recognize that in each class, there is a wide range of skill; and that is OK. For example, some people know the Intermediate level moves better than others, as well as some folks just entered this level of class.
As said before, we do not tolerate any rude behavior towards anyone because of varying levels of skills within a particular class range.

-back to top

Policies for Membership - Updated June 2004

The member understands and agrees to following membership policy

Pre-qualification for membership:
A person of legal age or legal permission of custodian, of honest intention and proper behavior, sensitive and respectful to cultural differences, who wants to be active in building community. We are a hate-free, non-political, non-exclusive, community-oriented organization!

The principal function of the member
is to support and to promote Salsa Rueda Santa Cruz and actively participate and support our classes and performances and events. The member also understands, agrees and supports 'Our Culture & Philosophy' as described in the 'Our Culture & Philosophy' Section. The member will actively support our our mission to bring Salsa Rueda to new people and new communities.

Benefit of membership:
You save money
The more classes you attend the more you save! The savings can be substantial!
The Membership entitles members to attend all classes in a calendar month in Santa Cruz (not including workshops, events etc) to which the participants fulfills the recommended needed skill sets as outlined in our guidelines.For example, if you attend 3 classes per week you save $26.
Discounts for Members
On occasion members receive also special discounts for workshops or special events. Our plan is that members will be on the club's distribution list and will be notified of any invitations, special events and messages. A member can become an officer to make a contribution to the success of Salsa Rueda Santa Cruz. Membership fees are waived for officers. To become an officer, contact one of the current officers for information.

Conditions of membership:
Membership period, fees and discounts:
-> Memberships are based on the calendar month and due in the first week of each month. The Sign-up period for every membership is in the first week of every calendar-month.
-> Our fees are already priced to be accessible to everyone in the community, so there are no discounts.
-> We do not give refund or credit for classes you could not attend for any reason! For example: if you paid for a one month membership but could not come to our classes in the last week because of sickness or travel, we will not refund or credit for the classes you missed.
Amount of classes, schedule, location and nature:
The amount of classes per month vary pending amount of days per month, holidays, announced SRSC holidays, availability of rooms and availability of dance instructors or other circumstances beyond SRSC control. We do not guarantee the same amount of classes each month. Members agree that Salsa Rueda Santa Cruz can make changes to schedule and location and that Salsa Rueda Santa Cruz can make changes to the style and nature of each class. The Salsa Rueda Santa Cruz membership applies only in Santa Cruz and does not apply to classes in other cities.
Recommended skill level and culture:
Members understand and agree that our skill level requirements are guidelines which do not need to be conform with any skill requirements of other instructors
For example intermediate skill level members may go to beginners and intermediate class but beginners may only join the beginners and introduction class until ready for the intermediate class. SRSC instructors are happy to counsel all members regarding their progress.
"SRSC" culture and philosophy:
Members understand, agree and support our 'Culture and Philosophy' as outlined in the section 'Culture and Philosophy'.
Be an active member:
We ask our members to donate time and be more actively involved in and for Salsa Rueda Santa Cruz such as:
- support and promote Salsa Rueda Santa Cruz in the community
- constructive feedback and advice for improvements and suggestions
- donate time for the club's activities
- support beginners and intermediates at drop in classes
- participate in public performances

Release of liability and assumption of risk:
Members also understand and agree to the SRSC mission and vision and to the participant release form for assumption of risk, release of liability and photo release.

- -back to top

Officer Policy

Officers have certain roles and responsibilities in our team (see organization).
An officer has to donate more time and efforts to support and promote Salsa Rueda Santa Cruz activities like:
An officer comes to officer meetings and participates actively in the decision-making process and activities of Salsa Rueda Santa Cruz.

We ask officers to participate in the following type of activities:

- collecting cover charges at door
- control the entrances
- helping preparing dance workshops/classes
- help cleaning up after classes/events
- distribution of flyers

To become an officer, you can contact an officer and elaborate in which area you would like to contribute. Existing officers/trustees will need to evaluate and approve new officers.
Because active officers contribute actively on the success of our mission and vision and donate their own time, their membership fee is waived as long as their contributions justify it.

Guest Passes and invitations:
An officer can invite a person or couple to join a class as guests for introductory reasons in order to promote the mission of Salsa Rueda Santa Cruz.

If an officer is a director she/he can hand out guest passes for promotional reasons.

-back to top