Boston Rueda was started in the early 2000s by Rueda de Casino dancers in the Boston area who were interested in dancing together, learning new moves, performing, etc.
José Barretto ran Boston Rueda for many years – thank you José! Now as José has stepped away, we decided to bring Boston Rueda back, both teaching and dancing Rueda de Casino. José still has a super-useful site for Rueda callers which can be found here.
Our team:
Ellie Botshon
Ellie got hooked on dancing salsa while teaching in Costa Rica in 1992 and has never looked back. In 2010 she saw people dancing rueda in Cambridge and loved the energy and vibe of this community-focused dance – and equally loved the “no partner needed” rule! Ellie is happy to follow and is learning how to lead. Outside of Rueda, Ellie is a full time Realtor, dog aficionado, hike enthusiast, and food explorer.
Tal Reichert
Originally from Israel, Tal started dancing Salsa in 2006. He discovered Rueda and subsequently joined Boston Rueda in 2007. He enjoys teaching, leading and calling, but can also follow if asked. Other than dancing Rueda, professionally Tal is a software engineer who in his spare time keeps bees, flies small planes and practices Shotokan Karate.
Diana Ruiz
Diana Ruiz is a Cuban dance instructor who lives in Cambridge, MA. She was born and grew up in Mexico City, and moved to Boston in 2009 to study International Business at Northeastern University. Diana discovered and fell in love with Rueda de Casino back in 2013 when MIT Casino Rueda was teaching free lessons at Havana Club in Cambridge. Soon after, she started teaching and choreographing with the group. In 2017, she started her own performance group called Despelote. After taking a break to finish grad school and waiting out the pandemic, she is excited to be back teaching again with Boston Rueda!
Chris Turner
Chris started dancing Salsa with Masacote in 2008, as well as bachata and merengue. Later, Chris unexpectedly stumbled upon Rueda at a Salsa social and was hooked. Chris has performed in Salsa, Bachata, Rueda, Casino, Son, Tango, and Cha-Cha-Cha.
Chris is a founding member of the 2016, monthly Guateque Cubano social and works as a software quality engineer at Bose.
Cathy Young
Cathy started dancing Rueda about 10 years ago and quickly developed a deep appreciation and love of Cuban music as well as dancing Casino and Rueda. She took private lessons in Casino from several professional Cuban dance instructors, including DC Casineros, over the past 10 years to learn to dance Casino and how to teach it. Cathy has also participated in numerous Rueda festivals and received advanced instruction from professional Rueda teachers across Europe, Canada and the U.S. and is excited to be back at Boston Rueda.
Cathy currently works at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.