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 Turner is a Cuban dance instructor from South Boston, MA. Graduated Northeastern University for Business Administration with focus on economics and marketing and minor in sociology. He’s currently a software quality engineer at Bose.
Chris started dancing On2 salsa with Masacote, and Bachata, in 2008. He unexpectedly, stumbled upon Rueda at a salsa social and ever since, was hooked. In 2012, he transitioned from salsa into Cuban dance, including Casino, Rueda de Casino, Son, and Cha-Cha-Cha. Since then, he started taking Rueda lessons with Boston Rueda (BR) under the teaching of José Barretto. During the latter days of BR, Chris took on a bigger role, including calling, teaching calling, as well as moves and structure. Chris was with BR up until the retiring of his teacher, pre-Covid and has since, gone on to reboot BR, Post-Covid, along with partners, Catherine Young, Ellie Botshon, Diana Ruiz and Tal Reichert, all of which, were involved with BR along the way.
In between 2008 and current, Chris has been in several performances, including bachata, tango, Rueda, Son and musicality. Chris was also trained in Casino, by the Cuban trained, Kristina Masson, as well as certification trained by Amanda Gill and Adrian Valdiva of DC Casineros in Método del Cuadro del Casino (MCC). He was also trained in MCC by Polish dance company, Sí O Sí, by Wojciec and Joanna Osiński. With that knowledge, Chris taught Casino for several years, including private lessons for individuals and groups, with his dance partner, Catherine Young, in their own dance company, in Boston and in Cambridge. Chris also taught Rueda de Casino for two seasons at Boston’s, Salsa in the Park!
Chris has since been to several Cuban dance congresses here in the States, Europe, Canada, Mexico (2023) and has performed in a Son performance, taught by a Cuban instructor, in Cuba.
Chris and friends, started the neutral Facebook group, Boston Casino Social Club for all factions of Boston/Cambridge Cuban dance and has been a founding and principal member of the Cuban dance social, Guateque Cubano Boston, since 2016.
He is very happy to be back with BR as your instructor and has already met wonderful students!
Chris also plays volleyball!