So spring and summer is coming and we know we talk about that a lot, but it makes us happy and makes us want to dance even more!

However, salsa is not just about dancing, but also about community, so why don’t you grab some friends and some people you’d like to get to know, and have a pre-party before going dancing?

Here are some drinks we have tested when we wanted to get into the salsa party mood!

Strawberry Daiquiris

We created these drinks before practicing for the Rueda flashmob :) It was fun both to socialize and practice for the very successful rueda flashmob

Ingredients for 5 servings:

2.5 cups ice

½ cup white sugar

2.5 cups frozen strawberries

¼ cup lime juice

¼ cup lemon juice

½ cup rum

¼ cups lemon-lime flavoured carbonated beverage (7-Up or Sprite)

Note: 1 cup = 250ml

Directions

In a blender, combine ice, sugar and strawberries. Pour in lime juice, lemon juice, rum and lemon-lime soda. Blend until smooth. Pour into glasses and serve.

(If you want pretty glasses, coat the rim of the glass with lemon or lime juice and dip in sugar)

Strawberry Sunset Creamy cocktail

These were the drinks we had during the pre-party before heading to Folket’s bar for Dancer’s night! It was a very good night all in all :)

Ingredients:

1 cup strawberries

75 ml pineapple juice

1 tbs lemon juice

2 tbs cream

1 cup ice

Vodka (original or flavoured) to taste

Directions

In a blender, combine all ingredients and blend until smooth. Pour into glasses and serve. Decorate with a strawberry.

(If you want pretty glasses, coat the rim of the glass with lemon or lime juice and dip in sugar)

Enjoy!

No it was not an April fools joke but it was so much fun! Let's start from the beginning.

About the event:

April the 2nd was the international Rueda flash mob day where Rueda dancers all across the world at 16.00 (4pm) in their local time started Rueda flash mobs in public locations. Several continents and countries participated such as Australia, where Melbourne was the first to start the day’s event, to Canada, Vancouver which had one of the last flash mobs.

You can see all the locations where the flashmobs occurred in 2016 here: https://flashmob.dileque.si/

Of course we had a flash mob in Malmö as well and this was held in Emporia mall. Although we were nervous in the beginning (but who wasn’t), two of us happily participated. We are so glad that we were part of this history, and all the participants and callers (and organizers) were amazing. We heard that the organizers at Emporia were quite impressed and pleased with the flash mob.

The whole event was organized by Rueda Negra and a shout out goes to everyone for all their effort in planning this, organizing practice events and providing a practice video along with a list of the steps we needed to know.

The experience:

On the day of the event we met with the rest of the dancers at the rooftop of Emporia mall at 2pm. Thereon we practiced and danced rueda, and went over the rules for flashmob. Thankfully the weather wasn’t cruel and it was perfectly okay to dance without a jacket. However it was very windy and we had to dance with hair in our faces.

Around 15.15 we went downstairs, put our stuff away and tried to melt into the crowd on the very bottom floor of Emporia. We are a little curious about how inconspicuous we truly were but we guarantee that no-one had a clue about what was about to happen.

At 15.45 the salsa music started and the two first Rueda Negra dancers started salsa dancing. Soon several more couples joined for the first song that showcased advanced patterns that the Rueda Negra group had practiced for weeks. When the first song was over, the rest of us joined the party and soon it looked like this: (pictured borrowed from one of the photographers).

Once the music was over, we quickly dispersed and went to the rooftop, applauded everyone and took a little group pic. (pictured borrowed from one of the photographers).

It truly was so much fun and a great experience. We hope that the rest of the dancers had an amazing time and that the audience maybe, just maybe got more interested in salsa and rueda. We can’t wait for the next flashmob in 2017 and we can only recommend partaking in a flashmob at least once in a lifetime.

We have only provided some pictures and videos here that does not show how the actual Rueda looked. In a few weeks an offcial video will be released. Here is a teaser for everyone provided by Rueda Negra: