Ryan Mead is a co-director and co-founder of Rueda Con Ritmo, a Cuban-style dance school and performing group based in the San Francisco Bay Area. With more than five years' experience teaching Cuban and Miami-style salsa, Ryan has given workshops across the country, from Atlanta to Alaska, and in Mexico. Ryan also has nearly two decades of experience as a percussionist – he is an alumnus of the New England Conservatory, and has taken several trips to Cuba to study music (most recently on a grant from Stanford). Being both dancer and percussionist, Ryan is uniquely positioned to illuminate that most fundamental, yet seldom discussed, part of dance – its connection with the music. Most recently he has been innovating a vocabulary of rhythmic calls and steps to aid dancers in the understanding and interpretation of Cuban music.

Sidney Weaverling is a co-director and co-founder of Rueda Con Ritmo, a Cuban-style dance school and performing group based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is a longtime contributer to the currently thriving Cuban-style salsa scene in the SF Bay Area, with more than 10 years of experience as a teacher, performer, and choreographer. Apart from her remarkable proficiency with Cuban popular dance, she has extensive knowledge of Brazilian and African styles. She has given salsa and rueda workshops across the United States and internationally. She has studied at the Escuela Nacional de Arte (ENA) in Cuba with the Caribbean Music and Dance program, and hosted study trips for her students at myriad schools in Miami, notably SalsaLovers and Salsa Racing. A natural dancer and a thorough teacher, Sidney not only has a beautiful and fluid style of movement – she has the teaching experience and attention to detail that enable her to effectively and efficiently transform and inspire dancers at any level.