Takechi Ruiz has had music in his bones since the day he was born. Hailing from Santiago de Cuba, on Cuba’s Eastern shores, Takechi was seemingly destined for a musical life.

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His father was a professional musician who organized community-based Rumba projects with drumming and dancing for all ages while his grandmother ran a youth music and dance program in which he also participated. Not only that, but coming from Santiago – a city known for its importance in Son, Rumba and Conga as well as its festivals and spontaneous street music, Takechi was sure to develop a love for music one way or another.

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This love for music, dance, and the arts transformed from passion to vocation when he attended an arts high school to study acting. While he loved the range of personalities and emotions he embodied and the techniques that he learned, being at this school and seeing the range of dance forms his fellow students focused on also gave him the chance to develop a closer relationship to dance.

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He took his first steps as a professional performer at the Tropicana Cabaret in Santiago before joining the dance performance companies A Lo Cubano, the Compania Folclorica Achabba, and Sabor DKY under the direction of Yanek Revilla (a renowned name whom many of you from the Boston area will recognize!). 

 

Takechi would go on to be a part of Sabor DKY for 7 years during which he performed all across the island at nightclubs, festivals, and more.

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In addition to being a rumba and Afro-Cuban dancer, Takechi is also a singer and drummer. By combining these three crafts he feels he is able to honor his roots fully and wholly.

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Takechi’s favorite genres to teach are rumba, timba, son, and salsa as well as the Afro-Cuban genres of palo, vodun, and the Orishas of Eleggua and Oggun.

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His hope is that all of the students who come his way leave happy, fulfilled, and with a little piece of Cuba in their hearts.