I love to do Paseala walks, continue into Exhibela, back into Paseala and more Exhibela, adding Rodeo etc, back into Paseala and more Exhibela, etc. This makes for great dynamic social dancing. Then one day I realised that I can do more or less the same combining Dile Que No, Coca-Cola and Exhibela, Rodeo, Reína, etc. More dynamic social dancing
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We have Rodeo Largo, the long Rodeo of two counts of Eight, we have the normal Rodeo of one count of Eight, and we have Rodeo Poco (little) of only a half count of Eight done twice. All three Rodeos can also be done the other way around, Inverso. This tutorial is about the least known of these basic figures,
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La Paloma (The Pigeon), or the “Pigeon Walk”, I have learned from a video of a workshop by Ruben Rodriguez. It took me and my partner a training session to learn the move and to get a good feel for it, and another training session to modified it to suit our own style of dancing. The original “Ruben” video is
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The Follow’s short Paséala walk in front of the Lead, pivoting around in the corners on “3-4” and “7-8”, is normally done a couple of times before the Lead goes on with Exhibela or some other move. “Small time” continuation is so to speak part of Paséala. What I call Paséala Continuado is when the Lead doubles down and uses
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Probably more than half of all Leads never use left turns, so-called Coca-Cola turns (I have done some statistics). They can get away with “no Coca-Cola” because Enchufla half left turns are so common in Cuban Salsa, often used more than once in many moves. Of the Leads using Coca-Cola left turns on “5-6-7”, typically as last part of Dile
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In this tutorial I present two good FIRST CLASS social moves, a Cásate (“get married”) variation (I have not decided on a name yet), followed by Enchufla Continuado. I will make separate tutorials about these two social moves soon. Sometimes it is inspiring to see a continuing flow of two or more good social moves instead of having the dance
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The most common Coca-Cola al Revés (“the other way around”) is called Setenta y Uno al Revés. Very many of the best Leads use Coca-Cola al Revés, and it can be started directly from Caída position (start position of Dile Que No and many other figures, moves and walks). We don’t need Setenta. My video archive for Coca-Cola al Revés
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The move Exhibela Largo Continuado is another social move I naively believe I have invented or at least I have identified it as a move and given it a name. We often do Exhibela 2-3 times in a row in Rueda de Casino as well as in social dancing, but mostly “on the spot” without changing direction. Then one day
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The move Rodeo Continuado is another move, I naively believe I have “created”, but of cause we have many Leads doing two or more Rodeos in a row. My contribution is to clearly identify this continuation as a move in its own right and to call it Rodeo Continuado. I often do it five times in a row or more,
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This is an old move, at least it is documented on the legendary ¡Salsa a la Cubana! DVD (Salsaville.com), #3, where it is part of move #10 called 70 con Crúzate, Santiago de Cuba, 1999. But they don’t give the face-to-face Sombrero a name. I have found Mexican and Argentinian videos calling it “Disco”. I don’t see it has anything
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Rodeo Inverso Continuado with right-2-right handhold is another figure I naively boast that I have “invented”. This is of cause not true since many Leads like to do Rodeo Inverso two or more times in a row. What I have done is to declare Rodeo Inverso Continuado for a social move that can be done two or more times (I
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This is a new move, I have named Abanico con Gancho (Fan with Hook). I have learned it from a Russian video (2021) but unfortunately they don’t name it. I have modified the original version to make it easier to use in social dancing. I want to promote realistic social dancing for the average dancer. First I show my version,
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This is one of my favourite social moves, and the first move I naively believe that I have “invented”. Of cause many Leads over the years have done something similar, prolonging Balsero with one or two additional counts of eight but it is rare to see it done 5-6 times or more. One day I said to myself, YES, this
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What does it mean to step forward by default? It means that unless a Follow is led to step back, she should step forward. Whenever a Follow senses she has the choice between stepping forward or back, she should step forward. In practical terms, stepping forward by default is about step “1” and step “5”. Back steps are common in
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Left turns are relatively rare in Cuban Salsa and for some reason, we are going to look into that later, they are almost universally called for “Coca-Cola”. In more than half of all social dances (I have done some statistics), the Coca-Cola left turn is not used! Many Leads never or rarely use left turns but we also have many
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Demo dance videos are often of limited value because they are not realistic for social dancing. Often the videos are heavily choreographed and too much of a show to be useful for average social dancers in need of inspiration. So-called artistic Cuban salsa dance videos are often the most disappointing. Lisandra García is good for many such Cuban Salsa videos
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The Columbian Cuban Salsa dance school, “Son de Habana” in Bogatá, has many good YouTube dance videos. In Columbia they dance their own Columbian salsa, called Cali style, but these videos are genuine Cuban Salsa with the personal touch of the Lead and Follow, Alexander Barreto and Susana Osorio. Many of their moves are legacy Cuban Salsa moves, that is,
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There are surprisingly many ways to turn in social dancing. I just saw a video presenting 14 common types of turns in social dancing in the USA: Pivot Turn, Chaîné Turn, Swing and Sway Turn, Heel Turn, Spin Turn, Fan Turn, Spiral Turn, Twist Turn, Paddle Turn, Pirouette Turn, Monterey Turn, Pique Turn, Platform or Pensel Turn, Tuck Turn. There
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Definitely not, speaking in general. And there are absolutely no objective benefits from dancing the first part of a dance on “two” instead of on “one”. The only argument for doing it: that it happens to be your personal preference, or that you like to do it for a change. The OBJECTIVE disadvandtages, on the other hand, are legio for
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The basic figure I call Enchufla Simple is called Ven y Vira (“come and return”) by some dance schools, and a few call it Lazo. I prefer easy to understand common sense names. And if a dancer can guess what a figure or move might look like just by knowing the name, the better. Enchufla Simple is the easiest of
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The Exhibela “turn” is one of the most misunderstood basic figures in Cuban Salsa. It is not a turn but a walk to exhibit the Follow, “show her to the world”. A walk with two half turns of 180 degrees, and both happens just by walking and pivoting around. There is no 360 degrees turn but two half turns far
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I call my Private Cuban Salsa Practica for my daily social workout. I train with one of several dance partners at all levels in parks and on public dance platform or in private homes. Your own Practica, where Lead and Follow decide date, time and place, the music, what and how to train, is to me social dancing at a
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Very often when doing Dile Que No, the Lead wants to lead the Follow around him behind his back doing Rodeo Inverso type of figures like the Bayamo family of moves and the Setenta y Cinco family of moves, or just leading her around using Paseala moves. This is impossible using DQN because if both the Lead and the Follow
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When doing Dile Que No, the Lead sometimes needs to add one more Dile Que No in order to lead the Follow into open position, also called Guapea position. We can easily have several DQNs, one after the other. The first DQN changes the motion on the Partner Circle from right to left, from clock-wise to counter clock-wise. All additional
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The Panqué (Pancake) figure, also called Siete (7) in the Miami Rueda tradition of “Salsa Racing” and “Salsa Lovers”, is a unique basic figure of one count of eight. It is unique in the sense that it has its own set of steps we don’t see in any other basic figure, and it is unique because it doesn’t fit in
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It’s a big misunderstanding to believe that so-called “Casino” moves used in Rueda de Casino actually comes from social 1-on-1 couple dancing. As a rule of thumb but with many exceptions, they don’t! On the contrary: “Casino” moves used in Rueda de Casino were made to be used in Rueda de Casino. The exceptions include basic figures like Enchufla and
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I have been wondering for a long time, why so many classic Rueda moves have number names like Setenta, 71, 72, 75, Ochenta y Quatro (84), Noventa (90), Siete (7), El Uno (1), El Dos (2), etc. We have more than fifty moves with number names, if we include Complicado versions and variations. Most likely Setenta was the first such
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The Cuban Vuelta (Habanero) is the twin sister of Vacilala. The steps are like for Vacilala except that the two half counts of eight are flipped: the Follow steps forward on “1”, she continues forward on “2-3” and turns, still walking forward, most often on a curved line, on “5-6-7”. The Cuban Vuelta is not as prominent as Vacilala (hand-held
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We have three good versions of the basic Setenta (70) move, and it is confusing to use the same name for all of them. In order to make things easier, especially if we want to call the move in Rueda de Casino, where we would like synchronisation of all the couples, it is nice to use three names for the
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The big Setenta family of moves starts with the Hammerlock, the first count of eight. Since Setenta moves are popular, the Hammerlock is likely to take place several times in each and every dance, and for that reason, it is an important basic figure to get right. We have three options for the Hammerlock: Vacilala Steps: Turning on 1-2-3, walking
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The move Ochenta y Quatro is a classic Cuban Salsa move, but it is so often used also in Rueda de Casino, that “Rueda.Casino.com”, the former “Norwegian Rueda Standard Organisation”, has included it in its Rueda de Casino Syllabus. On YouTube I have found surprisingly many videos showing Ochenta y Quatro, and many variations. It is a very popular move.
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This basic figure pops up in dance videos here and there, and I have traced its first known occurrence back to the “SALC” DVD #1, where the move is called “Arm Checks”. That is, slow movements of one of the Follow’s arms over not just the head but the body of the Lead, almost like pulling a blanket over your
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The Enchufla con tres Alardes is an excellent right-to-right handed Enchufla used by many Leads. It is a basic figure, because the Lead does not end up in Caida position (Dile Que No start position) as in Enchufla, but needs to turn right as he does the Alardes using a hook turn or the equivalent, in order to be positioned
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The handfree Vacilala is not only the most iconic signature move of Cuban Salsa, it is also one of a very few moves, where the Follow can do what she pleases from the moment she has stepped forward on count one, and the Lead let go of her hand. Vacilala por Detrás (detrás means behind) adds an extra count of
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This is a brand new Coca-Cola turn, at least I haven’t seen it before, published by the “Social Dance Studio” in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, 2021, featuring Stanislav Shvetsov and Natalia Nebogatikova. The move is probably a “Stanislav”. I instantly liked this “no name” move, and in order to make it easier to remember, I have given it the descriptive name
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I like good variations of even the most perfect move, and I love to practice variations I normally don’t use: 1) They could turn out being just as good or even better or at least useful in some situations, 2) and the more variations you practice, the easier it becomes to improvise to music, to be music driven. We should
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This new Bayamo move is a Bayamo por Arriba (Arriba = “up”) variation. I stumbled upon it in a class video from “DC Cacineros”. For Bayamo por Arriba, the Lead brings both hands over his head as the Follow is lead behind the Lead’s back. There are many options for how to continue. The most popular are to add a
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A screw is a screw, Tornillo is a screw, and in Cuban Salsa (Casino) Tornillo is a right turn based on a very unique, almost acrobatic, handhold making a double turn possible by folding out the handhold in one go! In the social dance “Son”, one of the parents of “Casino”, we have a whole family of very different moves
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This is a surprisingly simple and excellent variation of the Siete con Coca-Cola classic, Miami style. The move is a typical Yoandy Villaurrutia move, it might be attributed to him, at least he has promoted it in recent years. I don’t know what Yoandy calls the move but he often uses “Coca-Cola” and “Moderno” as part of the moves he
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This is an important move because Para el Medio is not only the standard way to start a Rueda de Casino but it is also one of the best ways to start a social 1-on-1 dance. Para el Medio means “toward the middle”. It is sometimes shortened to Pal Medio or Al Medio, or El Medio or just Medio. The
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The Panqué (pancake) move is also called Siete (“7”), but in Rueda the move is most often called Panqué. Since the Follow is rolled in like a pancake or a burrito, the Panqué name makes a lot of sense. Even the most basic Panqué, “rolling in and out”, one count of eight, is a surprisingly difficult move unless the Follow
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I dare to call this intermediate move a classic, because I have it on an Danish produced Cuban Salsa DVD from 2011 (video 2), and the Mexican dance school “Salsafición” has publised exactly the same move with the same name, 2018 (video 1). Probably not a coincidence. I have also experienced the move several times in Rueda de Casino with
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This is an interesting intermediate-advanced move. Muchacho means “boy”. I have just learned it and I like it for a couple of reasons: 1) It starts with the rare Setenta Inverso, giving us more variation, 2) It ends with the rare triple right turn, giving us an opportunity to reconsider this difficult option. It is my guess that the move
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This name covers several different popular intermediate moves. I have found around 10 variations, having nothing in common except that they start with a right-to-right handed Vacilala (El Dedo). Nobody remembers why it is called El Dedo, (the finger), but I suspect that one finger was the hand signal for the move, and it soon also became the name for
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The Apertura (opening) figure is a good example of a basic Son figure that works just as well in Casino, Cuban Salsa. Apertura is a short basic figure of one count of eight with the purpose of “opening up = getting apart”, from closed to open position. Some dance schools call Apertura for “Dile Que No #1”. There are many
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Para Abajo, “toward down”, often just called Abajo (Abajo has several meanings in Cuban Salsa). The move is also sometimes called Llévela para Abajo or Llévala pa’bajo for short. It translates to something like “take her down”. Abajo is a basic figure that overlaps with the figure Paséala en Frente (“take her for a walk in front of you”), often
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Bayamo por Arriba (up) is a good name because it reminds us that the Lead must keep both hands high, and over his head, as the Follow is lead behind his back. Unfortunately we have three different variations called Bayamo por Arriba. The first part of the move is the same, only the ending differs. It is also confusing that
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