We need a Coca-Cola turn on “5-6-7” in order to continue with Enchufla on “1”. It is a great combination of two basic figures but the transition on “7-1” between Coca-Cola in counter clock-wise circular motion and Enchufla in clock-wise circular motion is difficult. It is made more difficult by the fact that most Follows expect to continue the Coca-Cola
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Syncopation is to use the timing in between the beats for stepping, and in its simple form, the “and” in the middle between the beats. Some advanced dancers might sub-divide the space between the beats even further. E.g.: Normally a Vacilala is done as a Three Step Traveling Right Turn on “1-2-3”. Using syncopation, the Follow could instead do a
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Coca-Cola is one of a handfuld of dance terms used or known by most of us. Why are left turns called Coca-Cola? Before we answer this question, let us take a closer look at the use of left turns in Casino, Cuban Salsa. They are surprisingly rare! I have analysed thousands of videos of social dancing, and in half of
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Rueda de Casino is great fun, good for socialising, a nice way to say hello to new comers as well as to old friends. But Rueda de Casino is also hard-wired choreography with no decision making, no leading and following, no improvisation, no creativity and no musicality. If we dance a lot of Rueda de Casino, the burden of the
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Traveling Double Turns is one of the signature features of Cuban Salsa. They are normally done as two Three Step Turns. A Three Step Turn is to do a half turn, 180 degree between the first and the second step, and another half turn, between the second and the third step. That gives us a full 360. We have three
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Traveling Three Step Turns are the default way to turn in Cuban Salsa, making it easy to turn both in the first and in the last half of an 8-count, at least if the Follow doesn’t back-step but walks forward on “1-2-3” as well as on “5-6-7”. A Three Step Turn simply means to use three steps to walk a
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We have several good ways to start a social dance, and most of us agree that we should start with some form of closed position. One popular way is to use Son Básico or just to walk around more or less randomly in Closed Position or using the Son Box (Cajón), or to use the Adiós Closed Position Carousel. One
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How long or how short steps should we take in a dance like Cuban Salsa? Little is known about this subject, and it is seldom discussed despite the fact that it somehow seems to be an important discussion. The only thing I remember having ever heard from dance teachers in classes and workshops is the mantra that we should take
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If we need a stationary or semi-stationary turn, we have a good alternative to the classic Salsa Vuelta right turn with back-rocking and hand prepping on “1-2-3”, and turn on “5-6-7”. We should use the Cuban Vuelta, a very similar walk-around look-a-like turn. For the Cuban Vuelta, the Follow steps forward on “1” and walks around in a more or
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There is some confusion among Salsa and Bachata dancers about Triple Steps and Cha-Cha-Cha. Are Triple Steps and Cha-Cha-Cha the same or what is the difference, and how, when and where to use Triple Steps? Cha-Cha-Cha means two different things. On one hand Cha-Cha-Cha is just a popular generic term, meaning any Triple Step in any social dance style, placed
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Traveling turns, using three or four steps, should be executed as a continuing movement on a straight or curved line. Turning on a curved line around the Lead is the most common in Cuban Salsa. But traveling turns also takes place on the tangent to the circle or as part of walks where turning on a straight line is also
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Three Step Turns use three steps to do a full 360 degree turn, composed of two half turns. 180 degree between step “1” and step “2” and another 180 degree between step “2” and step “3”. Three Step Turns are very versatile. A Follow can start a Three Step Turn both to the left and to the right, on any
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It makes sense sometimes to turn in the middle of a count of eight, between “3” and “5”, using a full pirouette as a Two Step Turn, turning 360 degrees on one foot, right or left. At least as a supplement to Three Step Turns and to Two Step Spiral Turns. As a turn technique, a full 360 degree Pirouette
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A dance can be likened to a pyramid in the sense that is should have a solid foundation on which to build. To me, the base of the dance, the baseline, is all important. To get the baseline of you dance right, tailored exactly to your talent, your abilities, priorities and age, and to constantly improve on and develop your
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The Two Step Spiral Turn is a common turn technique in Latin Ball Room, Latin Hustle, Salsa, Casino, Swing, Jazz, Country Two Step, etc. It is called “Two Step” because it takes two steps to complete a full 360 degree turn. The Two Step Spiral Turn is versatile: Equally good to the right and to the left, for the Follow
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Using four steps to walk a 360 degree turn is by far the most common way to turn in social dancing. This is surprising considering that Four Step Turns don’t count as a proper way to turn in any dance style, and they are not included in any textbook. There are three common ways to walk a 360 degree turn
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Three Step Turn is called Three Step because three steps are used to do a full 360 degree turn. 180 degree between each step. This gives us the natural option of turning on “1-2-3” and on “5-6-7”: The two halves of the eight count with a pause in between. Three Step Right Turn on “1-2-3” is the standard way to
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The basic figure called Dile Que No (“Say No to Her”) is one of several crazy figure names in Casino. It is rare to find a dance teacher that can explain the origin of the name. Why is it called Dile Que No? If you happen to know the answer, it makes sense, but if you don’t, the name is
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When dance students in Copenhagen are presented with a new ridiculous Cuban Salsa move, it is most likely a so-called Nudo (knot), and we all look at one another behind the teacher’s back and say: “Oh no, not again, one more Clutter Mother!”. “Clutter Mother” is the name of a children’s game in Denmark: One child is nominated Clutter Mother,
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The Setenta y Cinco (75) family of moves is great for social dancing, and I often use one of them as a contrast to my improvised flows of basic figures. “Casinando” is probably my favourite because it has a very long counter clock-wise sequence before it goes clock-wise again. If the Follow passes the “test” of the long sequence of
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This is a classic Rueda de Casino move made popular by “Salsa Lovers”, Miami, USA, 2000, DVD #2, but the move is likely much older. I have found more than 20 videos on YouTube using the version from “Salsa Lovers”. The meaning of the name is not exactly clear: Dedo (finger), Guarapo (sugarcane juice) , Bota (Boot). When called with
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Nowadays I seldom use named moves in my social dancing. I mostly regard moves as choreographed mini dances to be used in Rueda de Casino only and for training purposes. More and more my dancing is organised around a couple of improvised, 1-2 minutes long FLOWS of mostly basic figures of one count of Eight. We want as small building
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We can start Exhíbela from Paséala or directly from Caída start position (aka DQN start position). Exhíbela is a walking turn, uniquely Cuban, consisting of two 180 degree pivot half turns on “3-5” and “7-1”. That is, the Follow walks forward on “1-2-3”, turns right, and back again on “5-6-7” and turns right, etc. Extra turns can be added to
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In order to take social dancing to the next level, a Lead should reduce the use of named “Rueda” moves to a bare minimum and focus more and more on improvised, music driven flows of basic figures in ever changing combinations. Most basic figures are only one count of Eight and many of them have a second half with a
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The Saloneo basic figure is a walk in Caída position (aka Dile Que No start position). We have always had Leads walking around like that but mostly small time without really thinking about what they were doing. Yoel Marreo (MCC) generalised the Caída walk into a handful of solid basic figures. “Open Saloneo” is my contribution to the family, but
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The Three Step Pirouette Turn is not a professional turn technique like Three Step Chaîné and Three Step Pivot but it is an excellent all-round turn technique for social dancing, a social turn. A Pirouette Turn is to turn on one foot, 360 degree for a full pirouette or 180 degree for a half pirouette as in the Three Step
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The Ola (Wave) is an advanced level basic figure with a lot of charm and character. Leads that know Ola consider it “a must use in every dance”, if only the Follows were good enough. Ola is a classic, it is featured on the legendary SALC DVD 1, 1999, #18, “Paseo de Olas”. In recent years it has mostly been
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The move Nudo Más (More Knot), I have learned from a video of Ruben Rodriguez. He calls the move El Nudo (the Knot) and that is misleading because it is also a well-known name for a common Rueda type of Casino move. The move of Ruben Rodriguez starts like El Nudo for the first two counts of Eight but is
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This is a unique Cuban Salsa figure, the Follow walks clock-wise as she turns counter-clockwise. It is for social dancing but can be adapted for Rueda de Casino. Superficially it looks like a sequence of “stirring the pot” spin turns but but it is a travelling figure, a sequence of 180 degree Enchufla turns with a step in between each
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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 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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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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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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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
Read moreIf you are already an accomplished social dancer as a Lead or as a Follow, it might be the time to learn the other role. I have wanted to learn to dance as a Follow for a long time, and I have now started the process, and I want to share my experience. I believe in the benefits of switching
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