Guapea (Handsome) is one of the very first figures we learn at the dance school, and it is often called the basic steps of Casino, of Cuban Salsa, but that is a simplification. It is not uncommon to have a whole social dance at advanced level without a single Guapea. Compare that to Salsa basic steps in linear X-Body salsa.
Read moreAbajo (down) is one of the most common ways to start a Cuban Salsa either directly or after some short initial stepping in place or a short walk. The move is also called Para Abajo, or Llevela para Abajo or Llevala pa’bajo for short. Abajo is a confusing name for a short move (there is no “down” in it) because
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This award-winning four-DVD-Box Cuban Salsa course, published in 2005, and still available on Amazon as an echo of the past, is as bad as it gets. It only survives because it has been shredded and uploaded to YouTube by the copyright owners themselves: Dirty Salsa YouTube. It is actually worth discussing because it is so bad, so far out that
Read moreSetenta Complicado is the Mother of all Complicado, probably the first Complicado at most dance schools, and really the only one you will ever need, if you only have the time for one. There are more videos of this move on YouTube than of almost any other Cuban Salsa move. Don’t underestimate Setenta Complicado. Even many dance schools get it
Read moreThe big Setenta family of turn patterns starts with the Hammerlock move, and for that reason the family could just as well have been called the Hammerlock family. The Hammerlock is part of many dance styles, and in Cuban Salsa there are two equally good but very different ways to do it: 1) the right turn way, and 2) the
Read moreVacilala steps are the signature steps of Cuban Salsa. The basic hand free Vacilala move is the favorite move of many salsa dancers. In almost every social dance, Vacilala is used at least one or two time as the most elegant way to get into free style mode. Hand held Vacilala is used as the beginning of more than 100
Read moreThe Lead, poor fellow, never ever experiences any other dance than his own. The Follow on the other hand dances a new dance with each and every single Lead she dances with. If we want to define a social dance like Cuban Salsa, just ask the Follows. Cuban Salsa can be defined as the collective experience of the Follows, of
Read moreIf salsa dancing is going to be more than a secret pleasure for the few outside the Latino world, it really must be better grounded also in the local culture. If we love salsa dancing so much that we want it to become mainstream culture, it must be rooted in ourselves. If we want salsa dancing to become for all
Read moreIf you hold hands when you go social dancing, you are all wrong in most dance styles. We don’t hold hands or should not hold hands. Hands should only touch hands with a varying degree of tension. We use fingertips against fingertips and even hooked fingers. We might rest a hand on or in a hand but we never hold
Read moreI sometimes get so frustrated learning Bachata Sensual that I am wondering if it really is a genuine social dance. I wish the dance well, I am struggling hard to learn it, and have been doing so for quite some time. If learning Bachata is to be a nice experience, it helps a lot to understand how it is different
Read moreThe back-to-back turn, also called the barrel turn, is not that common in Cuban Salsa but we have it in moves like Siete Loco and A Bayamo por Arriba. I like it a lot when done slowly using a full eight count, and I use it in almost every dance.The back-to-back turn makes use of basic steps on the spot,
Read moreMost Leads find it difficult to add new moves to their repertoire. At intermediate level we hardly have enough figures for one dance. At advanced level we have more moves to choose from but most of us more or less still dance the same dance over and over again. Keeping a solid repertoire of moves alive is not easy. If
Read moreMany Leads in Cuban Salsa, X-Body Salsa, West Coast Swing, etc, get along well using the same handful of moves over and over again. If that is good enough for you, if you are that type of person, no offense, just do it your way. But some of us would like to get better, especially we would like to become
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Some dancers don’t care about keeping different dance styles apart, pure and original. They like to mix it all together and make up their own unique fusion style of anything they find interesting. Such “cherry picking” is ok and a valid approach for anyone to follow but I don’t like that approach personally. It is nice that we have both
Read moreThe challenge of rejection in social dancing is often downplayed to the extent that we almost lie about it. I’m not just talking about getting a no when asking for a dance but also about not being asked at all or so little that it is such a pain to go social dancing that you don’t go. Rejection is a
Read moreIt is no surprise that Abanico Complicado comes in several good versions, only the end of the move being different. Three of the versions deserve to be in the repertoire of a Salsero at advanced level. Nice that you can choose which ending to use, depending on music, your mood and on how well the Follow is doing. A closer
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“Salsafy Your Life”, Dancing Solutions to Energize Your Life, An A-Z Guide, is a cute little book, published 2018. Almost a “Salsa for Dummies for Children and Grown Ups”. Most pages have a headline with a picture of dancers often featuring the author, a short paragraph or two, a yellow post-it note, and a bulleted list with highlights. Almost a
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Laura Riva is in a class of her own. Her Canadian based dance blog, The Dancing Grapevine – All about the “Social” part of Dancing, is without doubt the mother of all dance blogs, when it comes to the social aspects of dancing. Laura has a formidable ability to generalize in the good sense, to always be spot on, to
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Siete (7), often called Panqué (Pancake) in Rueda de Casino, is a very important basic move of just one eight count. Siete is one of a small group of moves not done walking the partner circle. Siete is done on the Guapea line, the East-West diameter of the circle, as if we are still doing Guapea. The following two videos
Read moreI love to dance with people I haven’t danced with before, and I ask people I don’t know for a dance all the time. I seldom get a no. And if I do, I don’t get offended anymore. I have developed a strategy for no nos. I call it: “say no to yourself” in a positive, proactive manner. 1. Pain
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Abanico (Fan) is a great intermediate move and everybody seems to agree about the name and the basic figure. The short version of the move is not that interesting on its own but the extended version, sometimes called Abanico con Giro, is one of my favorites. The following is a tutorial about all you have ever wanted to know about
Read moreBeing a non-Spanish speakning social latin dancer is somehow a paradox. A Spanish speaking person will tell you that understanding the lyrics, singing along just a little, is a major part of the fun on the dance floor dancing Salsa and Bachata. More importantly, knowing the lyrics makes it easier to understand what the music expresses, to read the music,
Read moreSetenta y Dos con Giro is the “official” name of this move but most dancers think of it as Setenta y Dos. They can not imagine the figure without the Giro. None of the three videos below use the Giro as part of the name. It is implied. The Gancho hooks can be made simultaneously or one by one, and
Read moreSetenta y Dos is like Setenta y Uno except that it ends with an arm hook to both arms, Gancho (hook). For some reason Setenta y Dos is seldom used in its basic version of just adding an Enchufla and the two arm hooks to the Hammerlock. It is almost implied or has become a tradition that when we say
Read moreSetenta y Uno is a short move, the Hammerlock plus one more count of eight consisting of Enchufla and Gancho, an arm hook. Sententa y Uno is not that interesting by itself but the move is used as the start of several other moves like Setenta y Cinco (75) (one of my favorites), and the Gancho arm hook is part
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