SalsaSelfie.com 🇨🇺

The name Vacilala Continuado seams so obvious and straight forward as a name of a figure that it must exist. But it doesn’t until now. At least not as a generalised figure, easy to replicate. Except that we do have a short “Continuado” called Vacilala Double.  But even double turns are surprisingly rare iCuban Salsa. They are difficult on a

For many years I have worked hard to reduce the use of named moves in my social dancing. Almost all named moves are fixed sequences of basic figures with a beginning and an ending, a mini-dance following the Rueda template for how to construct couple moves for use in Rueda de Casino. Just think of it! To base a social

From the start position of Open Position almost all basic figures start a “right turning circular motion”, the Follow walks around the Lead. The Follow can just walk for the full count of Eight, or she can turn right or left on the first or on the second half of the walk or on both. By using different handholds, normal,

For a Cásate, “Get Married”, walk in real life, the Lead can put his arm over and around the Follow’s arm or, just as good, the Lead’s arm can get under and around. In social dancing the Lead should normally always put his arm over and around because that makes it easier to disengage again by turning the Follow out

Both Vacilala and Enchufla are often continued into Rodeo. This continuation can be done already on the last part of the two figures, on “5-6-7”, or the Rodeo can start on the next “1-2-3”. Sometimes the Rodeo figure is hard to recognize. It is more like a “walk around the Lead” figure, “por Detràs” (behind). But both Vacilala por Detrás

Echeverria and Echeverria con Vuelta are common and popular calls in Rueda de Casino, done in Open Position from Guapea. This doesn’t work that well in social dancing for two reasons. Firstly, it is a little difficult to lead. Secondly, the Rueda type of “forward-and-back” Guapea should not be used in social dancing. At least, I don’t use it, and

The Dile Que No basic figure is unique as the only common figure bringing the Follow and the Lead into the start position of Open Position. For the Follow, the last part of Dile Que No is an exception to the rule of first pivoting around at the end of a three step walk on “3-4” or on “7-8”, always

We should use named moves, with a start and an ending, small mini-dances, as little as possible. We should focus on basic figures of one count of eight in order to have as small building blocks as possible. The smaller the building blocks the easier it is to improvise and be music driven. At almost any moment, for each count

In social dancing we should only use so-called moves as an exception to the rule. A named move, often with a silly name, is a combination of basic figures with an added beginning and ending in order to give us a self-contained mini-dance that normally starts with Guapea in Open Position and ends with Dile Que No and back into

The Adiós basic figure, “tight turning” around one axis like a carousel, is one of the greatest of all basic figures. It is universal, used more or less the same in very many styles of social dancing as well as in Ball Room standard dances. Despite its popularity, it doesn’t go by a common name! The best descriptive name is

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

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

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