There are many moves on YouTube called Setenta y Uno Complicado, if we also search for 71 Complicado and Setenta con Gancho Complicado, but with one exception, I don’t think, I have seen the same move twice. That is, Setenta y Uno Complicado is, at the moment, just a name for all sorts of moves, even for moves that do
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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Most dance schools have at least three levels: beginner, intermediate and advanced. Many have five levels: beginner, improver, two intermediate levels and advanced. Some dance schools just number their levels. So far it makes sense. But it mostly makes little sense to group Salsa moves, figures, combinations, turn patterns (all four expressions mean the same) into such categories except for
Read moreWe have leading and following, and we have leading and following. In dance styles like Cuban Salsa and Bachata Sensual the concepts of leading and following might be the same but the reality and challenges as experienced on the dance floor are as different as night and day. A leader can lead Cuban Salsa literally speaking. The Follow needs to
Read moreWhen you dance a lot, you can not but notice that among the regulars there are a few, you never ask for a dance. Why? Is it a problem? Should you care? The Follows I don’t dance with fall in four groups. The first, a small group, is the Follows I for some reason haven’t asked yet. Some are among
Read moreIn my search for Setenta y Ocho (78) moves, I found several that deserve a better fate with more telling names of their own, making them easier to remember. The following “78” move has a two handed Giro doble figure over one count of eight as the climax, so why not call the move Setenta con Giro Doble? The two
Read moreIn my search for Setenta y Ocho (78) moves, I found several that deserve a better fate with more telling names of their own, making them easier to remember. The following “78” move starts with three Hammerlocks in a row. Why not call it Setenta Triple? Repetition of elements is often a good thing, by the way, it is like
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We have at least 10 completely different figures called Setenta y Ocho with nothing in common except for the Hammerlock opening. Three of the moves are represented with several videos. I have decided that the best and most authoritative of the videos, by chance also the easiest, deserves to be called Setenta y Ocho. The two other moves have very
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It depends on many factors, differs from individual to individual, and the way we prioritize the arguments are likely to change as we get less young. But the questions each one of us must answer, the discussion we must have with ourselves, are more or less the same. Let me remind us of some of them by telling my own
Read moreNoventa is a typical Complicado, and we could just as well call it Setenta Noventa because it starts with the Hammerlock as in all the other moves in the Setenta family. This is a very popular move, a classic, with very many videos uploaded to YouTube. Sadly to say, most videos ignore the potential of the Enchufla steps in the
Read moreSetenta Nuevo is a Complicado making Setenta Nuevo Complicado a double Complicado. The move is attributed to Maykel Almuina from the notorious “Salsa Lovers” DVD based course in “Casino”, Cuban Salsa. Notorious because the execution of the moves sometimes has major issues, but the many DVDs are a great archive of standard Cuban Salsa moves for anyone to implement their
Read moreLindy Beige has made a very long rant: “Fighting is like dancing (so men don’t like to dance)”. 45 minutes! I find it not only entertaining but very, very interesting and inspiring. I recommend it to the whole dance community. Lindy Beige is a British YouTuber with close to a million followers. Lindy mixes the most hilarious fun and seriousness
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The “body roll” Titanic is the signature move of Bachata Sensual. It is not like the “crucifix” Titanic from the movie but more like a “half” Titanic adapted for body rolls. The Lead stands behind the Follow with his right hand on the side of the Follow’s stomach, and his left hand slightly bending the Follow’s left arm over his
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Setenta Nuevo is a typical Complicado in the Setenta family at advanced level, and the move is not that easy to get going in social dancing unless both Lead and Follow are up to the task. The main problem is that when coming out of the Hammerlock and the Lead’s hook turn, Lead and Follow are sometimes as tight as
Read moreThis is a lovely intermediate move with a good flow. I use it a lot. The beginning is similar to Setenta con Corona but instead of a Exhibela turn, the Follow is just unwrapped in a turning fashion. The Lead prep the unwrapping by slightly pressing his thumb against the Follow’s right shoulder. Next the Lead swings his arms over
Read moreCorona Doble is just a small extension of the original Setenta con Corona. It is still too easy to be considered a Complicado. We are at intermediate level. For a long time Corona Doble has been a well-defined figure with many videos on YouTube. In 2018 Mexican Salsaficion published a new alterative Corona Doble. I don’t like when new figures
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Setenta con Corona, “70 with a Crown”, is a very common move at improver-intermediate level. It is often just called Corona. Many dance schools teach it as a good way to train five basic elements: the hammerlock, Enchufla, the Alarde Crown to the Lady, Exhibela, and the Lead’s Alarde to himself. For a long time it was one of the
Read moreDile Que No is not only one of the most used moves in “Casino”, Cuban Salsa. It is also very likely the first move we learn after Salsa basic steps and the Vuelta right turn. Dile Que No (“say no to her”) is called “Cross Body Lead” in English and that is what it means: Don’t get into a new
Read moreCuban Salsa, “Casino”, is a social dance. So is Dominican Bachata, X-Body Salsa, Bachata Sensual, Kizomba, Zouk, etc. Most of us are amateurs. We have learned the dance from friends or from the one of our peers who volunteered to be instructor. Or from dance schools run by enthusiasts often part time. Most of us have learned the dance as
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This is not Cuban Salsa but dance and let dance. The video looks like some sub Fusion Salsa style in the neighborhood of LA Salsa, that is X-Body salsa for short, or “American Salsa”, to distinguish is from “Casino” that is Cuban Salsa. It is not a social dance, not even a staged social dance but a choreographed promotional show
Read moreGuapea (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. The Lead is of cause free to add it to almost any other sequence of moves. I like it a lot when done slowly using a full eight count for the
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,
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