Cuban Salsa: Setenta y Dos (72)

Setenta 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 Setenta y Dos we really mean Setenta y Dos con Giro.

It is probably just an act of convenience. When you get into those two arm hooks, you want to stay there for a while. It feels so natural to start turning on the spot, for a count of eight or longer, before getting out of them again and into Dile Que No.

Despite the fact that I also regard Setenta y Dos to be short for Setenta y Dos con Giro, we must insist that we have two moves: the basic one and the one with the Giro added.

The video from “Los chicos de la salsa”, 2016, shows the basic version of Setenta y Dos:

Same Video on YouTube

The video from the “Danceliker School” in Moscow, 2016, featuring Adonis Santiago and Svetlana Ovchinina, starts with the basic Setenta y Uno followed by the basic Setenta y Dos:

Same Video on YouTube

Letting the Follow do the arm hooks

In Cuban Salsa it is the Lead’s Gancho (arm hook) but it doesn’t have to be so. In Bachata Sensual I often to it the opposite way. I make the Follow do the arm hooks on my arms. In my opinion this option is only an option in Cuban Salsa if the Follow is as tall or taller than the Lead.

One hook at a time

In most videos I have found, the two hooks are done simultaneously in one go. But many Leads, like we see it in the “Danceliker School” video, find it easier or more secure to do them one at a time, normally starting with the right.

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