Cuban Salsa: Setenta y Cinco (75) con Vacilala
This is easily my favorite Setenta and even my favorite of all moves. Not just because it ends with a wonderful two handed Vacilala but because we have many good alternative options for ending the move making it very versatile. In this tutorial we will only look at the by far most popular version with the two handed Vacilala at the end.
Video 1 is with the Polish Lead and dance school owner Piotr Agassi Chajkowski, 2014, Poznan, Poland. The Follow’s name is not mentioned. Videos with Piotr and this Follow have for a long time been my top inspiration for how to dance Casino. Optimize your stepping. Notice the sneak attack, the second time he is doing Panqué at the end of the video.
For the two handed Rodeo Inverso, Piotr brings his arms over the head almost simultaneously, delayed and for that reason fast. I prefer to do the arms slowly, one by one, as we are going to see in the next video.
Video 2 is from Salsagaia Online School, Firenze, Italy, 2014, featuring Cristiana y Elena.
Elena is such a talented dancer that she can make anything look good but if we analyze her stepping, it’s as bad as it gets, if you pretend to dance Cuban Salsa. Let go that she back rocks on one in Dile Que No, that is not a first.
But her Vacilala steps, not just for the Hammerlock in Setenta but for Vacilala itself, are simply flat wrong. She doesn’t step forward on one in order to turn but just back rocks and walks forward and turns on 5-6-7 like in X-Body Salsa. Compare with the excellent optimized stepping in the first video or even with the next!
UPDATE: In a new video from 2018, Elena must have been on some masterclass course, because her back rocking is gone, and her Vacilala stepping is just fine. See Setenta y Cinco Complicado tutorial.
The Video 3 is from Студия “Рыбальський остров”, bailando.com.ua, Ukraine, 2016. There is hope for the future. These young people are not back rocking, and the Follow knows how to do Vacilala steps, moving forward on one turning around as she steps and then more walking on 5-6-7.
As usual, there’s a lot of name confusion. We have “75” moves named “71” and “71” moves named “75”, and we have “75” moves having nothing in common with the “75” of this tutorial. But we also have a handful of good variations, I will present in other tutorials.
“75” is a precious group of moves, build like this: 1) They start with Setenta y Uno (Setenta con Gancho), the Lead then starts as if going into a Dile Que No but leads the Follow into a Paseala walk around him, doing a two handed Rodeo Inverso, bringing his arms over his head, in order to do another, this time a two handed Dile Que No, followed by something like a two handed Vacilala.
SalsaSelfie.com 🇨🇺 
I feel compelled to inform you that in Havana… 71 y media is this move, but after a 2 handed dile que no, it is a 2 handed hecho (simultaneous leader turn) where you return her back to your right sidr and finish by crowning her.
Hi 1derpalm
Thanks for commenting.
You are quite right. The family of moves I call “75” is called something else by many dance schools and some dance schools use “75” for a whole range of very different figures.
I use the name “75” because that was the name used in the videos I learned it from.
Moves based on Rodeo Inverso are important because of the left turning circular motion. Most dancers mostly go right all the time, making them one winged dancers.
Today as a social dancer, I don’t use that many moves anymore, that is I don’t really use terms like “75” or Bayamo except when convenient.
I focus on basic figures of one count of eight and on how to combine them in all sorts of possible good combinations and variations. We should use as small building blocks as possible in order to catch the moment and be creative and music driven.
Long, choreographed, fixed moves are a straitjacket, making it harder to develop and progress as a dancer.