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The Rueda call Dame Una is the most common call in Rueda de Casino. It means “Give me one“, that is “Give me a new partner”, the next in line. The call Dame Una can be used repeatedly or after one or more figures, or as a way to end some figures.

Dar is the Spanish verb for “to give”. Me is the personal pronoun for “me”. That is Darme means “Give me” in certain contexts but when it is a call or a demand, Dame (without the “r”) is used instead of Darme.

There are many local variations of even the most basic way to do Dame Una and in addition there are countless of advanced or special Dame calls like Dame Directo, Dame Arriba, Dame un Tarro. In this tutorial we only look at the basic Dame Una.

Video 1 from “Frank E Rueda”, Copenhagen, 2008, with Frank E (one of my salsa teachers) as caller, shows three examples of how to call Dame. 1) From Guapea. 2) After Sacala and Dile Que No. 3) After Vacilala.

It is just as common to call Dame after Enchufla, Enchufla Doble, Prima, etc.

Dame, Damela

Many Rueda callers just say Dame instead of Dame Una or use both expressions. The expression Damela is also sometimes used: “Give me her”. In Video 1, the caller uses both Dame and Damela.

Dame Otra

Some Rueda callers also use the call Dame Otra, meaning “give me another one”, when Dame is used several times in a row. Sometimes the call is just Otra but the meaning is the same.

Dame Dos

“Give me” not the first Follow in line, but skip her, and give me the second one in line. This is also a very common Rueda call. Just like for the standard Dame, the Lead walks on 5-6-7, that is, for Dame Dos the lead must take longer and faster steps.

Dame una con una …

Dame una con una = Give me one with one clap. Dame una con Dos = Give me one with two claps. Dame una con Tres = Give me one with three claps. And exactly the same with Dame Dos con Una etc.

Almost always, no matter how we call Dame Una, the Lead has three steps to get to the next Follow in order to pick them up with Dile Que No on count One. Since the Lead has three steps, the first clap is on 5, the second on 6 and the third on 7.

In Video 2 from “Media Noche Salsa”, Jerusalem, Israel, 2007, we have a Dame Una con Una from Guapea. That is, after the first part of Guapea, 1-2-3, the Leads as well as the Follows clap on 5 as the Leads walk to the next Follows on 5-6-7.

In Video 3 from “BailaSalsaClips”, 2015, we have Dame Una con Una, Dame Una con Dos and Dame Una con Tres directly from Guapea. It would have been exactly the same from Enchufla and most other figures.

Bad implicit Dame

The calls Enchufla and Enchufla Doble are very common in Rueda de Casino. After those moves, it is the most common automatically to do Dile Que No. It is also very common to call Enchufla y Dame or Enchufla Doble y Dame, or to call Dame during the execution of Enchufla.

Warning: When some Rueda callers call Enchufla or Enchufla Doble, Dame Uno is implied, that is these calls are always followed automatically by Dame Una. This is very bad practice because most dancers are used to explicit Rueda calls. Most dancers, if they are not used to these sloppy Rueda callers, automatically go into Dile Que No unless Dame is called. The result is unnecessary chaos breaking the magic of a full speed synchronized Rueda.

A little chaos in Rueda de Casino can be nice but nothing beats a Rueda de Casino with perfect synchronization for a full song. It is simply too stupid to create chaos and break the Rueda with even the most simple calls.

Video 4 from “ruedastandard.com”, 2017, is a good example of the bad practice of using implicit Dame after Enchufla. The “ruedastandard.com”, formerly known as the “Norwegian Rueda Standard”, is a good example of being more Rueda enthusiasts and good dancers than hardcore standardistas. Very many of their videos are not examples of Best Practice, as we should expect from a “standard” organisation, but more like examples of Bad Practice to be avoided.