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This is the Mother of all Shines and works well both in American and Cuban Salsa. Most Cuban Salsa dance schools teach Suzy Q as an easy shine to do when dancing apart after a hand free Vacilala. Suzy Q comes in many variations, but the basic Suzy Q is more than enough for most dancers. If one should add something, I would choose a hook turn to end it, just like a solid dot over the “i” so to speak.

The basic Suzy Q

Video 1 is from “Dance Addiction” with Clemy and Adina, Rumania, 2014. They dance X-Body Salsa but Suzy Q is the same in Cuban Salsa, you just need to change the attitude a little. They show the basic Suzy Q in slow motion, with clear counting, seen both from the front and from the rear, and both the Lead’s and the Follow’s steps are presented.

How to style Suzy Q

Video 2 is “#3” from Peter Fige’s series “Salsa Man Styling”, 2011. Peter is originally from Hungaria and dances X-Body on One and on Two as well as Cuban Salsa. This “styling” video made a deep impression on me, when I first saw it as a beginner in Cuban Salsa. How on earth can there be so much intelligent to say about even the smallest of shines. Great, great inspiration.

In most of the video, Peter Fige starts Suzy Q with the right foot like in “Salsa on Two”. I don’t think I even noticed it the first time I say this extraordinary video!

More Suzy Q inspiration

Video 3 is from “Captain Salsa”, Poland, 2019. Captain Salsa dances X-Body on one and on two, and his Suzy Q styling is very different from the previous video. One can not but be impressed by this energetic and dedicated, natural born, dancer even if you prefer another style.

Suzy Q for Women

Video 4 is from “DigitalDanceAcademy” with legendary Irina Miguel, 2010. I find it almost too interesting to compare her style with “Captain Salsa” and Peter Fige. Actually I don’t know if Irina is a legend, I don’t know anything about her, but she certainly looks and feels like one. We have dance teachers and DANCE TEACHERS.

Suzy Q Variations

I have found surprisingly many interesting videos with Suzy Q. It is, as I say in the beginning, the Mother of all Shines. As far as I know, its origin is in Jazz dancing styles. Please educate me if you know better. I would like to include one video with examples of Suzy Q Variations. So far, we have only seen styling of the basic Suzy Q.

Video 5 is from “how2salsa” with a great X-Body on One dancer called Gallito, 2006. This video is old and of poor video quality, but it is excellent and I want to support no nonsense video makers.