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As I have said in the tutorial “Cuban Salsa: Panqué (Siete)”, Panqué is a unique move, the only common move in social dancing, except Guapea, always done on the spot, stationary. We do walk, the Lead on the spot and the Follow like a tight half-Vacilala, in and out. Panqué could be regarded as a Guapea Vuelta Doble.

Panqué (Siete) done right

Video 1 is from “DanceDifferent”, Prague, Czech Republic, 2017. Note that the Follow makes her left hand available on her right shoulder. This is Best Practice even if the Lead decides not to make use of it. Basic figures should be generalised in order to work in any situation.

Panqué (Siete) done wrong

The two next videos are bad in the sense that this is not how we should teach Panqué. What people do in their own private dancing is a different matter. Apparently, anything goes!

In both videos they don’t respect the uniqueness and the extraordinary qualities of Panqué but treat it as any other move. They do it like a Vacilala done with some sort of Enchufla Doble steps. The Lead walks 90 degrees on the partner circle on 1-2-3, and backtracks on 5-6-7.

Video 2 is from Dobromir Montauk, Kraków, Poland, 2012. Dobromir is impressive and dance classic Miami style, powerful and aggressive. I prefer to dans soft, meditative and romantic. Dance and let dance. But his Panqué is not style but simply flat wrong.

Video 3 is from “Dancepapi”, San Francisco, USA, 2017. In general, “dancepapi.com” makes the best video tutorials for beginner-intermediate level. But this video is so bad that it should be deleted. Not only is Siete (Panqué) done like a Vacilala with some sort of Encufla Doble steps, they start the figure from Dile Que No.

I normally praise “Dancepapi” for stating figures from Dile Que No, because in social dancing Guapea should only be used sparingly, mostly as a move on its own, and especially as a move to start Panqué! Of cause we can start Panqué out of the blue, but Guapea is so to speak the parent of Panqué and one of the best ways to start it.