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The Exhíbela “turn” is one of the most misunderstood basic figures in Cuban Salsa. It is not a turn but a walk, a Casino Clásico variation. Exhíbela means “show her to the world”. Some dance schools teach Exhíbela as a sideways Vuelta right turn with back-rocking. Exactly like Salsa on One, LA style, would mimic Cuban Salsa.

A turn is just a turn in its own right but a walk is a platform and a pattern for connecting into other figures, for changing directions, and to which turns can be added. More about Walk contra Turn later.

Exhibela is a 3/3 walk

The Exhíbela walk, starts from Caída Position (like Dile Que No), has the shape of an oval, of an elongated egg, rounded in one end and pointed in the other. The Follow steps forward on “1-2-3” and on “3-pause-5” she steps around and walks back to start for another Exhíbela or she can be led into Rodeo or into an outside turn into Exhibela Inverso.

It is important that the “pause” is used for the directional change. This is Textbook default. In Video #1, I and Mona show a basic Exhíbela, CPH 2024:

Casino Clásico

Casino Clásico is to walk two times three steps. Parts of the walk can be replaced by a traveling Vacilala, Enchufla or Coca-Cola turn. When done from the start position of Caída, on the tangent to the circle, three steps forward, and three step back, Casino Clásico is called Exhíbela or Paséala depending on how she pivots in the corners. We have four patterns:

Exhíbela and Paséala

1. Left-Right Paséala. “8” (∞)
2. Right-Right Exhíbela. “O”
3. Left-Left Paséala Inverso. “O”
4. Right-Left Exhíbela Inverso. “8”

Sácala is a 4/2 walk

Many dancers use the tems Exhíbela and Sácala as meaning the same ting. Some use the Sácala name for a right-to-right handed Exhibela. Years back I also used it with that meaning. But there is no doubt about the original true meaning of Sácala as a call in Rueda de Casino. At the start of an Exhibela walk, the Rueda Caller calls “Sácala”, meaning “Take her out”, in order to have a more dramatic and stylish Exhíbela: The Folllw is now led forward “1-2-3-5“, pointing into the circle with her free hand, and the return is now only “6-7”.

We could call Sácala for a long Exhíbela (Exhíbela Largo). But when we have two words for more or less the same, we can just as well let Sácala mean what it was originally meant to mean, refining our dance vocabulary, instead of degrading it. Sácala is an Exhíbela with an extra step forward.

Years back I used Sácala (4/2) a lot in social dancing but today only as an exception to the rule. Sácala undermines a basic default in Cuban Salsa: Walks should follow the “two times three” principle with the pause in the middle for directional changes. Stupid to undermine this default that gives both the Lead and Follow guidance in many situations reducing uncertainty and unnecessary complexity.

I use Exhíbela to change direction into Open Position on “5-6-7”, I add Vacilala to “1-2-3” of Exhíbela, and I add Coca-Cola to “5-6-7” of Exhíbela and into Exhíbela Inverso, etc, etc. These options are not likely to occur if Sácala is used instead of Exhíbela. Sácala has the focus on “take her out” styling, and becomes a straitjacket making anything else impossible or less likely.

Video #2, from the time of “Corona”, shows me and Mona doing Sácala (Exhíbela Largo) four times. Note that the Follow steps “4/2”, that is forward on “1-2-3-5” end the return is only on “6-7”. It works great into Rodeo but the alternative, “3/3” stepping, that is Exhíbela, is much more versatile.

Sácala, “four steps forward and two steps back”, should only be used as an exception to the rule in social dancing. It undermines the important “two times three” default, we relay on in so many situations, and it takes a lot of wonderful options out of the Casino dance and reduces it to Casino Light.

Vacilala inside Exhíbela

One of the benefits of regarding Exhíbela as a walk is of cause that it gives us the option of doing turns inside the walk. The next video shows an example. I and Mona is doing a Vacilala as first part, “1-2-3”, of the Exhíbela walk. We start with two basic Exhíbelas.

Turns inside Exhíbela is only possible when Exhíbela is done as a walk. Exhíbela done as a fixed Vuelta turn with back-rocking, is another straitjacket: Nothing can be done inside it or with it. It can only return to start.

Exhíbela Trio

Video #3 shows a basic Exhíbela, then Exhíbela with Vacilala, and last Exhíbela with directional change into the start position of open position or rather forward also on “6-7” and return on “1”. I call this combo for Exhíbela Trio. I and Mona, CPH, 2024:

One can do one or more Exhíbelas, one or more Exhíbelas with Vacilala, in any order, and one can do the directional change alone. Many other options like Vanilla on “3-5-6” or on “6-7-1”, and Coca-Cola on “5-6-7” or on “7-1-2”.

Exhíbela Continuado (fan shape)

Video #4 is from “DC Casineros”, Washington DC, USA, 2014, featuring Amanda Gill and Adrian Valdivia. They show a wonderful option for Exhíbela regarded as a walk. They do it seven times in a row! The back-rocking Cuban Salsa sub-styles, reducing Exhíbela to a turn, can not dance with such a flow and it also doesn’t work with Sácala.

The Lead has many options

The Lead has many options for how to lead the Follow into Exhibela. The textbook way is to use Paséala steps also called Cruzado Lateral. He angles his left foot left on “1”, pivots around and continues to the right on “2-3-5”, pivots around on “5” and steps to the left again on “6-7-1”, pivots around on “1” etc.

But the Lead can use almost any type of stepping that works for some good purpose: for fun, for variation, reacting to something in the music, etc. There are many options in the rarity cabinet of special steps: side-to-side rocking, the Rumba type of side-to-side steps and cross over steps with or without “Columbia”.

In principle, as long as the Lead can make the Follow step her steps with perfection, the Lead can step however he wants. It serves me best mostly to use the Textbook default.