SalsaSelfie.com 🇨🇺

The Adiós basic figure, “tight turning” around one axis like a carousel, is one of the greatest of all basic figures. It is universal, used more or less the same in very many styles of social dancing as well as in Ball Room standard dances. Despite its popularity, it doesn’t go by a common name!

The best descriptive name is probably “the carousel turn”. In Cuban Salsa the name Adiós (farewell, goodbye) is mostly used. I like that name because it is easy to understood also for non-Spanish speaking dancers and literally means “Go to God”, and that is exactly what the Lead and the Follow is doing: They enter the Heavens of their own private world.

A few dancers call Adiós for Cedazo (Sieve). It is a very bad name because it is meaningless to most non-Spanish speaking dancers, and even when they get it translated, they don’t see the connection between a circular turning motion and a sieve because in most cultures a sieve is used with a forward-and-back og sideways motion.

This tutorial focus on showing that Enchufla works just as well as Vacilala to start Adiós. The Adiós basic figure requires special steps, it is not enough to padle around like a Padle Turn. I like to do Hook Behind (Entrada/positioning) step on “5” and the Follow should do the same on “1” in order to get a forward moving turning motion instead of sideways crabbing. But I will leave that to a dedicated tutorial.

Prepare on 7

The textbook way to go into Adiós is to use a handheld Vacilala, turn on “1-2-3”, preparing for Adiós on “5-6-7” by hand movement and by placing the Lead’s right foot in between the Follow’s feet on “7”. Using Vacilala to get into Adiós is often called Dile Que Si (Say Yes to Her), but that name is often used for any combination that brings the Follow from Open to Closed Position.

Enchufla is also a good way to get into Adiós especially in forward walking dance mode (where the Follow steps forward by default), giving the Lead and Follow plenty of time and space for positioning. But Adiós can be started almost anywhere on “7”, if the motion is right and the Lead can place his right foot between the feet of the Follow.

Adiós can be done tight or loose, with short or long steps, that is, even to the same music, the figure can be danced almost stationary or with a lot of movement. I like to do Adiós as upright as possible with “quiet” arms. Other Leads like a lot of arm agitation! Adiós can also be done with left turning motion and is then called Adiós Inverso. Many good dancers love to alternate between right and left turning motion, from one to the other and back.

Exits and Continuations

The Lead should experiment with all sorts of exits and continuations. The length of the figure can vary from one to several counts of Eight. The Lead can exit on “5” into Rodeo or use the Hook Turn. For full counts of Eight the exit get the couple into Caída Position with all its options for continuation like Dile Que No, Paseala, Exhibela, Saloneo, Caminala Walk, Adiós Inverso, Enchufla por la Derecha. We also have The Mother of All Basic Figures, the traveling Adiós, sweeping over the dance floor, around and around and around.