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I hardly use named moves any more, small mini-dances, couple choreographies made for Rueda de Casina mostly. The reason is obvious. If we want playful, inspired dancing, if we want creative and music driven dancing, the dancers must be able to catch the moment, to modify, change and develop their dance step by step.

That is, we must mostly use the smallest building blocks possible in order to do exactly what we feel like at any moment. Ideally each step of our feet should be the building block but that is not practical: The granularity is too small, and won’t work because we need building blocks in the form of patterns consisting of several steps.

A good compromise is building blocks of mostly one count of Eight, three steps for each foot, like Enchufla, Exhibela and Dile Que No. Often we subdivide basic figures into half counts of eight: like adding a hook turn or a directional change to the last half of Enchufla.

In addition to Basic Figures of one count of eight, and half counts, we have a small number of Special Basic Figures that mostly make sense done several times after one another like Enchufla Continuado, or that only make sense if continued into the the next count of eight like Coca-Cola Double.

Named couple moves

A named couple move is a hard-wired or relatively fixed sequence of basic figures mostly made for the use in Rueda de Casino. A move typically has an interesting combination of a couple of Basic Figures in the in the middle. In order to make them into a self-contained mini-dance that can be called and executed in Rueda de Casino, a beginning and an ending have been added, and a name has been given to the whole sequence.

Basic Figures of one count of eight are also used in Rueda de Casino as well as Rueda specific moves like “Dame” for changing partners and group moves that requires the cooperation of the neighboring couples.

A lot of couple moves in Rueda de Casino also work well in one-on-one dancing. Except that moves longer than one count of eight undercut our goal of basing our dance on the smallest possible building blocks if we want optimal conditions for creative, playful and music driven dancing.

One strategy is only to use longer named moves sparingly in addition to ever changing combinations of Basic Figures. I sometimes add one when I am running out of improvisations. It can also be a good idea to skip the beginning or the ending or both of a longer move and only to use the core value, the unique interesting part in the middle, and to find ways to integrate it seamlessly into our dance.

Ochenta and Quatro (84)

This tutorial is an example of skipping the beginning and the ending of an old classic move and only use the interesting part in the middle.

Ochenta y Quatro has two main variations. It can be done like a cross-handed Vacilala Hammerlock with only one hand over the head or like at cross-handed Vacilala with both hands over the head like the beginning of Montaña. The last version”s first count of eight ends up with opposite crossed Handhold like the start position of the famous COPA moves, a lot of variations, so common in Cross Body Lead Salsa.

In Ochenta y Quatro, the COPA handhold opens like an Enchufla into Shoulder Checks continued one or more times like an Enchufla Doble. The exit is typically an Enchufla with a Hook Turn either with one hand or both hands over the head. I use the last option to get into the Carousel Walk.

The traditional ending of Ochenta y Quatro I don’t use. Sometimes I use the start of the “84” to get into the COPA start position, sometimes I start the COPA directly by getting into the Opposite Crossed Hand-hold in a number of other ways like just getting into it by changing handhold!

Link to the same video on YouTube

The Carousel part

I use many other ways to get into the start position of the Carousel, and I have made a tutorial about some of these many options. But COPA with Shoulder Checks is a great Basic Figure that works well in social dancing. When the Carousel walk has started, I normal walk for one or two counts of eight, and since the Lead leads and knows what he is up to (!), he is the one that should walk backward.

I normally end the Carousel walk with a Vacilala on “3-5-6” or a double Vacilala on “1-2-3” and “3-5-6”. But I also like to continue the Carousel walk into more two handed figures.

“84 into COPA into Carousel” is an example of combining two basic figures, COPA with Shoulder Checks and the Carousel Walk. Sometimes we skip the start of “84” and only use the COPA part of “84”. Some dancers might not even know “84” but start the COPA with the same crossed handhold by chance or just get into the COPA start position in a number of other ways like just changing handhold!