This collection of “Cuban Moves” have change perspective over the years. Originally I had the ambition of including all known Cuban Moves. But not only do we have many variations of the same moves, and it is easy to come up with many more, and very many moves don’t deserve to be included for a number of reasons.
Most known moves with a name are fake, not tested by time by many dancers in many locations. They were made up when dance schools like Salsa Racing and Salsa Lovers wanted to fill up and release a new DVD. Often the moves were made at the video recording sessions in order to beat the deadline, and some crazy guy in the back room was given the job to come up with some silly name for them. The same is true for an APP like Salsa Steps.
Another problem is that very many moves where used in Rueda and in social dancing by the dance schools promoting them, and for that reason they were leadable, but they were never tested for leadability by people that didn’t know them in advance.
Another problem is that very many moves are a waste of time. They are simply not interesting enough. No Leads are ever going to include them in their repertoire.
Many moves are for sub-styles of dancing, I don’t agree with because they undercut sound, logical principles. E.g.: Classic moves like Siete con Coca-Cola and Siete Loco aim at making the Follow turn in sharp L-shaped angles. I want my Follows to turn on curved or straight lines. And I don’t want Macho moves or Nudo figures that restrict the Follows. I want to set them free.
Finally I have realized that social dancing based on doing moves is the most mediocre concept one can come up with for social dancing. It is much better to focus on Basic Figures of one count of Eight, as small building blocks as possible in ever changing combinations. Long choreographed moves kill adaptability, creativity and musicality.
That is, moves should only be used in hard-wired Rueda de Casino and for one of many ways of training. One can of cause use one’s own favorite moves as a supplement to one’s own combinations of Basic Figure. E.g.: When I get tired of my own creativity or run out of steam, I might add a classic move as Plan B.
All good classic moves has one or two interesting combinations. Simply, skip the start and the ending and use the interesting part. Once upon a time I always used Montaña. Today I almost never do. But I use some of the interesting combinations inside Montaña all the time, my own way. They have become part of my repertoire of building blocks.
Summa Sumarum. In the future I want to create and maintain a list of only the very best classic moves in Casino, also moves I for what ever reason, don’t agree with or wouldn’t use myself, if they contain something worth while. The best moves to learn from, moves with interesting combinations should be included in most Leads repertoire.
In other collections of my dance blog, I will focus on Basic Figures and on all the short combinations of two-three Basic Figures I use in my social dancing.
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