A screw is a screw, Tornillo is a screw, and in Cuban Salsa (Casino) Tornillo is a right turn based on a very unique, almost acrobatic, handhold making a double turn possible by folding out the handhold in one go! In the social dance “Son”, one of the parents of “Casino”, we have a whole family of very different moves
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This is a surprisingly simple and excellent variation of the Panqué con Coca-Cola classic. The move is a typical Yoandy Villaurrutia move, it might be attributed to him, at least he has promoted it in recent years. I don’t know what Yoandy calls the move but he often uses “Coca-Cola” and “Moderno” as part of the moves he uses, so
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This is an important move because Para el Medio is not only the standard way to start a Rueda de Casino but it is also one of the best ways to start a social 1-on-1 dance. Para el Medio means “toward the middle”. It is sometimes shortened to Pal Medio or Al Medio, or El Medio or just Medio. The
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The Panqué (pancake) move is also called Siete (“7”), but in Rueda the move is most often called Panqué. Since the Follow is rolled in like a pancake or a burrito, the Panqué name makes a lot of sense. Even the most basic Panqué, “rolling in and out”, one count of eight, is a surprisingly difficult move unless the Follow
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I dare to call this intermediate move a classic, because I have it on an Danish produced Cuban Salsa DVD from 2011 (video 2), and the Mexican dance school “Salsafición” has publised exactly the same move with the same name, 2018 (video 1). Probably not a coincidence. I have also experienced the move several times in Rueda de Casino with
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This is an interesting intermediate-advanced move. Muchacho means “boy”. I have just learned it and I like it for a couple of reasons: 1) It starts with the rare Setenta Inverso, giving us more variation, 2) It ends with the rare triple right turn, giving us an opportunity to reconsider this difficult option. It is my guess that the move
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This name covers several different popular intermediate moves. I have found around 10 variations, having nothing in common except that they start with a right-to-right handed Vacilala (El Dedo). Nobody remembers why it is called El Dedo, (the finger), but I suspect that one finger was the hand signal for the move, and it soon also became the name for
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The Apertura (opening) figure is a good example of a basic Son figure that works just as well in Casino, Cuban Salsa. Apertura is a short basic figure of one count of eight with the purpose of “opening up = getting apart”, from closed to open position. Some dance schools call Apertura for “Dile Que No #1”. There are many
Read moreCuban Salsa, “Casino”, developed as a sub style of the Cuban Social Dance Son in the late 1950ties, and the two dances have a lot in common. Two of the major differences are that Son is danced on two, and that Son has a very distinct sideways set of steps called Son Clásico or Son Basic Steps. In Cuban Salsa,
Read moreWe have two, on the surface, equally good ways to do the Setenta, the Hammerlock part of Setenta moves. We can start with Vacilala steps, turning the Follow into the Hammerlock already on 1-2-3, and just walk on 5-6-7, or we can walk on 1-2-3, and use the Cuban Vuelta right turn on 5-6-7, also called the Habanero. Most dance
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