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
Read more
We need a Coca-Cola turn on “5-6-7” in order to continue with Enchufla on “1”. It is a great combination of two basic figures but the transition on “7-1” between Coca-Cola in counter clock-wise circular motion and Enchufla in clock-wise circular motion is difficult. It is made more difficult by the fact that most Follows expect to continue the Coca-Cola
Read more
Syncopation is to use the timing in between the beats for stepping, and in its simple form, the “and” in the middle between the beats. Some advanced dancers might sub-divide the space between the beats even further. E.g.: Normally a Vacilala is done as a Three Step Traveling Right Turn on “1-2-3”. Using syncopation, the Follow could instead do a
Read more
Coca-Cola is one of a handfuld of dance terms used or known by most of us. Why are left turns called Coca-Cola? Before we answer this question, let us take a closer look at the use of left turns in Casino, Cuban Salsa. They are surprisingly rare! I have analysed thousands of videos of social dancing, and in half of
Read more
Rueda de Casino is great fun, good for socialising, a nice way to say hello to new comers as well as to old friends. But Rueda de Casino is also hard-wired choreography with no decision making, no leading and following, no improvisation, no creativity and no musicality. If we dance a lot of Rueda de Casino, the burden of the
Read more
Traveling Double Turns is one of the signature features of Cuban Salsa. They are normally done as two Three Step Turns. A Three Step Turn is to do a half turn, 180 degree between the first and the second step, and another half turn, between the second and the third step. That gives us a full 360. We have three
Read more
Traveling Three Step Turns are the default way to turn in Cuban Salsa, making it easy to turn both in the first and in the last half of an 8-count, at least if the Follow doesn’t back-step but walks forward on “1-2-3” as well as on “5-6-7”. A Three Step Turn simply means to use three steps to walk a
Read more
We have several good ways to start a social dance, and most of us agree that we should start with some form of closed position. One popular way is to use Son Básico or just to walk around more or less randomly in Closed Position or using the Son Box (Cajón), or to use the Adiós Closed Position Carousel. One
Read more
How long or how short steps should we take in a dance like Cuban Salsa? Little is known about this subject, and it is seldom discussed despite the fact that it somehow seems to be an important discussion. The only thing I remember having ever heard from dance teachers in classes and workshops is the mantra that we should take
Read more
If we need a stationary or semi-stationary turn, we have a good alternative to the classic Salsa Vuelta right turn with back-rocking and hand prepping on “1-2-3”, and turn on “5-6-7”. We should use the Cuban Vuelta, a very similar walk-around look-a-like turn. For the Cuban Vuelta, the Follow steps forward on “1” and walks around in a more or
Read more
SalsaSelfie.com 🇨🇺 