I believe that a Lead should ideally know and practice hundreds of basic figures and moves, but only use a small selection in any one dance. It is better to use 10 figures 5 times in one dance than to use 50 figures one time. In the Social Dance Practica Video below, more than three minutes long, I only use
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In social dancing we should only use so-called moves as an exception to the rule. A named move, often with a silly name, is a combination of basic figures with an added beginning and ending in order to give us a self-contained mini-dance that normally starts with Guapea in Open Position and ends with Dile Que No and back into
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In shows, workshop videos and social dancing, we sometimes see a Follow being led around the Lead with her arms and hands high for two counts of eight or more, doing a couple of 360 turns along the way. Such figures are mostly nameless and often improvised or choreographed as an unfinished products in need of being generalised and optimised.
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ExhÃbela Inverso is a Basic Figure of one count of Eight, one of the four CaÃda Walks, starting and ending in CaÃda Position. The Follow walks “1-2-3-Inside Turn-5-6-7-Outside Turn”. The defining feature of Exhibela Inverso is the outside half left turn on “7-1”. When this outside turn is used alone, we could also called it “ExhÃbela Inverso”, even when the
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This is one of my favourite figures, and a good example of a figure that only works in Cuban Salsa with forward walking dance mode. The Follow needs to walk forward on all steps. Just one back-step and the Coca-Cola Walk falls apart just as it is the case with many others of the very best figures. This Coca-Cola Walk
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A hands-free Coca-Cola, or a free Coca-Cola meaning that the Lead let go of the Follow’s hands and set her free to turn exactly as she wants, is surprisingly rare in Cuban Salsa. Hands-free Coca-Cola Double Left Turns are so rare that they are almost a sensation! This might have something to do with the way most Cuban Leads dance
Read moreIn order to do a successful traveling double turn, two times 360, the first turn must be spot on. The second turn is more difficult, that is, the start position of the second turn must be at least as good as for the first turn. If the exit from the first turn isn’t perfect, it does not make sense to
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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
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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
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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
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