When dance students in Copenhagen are presented with a new ridiculous Cuban Salsa move, it is most likely a so-called Nudo (knot), and we all look at one another behind the teacher’s back and say: “Oh no, not again, one more Clutter Mother!”. “Clutter Mother” is the name of a children’s game in Denmark: One child is nominated Clutter Mother,
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The Setenta y Cinco (75) family of moves is great for social dancing, and I often use one of them as a contrast to my improvised flows of basic figures. “Casinando” is probably my favourite because it has a very long counter clock-wise sequence before it goes clock-wise again. If the Follow passes the “test” of the long sequence of
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This is a classic Rueda de Casino move made popular by “Salsa Lovers”, Miami, USA, 2000, DVD #2, but the move is likely much older. I have found more than 20 videos on YouTube using the version from “Salsa Lovers”. The meaning of the name is not exactly clear: Dedo (finger), Guarapo (sugarcane juice) , Bota (Boot). When called with
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Nowadays I seldom use named moves in my social dancing. I mostly regard moves as choreographed mini dances to be used in Rueda de Casino only and for training purposes. More and more my dancing is organised around a couple of improvised, 1-2 minutes long FLOWS of mostly basic figures of one count of Eight. We want as small building
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We can start Exhíbela from Paséala or directly from Caída start position (aka DQN start position). Exhíbela is a walking turn, uniquely Cuban, consisting of two 180 degree pivot half turns on “3-5” and “7-1”. That is, the Follow walks forward on “1-2-3”, turns right, and back again on “5-6-7” and turns right, etc. Extra turns can be added to
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In order to take social dancing to the next level, a Lead should reduce the use of named “Rueda” moves to a bare minimum and focus more and more on improvised, music driven flows of basic figures in ever changing combinations. Most basic figures are only one count of Eight and many of them have a second half with a
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The Saloneo basic figure is a walk in Caída position (aka Dile Que No start position). “Open Saloneo” is to walk the Follow around witout using the Lead’s left arm. Some Saloneo variations: Open Saloneo For the classic Saloneo, the Follow starts in Caída start position on “1”. She walks a “S”-shaped pattern into the next Caída start position on
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The Three Step Pirouette Turn is not a professional turn technique like Three Step Chaîné and Three Step Pivot but it is an excellent all-round turn technique for social dancing, a social turn. A Pirouette Turn is to turn on one foot, 360 degree for a full pirouette or 180 degree for a half pirouette as in the Three Step
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The Ola (Wave) is an advanced level basic figure with a lot of charm and character. Leads that know Ola consider it “a must use in every dance”, if only the Follows were good enough. Ola is a classic, it is featured on the legendary SALC DVD 1, 1999, #18, “Paseo de Olas”. In recent years it has mostly been
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The move Nudo Más (More Knot), I have learned from a video of Ruben Rodriguez. He calls the move El Nudo (the Knot) and that is misleading because it is also a well-known name for a common Rueda type of Casino move. The move of Ruben Rodriguez starts like El Nudo for the first two counts of Eight but is
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