Kentucky is a popular move, hundreds of dance instructors have uploaded it to YouTube. It works equally well for Rueda de Casino and in one-on-one social dancing. As is so often the case, nobody remembers the origin of it or the reason for the name. It is not in the DVD collections of “Salsa a la Cubana”, “Salsa Lovers” or
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I hardly use named moves any more, small mini-dances, couple choreographies made for Rueda de Casina mostly. The reason is obvious. If we want playful, inspired dancing, if we want creative and music driven dancing, the dancers must be able to catch the moment, to modify, change and develop their dance step by step. That is, we must mostly use
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This is one of my favorite Casino videos on YouTube, more than 10 years old. The style of Carlos Rafael Gonzalez is mesmerizing at moments, especially in this video with Jennifer as Follower. Jennifer is a forward dancer, forward by default, no back-rocking, she only takes a back-step if the Leader clearly leads her into doing so. This is right
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I like Carousel figures where the Leader and the Follower swing around a common axis in between them. Similar to Adiós but instead of closed position we have half-open position. There are many variations. Many Leaders have been using the Carousel over the years with or without a meaningful name. With this tutorial I have generalized many of the variations
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A Lead should know and use hundreds of basic figures and moves but only use a tiny selection in any one dance. It is much better to use ten figures five times than fifty figures one time in a dance. The benefits of a small selection, and of repeating many of the figures several times are multitude: In a nutshell:
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The classic Coca-Cola left turn is done as the last half of Dile Que No, on “5-6-7”, around the Lead. The classic way to proceed is for the Lead to add another Dile Que No and bring the Follow into the start position of Open Position. But we have many alternative ways to do Coca-Cola turns from Dile Que No.
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Paséala is a classic basic figure of one count of eight, often repeated one or more times. It is a closed position walk starting from CaÃda position and back to CaÃda positoin. Just like for Exhibela, the Follow walks three steps forward, and three steps back, still in forward walking position. For Paséale the Follow pivots left on “3-4-5” and
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Coming from Dile Que No into Open Position, I mostly skip Guapea: I don’t want to stop-up, I don’t want to do the “back-and-forward” Guapea Horror Show, or to suddenly go sideways using Cruzado Guapea. I do use the versatile “forward-forward” Guapea (Cruzado), the traditional Guapea GOAT, from time to time and in certain situations as an ordinary figure in
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Coming from Dile Que No into Open Position, I mostly skip Guapea: I don’t want to stop-up, I don’t want to do the “back-and-forward” Guapea Horror Show, or to suddenly go sideways using Cruzado Guapea. I do use the versatile “forward-forward” Guapea (Cruzado), the traditional Guapea GOAT, from time to time and in certain situations as an ordinary figure in
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The Grapevine is a universal dance pattern used in many dance styles. It is not common in Cuban Salsa. I don’t know of any named classic move containing a Grapevine figure. I have wanted to use such a figure in my Casino for a long time. Fortunately, Grapevine figures are common in Cuban Son. I have looked at a lot
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