Dile Que No is not only one of the most used moves in “Casino”, Cuban Salsa. It is also very likely the first move we learn after Salsa basic steps and the Vuelta right turn. Dile Que No (“say no to her”) is called “Cross Body Lead” in English and that is what it means: Don’t get into a new
Read moreCuban Salsa, “Casino”, is a social dance. So is Dominican Bachata, X-Body Salsa, Bachata Sensual, Kizomba, Zouk, etc. Most of us are amateurs. We have learned the dance from friends or from the one of our peers who volunteered to be instructor. Or from dance schools run by enthusiasts often part time. Most of us have learned the dance as
Read moreGuapea (Handsome) is one of the very first figures we learn at the dance school, and it is often called the basic steps of Casino, of Cuban Salsa, but that is a simplification. It is not uncommon to have a whole social dance at advanced level without a single Guapea. Compare that to Salsa basic steps in linear X-Body salsa.
Read moreAbajo (down) is one of the most common ways to start a Cuban Salsa either directly or after some short initial stepping in place or a short walk. The move is also called Para Abajo, or Llevela para Abajo or Llevala pa’bajo for short. Abajo is a confusing name for a short move (there is no “down” in it) because
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This award-winning four-DVD-Box Cuban Salsa course, published in 2005, and still available on Amazon as an echo of the past, is as bad as it gets. It only survives because it has been shredded and uploaded to YouTube by the copyright owners themselves: Dirty Salsa YouTube. It is actually worth discussing because it is so bad, so far out that
Read moreSetenta Complicado is the Mother of all Complicado, probably the first Complicado at most dance schools, and really the only one you will ever need, if you only have the time for one. There are more videos of this move on YouTube than of almost any other Cuban Salsa move. Don’t underestimate Setenta Complicado. Even many dance schools get it
Read moreSetenta y Dos con Giro is the “official” name of this move but most dancers think of it as Setenta y Dos. They can not imagine the figure without the Giro. None of the three videos below use the Giro as part of the name. It is implied. The Gancho hooks can be made simultaneously or one by one, and
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