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This move is often called Matanzas, Llevela a Matanzas or even A Bayama por Matanzas. Since Matanzas is also a city in Cuba, it is rather confusing to mix two cities: Bayamo and Matanzas. The move is a variation of A Bayamo por Arriba substituting the back-to-back turn with a two handed Vacilala. The Matanzas tells us nothing about the

A Bayamo por Arriba (up) is a good name because it reminds us that the Lead must keep both hands high as the Follow is lead behind his back. The Arriba also reminds us of the back-to-back turn at the end. Bayamo is a city in Cuba. There is another version of A Bayamo por Arriba replacing the back-to-back turn

This version of A Bayamo por Arriba from “Salsaficion” in Mexico has replaced the back-to-back turn with a simple Dile Que Si and alarde to the Lead: Same video at YouTube: A Bayamo por Arriba con alarde. I think most of us prefer the version with the back-to-back turn or the two handed Vacilala but sometimes it is better to

We are free to do our own fine tuning of well-known A Bayamo figures. If our variation is substantial, we should change the name accordingly. Often just adding the word “variation” to the figure name can be enough. Very often video variations of A Bayamo figures are really not variations, but flat wrong attempts to do one of the well-known

A Bayamo is a difficult figure but there is an easier version for the return walk of the Follow, normally just called A Bayamo “alternative version”. In order to distinguish the two versions, the easy one should have its own name. I call it A Bayamo Fácil (easy). A Bayamo and A Bayamo Fácil are identical except for the first

The basic A Bayamo is a popular figure with many videos out there. It takes the Follow on a long walk, two eight-counts, around the Lead and then back again with two more eight-counts. The return trip comes in two versions, and the details at the end varies. For the end a full Sombrero is the most common. One can

The easiest of all the moves in the A Bayamo family and very common. As in other moves, Abajo (down) indicates that the Lead somewhere in the sequence ducks under the Follow’s arm. Since the move is the easiest of the A Bayamo moves, it is a good way for a Lead to start with a new Follow. If she