Down-Under figures are prolific in Cuban Casino, that is figures where the Leader ducks under one or two arms. “Down-under” figures as well as “stepping up over” the arms are part and parcel of the Cuban (juvenile) Nudo (junk) tradition that has given Casino a bad name of being awkward and clumsy non-dancing. But some of these figures are too
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This is one of my favorite social moves because it is both advanced and easy. It works with a surprising success rate with a broad spectrum of Followers and it creates good flow and momentum. A good Follower can turn left or right, 360 degree, starting on any step, but it is a tradition to mostly start on “2”, “5”
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Bayamo moves are just combos of crossed two handed figures taking the Follower around the Leader with Rodeo Inverso as the central figure. They are a good way to get more left turning circular motion into the dance. I know more than 10 such common moves with many examples uploaded to YouTube. They don’t exist in the Miami Rueda Tradition:
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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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The most important way to get better in social dancing is to improve the basic steps and turn techniques in more and more combinations of basic figures. In this tutorial we are focusing on the steps of the Follower. Because the Leader can step however he wants as long as he manages to make the Follow step spot on with
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The ExhÃbela Trio is simply three ExhÃbela variations that work well together. First the basic ExhÃbela, one or more times, next Vacilala inside ExhÃbela, one or more times, and at the end ExhÃbela but instead of going back into CaÃda position, the Follow is walked into the start position of Open Position or into a “7-8-1” pivot as shown in
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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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