This iconic video clip is from the 1939 film, “Another Thin Man”. The dancers, René Rivero Guillén and Ramona Ajón (Estella), where originally from Matanzas in Cuba. The video clip is fabulous, mesmerizing. The Mother of all Cuban Son. There is only one problem. The dance is completely dominated by the Leader. This is a common problem in Cuban social
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Thank you to Diana Rodriguez Garcia and Ismaray Aspirini for this workshop dance video that gives us an opportunity to talk about some of the important issues in Cuban Salsa. The video, labeled Casino con Trucos (tricks), was first published on Ismaray Aspirina’s FB Page, April 7, 2022, and shared by Diana Rodriguez Garcia on her FB Page April 8.
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The Echeverría twists are popular in Rueda de Casino mostly done from Guapea that doesn’t work that well in social dancing. Also it is an unusual basic figure most Follows don’t expect in social dancing and for that reason it is a little difficult to lead. I have made another tutorial about the basics of Echeverría, called Echeverría in social
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I believe that a Lead should ideally know and practice hundreds of basic figures and moves, but only use a small selection in any one dance. It is better to use 10 figures 5 times in one dance than to use 50 figures one time. In the Social Dance Practica Video below, more than three minutes long, I only use
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A dance can be likened to a pyramid in the sense that is should have a solid foundation on which to build. To me, the base of the dance, the baseline, is all important. To get the baseline of you dance right, tailored exactly to your talent, your abilities, priorities and age, and to constantly improve on and develop your
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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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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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Rodeo Inverso Continuado with right-2-right handhold is another figure I naively boast that I have “invented”. This is of cause not true since many Leads like to do Rodeo Inverso two or more times in a row. What I have done is to declare Rodeo Inverso Continuado for a social move that can be done two or more times (I
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