Salsa: Ocho

Ocho ("eight" in Spanish) is a combination when first a leader does a right turn and after him a follower does a right turn too, thus "drawing" a fugure 8 on the dance floor. There may be a several combination: a partner leaves his hand on waist level, or does an under-arm turn, or when the follower turns the leader may do a half turn to lead "no look walk through" after it.

There are several dances on DanceTuts where ocho salsa figure is tagged. On the video below it is nicely combined with several other intermediate salsa moves. You may watch this video with moves subtitled here.



The video is by "Latin Dance Factory" dance school from Houston, Texas. (YouTube user latindancefactory). They have a nice collection of intermediate level tutorials. Here is another one with moves subtitled. There they have "ocho" move too, followed by "no look walk through".

Salsa: Cross-body lead 360

During cross-body lead 360 partners turn 360 degrees (some teachers call the move 360 turn). It is well explained in the video below by YouTube user G0tchaman

Salsa: Copa

In the previous post a move copa was added to complete the pattern with other more complicated turns. Silvia Stoyanova on the video below dedicates several minutes to explain details of the move to the very beginners. The combination they show is completed with a simple haircomb to return hands from crossed to basic open position.



Silvia is a dance teacher from Chicago. More information about her school can be found at www.salsawithsilvia.com. She posted several videos on YouTube that may be interesting for beginners. For more information about salsa lessons, clubs and events around Chicago a website www.salsachicago.com is a good starting point.

Salsa: Windmill

Anthony Persaud is an Internet salsa superstar. He is best known for his blog addicted2salsa.com for which he posted numerous detailed videos lessons on YouTube.

We added the video below to dancetuts collection because of a move windmill Anthony demonstrates together with Julie Merrill (originally posted on addicted2salsa). The move may be considered as a fancy styling variation of a cross-body lead with outside turn. Anthony completes the pattern with what he calls hourglass copa (a stylistic modification of normal copa) and finishes with cross-body lead 180. In the second part of the video Julie gives advice on ladies’ styling techniques. The video is the first lesson filmed by Anthony in HD (press HD button if your connection is fast enough).

Salsa: Cuddle

Cuddle is a position when partners stand side by side. One can get to and out of this position in many ways. One example is the move Kentucky that we discussed couple of days ago. Some other variation that already featured on the dancetuts website are cuddle left turn, whip turn into cuddle and cuddle tunnel.

The video from Johnny Griffith (gottaswing5678 on YouTube) has several salsa moves for beginners, including a couple with a cuddle

Salsa: Kentucky

The move called Kentucky starts similar to enchufla, but the leader stops the follower at the hip then at the shoulder and exits by making a step behind to turn around to return to initial position. The video below illustrates the move very well



The video is filmed by Melendrez Dance Studios (latinastaire on YouTube). They are based in Florida and give lessons in many social dances.

Salsa: Cross-body lead

Cross-body lead is very common salsa move. During it partners change their positions. Many variations to it exist (with inside turn, and outside turn, reversed crossed-body lead etc.) as well as many styling variations.

A video below shows has a good set of moves for beginners, including several variation of cross-body lead:



It is filmed by YouTube user latinsoul2008 representing a salsa dance school in Roosendaal (South part of Holland).

Salsa: Bailarina

Bailarina is lady's styling technique. Mitchell Herrera (salsaforsure on YouTube) shows it on the video below

Salsa: Dile Que No

Dile que no is the Cuban version of the cross-body lead. The difference is that a leader's steps do not follow 180 degrees pattern and the first step is made sideways. Thus the couple almost turn in a circle. Similar to cross-body lead there may be variation when the follower turn: dile que no with turn. In English the name of the move means "tell her no".

The video below is made by the dance school in UK.

Salsa: Enchufla

This move is common in Rueda. A great list of Rueda moves can be found in the wikibook about Rueda. We take some information from there.

There are quite a few variations of the name: enchufa, enchufla, enchufa, enchufe, or even enshufta. There are more videos on YouTube with name "enchufla", so we use it here. In English it means "plug her".

The leader turns the follower to her left, and at the same time moves around so that when she has finished her turn she is facing him. It's about 140 degrees around. This is common for enchufla to be followed by dile que no.

The video below is by YouTube user strictlysalsa. This is for the dance school in Glasgow & Edinburgh.



Enchufla on dancetuts.

Salsa: Siete

Youtube user bailahuntsville from Alabama posted more that 100 videos, usually with one move per video. They have an excellent web page for salsa classes and events around Huntsville.

On the video below the focus on the move called "siete" connecting it with "cross-body leads".

Siete means "seven" in Spanish. This is one of Rueda moves. There seems to be other its variations: siete con coca-cola, siete complicado, siete moderno ...



The moves in the video are subtitled on dancetuts. Here is another siete video there.