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: 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.

Charleston: Basic step

The Charleston is a dance named for the city of Charleston, South Carolina. Very detailed information about the dance can be found in the Wikipedia article about charleston, the basic step is well described in the Charleston part of Swing Dancing Wiki-book.

Video below shows basic step both for face-to-face and side-to-side dancing



The video is from the collection of social dance videos of YouTube user itsaboutmomentum for a school in Van Buren, Arkansas, Momentum Dance Concepts. We already featured a video from them dedicated to lindy circle.

Salsa: Back Break

Together with basic step, beginners are typically introduced to back break and side break. More complicated moves in salsa are frequently started with back breaks. The video below also shows a square pattern and back breaks with turns that they call New York steps



The video is made by dance school in Macclesfield, UK.

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).

Lindy hop: sugar push

Sugar push is one of the basic lindy hop moves. During it partners stay facing each other for six counts come close for two and return to the starting position, just like in swing out.

The video below also shows some fancy styling variations of the move:



The video is by YouTube user jamcellar for
the Jam Cellar crew, that promotes swing dancing in Washington, DC and surroundings by hosting weekly parties and classes.

Lindy hop: lindy circle

A paragraph below is from a great wiki-book about lindy hop:

Circles are traditional Lindy Hop dance moves where partners circle around each other. Sometimes, the lead stays in the middle and the follow moves around him. Sometimes, the follow stays in the middle and lead moves around her. Sometimes, both lead and follow move around a common center, around each other. The conventional direction for circles in Lindy Hop is clockwise, which is the opposite of ballroom, though dancers move in both directions.

The video below illustrates basic lindy hop steps including lindy circle



The video is from an excellenct collection of social dance videos from a YouTube user itsaboutmomentum for a school in Van Buren, Arkansas, Momentum Dance Concepts. They also have an excellent regular video blog, where they demonstrate various moves in many social dances, not only lindy hop, but also salsa, rumba, contry two step etc.

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.