Preface

In an “earlier life,” before teaching dance, I taught math at a small college in Maryland. But I was very fond of dancing, and always made time to take classes in ballroom and foreign folk dance. It was when I went out to a Salsa club that I’d say I fell fully in love with the music and the dance moves. I began taking Salsa and Rueda de Casino classes regularly. At some point, I started a practice group with a bunch of friends and eventually began running formal classes.

As a math teacher, I had grown accustomed to helping students by writing up summaries of my lessons. It felt natural to do the same when I began to teach dance steps. So I launched the Danceintime website and posted videos and notes on many of the moves. Much later, during the pandemic, I started consolidating that information into what ultimately became this book.

My initial purpose was simply to document all the steps and techniques I had learned and then taught, as dance moves are the heart and soul of a dance. So the book starts with verbal descriptions and video illustrations of hundreds of dance moves. But dancing well requires much more than just knowing moves. Once I began writing, additional considerations seemed to flow from my pen; I couldn’t stop them.

This book summarizes things I have learned in more than 20 years of teaching both L.A. style Salsa and Rueda de Casino full-time. Rueda de Casino is the group form of a dance style named “Casino.” (Many people also informally refer to this style as “Cuban Salsa.”) In Rueda de Casino, couples arrange themselves around a circle and do moves in synchrony with frequent partner exchanges. It is exhilarating to dance in a smoothly flowing “Rueda” and it’s no surprise that this dance has become popular worldwide. L.A. style Salsa is also popular across the globe. It’s arguably the most well-known style of Salsa dancing.

Rueda de Casino was developed in Havana, Cuba in the 1950s by young men and women who are referred to as the “Founders” of the dance. They created dance moves that quickly became popular throughout Cuba and then in the rest of the world. Those of us who love this dance and whose lives have been enhanced by it owe a big debt of gratitude to these Founders!

Salsa began later, in the late 1960s and 1970s. It was largely developed by Puerto Ricans and Cubans who were living in New York City. This dance evolved to be danced to Salsa music, which was relatively new in the late 1960s. As we know, both Casino and Salsa have become wildly popular across the globe.

In this book, I have shared insights from years of teaching. Like all insights, they are colored by my way of thinking and seeing the world. I hope they are useful to readers. They cover things like lead and follow technique (what you should and shouldn’t expect from your partner!), ways to add style to your dancing, and information on Latin rhythms and percussion. In addition, the astonishing health benefits of dance exercise, tips on how to deal with timing issues, and how to study dance and avoid injury on the floor are all covered as well. Of course, hundreds of moves are also explained and illustrated.

I think most people who have done a job for eight or ten years feel like they know it well. But when they look back 20 or 25 years later, they can see how much more there was to learn, and how much insight was gained in the intervening years. Experience is a great teacher; it keeps on teaching us—relentlessly! We continue seeing things from a larger perspective, no matter how long we have worked at something.

As you go through this book, bear in mind that there are many ways to do a dance move. And even if two teachers do a move the same way, they may conceptualize and describe the movement differently. I’m sharing moves as I do them and explain them, but there are other perfectly fine ways to do so. In some cases, I have described various options.

Steps may be done differently for physical, philosophical, or artistic reasons. Sometimes a move requires getting into a position that is physically difficult for some people, so they adjust it. Or sometimes a dancer likes to add flourishes to enrich a step.

Rhythm can be handled differently too. Most groups start dancing on beat 1 but some begin on beat 5. Or consider the basic step of Rueda de Casino. There are videos in Chapter 1 of four different ways to do that. I believe there is no right or wrong in these matters; there is value in respecting multiple approaches to an art form.

I need to make some comments about my step descriptions. In the past, teachers often referred to leaders as he, guy(s), man/men, etc., and to followers as she, girl(s), or lady/ladies. But today, it’s very common for women to lead and men to follow, as old gender roles in dance have become less rigid, mirroring changes in society. Gender has come to have little meaning in these partnership dances because dancers increasingly learn both parts.

There was a time, not that long ago, when only people who were preparing to teach learned both parts. As recently as the early 2000s, some studios didn’t allow women to do the leader’s part in classes, even if there were more women and that would help balance the lead/follow ratio. But now it is generally recognized that advanced dancers do better if they understand how the lead and follow affect each other.

As a result, there is not only acceptance but even encouragement for dancers to learn both parts. This allows dancers to switch roles even during a song (which is great fun). Some Rueda groups now require advanced students to know both parts since “switch moves” may be called. That is proof positive of a major shift in thinking about the relationship between gender and lead/follow! (Some folks call this being “ambidancetrous.”)

For these reasons, I’ve tried to minimize the use of gendered pronouns in writing this book. The terms leader and follower have primarily been used—sometimes abbreviated as  “L” and “F” respectively. But even with abbreviations and occasional bending of grammar rules, the effort to balance inclusiveness and respect for gender neutrality with brevity and clarity has been challenging.

As a result, there are still occasional gendered pronouns in the book and there are definitely many in the videos. In particular, when I dance with my mentor, Glen, we switch lead and follow constantly. So while watching the videos, you should check to see who is leading and make no assumptions! The point is that any male-oriented pronouns in the videos refer to the leader and female pronouns refer to the follower regardless of the dancer’s gender.

Some steps in this book have verbal descriptions or phrases that I use in class to help students remember the sequence of action in a dance move. I describe the actions in a few short words which I “chant” while students are learning a move. This is like a helpful “recipe” for doing the move.

I began doing this when I was learning to lead Puente Complicado myself. It’s a long move with portions that repeat. I kept having trouble remembering what came next. But at some point, I started to chant the action while walking through the steps as I practiced. That helped me a lot, so I subsequently used this approach to help students.

However, in writing the book, I encountered a dilemma with my chants. There is some dance action in every four beats of music. I try to capture the essence of that action in just three or four syllables so that the “chant” is rhythmically related to the music. This works best when each syllable can be said in one beat. The need to sometimes say “leader” instead of “he” or “follower” instead of “she” makes many phrases too long to be said in four syllables.

In addition, students in class can see what I’m referring to if I say something like “go under.” But it’s unclear in a written description what goes under—the right arm, left arm, both arms, or a head? The fact is that it’s hard to describe movement clearly in words, especially in just a few words. Therefore, in this book, readers should ultimately rely on the videos provided, as the “final word” on how moves are done.

However, despite the limits of verbal descriptions, there are nonetheless, a small number of the moves in this book that can be described adequately in words. For example, the move “Medio Sombrero” can be explained by saying “Do a Sombrero step holding only one of the follower’s hands instead of holding both hands.” So while the vast majority of moves have one or more videos, there are occasional moves described just in words.

Also, when only one partner’s action is described without designating if it’s done by the leader or follower, it is usually the leader. This is because leaders are responsible for remembering the sequence of action. Followers don’t have this responsibility since they are led. Similarly, in describing moves, I sometimes use the word “you,” with the assumption that “you” are a leader.

Translations of the Spanish step names are included. It’s important to note that words can mean different things in different contexts as well as in different countries or regions. So translations are by their nature subjective. In addition, words can be translated literally or by considering their meaning in the context of dance. I used online information and consulted Spanish speakers from several different countries in putting together the list of translations. When it was sufficiently unclear how to translate something, no translation is provided. Nonetheless, those provided should be “taken with a grain of salt.”

Some words, like Enchúfala or Vacila, are used in many step names. It would make the text very “wordy” to repeat those translations every time, so I haven’t. I only mention the translation of words commonly used a few times. There is a complete listing of translations in the glossary at the back so that words can also be looked up easily.

I included some personal anecdotes throughout, as well as “small world” coincidences related to dance steps or material under discussion. Most of these are presented as “Side Notes.” I like to think these human-interest vignettes provide some history and perspective—and sometimes humor—that lighten the technical content of the book. I would compare this to a cookbook that includes personal stories about family events surrounding certain recipes. But if you don’t enjoy these detours, you’ll lose nothing by skipping them.

When you watch the videos I reference, you should know that I had to remove some of the soundtracks we danced to for legal reasons. At some point, I began recording videos with music I had purchased the right to use. But when necessary, I either silenced a particular song that I couldn’t use, replaced the original music with another song that I purchased the right to use, or replaced the music with my voice-over saying the beats. Note that the beat count can be slightly uneven in some places because the original music slowed down or sped up. (Links for the original videos with music that aren’t in this book can still be found by searching Danceintime’s playlist.)

Among the many videos here, some were recorded years ago at old Danceintime performances. Camera technology has improved during this time, so some pictures are not sharp by today’s standards. In addition, some performances were recorded in dark nightclubs. Despite these inconveniences, I think the action of the moves can be seen clearly.

Here is a helpful tip for watching YouTube videos. You can see fast movements better if you slow the video down. Just click on “settings” (the little gear), and slow the playback to 75 or 50 percent… I remember well the day someone explained that little gear to me! It rocked my world and opened up a whole new way to watch moves which was enormously helpful.

I like to think this book has a wealth of steps covering all levels. Chapter 1 deals with moves for new beginners (“newbies”), starting with the most basic concepts of how dancers count beats and when they take steps. No previous knowledge is assumed. Moves become increasingly sophisticated throughout the initial chapters. By Chapter 4, there is information on very advanced steps. Anyone who wants to look up a specific move will find the alphabetical index of moves at the back helpful.

There is material in this book that is relevant to more than one chapter. Some people may read through the chapters in order. Others may use this text as a reference book, looking up only topics of interest. In the latter case, each chapter should be constructed to stand alone and be clear. But for those who read through the book, this would involve needless repetition.

I handled this with the following compromise. Topics that are mentioned in more than one place are covered fully in the most relevant chapter. The coverage is briefer in other chapters, hopefully without sacrificing clarity. Throughout, I mention other sections where readers can find more detail about a topic under discussion.

In closing, I encourage you to check out DanceInTime classes (danceintime.com) in Washington DC & Maryland. They’re friendly and, like this book, address all levels of dancers. The motto “the more the merrier” certainly applies. Visitors from out of town are always welcome and encouraged to share any moves they learn in our class with friends back home.

Documenting all these dance moves and sharing dance information has been a laborious but satisfying endeavor. My years of dancing Salsa and Rueda de Casino have been great fun and I hope you’ll be able to say the same. It has been my experience that dance classes invariably create warmly bonded communities. The students’ shared love of music and dance elevates this activity from simply a dance class to something well beyond that—an experience that fosters joy and connection. It is this perspective that I hope leaps off the pages of this book.

Barbara Bernstein
Danceintime