Vacilala y coca cola & Balsero redux - Peter and Cinzia

June 27, 2005

Vacilala y coca cola
L-R hold
1,2,3 Pimienta like away step and back in place and leading follower to just overtake
5,6,7 lead follower to a free 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 clockwise spin
1,2,3 start of Dile que no but place L hand on follower's R shoulder
5,6,7 L hand on R shoulder should be sufficient signal for 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn for follower, follow follower in a counterclockwise walk to nearly get back to original position on 1 with follower to R side (most likely position is that both are facing outside the Rueda circle
1,2,3,5,6,7 Dile que no - this will likely involve less forward movement on 1 and more backward (counterclockwise) movement on 2,3 to leave space for the follower to move across to the L side
Balsero
crossed hold with R-R on top - or R-R hold first then get L-L later underneath R-R
1,2,3,5,6,7 sombrero start until 7 but instead of finishing, L-L goes over my head to behind my neck while R-R stays in front (optional: I tried keeping L-L in front of my head on 7/8, then moving it over and behind my head on next 1. This works fine too.)
1,2,3 L foot crosses over in front on 1, step back and to left on 2, step to left on 3 (going around partner - with both walking in circles in clockwise direction and facing same direction) - [note: it really didn't matter how the footwork is done; the point is to walk in clockwise manner to get the follower back in front of the leader in a similar position as in the previous beat 4]
5,6,7 sombrero finish
1,2,3,5,6,7 dile que no

Cinzia substituted for Mauricio in the Beginners class. I was by far the most experienced student in the class and found myself in position of something like a teaching assistant role. A feedback I heard from a experienced follower outside the class during the club hours was that I improved a great deal since she first saw me and is showing steady improvement every time and that I just need to keep it up. I also found myself incredibly dependent on cross body leads; some followers, who could dance credibly with safe Cuban stylists, were completely useless with me. I speculate that my heavy dependence on cross body lead might be one reason why I can't handle Merengue compared to Salsa.