Salsa Dance Moves from Hell

Ladies take some time to dress up for social Salsa dancing. Imagine this: you went to your hair stylist, you took some time to put on some nice make-up & perfume, you are dressed in your newest clothes & shoes and you had your dinner (without garlic) three hours before your first Salsa dance. After you finish this dance you discover that your hair is ruined, your clothes are smelly or torn apart, your make-up is smeared across your face, you feel violated and you are hurt.

This outcome can be caused by the so called “Salsa Dance Moves from Hell”. Here are some examples.

The “Lady-Tuck-In-Duck-Under” or “Throw Up”
This “special” Salsa dance move or Salsa turn pattern starts with a Cross Body (Inside) Turn ending in a "Wrap" position and continuing into the next Cross Body Lead, but the Leader “holds” the Follower in the middle of that second Cross Body Lead and leads her backwards. The Follower has to Break forward, duck under the arm of the Leader and come up again at the other side of his arm. A Follower who does not know this Salsa dance technique will either slam her back against the Leader's arm (ouch!), or a Leader who does not know how to lead this technique the proper way – raising his elbow and not trying this move with a dance partner of equal size or taller - will scrape his arm or arm pit against her back (ouch and gross!), bump his arm against her head (ouch!) and ruin her hairdo (and there goes all the dollars or euros spent at the hairdresser). The same goes for the so called "Ladies Tunnels".

The Leader standing behind the Follower
With Salsa, this happens when a Leader leads a Follower into a Cross Body Lead ending in an Open 'Check' position. This is also called a “Titanic” or “Butterfly”: the follower stands with her back in front of the Leader. Normally, a guy will lead the girl out of it in one Basic (= 8 counts). But, the Leader can also choose to keep the Follower in this position so she can execute Ladies Styling (Footwork) for more than just one Basic. This can be quite embarrassing for many ladies because they KNOW that the  men are checking their behinds. This situation gets worse with Bachata: there are many Bachata instructors teaching Leaders to stick their pelvises against the ladies' behinds whilst performing sexy Body Rolls, sexy Hip Rolls or going “Down & Up”. Normally, the Follower dictates the inner distance between her and her dance partner, but she is unable to do this when the man is standing right behind her.

Hammerlocks from Hell
The Hammerlock can become quite dangerous for the Follower if the Leader does not bring his Right to Left hand setting down while she is making the turn: she can end up having a strained wrist or shoulder (ouch!). This also applies when executing the Cuban “Setenta” or any other dance move involving Hammerlocks.

Styling From Hell
Ladies doing arm styling going upwards have to take care of their elbows: they can become very dangerous weapons when hit against the faces of the Leaders (ouch!). The same can be said about arm styling to the side or back: the hands can poke other dancers in their eyes (ouch!). Men leading ladies into turning with one hand on the ladies chins can bring them off balance. Loops or Cuban “Alandres” (multiple Loops) can be quite discomforting for the ladies and bad for their hairdo's.

You can comment below on your worst Salsa Dance Move from Hell, and see if you can discover some of them in the following video clip about LA Style Salsa on1.