Essentials for learning Salsa Colombia as a Casino dancer

TomSchueler

TomSchueler

Changui
With learning Salsa Colombia (or Cali Salsa) my current goal is to be able to hit the dancefloor as soon as possible, even if I have to use lots of Casino moves and don't stay a 100% true to how native dancers in Cali would interpret the dance.

What are your opinions about what is essential to the dance and what can possibly be caried over?

A friend of mine visits Cali right now and she said surprisingly, footwork (steps in front or besides each other) is not as important as she thought it would be. Most dancers seem to be happy by using the basic step and go into patterns fast.

Hardest to get rid of, I found when dancing, is the dlq. Also: Speed. Moves that seem to be very similar are enchufa, enchufa doble, left and right turns, rodeo, circling, even more complex moves like setenta complicada.

Are there any casino patterns that are an absolute no-go for use in Salsa Colombia? Have you personally tried to dance Salsa Colombia with a background of Casino or Cuban Salsa?
 
Just a side note: I'd call it "salsa colombiana" or "Colombian salsa" instead of "salsa Colombia", just as some people talk about "Cuban salsa" instead of "salsa Cuba".
 
jga said:
Just a side note: I'd call it "salsa colombiana" or "Colombian salsa" instead of "salsa Colombia", just as some people talk about "Cuban salsa" instead of "salsa Cuba".
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I thought Cali style is more specific than Colombian salsa? Cali is more popular but how much of salsa outside Cali and TV shows, is Cali style?
 
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TomSchueler said:
Are there any casino patterns that are an absolute no-go for use in Salsa Colombia? Have you personally tried to dance Salsa Colombia with a background of Casino or Cuban Salsa?
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Don't have background in either. But once you get the basic footwork, it shouldn't be difficult to dance. Your best bet is to dance with Cali style followers. Then you can automatically decide which moves to discard and which ones to keep when dancing Cali style.
 
jga said:
Just a side note: I'd call it "salsa colombiana" or "Colombian salsa" instead of "salsa Colombia", just as some people talk about "Cuban salsa" instead of "salsa Cuba".
Click to expand...
I'd probably call it salsa caleña, or cali style salsa as that is probably what he is refering to.
 
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Offbeat said:
I thought Cali style is more specific than Colombian salsa? Cali is more popular but how much of salsa outside Cali and TV shows, is Cali style?
Click to expand...

Totally agree.

Offbeat said:
Don't have background in either. But once you get the basic footwork, it shouldn't be difficult to dance. Your best bet is to dance with Cali style followers. Then you can automatically decide which moves to discard and which ones to keep when dancing Cali style.
Click to expand...

The thing with Cali style is that it's 99% about the footwork, so you probably would need someone willing to show you what they know. AFAIK a good follow is one that can imitate your footwork. This is in contrast to other kinds of Latin dancing, where it's more about the turns the follow can perform than the actual footwork, which is somewhat monotonous.

Take a look at the incredible adaptability of this follow:
 
TomSchueler said:
With learning Salsa Colombia (or Cali Salsa) my current goal is to be able to hit the dancefloor as soon as possible, even if I have to use lots of Casino moves and don't stay a 100% true to how native dancers in Cali would interpret the dance.
Click to expand...

The vast majority of Cali dancers don't do any of the fancy stuff you see in videos. It's almost dancing without dancing. Advantages of such a style are that you can dance that way with almost any willing female Colombian without a problem i.e. even if she has no training or rhythm, on any surface and with very little space if necessary, and if the song is fast and/or long it doesn't matter. Disadvantages are that there is very little self expression and you might die of boredom.

TomSchueler said:
What are your opinions about what is essential to the dance and what can possibly be caried over?

A friend of mine visits Cali right now and she said surprisingly, footwork (steps in front or besides each other) is not as important as she thought it would be. Most dancers seem to be happy by using the basic step and go into patterns fast.

Hardest to get rid of, I found when dancing, is the dlq. Also: Speed. Moves that seem to be very similar are enchufa, enchufa doble, left and right turns, rodeo, circling, even more complex moves like setenta complicada.

Are there any casino patterns that are an absolute no-go for use in Salsa Colombia? Have you personally tried to dance Salsa Colombia with a background of Casino or Cuban Salsa?
Click to expand...
I think Cali style is getting fused with casino by some dancers, so what will work with one follower will be a disaster with another who is pure Cali. Plus some people pick new things up instantly and others don't.

I'm no expert on Cali style or casino but I will say this: follower's right turns don't exist in any form in Cali style, nor is there a dile que no (or cross body lead). And should you dance to a great old school mambo or guaguancó or similar and decide to dance contratiempo, bear in mind that even the better Cali followers have almost certainly never tried to catch the 2 in their lives.
 
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jga said:
Totally agree.



The thing with Cali style is that it's 99% about the footwork, so you probably would need someone willing to show you what they know. AFAIK a good follow is one that can imitate your footwork. This is in contrast to other kinds of Latin dancing, where it's more about the turns the follow can perform than the actual footwork, which is somewhat monotonous.

Take a look at the incredible adaptability of this follow:
Click to expand...

That's exactly the funny thing the friend of mine told me from her dance scene observations in Cali, that even the more advanced dancers rarely use difficult footwork moves, maybe it is because it's too unpredictable because you never know if your follower has the steps down.
 
DJ Yuca said:
The vast majority of Cali dancers don't do any of the fancy stuff you see in videos. It's almost dancing without dancing. Advantages of such a style are that you can dance that way with almost any willing female Colombian without a problem i.e. even if she has no training or rhythm, on any surface and with very little space if necessary, and if the song is fast and/or long it doesn't matter. Disadvantages are that there is very little self expression and you might die of boredom.


I think Cali style is getting fused with casino by some dancers, so what will work with one follower will be a disaster with another who is pure Cali. Plus some people pick new things up instantly and others don't.

I'm no expert on Cali style or casino but I will say this: follower's right turns don't exist in any form in Cali style, nor is there a dile que no (or cross body lead). And should you dance to a great old school mambo or guaguancó or similar and decide to dance contratiempo, bear in mind that even the better Cali followers have almost certainly never tried to catch the 2 in their lives.
Click to expand...

I would be curious how important the more difficult and fast footwork is for an intermidate to advanced dancer who has danced a couple of years and regularly goes to the dancing hubs (though not being a teacher). I am talking about people who go dancing more than two times a week and more for the dance itself than just for having a nice time. Sorry, have a hard time describing it!
 
TomSchueler said:
With learning Salsa Colombia (or Cali Salsa) my current goal is to be able to hit the dancefloor as soon as possible, even if I have to use lots of Casino moves and don't stay a 100% true to how native dancers in Cali would interpret the dance.

What are your opinions about what is essential to the dance and what can possibly be caried over?

A friend of mine visits Cali right now and she said surprisingly, footwork (steps in front or besides each other) is not as important as she thought it would be. Most dancers seem to be happy by using the basic step and go into patterns fast.

Hardest to get rid of, I found when dancing, is the dlq. Also: Speed. Moves that seem to be very similar are enchufa, enchufa doble, left and right turns, rodeo, circling, even more complex moves like setenta complicada.

Are there any casino patterns that are an absolute no-go for use in Salsa Colombia? Have you personally tried to dance Salsa Colombia with a background of Casino or Cuban Salsa?
Click to expand...
im not really adding anything that hasnt already been said, but my take on it is that you can do some cuban-eque moves to the colombian style ,but from my experience, its all based on a cross back step (cumbia step some people call it). so, this limits you a lot in terms of what turns you can do. you are basically limited to whatever can be done comfortably on that step. the casino style involves footwork (stepping to the side and stuff) that is more intuitive for getting around the turns comfortably, i think. which can produce a lot more possibilities and nicer results in my opinion.
the complex footwork in cali is seen as optional, one partner can stay doing the simple steps if they want, and the other can do more complex footwork, because the timing is the same

in my experience on my visits to colombia, cali girls like to mix it up, they dont like to stick too rigidly to the "style", its dancing, so they like to improvise and groove with the music, weather thats a boogaloo or whatever it happens to be.
 
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TomSchueler said:
I would be curious how important the more difficult and fast footwork is for an intermidate to advanced dancer who has danced a couple of years and regularly goes to the dancing hubs (though not being a teacher). I am talking about people who go dancing more than two times a week and more for the dance itself than just for having a nice time. Sorry, have a hard time describing it!
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The more difficult and fast footwork is optional so it's only important to a dancer if they decide it's important. On saying that if your aim is to dance with unknown women all night, several nights a week, that's not the traditional cultural norm in Colombia so I imagine that having above average dance skills would make it easier for you to achieve that, plus would stop you getting bored.

Really though despite being in Cali I don't have that much time to go out dancing (due to horrendous work hours) plus when I do go out I don't take as much notice of how people dance as I might. I have had to learn a very simple form of Cali style but really I need to improve it. So I'm not as well-qualified to advise as I should be.
 
This thread might help:

www.salsaforums.com

Colombian Styles

There are messages that have touched on this but I want a little more depth if anyone knows. What is Colombian Style salsa? What is Cali style salsa? What is Cumbia? I was under the impression that Colombian style and Cali Style are the same thing but Cumbia is something different. However...
www.salsaforums.com www.salsaforums.com
 
I haven't been to cali, but when i've danced with girls from cali i've found what works is replace the dile que no with some other movement like rotate clockwise, or back diagonal step (which some people incorrectly call cumbia step :D ), or a spin similar to enchufla.

Some of my favourite dances were with colombians, even those not from cali.
 
Mr Setenta said:
To me, Cali just looks like when beginners are 2 weeks into dancing Casino
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Disagree. The spins are basic but in cali most of them have sabor. In europe i've seen some amazing casino dancers after 2 years, but most of them seem to stay robotical forever. Maybe if the same casino dancers tried to learn cali style it would look like they were 2 weeks into casino.
 
I respect Cali style but I don't really like it for the most part. Kinda riverdancy. I couldn't imagine doing it the whole time. Although a few points in the song it would look nice. Or with a boogaloo.
 
1derpalm said:
I respect Cali style but I don't really like it for the most part. Kinda riverdancy. I couldn't imagine doing it the whole time. Although a few points in the song it would look nice. Or with a boogaloo.
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As I said earlier, River Dance style is not how the majority of caleños dance. However as regards the minority who do the more complicated stuff, I can see your point. Incidentally boogaloos are very popular in Cali, e.g. this tune gets rinsed in a lot of places and the dancers love it:


(Not really my cup of tea though.)
 
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