Wed 21 May 2025 - Level 1: Adios, Level 2: El Dedo & Espresso

Another great week of dancing! Level 2 pushed the boundaries this week - dancing to faster music in the after-class social and getting a feel for how fun a fast and well-synced rueda circle can be. This week, level 1 learned Adios & Adios con la Hermana, while Level 2 learned El Dedo & Espresso.

Syllabus - Check out the moves for each level!

Level 1 - Adios & Adios con la Hermana

Adios: With Adios, we switch partners just like with enchufe that we learned last week. It's a fun move because the two partners get to use each other's momentum to change places in the middle of the move.

Adios con la Hermana: This move combines adios and enchufe. It's different from both in that it does not involve a partner change! You start with adios and then the lead turns his/her back to the middle of the circle and does an enchufe with the follow, finishing with a dile que no with the same partner.

Level 2 - El Dedo and Espresso

El Dedo: This move translates to "the finger." No, it's not a bad meaning! It means how the partners should be able to do the move touching with one finger only, using good technique. It's almost the same move as montaña - the main difference being that montaña uses two hands while el dedo is done with one hand only.

The video below is different from the way we do El Dedo in that just before the final dile que no, we have the lead do a right turn switching hands with the follow and ending up right-to-right to start the final dile que no. This shows how much variation there is between different rueda groups around the world!

Espresso: This move combines three separate dame moves! Dame Directo, Dame Dos, and Dame Arriba. With both Dame Directo & Dame Arriba, the leads go in the opposite direction as usual - going to their left instead of the normal dame to the right.

In the video below ignore the way the dancers do the "traveling" guapea going into and out of the circle - that's not part of the "Espresso" move but just a different way to do guapea.

Beginners - Welcome! Guapea & Dame are your foundational moves

Guapea: Basic move in rueda (cuban style salsa dancing)

Dame: (Scroll down to see detailed step-by-step video.) Switch partners by lead bringing partner on right over to left. Dame is the same as Dile Que No - dame is what we call in a rueda circle and dile que no is what is done dancing one-on-one.