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Salsa & Mambo Video Reviews

Saltuya

Advanced Turnpatterns on1 and on2

Level: Advanced

Style: On1-On2

Content: Turn Patterns.

General Comment:There is something rustic about this DVD which I like. Rudolph and Coco seem to be two down-to-earth dancers who with no frills, want to show us some advanced turn patterns. I can almost imagine the hypothetical scene: you see some fancy figures on the dance floor and you go and ask the dancers to please show you the trick. Well in this DVD it looks like Rudolph and Coco decided to show us the tricks impromptu and they do so by dancing the turn patterns first on 1, then by explaining the details of lead and follow and then showing them again on 2. The dancers and the turn patterns seem to be more natural in the on 2 version perhaps because of the choice of music.

The turn patterns are tricky and will challenge an early advanced dancer: they are full of quick hand hold changes, unusual copas, many changes of directions, spins for both the lady and the guy and those typical NY style moves in which you place the hand of the lady somewhere and it appears you retrieve it from somewhere else. I am sure you will have fun trying them out.

There are 6 turn patterns fully explained plus 2 bonus ones which are only demonstrated and all together the DVD is some 30 minutes long. Maybe more material could have been fitted in but the turn patterns are fairly long, 10-12 bars of music each, so if you manage to learn them all you will get your money’s worth. A little bit more care with the camera would not have hurt: the feet are often cut off from view in the demo but thankfully some zooming in compensates for this during the explanation. Also the turn patterns are shown from one side only but if you account for the fact that this is an advanced DVD it may be expected that you know enough to fill the small gaps. As a final touch, the DVD authoring may not be high tech but it is really cute.

Reviewed by Fabio - Good