Desplazamientos in casino
A full overview of all figures that move around, and their symmetries.
There are several figures in casino whose main purpose is to move the centre of the couple, rather than doing flashy armwork. They are called desplazamientos (“displacements”). These figures are made for letting the dance breathe, for claiming space, and in crowded spaces, for getting to an emptier part of the floor without stopping the dance.
Desplazamientos can be characterised by how they transition between positions, and as such, we can use paradigm filling (i.e. recognising symmetries) to deduce whether we have catalogued all possible desplazamientos.
- Caminala: walking abierta, caída, abierta
- Cuban CBL: abierta, caída, abierta
- Ola: caída, abierta, caída
- Apertura: cerrada, caída, cerrada
- Saloneo: walking cerrada, abierta, cerrada
- Summary
Caminala: walking abierta, caída, abierta
Caminala involves the follower walking along a box while the leader walks back-and-forth on a line through the middle of the box. The leader takes a 180° turn counterclockwise on 3. The follower takes a 90° turn on 3 and a 270° turn on 7. It helps to stay quite close to the follower if you want to lead this properly in the first bar, as illustrated excellently by Ramsés Sariol’s way of dancing; the second bar is just a DQN (or a reina).
Positionally, what happens in caminala is that you start in abierta, walk the couple forwards (staying in abierta), and then, by mirroring your own position, you instantly put the couple into caída so that the follower can walk back into abierta even though you were just there an instant ago.
Cuban CBL: abierta, caída, abierta
There is almost no difference between caminala and an open cross-body lead (CBL), except that the follower does not walk in the first line, so she traces only the DQN line rather than tracing a square. When done in linear salsa, CBL starts with the couple facing each other as abierta, and the leader turning only 90° counterclockwise to make space for the follower to walk. In casino, the leader has to turn more because the couple is facing away at some angle.
As I have discussed previously, this is one of the basic steps of Cuban Santa. As always, Salsaficion uses a different figure’s name for this figure, namely paséala.
Ola: caída, abierta, caída
An ola is a reverse open CBL: starting in caída (follower on leader’s right side, feet at 90° angle in asimétrico), the leader turns 180° clockwise to get the follower on his left while she walks in place, which instantly puts the couple into abierta, and then pulls her rightwards back into caída. Piotr Agassi, the king of desplazamientos, has a nice demonstration of olas and variations on it, like adding a second-bar vacilala.
For followers, this movement is foreign; it is the mirror image of a DQN walk. The cool thing about olas is that they end with the follower being caught in the leader’s right arm (or not), which looks nicer than the “open break” caused by a DQN in my opinion.
Apertura: cerrada, caída, cerrada
An apertura1 is the closed equivalent of the Cuban CBL and therefore it is equal to a closed CBL: starting in closed position, the leader turns 90° counterclockwise to make space for the follower to walk, she walks, and the leader closes the couple again by turning another 90°.
I have also called this “DQN cerrado” and “DQN cerrando” because from the follower’s perspective she is just doing a DQN.
Saloneo: walking cerrada, abierta, cerrada
A saloneo is almost the closed equivalent of ola and almost equal to a reverse closed CBL (from closed position, open the couple by turning 90° clockwise, let her walk, and then close with another 90° turn), except in the first bar, the couple charges forwards using something like a modified paso son before opening up to the right and letting the follower walk into caída which turns into cerrada.
Summary
There are a total of 8 possible desplazamientos. The first bar can start in all 3 positions. The second bar cannot start in cerrada because the follower needs to have space to walk and cannot start in the same position as the first bar. Additionally, the first bar can either be walking or not. This leaves:
| Figure | °1 starting position | °2 starting position | °1 motion | Linear equivalent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| caminala | abierta | caída | walking | / |
| Cuban CBL | abierta | caída | in-place | open CBL |
| ola | caída | abierta | in-place | reverse open CBL |
| apertura | cerrada | caída | in-place | closed CBL |
| saloneo | cerrada | abierta | walking | / |
| / | cerrada | caída | walking | / |
| / | cerrada | abierta | in-place | reverse closed CBL |
| / | caída | abierta | walking | / |
Note that we could do paradigm filling for the last three slots: they are respectively a closed caminala (mirrored saloneo), an in-place saloneo, and a walking ola (mirrored caminala). The in-place saloneo is feasible – which is why it’s already being done in linear salsa – although the feet are slightly unnatural for casino. The two mirrored figures are difficult because they respectively require stepping out with right (mirrored saloneo) and having the follower walk parallel to the leader while her feet are at 90° in caída.
I’m not entirely sure apertura is the correct term; it is the term used by my Italian teacher, Francesco Pagliuca. ↩︎
