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Salsa & Mambo Video Reviews

Salsa Racing

Qban Shines

Level: Intermediate-Advanced

Style: Cuban, Miami

Content: Shines

General Comment: Twelve shines, six for ladies and six for guys in this nice video. As you probably know, cuban style does not have shines in its traditional repertoire. Salsa Racing took inspiration from LA style shines and included a cuban feel in the body motion and in few footwork tricks. The dancers are very good, which is why the result is successful, if not too original. Explanations are given both in spanish and englih, at a good pace. You probably need to be an intermediate or advanced dancer to deal with all the shines but also a less experience dancer can learn something from this video.

Reviewed by Fabio from SalsaIsGood - Good

Casino Rueda Vol 1

Level: Beginners

Style: Cuban, Miami

Content: Basics, Turn Patterns.

General Comment: This is Salsa Racing's first DVD, released a few years ago now and consequently may look a bit dated today. It is a beginner video, which teaches you the basic steps of casino rueda style and a number of basic, standard rueda figures. It is taught by Henry Herrera and 3 of
his instructors, who alternate providing instructions both in Spanish and English. All figures are demonstrated by 2 couples, facing different angles, so you can see all the details as needed. This is
Cuban salsa, taught in the Cuban way, with all the good and the bad this implies. The male dancers are very good, they really have the natural, extra sparkle in their movement which makes Cuban salsa so
nice to watch. However, as often happens, explanations are a bit approximate and too often employ the 'watch this' method which may be helpful only if you are a very visual person; curiously the vocal
explanations seem to focus on the simpler parts and often completely skip the challenging one. The instructors teach by marking the steps (1,2,3-4,5,6) rathen than the beats (1,2,3-5,6,7), which can be
confusing; also the demonstration is danced on a peculiar 'on3' (maybe the music was wrongly overlaid to the dancing?). But when you get to the demo, the energy and the naturalness of the dancers (particularly the male ones) carries you away, and you feel prone to forgiving the misgivings in the teaching.

This is a DVD made to make you learn fast and get you to the dance floor at record speed; very little detail is paid to technique, so it will suit the ones of you who look at salsa mostly as fun.. and there
is nothing wrong with it.

Reviewed by Fabio from SalsaIsGood - Ok

Salsa Triples

Level: Advanced

Style: Cuban, Miami

Content: Turn Patterns, 2 guys and 1 lady and 1 gauy with 2 ladies.

General Comment: Cuba has a well known tradition of creativity and ingenuity when it comes to
having fun. These salsa triples, rarely found in other salsa styles, are a good example. They consist of dancing among a group of 3 dancers (hence the name), either one man and 2 ladies (the most common version) or two men and one lady. In the first case the man leads one lady with each arm; in the second the men hold one another and lead the lady by using the free arm.

A certain level of skill is required to execute this material, so this DVD is suitable for reasonably advanced dancers. The men need to achieve isolation in their arms (a bit like a drummer) and split the brain into 2 to coordinate the 2 ladies, and the ladies need to be very precise in the movement and footwork in order to avoid collisions in the most complex moves.

This is a good DVD; the dancers are very good, not only at the above described skills, (the two ladies look cloned in the motion) but also at adding naturalness and flair to their demos.. the Cuban feel comes out nicely. Each move is first demonstrated, then explained and then shown again in slow motion and explanations are given both in Spanish and English, as in Salsa Racing tradition. The choice of the material is also clever, since the figure executed by one man and two ladies are ?standard? casino moves converted to this form, which makes it very interesting..

Reviewed by Fabio from SalsaIsGood - Good

Intermediate

Level: Intermediate

Style: Cuban, Miami

Content: Turn Patterns.

General Comment: A good DVD. Very well danced, with a set of pure casino style figure; each
figure is first demonstrated, then explained move by move in both Spanish and English, and then shown in slow motion; the dancers are precise, and at the same time energetic and nice to watch. All you need to increase your casino repertoire..

Reviewed by Fabio from SalsaIsGood - Good