Salsa I-23: Swapping Wraps (hers to his), Intermediate/Advanced Moves

Intermediate Salsa Class #23 Swapping Wraps (hers to his), Intermediate/Advanced Moves “Wrap“ (aka stomach wrap or belly wrap) is a very nice Salsa move. Push leads lead to wraps whereas pull leads lead to hammerlocks. Push leads are a tiny bit harder. (see “Basic Wrap“ below) 0:02 Cross-body-lead-with-turn (“XBT“) 0:09 XBT with pull-push lead with right hand XBT uses a traveling left turn which can be lead with pull-lead with left hand or the slightly harder pull-push-lead (J-hook lead in Swing) with right hand. She has to resist the push, or else she will not do her turn, and won’t wrap; he will lead a cross-body-lead-with-turn, and she will spaghetti-arm to ignore the push-lead and just do cross-body-lead (no turn). If someone is doing this, you can actually start these moves with both hands, pull-lead with men’s left hand so she gets the signal to turn, then let go of left hand, continue with his right hand holding her left hand. 0:22 Basic Wrap 1. Requires pull-push lead with his right hand. If she doesn’t follow, add left hand pull lead temporarily, as explained above. 2. Interrupts her turn; she turns 180 less than normal cross-body-lead with turn (one full turn to face away from him instead of 1.5 turns to face him) 3. Is best followed by her with a rock-step, possibly with arm styling to claim space in front of her. Arm follows the motion of the body, like a gentle slow-motion whip or wave; it ideally happens after forward step, does not go forward at the same time her right foot goes forward. After rock step, she will probably be lead to open up to her back, towards him. If the lead is strong, that means a cross-body-lead-with-right-turn is next (a traveling right turn for her). 0:57 Her footwork to Swap Wrap (so she wraps him!): We circle around each other. He uses his palm or the ball of the hand on her hip bone to signal her to step left on 1. She can do slightly sideways forward and back step for him to do all the traveling, or she can cross over and step back in 1-2 so we circle each other. He has to step accross to her right side with his left foot on 1. The two intermediate moves we can use here are: 1. Lift left hand quickly on 3 to lead another Wrap. 2. Stand in front of her (he is wrapped now), ask for her other hand across the front. Once left-to-her-right hand hold is established, drop the other hand and lead her for a traveling left turn/XBT. 1:29 Advanced Wrap Move to Hammerlock 1:50 Advanced Wrap to Hammerlock, Slow, Explained. This is an advanced move because many things are happening with his hand, feet and him leading her: 1. His left foot forward should also signal her to start a traveling left turn. 2. He has to do “over-under“ as we do in Hammerlock. 3. He has the keep the elbow of his left hand close to her torse to not elbow her other arm! 4. Both parties need to realize hammerlock’s wrap happens on beats 1-2-3, not earlier on . As always with hammerlock, remember to drop your hand all the way down while her arm on her side faces you., both going into hammerlock and coming out. Her arm should be almost fully stretched down, not bent at the elbow, for maximum shoulder joint safety for her. Intermediate Class #23 on 1/17/2023 Dancers: Kanat and Kaz “Salsa by Kanat“ classes in Syracuse, NY: