There is surprisingly little information available with respect to the move Tira La Sábana even though it is a true Cuban classic arguably made famous by the "Salsa a la Cubana" DVD video series produced by Salsaville.com which was first released in 1999. According to their website, thousands of copies have been sold in over 75 countries making it one of the best-known sources for Cuban salsa moves. The move Tira La Sábana is the first move on DVD 4 of the series performed by two sensational dancers: Mario Charón Alvarez & Zoila Rizo Sánchez. Particularly Mario, who was born in Santiago de Cuba and spent 25 years at the Ballet Folklorico de Oriente, is well known in Europe for his workshop appearances and the fact that he lived in France and Germany. In France he is sometimes known as “diamant de la salsa” – the diamond of salsa.
Every time I have heard this move being translated in a class, the translation has been “throw the bed sheets”. This seems to be consistent with the fact that the way this move is generally pronounced is Tira La SA-bana with the stress on the initial syllable of the word so the move name should correctly be written Tira La Sábana with an accent on the a of Sabana. The "Salsa a la Cubana" DVD, which is the oldest reference to the move that I can find, confirms the translation as it is showing the same accent when introducing the move. That being said the majority of modern videos and sources referring to this move have removed the accent leading to a few sources claiming that the translation should be something like “Throw her to the Savannah”. To me this seems like a mistake that has evolved from the fact that Non-Spanish speaking dancers are referring to the move across the internet leaving out the accent for simplicity as it is harder to generate on non-Spanish keyboards which has subsequently led to an incorrect translation.
That being said, little seems to be known about how and where this move originated and why it is in fact called “throw the bed sheets”. Like so many older Cuban salsa moves, the lack of documentation makes it extremely difficult to gather additional information around the move which is a particular shame in this case as the title of the move is so bizarre that I am certain that there is some great Cuban humour hidden in the meaning of the move. If anyone reading this blog has any additional information around this move please do get in touch via our contact page as I have always been intrigued as to what exactly the name of the move refers to.
The hand sign for this move is a simple flick with the hand as if something is being thrown away as shown in our video at https://youtu.be/IYmhPPVCb-c
