While we have experimented with changing structural elements of Cuban salsa we will continue to gain experience before introducing entirely new concepts on our YouTube channel and while moves that we invent and publish from this moment onwards may seem different in terms of the combination of moves executed, the elements making up the new moves we are introducing continue to follow the traditional Cuban structure. Therefore, for moves such as Travesura, there should be no problem leading or following these moves for anyone who has mastered the basics of Cuban salsa well as all the signals and steps should be the same as required by the elements making up the move.
As far as we know there is currently no move out there that is a reflection of what we have called “Travesura”. It is of course possible, however, that someone somewhere has done a similar if not the same move before either creating it on the spot while social dancing or even teaching it under a different name. It is not our intention by publishing this move or any other new moves that we have created to take away credits from anyone who may have come up with this previously. In fact, given that there is only a finite number of ways that Cuban salsa elements can be connected, it is likely that we will eventually publish a move under our own name that has already been created elsewhere. That being said, we have reviewed many published moves and have gone to various Cuban salsa classes by different schools and have never come across a move that matches Travesura so it is our hope that it finds enough acceptance in the salsa community for this to be taught under this name in the future.
Travesura means mischief in Spanish which we thought was a fitting name: At the end of the move the leader brings their right arm over the follower’s head and then immediately their left arm over the follower’s head which is a common arm movement seen in a lot of moves (sometimes referred to as Puente). What is unexpected is the fact that straight away afterwards, the leader leads a Vacilala but moving the arms over the follower’s head again in the opposite direction i.e. leader’s left arm and then their right arm come over follower’s head. This is rather unexpected for the follower and it is not a combination that exists is any other move I have witnessed so the name Travesura makes reference to the leader doing something quite unexpected at the end which is emphasised by the double Ronde that is equally rarely seen when social dancing. We had the idea to call the move Travesura as the first time we experimented with this move we were dancing to the song Travesura by Enio and the name seemed to fit with what we were trying to achieve with the move.
We chose the hand sign for this move to be the thumb pointing towards the ear while shaking the open hand, a common symbol for mischief among children. To see a video of the move Travesura as well as the hand sign, please click on: https://youtu.be/ygEY9quTdXM
