As discussed in the post on Mini Setenta, Setenta based moves are among the most commonly seen moves in Cuban salsa and probably the moves with the most amount of variations. Many dance schools will not teach Mini Setenta as a separate move and will instead progress to teach the full Setenta move as the basis for any more complicated variations. The problem with this is that while most dance schools seem to agree on the first 1.5 8-counts i.e. the part that makes up Mini Setenta, it is nearly impossible to find two dance schools that teach the full Setenta move in exactly the same way. Left or right turns, Alardes and Ganchos are among the most common embellishments of this move after the mini Setenta part and hearing a new caller shout Setenta will almost inevitably lead to some people performing a slightly different moves to others.
At Tiempo España Dance Academy we teach Setenta as a combination of Mini Setenta (although instead of dropping the follower’s left hand after bringing it over the leader’s head to go into Dile Que No the leader will keep hold of it and instead perform an Alarde to end up facing the follower at the end of the Mini Setenta part) and Enchufla Ronde. In order to stay consistent we teach every other Setenta variation to finish with a Ronde at the end and most Setenta moves will in fact end the exact same way as Setenta i.e. with an Enchufla Ronde at the end. Since most Setenta moves start with a Mini Setenta and end with Enchufla Ronde, the move Setenta can be seen as the most basic stripped-down version of the move as it consists entirely of just these two elements without any additional steps or embellishments.
In our higher level classes we teach various styling aspects such as Alardes, Juego de Manos, Ganchos, etc. that can be used to change the ending of Setenta and the way it look as a result. We also teach a variety of more complicated Setenta moves similar to other dance schools but the reason we chose this particular ending structure for Setenta moves above all other possible variations that share the same name internationally is the fact that a Ronde at the end balances somewhat the fact that the followers are having to turn throughout the move without the leaders having to turn too much so a leader turn at the end creates a higher contrast both in terms of how the dance feels as well as how it looks to spectators. This is also a good way to combine it directly with other moves such as Sakala or Dile Que No Con La Mano Derecha which are not seen too often on the dance floor.
The hand sign for Setenta is the index finger of the free hand pointing downwards while the thumb is stretched out such that thumb and index finger combined show the number 7. Shaking the hand when calling the move is a way to signal the number 70 and therefore Setenta.
