Salsa Dancing Basics Tutorial - Beginner Cross Body Lead - Demetrio Nicole

What's up guys in this video we're going to be going over one of the most important moves in salsa that you're going to be seeing a lot. It's called the CBL or the cross body lead. Yeah so what we're going to do first we're going to do our basic step. We're going to or not the basic step we're actually going to do the cross body lead just the steps before we do it with partner work just so you guys can see or what we're doing. Yeah so let's come a little bit forward. So right now the ladies just do the basic step as I'm explaining the guys cross body lead and then when the ladies are doing the cross body lead guys we're just going to do a basic step or cross body since we'll know it by then. Yeah so just so the ladies are actually moving as well. So Nicole's going to start back with her right for now. Ladies if you're a lady and you're following just watch her along with me. So for the guys when I'm doing a cross body lead let's just do one basic step first one two three five six seven. When I do this cross body lead I'm going to go forward on my left one. Yeah again slowly I'm going one I'm going to step in place two. Yeah just step by step again I'm here I'm going one two and then three I'm going to come together yes yes one more time step by step one two three. So it's almost like if I'm starting my regular basic but I'm going to open up like if I'm opening up a door I'm going one I open the door. Yeah so this is my three on the five six seven I'm going to continue my basics so I can face this direction so I'm going to step back with my right I'm going to go five six seven. Yeah again if you think about it like this in case you're thinking about the steps two and six are in place. Yeah I'm going one in place together five in place together. Yeah there in the cross body lead again if you've taken classes before a lot of people teach these in different ways some people open up they do the beginning of the crossbody a little different. There's going to be very a lot of different variations again this is just our style for now don't we don't want to get too complex we're not throwing in a lot of body movement flavor or anything right now we just want you to get the steps down first in this beginning portion of these videos before we get into the crazy stuff. Yeah so let's do it again breaking it down slowly one two three and five six seven last time let's do one basic step first in the crossbody lead for the guys and then we'll explain the crossbody lead for the ladies for the mamasotas the mommies here we go slowly we go one two three cross body lead one two three five six seven. It'll make a little bit more sense when we're actually doing it with a girl but now for the ladies cross body lead. Yeah so don't worry if it's still a little complicated it'll if it doesn't make sense to you now it'll make more sense in partner work yes this is just so your feet are taken care of so for the ladies we're gonna just do our normal basic for one two three so we sit up one two three so nothing's different for us guys uh sorry just do a normal basic as the ladies you're doing the crossbody lead so in case you guys are next to each other we don't fumble or just get confused and ladies just know he's going to be going a different direction so don't let it confuse you kind of have to just you know keep your own space and not get confused so we do our normal basic for one two three one two three make sure you hold here and you don't move forward yes then we're going to step forward for five step forward and step forward for six and then seven we step together so now we just change direction so walk walk change directions yeah so let's try it again we do our normal basic for one two three one two three now we do our walk walk turn walk walk turn and make sure on that turn you switch your weight so you're ready to step back on your right leg again for your one two three so once we finish with that rotation we go back into our basic so let's go ahead and something for the ladies if just um as you're seeing nicole she's kind of almost already turning on that second step you don't want to think like you want to go one two three walking like you're super super straight yeah and then turn like right on that thing it's okay to start on that second step one two three five you're still stepping forward you're almost kind of like starting to turn here and then boom like if you see nicole she's doing that yeah it's okay to subtly start our turn a little bit early sometimes yeah but just for the for understanding grasping the concept all we're doing is trading places so normally you know we start facing this direction and ideally we want to end facing this direction so the point is just to switch directions yeah so let's try it again finishing it up with a basic don't worry i'll walk you through it we basic one two pause three walk forward five six seven finish with a basic going right left right yeah so let's try it again last time and then we'll put it together ready basic one two pause three and walk walk turn basic right left right and left right left yeah so guys while you're doing the basic ladies while you're doing the basic where the guys are doing the crossbody lead in our videos we've taken videos online as well especially during these times if you're watching this during coronavirus a lot of the times when you're watching videos one person or both while the instructors are talking just wait you might have you're like just probably stuck waiting or just sitting down until they actually start dancing again so always try to be active while watching our videos make sure you're doing something with us if a lady's thing is getting explained guys make sure you're practicing the basic like we did here and the other way around just you're constantly dancing or practicing your basic step yeah yeah so let's actually bring this into partner work yeah so we're gonna get into close position for now guys uh my hand i'm gonna connect right here to the lady show the blade yeah we're just gonna ask for the hand on the opposite side here there's a nice little distance we're not close yeah and we're not so super far away yeah just enough we're here second thing guys make sure let me face this way i'm not directly in front of my girl because i'd probably step on them yeah so when i'm in front of them i'm kind of going off centered yeah a little bit so i'm here it's just by a little bit i want to be like this yeah so i'm in front of her it's like if you were to see the feet it'll go her foot my foot her foot then back to mine yeah so when we're taking our step i'm not gonna go directly at her yeah it's kind of like we're off centered just a little bit um from anybody that was watching they wouldn't even really be able to tell that it's off center in like the video you might not even be able to tell it's just a little bit so yeah so we're here let's just start with our basic step first starting with our left ladies right ladies going back one two three five six seven one two three five six seven last time one two three five six seven yeah so let's actually let's go straight into it so when you're doing this cross body lead right here i'm gonna do one basic one more time i'm gonna go one two three five six seven now it's like almost like if i'm opening up this path imagine if we're dancing on a line yeah so she's going back in the line i'm going forward on that line she's always gonna be like on a walkway like that line that's for it's for the mama soda yeah so i'm not gonna make her go out of the line i'm gonna get out of her way when i'm doing this cross body lead yeah so i get out of the line i create this trail for her and she's gonna continue the cross body lead and then i'm gonna go back on that line so imagine we're always dancing on that line yeah don't make the ladies move you move and then let the ladies go because she's the queen so if we do it towards you so it makes a little bit more sense you can't see me then he opens up i didn't move out of the way he did now he's gonna let me walk my path and then he's gonna get back in the same line as me so he's the one kind of going out of the way and i'm just like the little you know taking care of here we go so let's try it again from the basic step we'll do it on both angles so you can see one basic and then cross body lead we go one two three cross body lead one two three five six seven basic one two three here we go again one two three five six seven one so guys uh we know the step we're both taking the class if you're watching from the outside you know what's coming but when you guys are doing this you guys gotta actually make sure you're leading this move so two things this hand make sure you're not dropping it or bringing it up while you're thinking about the move keep it here nice tension the hand back here is what's bringing her forward especially on that five when i'm here one two three this five you gotta make sure you actually lead her forward yeah when you're finishing the cross body lead make sure you bring her back into closed yeah don't just assume she's gonna know yeah like imagine she has a blindfold on and she doesn't know where she's going that's how you have to guide it like you need to make sure she knows okay she's going forward and this is when and then she's gonna go around like don't just assume she knows where to go even though she does you have to lead that move and the lady's waiting for that cue yeah you don't go like super like a duke and like all crazy heart just gently boom it's guided yeah so we're here for the five six seven guys right yeah ladies left we go five six seven we go back into our basic one two three yeah let's do this angle once just so you guys can see we basic first one two three five six seven i open up the door i bring her through and basic so one thing for the ladies that always happens is the ladies start to go forward before the guy leads forward and it can be one of two things the guy's not leading so the girl feels like she has to do it for herself or one is the girl's just kind of just doing it and not letting the guy not waiting for the guy to give the cue forward so let me give an example so you know what i'm if he doesn't move me forward i could do a basic in place i wouldn't go forward so i wait for the cue on the back and then i step yeah so i only step almost like this is kind of an aggressive word but almost because i'm pushed to go forward i don't go oh i'm going forward now so we always wait for those cues he cued me to go back and then i wait for the cue to go forward whenever that may yeah so right now um with the music and with the counts we're going to be doing this one in closed position um the next thing that we're going to teach right now won't be but i want to cover it just in case because there's going to be a lot of times that you're going to be in a closed position an open position yeah and hand to hand yeah so let's do a basic step like this again when i have my hands in this um in this open position again i have my fingers here like so my thumbs are out not grabbing with little crab claws so we're just it's just fingers again there's many forms of hand holds and salsa sometimes people from here they do like the pistol grip like you can have like the fingers on the side there's a lot of different hand movements here we'll go into that later but for now i'm just having my palms down the fingers are just relaxed you don't want to be like like little u's yeah so we basic here one two three five six i freeze now if i do a cross-body lead in open position i do the same thing with my step but make sure now you're gonna keep both hands in front i'm not gonna bring the hands with me as i get out of the way i'm gonna go one two three i keep the hands here a lot of the times as well students will go one two and then they'll do this and now the girls are gonna face you yeah and it's gonna be a weird cross-body lead because you're bringing her body towards yours so you want to keep her frame her shoulders facing this way by doing this i keep the hands in front of her boom yeah from here remember now you really got to lead her forward in that five still from both hands as you're walking her through yeah so that lead happens on five i bring her through for five six seven we come back to center basic two three let's try it again five six seven out of her way one two three bring her through five six seven last time one two three here we go one two three five six seven one we just wanted to throw that in there as a just in case for later just so you guys get a little bit of practice now also in open hand position but when we do it with music we'll do it in closed yeah so one more tip for the ladies and gentlemen so for the ladies tip this one can get if you're new to following our bait your basics is when you get this back one two three is to not switch your weight and just tap and then you're stepping forward on five with your right leg but that's not good we need to step forward on five with our left so when you do this back in place you have to make sure you switch your weight so that you're ready to go on five so step step make sure this is a step and you complete that weight switch so you can go forward with your left this is what you do not want to do right left tap and forward on your right yeah so just respecting your basic step so don't just change it um because you feel like you got to keep that basic going no matter what yeah and then the tip for the guys is in cross body lead a lot of the guys tend to overly lead with your right hand this isn't the hand you want to really lead this forward with again he said it but just to make sure you could actually lead this cross body lead without this hand at all and push forward so maybe try that just as a practice is to not use this the gentleman's left the lady's right because you can do this cross body lead without it to make sure that you're leading it properly from the correct part of the body here we go so let's do it with counts um let's do it facing this way first um and then we'll be in closed position we'll do it twice and then we'll try it with the music five six basic we go one two three five six basic one two three five six we go one two three five six seven last time slowly just in case. One, two, three, five, six, seven. One, two, three, five, six, seven. Let's try it with the music. Here we go guys with the music. Slowly. Here we go. Five, six. Five, six. Basic. Cross body lean. And basic. Cross body again. Two more times. Here we go. Last time. Also guys, check out our salsa course. There is an amazing sale on it right now. We have tons of content, so many step-by-step videos so you can learn salsa from the absolute basics to doing really fun social dancing combos in the end and we will take you step-by-step through them. You can even interact with us in the comments and ask any questions and we are happy to help you guys. So check the link below and check out our awesome sale for our salsa course. You won't be disappointed. Hopefully we see you inside.