Rueda Dame Con Dos

Dame con Dos is one of the named figures of swing rueda, the wheel-formation partner dance in which a single caller announces moves and every couple performs them at the same moment. On the call "Dame con Dos" — "give me [one] with two" — the indicated dancer turns two full clockwise revolutions on the spot and then rejoins the rotation of the wheel. Swing rueda takes its calling system from salsa rueda, the Cuban round-dance tradition, and applies it to Lindy Hop figures danced in unison; because that vocabulary travels intact, the Spanish call is used in the same form internationally as the move's name.^[1]

Origin and context

The format is relatively recent: Elaine Hewlett and Jeff Miller assembled swing rueda from salsa rueda at the Rhythm Room Dance Studio in Dallas, Texas, in 2000, fitting the called-wheel structure of the Cuban dance onto a Lindy Hop movement set. "Dame con Dos" belongs to that imported lexicon of calls and uses the "Dame…" ("give me…") form that hands a dancer a turn. (See salsa rueda, the parent format from which the calling system descends.)

Executing the call

On the call, the named dancer rotates two complete turns clockwise without travelling, holding a single spot so the wheel keeps its circle.^[2] Because the figure only works when the whole rueda hits it together, the two revolutions are sized to fit the musical phrase and to set the dancer back into the wheel's rotation on the following count. Useful cues are to keep the turn compact — weight stacked over the supporting foot, a quick head spot to carry momentum through the second revolution — and to settle the balance before the next call lands. Two complete rotations return the dancer to the starting orientation, facing back into the centre of the circle.