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Salsa Bota (Bota-La Dos)

An LA/On1 turn-pattern variation that layers a leader's turn onto the cross-body lead, sending the follower across the slot to trade ends.

SalsaLevel: Improver2 min read4 citations

Salsa Bota — most often catalogued as Bota-La Dos — is a send-out figure from the LA/On1 family of salsa, documented in instructional references as a variation that layers a turn for the leader onto the partnership's travelling exchange.[1] It belongs to the linear, slot-based school of the dance, in which the couple works along a shared imaginary lane and repeatedly swaps ends; here the leader's turn is the device that propels the follower from one end of the slot to the other.

Execution

Mechanically the figure rests on the two structural pillars of linear salsa — the basic step and the cross-body lead — that organise the dance into a slot the partners share.[2] Because the two mirror each other on opposite feet, each breaks in the same direction relative to its own body rather than toward the same point in the room. Danced On1, they break twice over the figure's two measures, on counts 1 and 5, and the leader's rotation is the added ingredient: as he turns he opens the slot and draws the follower past him, resolving on the second measure with the pair having traded ends.[2] A practical cue is to clear the slot on the first break before committing to the turn, so the follower travels a straight path down the lane rather than curving around the leader.

Classification and name

In the reference literature Bota-La Dos is treated as a turn pattern rather than a fundamental. Online salsa move databases index it among their catalogued figures,[3] and instructional move lists group it with the turn-pattern variations rather than the raw basics.[4] The qualifier "dos" marks it as a second variant within the Bota-La pattern.[1] Documentation is concentrated in English-language, LA/On1-style material, and because the figure survives chiefly in such reference indexes rather than in any deep historical record, well-attested regional name-variants for it remain scarce.

How it's danced

Lead and follow cues

CountOn1 — across the figure's two measures the basic breaks on counts 1 and 5 (counts 4 and 8 are held or tapped); the leader's added turn resolves on the second measure, 5-6-7.

Lead

From a cross-body-lead frame the leader breaks back on his left foot on count 1 (mirroring the follower) and recovers on 2-3. On the second measure he opens the slot and sends the follower across while taking his own turn — commonly a left, counter-clockwise turn of about 180°, staged as roughly 90° to clear the slot on 5-6 and a further 90° on 7 — finishing the measure re-facing her at the opposite end of the slot.

Follow

The follower mirrors on the opposite foot: she breaks back on her right on count 1 — stepping away from the leader, not forward — and recovers on 2-3. On 5-6-7 she walks forward through the slot the leader has opened, turning about 90° to enter on 5-6 and a further 90° to re-face him on 7 — a roughly 180° trade of the slot's ends — without spinning in place.

Song timingSits comfortably at social-salsa tempos of roughly 150-185 bpm danced On1; toward 190 bpm and above the leader's turn on 5-6-7 must be tightened to stay on time. Slower romántica tracks under ~150 bpm leave extra room to lead the send-out cleanly.

Learn first

Prerequisites

  • Basic step (forward-back or side basic) on On1
  • Cross-body lead
  • Leader's left (counter-clockwise) turn
  • Maintaining a clear slot while leading the follower across

Watch out

Common mistakes

  • Under-rotating the cross-body exchange — stopping short of the ~180° trade of slot ends, so the follower never fully clears to the opposite end.
  • Breaking forward toward the partner on count 1 instead of back and away, collapsing the slot and causing a mid-figure collision.
  • Rushing or failing to finish the leader's turn by count 7, leaving him off the slot and unable to re-face the follower.
  • Hauling the follower across by the arm instead of opening the slot with the frame, which pulls her off her own timing.
  • Letting the follower spin in place rather than travel forward through the slot, losing the figure's send-out character.

Don't confuse with

Easily confused moves

  • Paso cruzado / cruzado — Spanish for 'cross step'; denotes footwork, not this send-out figure.
  • Cross-body lead (CBL) — the foundational exchange Bota-La Dos is built upon; the plain CBL adds no leader turn.
  • Bota-La (without 'dos') — the related first pattern in the same family, not this variant.
  • Botafogo — a Brazilian samba/bossa-nova figure; phonetically similar but unrelated to salsa.

Around the world

Other names

  • Online / LA-style (On1) salsa syllabi (English-language)

    Bota-La Dos

    Also written Bótala Dos / Botala Dos and referenced simply as 'Bota'; from Spanish bótala ('throw/send her out'), with 'dos' marking the second variant of the pattern. This is the figure's documented name.

References

  1. 1.Bota-La Dos | Salsa Hub — salsahub.co.uk
  2. 2.Salsa (dance) — Wikipedia contributors, Wikipedia
  3. 3.Salsa Yo - Source for all Salsa moves — salsayo.com
  4. 4.Salsa Moves List - Dance Dojo — thedancedojo.com

How to cite this article

Choose a style and copy the citation.

APA

Bailar Editorial Team. (2026). Salsa Bota (Bota-La Dos). Bailar Biblioteca. Retrieved June 29, 2026, from https://bailar.site/biblioteca/move/salsa-bota

MLA

Bailar Editorial Team. “Salsa Bota (Bota-La Dos).” Bailar Biblioteca, 2026, bailar.site/biblioteca/move/salsa-bota. Accessed 29 June 2026.

Chicago

Bailar Editorial Team. “Salsa Bota (Bota-La Dos).” Bailar Biblioteca. Accessed June 29, 2026. https://bailar.site/biblioteca/move/salsa-bota.

BibTeX

@misc{bailar-move-salsa-bota, author = {{Bailar Editorial Team}}, title = {{Salsa Bota (Bota-La Dos)}}, year = {2026}, howpublished = {Bailar Biblioteca}, url = {https://bailar.site/biblioteca/move/salsa-bota}, note = {Accessed: 2026-06-29} }

Editor-in-Chief: Paul Thomas Plawin

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