Salsa Noventa

Salsa Noventa is a basic traveling figure in LA-style salsa — a turning pattern that carries the partnership around the slot rather than rocking it in place. The leader breaks back on the left foot on count 1 and opens the slot while the follower mirrors the action on her right foot; as the figure unfolds the couple rotates so that the follower can travel forward into the pathway the leader has just cleared. Because it rides the standard two-measure On1 basic and sits comfortably within the usual salsa range of roughly 150–185 bpm, it is one of the first traveling patterns taught for social dancing across Latin-dance communities.^[1]

Name

The figure takes its name from noventa, Spanish for "ninety," after the approximately 90-degree turn taken on the entry count and the complementary 90-degree turn taken on the exit. Together those two quarter-turns swing the partnership about halfway around, so the label doubles as a memory aid for how far the couple should rotate.^[2]

How it is danced

Danced on the two-measure basic with breaks on counts 1 and 5, Noventa stages its rotation in two halves. The leader's back-break on count 1 initiates roughly a quarter-turn and opens the slot across counts 1–3; the turn is then completed to about 180 degrees by count 5, when the follower steps forward into the opened slot and travels through on counts 5–7. Holding the action on the leader's left foot and the follower's right keeps the mirror-foot relationship intact — the core principle the pattern is meant to drill — while the split between "open" and "travel" gives beginners a clear rotation budget rather than one rushed pivot.

Cross-scene context

The same name travels between salsa scenes. In Cuban Casino, Noventa is a well-known figure assembled by chaining several component actions — the Setenta, the enchufla, and back rocks — so that its ninety-degree turns emerge from a linked sequence rather than a single rotation. Because it carries the shorter Setenta within it, it sits in the same numbered family of combination patterns, and dancers crossing from one scene to another will find the label attached to closely related shapes.