Salsa Suzy Q Double Kick

The Suzy Q Double Kick is a salsa shine — a passage of solo footwork danced when partners release the hold and improvise apart — that ornaments the travelling Suzy Q with a pair of kicks. The base Suzy Q is a lateral cross-step rather than a led figure: the dancer swivels on the balls and heels of both feet so that one foot repeatedly crosses in front of the other, drawing the body sideways through a pigeon-toed, splayed alternation of toes-turned-in and heels-turned-in pivots. Because a shine belongs to no partnership, both roles dance the identical pattern with no mirroring — when a couple breaks, leader and follower travel through the same Suzy Q side by side. The step descends from a 1930s novelty dance and was subsequently absorbed into swing, tap, and Latin styles, where salsa took it up as a standard shine.^[1]

The double kick

The Double Kick is a decorated variation that punctuates the crossing travel with two kicks — thrown low across the body or out to the side on the phrase's open counts while the twisting cross-steps continue on the stepping beats. The accents sharpen the sideways momentum without breaking it: the swivel keeps carrying the dancer along, and the kicks register as syncopated highlights rather than a change of direction. It is one of several ornamented Suzy Q variations, layered on once the plain travelling version runs cleanly.

Timing

Instructors present the figure in both On1 and On2 phrasings — salsa's two principal count systems — fitting the crossing action into a full eight-count and shifting the kicks onto whichever beats the dancer keeps open; re-mapping the swivels and accents onto each timing is what yields the step's multiple variations.^[2]

Naming and cross-scene use

Across salsa scenes the move keeps its English name, inherited directly from the original novelty step. In Cuban casino the same pattern circulates as the "Suzy Q" and is likewise used as a solo break when partners separate.^[3] Salsa pedagogy files the Suzy Q and its kick variations among the foundational shine vocabulary — drilled in the studio before being deployed on the social floor — so the Double Kick serves as an early move into improvised solo styling.^[4]