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Enchufla

The casino place-exchange figure within the Cuban son lineage

SonLevel: Beginner2 min read5 citations

The enchufla is one of the foundational figures of Cuban casino — the improvised partner dance that grew out of the Cuban son tradition and supplied much of the movement vocabulary later organized into Rueda de Casino.[1] At its core it is a place-exchange: over a single turn of the music the leader "plugs in" and sends the follower across the floor, and the two trade positions. Compact and endlessly chainable, it is among the first figures a casino dancer meets and, in the round dance, one of the most frequently shouted calls.

Why "enchufla"

The name encodes the mechanic. Enchufla comes from the Spanish verb enchufar, "to plug in," and the image is literal: the leader raises and connects the joined hands at the instant he sends the follower through, as though closing an electrical circuit.[2] Across casino and Rueda communities the figure is near-universally called enchufla, even as its exact spelling and pronunciation are perennially debated among dancers.[5]

Execution

Catalogued among the standard terms of casino and listed as one of the core rueda calls, the enchufla swaps the partners' positions inside a single eight-count.[3] The leader breaks back to open a lane; the follower, stepping back on the mirror foot, is then led diagonally forward across in front of him and turns roughly a half-turn to re-face him in the space he has vacated. Danced a tiempo, the figure changes direction once per measure and resolves by count seven, leaving the couple in an open, slightly offset hold ready for the next move.

Continuations

Because the exchange settles into an open hold rather than a closed one, the enchufla functions less as a finished move than as a hinge. Instructors typically catalogue four main options available after the seventh step, so the figure becomes a common branching point from which longer combinations are built.[4] This versatility is part of why it recurs so often in both freestyle casino and rueda choreography.

Related figures

In the linear Los Angeles and New York styles, the closest analogue is the cross-body lead, which likewise sends the follower past the leader; but the enchufla's circular, position-swapping geometry belongs to the round-dancing casino tradition rather than to slot-based salsa.

How it's danced

Lead and follow cues

Counta tiempo (the On1-equivalent for casino) — partners change direction once per measure, on counts 1 and 5, with taps on 4 and 8; the figure spans one eight-count (two measures) and resolves by 7. It is a circular casino exchange, not a slot transit.

Lead

From open position with a right-hand-to-right-hand hold, on 1 the leader breaks back on his left foot to open a path and raises the joined hands ('plugs in'). On 2-3 he begins to travel and turn, opening about 90 degrees across the first measure as he leads the follower forward. On 5-6-7 he completes the rotation to roughly 180 degrees total, stepping around into the follower's former position and re-facing her by 7. Counts 4 and 8 are taps.

Follow

On 1 the follower breaks back on her right foot — the mirror of the leader, both stepping apart — keeping the connected hand live. On 2-3 she walks forward across in front of the leader under the raised arm, turning about 90 degrees to align with her path. On 5-6-7 she completes a counter-clockwise half-turn, about 180 degrees total, arriving in the leader's former position and re-facing him by 7. Counts 4 and 8 are taps.

Song timingComfortable for social casino and son at roughly 150-185 bpm, where the a-tiempo break and the cross have room to breathe; above ~190 bpm the place-exchange and half-turn must be compressed and the figure reads as rushed. Traditional son montuno's slower, grounded tempos suit it especially well.

Learn first

Prerequisites

  • casino basic step (paso basico) danced a tiempo
  • open-position guapea / dile que no
  • leading and following from a right-hand-to-right-hand hold
  • comfort with raising joined hands to lead a turn

Watch out

Common mistakes

  • Under-rotating the exchange — stopping short of the full ~180 degrees so partners end side-by-side instead of re-faced in each other's former positions.
  • The follower stepping forward across on count 1 instead of breaking back first on the mirror foot, colliding with the leader.
  • The leader failing to clear his own path — not travelling around to the follower's former spot, so he blocks her line of travel.
  • Dropping or over-tensing the plug-in hand connection so the lead for the cross and turn is lost.
  • Compressing the turn into a single whip on count 5 instead of staging it across 5-6-7.

Don't confuse with

Easily confused moves

  • Cross-body lead (LA/NY slot styles): a linear pass along a fixed slot — the enchufla is circular and includes the follower's place-exchange half-turn, not a straight slot transit.
  • Dile que no: a casino move that resolves partners back toward a closed/side-by-side home position; enchufla trades places rather than resolving home.
  • 'Paso cruzado' / 'cruzado': denotes cross-step footwork, not the enchufla figure — a literal translation, never a name for this move.
  • Sombrero and other plug-in-prefixed combinations: these begin from an enchufla but add overhead arm work and are distinct named figures.

Around the world

Other names

  • Cuba (casino & son)

    Enchufla

    the standard term; from enchufar, 'to plug in'

  • Cuban Rueda de Casino

    Enchufla

    a foundational rueda call signalled by the caller

  • Casino scenes worldwide (spelling variants)

    Enchufa / Enchufale

    alternate spellings and pronunciations debated within the community

  • Miami & Cuban-diaspora casino

    Enchufla

    the Cuban term carried unchanged by the diaspora

References

  1. 1.Rueda de Casino — Wikipedia contributors, Wikipedia
  2. 2.Enchufla. ¿Porque enchufla? ¿Que significa? Origen del Enchufla — dancingboulevard.com
  3. 3.List of Dance Terms in Cuban Salsa-Casino - SalsaSelfie.com — salsaselfie.com
  4. 4.Cuban Salsa: Enchufla has four main options after step 7 — salsaselfie.com
  5. 5.Question about Enchufla | Salsa Forums — www.salsaforums.com

How to cite this article

Choose a style and copy the citation.

APA

Bailar Editorial Team. (2026). Enchufla. Bailar Biblioteca. Retrieved June 29, 2026, from https://bailar.site/biblioteca/move/son-son-enchufla

MLA

Bailar Editorial Team. “Enchufla.” Bailar Biblioteca, 2026, bailar.site/biblioteca/move/son-son-enchufla. Accessed 29 June 2026.

Chicago

Bailar Editorial Team. “Enchufla.” Bailar Biblioteca. Accessed June 29, 2026. https://bailar.site/biblioteca/move/son-son-enchufla.

BibTeX

@misc{bailar-move-son-son-enchufla, author = {{Bailar Editorial Team}}, title = {{Enchufla}}, year = {2026}, howpublished = {Bailar Biblioteca}, url = {https://bailar.site/biblioteca/move/son-son-enchufla}, note = {Accessed: 2026-06-29} }

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