Samba Giro Invertido (Reverse Turn)

ConteoSamba 1-a-2, 1-a-2 — two bars of 2/4, each bar split 3/4 + 1/4 + 1 beat (the 'a' is the quick inner step). The figure is danced entirely in this samba timing on a continuous bounce, not on flat even quarter-beats.

Tiempo musicalSits comfortably across moderate samba tempos, roughly 48–54 bars per minute in 2/4 (≈96–108 bpm); the syncopated 1-a-2 split and continuous bounce become hard to articulate cleanly toward fast Carnaval tempos above ~58 bars per minute.

• Samba bounce / pulse action
• Basic samba movement on 1-a-2 timing
• Closed ballroom hold and frame
• Comfort travelling and rotating left as a couple

• ✕Under-rotating — stopping short of the staged left turn so the couple never reaches the half- to three-quarter total and drifts out of alignment.
• ✕Losing the samba bounce while turning, flattening the syncopated 1-a-2 into even steps.
• ✕Pulling the partner around with the arms instead of leading from the shared rotating centre, which collapses the frame.
• ✕Stepping flat onto the beat rather than splitting the bar, dropping the quick 'a' step.

• ≠Reverse Roll — a separate gold-level figure of continuous left rotation, not the bronze reverse turn.
• ≠Natural Turn — the right-turning (clockwise) counterpart; 'reverse' here means turning left, not 'backwards'.
• ≠Volta — a travelling crossing figure in samba, not a turn.
• ≠Botafogo — a directional samba figure unrelated to the reverse turn.
• ≠'Giro' / 'paso cruzado' literal translations — 'giro' alone means any turn and 'cruzado'/'paso cruzado' means cross-step (footwork); neither denotes this specific figure.

• International Latin / ballroom syllabus (English-speaking scenes)

  Reverse Turn

  Codified bronze-level figure turning to the left (counter-clockwise).

• Spanish-speaking Latin ballroom and academy scenes

  Giro Invertido

  Literally 'inverted/reverse turn'; the term by which the figure travels in Hispanophone studios.