Salsa Dance Hand Holds

Handholds are a fundamental element of partner dance. Salsa dance elements include the following:

Steps
Handholds
Turns
Combs
Stylings
Positions
Patterns
Combinations

A handhold is involved anytime the dancers hold hands. This article covers the most common handholds.

First some terminology. We refer to the leader as Leader. We refer to the follower as Follower. We use a shorthand to specify handholds. Unless specified or apparent from context, a position or element is relative to the Leader perspective. For example, unless specified otherwise and not clear from context, right hand (RH) refers to Leader's right hand (LRH). RH/LH means Leader’s right hand over Leader’s left hand. We do sometimes make these explicit. For example, FRH refers to the Follower’s right hand, and FRH/FLH means that Follower’s right hand is over Follower’s left hand.

Some holds don't involve a handhold. The half closed position is such a hold. In the half closed position, one of Leader's hands is on Follower's upper back, and one of Follower's hands is on Leader's shoulder. No handhold here!

Note also that a lot of interesting dance moves do not require a handhold. Suppose the dancers are facing each other. In this position, each dancer could be performing steps, turns, combs, kicks, and myriad stylings.

All that said, this article focuses on handholds. Many salsa dance positions involve a handhold.

List of handholds we'll cover here

Here are some of the handholds we'll cover here, by their common names:

Parallel Hold
Half Open, Right to Left
Half Open, Left to Right
Handshake
Reverse Handshake
Crosshold
Reverse Crosshold

These names are intuitive but can actually be somewhat confusing if you are not well practiced with the variations. It can be simpler when you observe that every handhold consists of either one or two pairs of hands.

"Left to Right" means Leader left hand (LLH) to Follower right hand (FRH)
"Right to Left" means Leader right (LRH) hand to Follower left hand (FLH)
"Right to Right" means Leader right hand to Follower right hand.
"Left to Left" means Leader left hand to Follower left hand.

This gives the following combinations:

Left to Right, Right to Left
Right to Left
Left to Right
Right to Right
Left to Left
Left to Left, Right to Right. LRH/LLH
Left to Left, Right to Right. LLH/LRH
Left to Right, Right to Left, LLH/LRH
Left to Right, Right to Left, LRH/LLH

The first seven correspond to the named handholds listed above.

You might think that there are only six combinations of ways that hands can be held; however, it turns out that there are more variations depending on whether one pair of hands is over or under the other pair of hands. The crosshold can be held in two ways. In one variation, Leader's right hand (LRH) is over Leader's left hand (LLH), which we designate as LRH/LLH. In the other variation, LLH/LRH.

There are also two additional handholds that don't correspond to any of the handholds in the named list. Handholds 8 and 9 are a variation of the parallel hold where the hands are crossed. This can occur after a double handed full turn.

Now we'll examine each of these more closely.

Left to Right, Right to Left

This handhold is so common it is usually given a common name. It is also known as Parallel Hold. The most common position using this is a type of open position, shown here:

This particular open position is used so often it is often referred to simply as Open Position.

Right to Left

The most common position in which this handhold is used is shown here, and is known as Half Open, Right to Left.

Left to Right

The most common position in which this handhold is used is shown here, and is known as Half Open, Left to Right.

Right to Right

The most common position in which this handhold is used is shown here, and is known as Handshake.

Left to Left

The most common position in which this handhold is used is shown here, and is known as Reverse Handshake

Left to Left, Right to Right. LRH/LLH

The most common position in which this handhold is used is shown here, and is known as Crosshold

Here is how this handhold appears from an overhead view:

Left to Left, Right to Right. LLH/LRH

This is a variation of the crosshold, where Leader's left hand is over Leader's right hand. This position is also known as Reverse Crosshold. However, not everyone might know that term, so sometimes it is just referred to as "left to left, right to right, left over right".

Here is how this handhold appears from an overhead view:

Left to Right, Right to Left, LLH/LRH

Here is one of the more unusual handholds. It is sometimes called a Reverse Parallel Hold; however it is actually a kind of parallel hold but where the hands are crossed.

Note on naming: truthfully there doesn't seem to be a standard name for this handhold. This is one of those handholds where it can be simpler to just explicitly describe the hold, as in "right to left, left to right, left over right". Or, for its inverse variation, as "right to left, left to right, right over left". A better common name might be "Crossed Parallel".

Here is a closeup view:

Here is how this handhold appears from an overhead view:

You might ask, do people really get into that hold? Is it useful? The answer would be yes, and yes. This handhold can be entered when performing a double handed turn. The other variation of this where LRH/LLH is obtained when perfoming the double turn in the opposite spin direction.

Applications

When you adjust the orientation of the dancers, these handholds suddenly transform into interesting positions.

Here is a Right to Left, Left to Right hand hold at high level. This is essentially the same handhold as is used in the standard open position. Only the orientation of the dancers and the height level of the handhold has changed.

Here is a Left to Left, Right to Right handhold, where the dancers are facing the same direction, with Leader in back, and Follower in front.

Here is another Left to Left, Right to Right handhold, where the dancers are facing the same direction and side by side.

Here is yet another Left to Left, Right to Left handhold, where the dancers are facing the same direction and with Leader in front, Follower in back.

Because the last three positions are using the same handhold, you might guess that there is a way to transition from each of these positions to each of the others -- and you would be right. This is one of the fun aspects of salsa dance, figuring out how to enter and exit positions in interesting ways.

Summary

Many salsa dance positions involve a handhold. One way to quickly breakdown a dance position is to observe whether it involves a handhold, and if so, which one.

Salsa Handbook

Salsa Dance Hand Holds