Sinaloa: Basic Steps

This video goes over the basic steps of Sinaloa. Zapateado Sinaloense: 0:28 Backbend: 1:41 Traveling Spin: 1:57 Straight Spin: 2:15 Straight Spin + High Heels: 2:21 TRANSCRIPT: Hey dancers this is your co-chair Sam, and for this video, I’ll be going over some of the most common steps you’ll be seeing in the regent of Sinaloa in case any of y’all need a refresher or are new to dancing Sinaloa. Don’t forget to join our zoom call if y’all have any questions! As you may recall from the zapateados that Natalie goes over in the Jalisco basic steps video, this step is done by doing a step heel step and repeating this. In some songs for Sinaloa, we use a different variation of this step called the zapateado sinaloense. The only difference with this step is that after you step with your right foot, heel with your left, and then step with your right and left again, you will be adding a scrape and a hop with your right heel. So you hit your heel and scrape outward, doing a little jump and landing on your right foot and then having your left foot land on its heel, which starts the next zapateado over by doing the back step with your right foot and repeating the rest of the step. So every time you tap your right heel, you will be doing the scrape and jumping motion. These steps are always easier to practice by starting off really slow and gaining speed as you get more comfortable with the step so here I start off slow and gradually pick up speed with the step. Feel free to try to match my pace as you practice. Another step you see often in Sinaloa is the backbend. It is very important that y’all stretch before doing these because it is very easy to hurt or strain your body so please stretch! In order to give the illusion that you just totally broke your back, you can bend your knees slightly, or as much as you are comfortable with doing without losing your balance, and lean back to the side, keeping your head level with your torso. It looks a little awkward without the skirt so I included a clip with my skirt so y’all can see what it would look like. In this regent, we also have a few different types of spins. This first spin we dance in the beginning of Coyote and it’s done by stepping with your right toe pointing to the right, where you will be traveling, spinning to the right, and making sure you point your right toe in the same direction for each spin. Your right arm should also open up in sync with the point of your right toe. It’s also important to spot to the right when you do these. This straight spin is done simply by spinning while you keep both your arms upward the entire spin. This spin is only slightly different from the straight spin in the way that you basically do high heels while you spin, this makes it a lot easier to travel while spinning and we often use it when dancing with partners to move more easily. I do this with and without my skirt so y’all can see what I do with my feet.