How to Do Basic Cumbia Dance Steps

Video Transcript

"Hi! My name is Christina Haggerty and on behalf of Expert Village, you are learning today how to dance cumbia. I'm teaching out of Silhouette in Burbank. Here is the basic step. The foot pattern first starts with the right and it goes back, left in place, right comes together neutral, and now we repeat on the left. Left foot steps back, right foot in place, and left comes back to neutral. Again, you step back, in place, neutral, and back, in place, neutral. If I were to speed this up, there's also a pause. I want to speed it up and also put the timing on it. It goes 1, 2, 3, 4. You have a full pause to switch your right from the left to the right. Then you step back, 5, 6, 7, 8, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Another element is the actual pivot. In cumbia, when you step back, you're actually going to pivot that left foot a little bit turning on an angle. You're going to go 1, 2, 3. See how I'm pivoting on the pause. Now I'm turning on the other angle. 5, 6, 7, pivot, 8. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. The next element we're going to add is the arms. You don't want to have the arms dangling down on your side. It doesn't add any style and it actually doesn't really do much for the dance. You want to bring them up, bend the elbows. Ladies, if you want, you can slightly tilt the wrist up for a little bit of feminine action. Guys, you can just keep the hands as a part of your arm. They're going to make small circles here remaining between your hips and your shoulders. You never want to go outside of that range. Let's put all that together. Step back, step together, and back step. Here's the count. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Let me speed it up a little bit. 5, 6, 7, 8, 1, 2, 3 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. That's cumbia. Easy as that."