does ANYONE know of ANY resources (DVDs, books, websites) that explain how to dance cumbia??? I'm specifically looking for Colombian cumbia, but I'm so desperate that any variation will do. I bought the video aprender a bailar cumbia and it is horrible.

I, too, have been searcing for sources to learn Cumbia. I haven't found anything anywhere. I've been picking it up by watching the performing dancers at a local Columbian festival, as well as those in the audience. I also learn by going to a club in my area, with a large Columbian population. They play more cumbia music than anything else. The basics are fairly easy to pick up.

Cumbia is a fun dance and the basic steps are not difficult. You can do a lot of the same patterns as in salsa once you have mastered the basic rhythm.

I think the best way to learn it is to go to clubs that play Cumbia music. It is a social dance and I think it should be learned with other people (if you have access to places where it is danced), not in front of a TV screen!

If you are ballroom literate (samba), the basic is a very modified side whisk ( 5th pos. break ) danced to 1 and 2-- 3 and 4 , rhythm .

Terence2. Whe dancing any Whisk is it worth mentioning that there can be some differences in timing. In the Samba the RF move behind and to the right into a Whisk Position on the count of one. In the Salsa the LF moves behind to the right and behind on the count of one. And the way it is counted is not the same for both.This is the first thing I noticed when learning to Salsa.

-- It was an " image " that would give anyone an idea of what the movement resembled.
I seldom talk about techn. in these formats.
Also, it depends from whom you learned your Salsa.
To pigeon hole a rhythm in Salsa, can be very misleading. much depends on the music, the style ,and the person teaching it.
Cumbia is a dance unto itsself, and to take one basic action, and insert it into another " style" , requires knowledge of the musical passages where this would be appropriate .