Colombia: the happiest country in the world! And when you’re feliz, you just gotta move those feet!
Colombia is home to many different dancing styles. Almost all of which I have danced. So instead of just giving you a reflection of all the different dances you might encounter here, I am going to personally review just how fun each one is to learn to dance and to get out and shake your groove thang.
The 7 Styles I’ll Be Discussing
I’ll only be covering seven styles. Of course there are many more, and only cumbia and vallenato cover the traditional/folklore aspect. But these are the styles you are likely to run across in a discoteca in any major city. I could have thrown in Bachata since it does get a fair amount of airtime but it is much more identified with the Domincan Republic than Colombia.
So with that, here are some classic songs that represent each style…
Cumbia
How to Dance It
Cumbia is not difficult. You could throw in some fancy traditional stuff if you have a hat on, or just mime it with your hand, but the gist of it is almost like a short back-cross step in salsa. Hips are not optional.
Guasca
How to Dance It
You don’t! I included this one because they play it way too much. It’s really a drinking genre of music but they start asking for it way too late at night when what they should be playing is something much more energetic. My big qualm with Colombian pubelo discotecas is guasca late at night!
Some might be slightly more upbeat, in which case you might be able to do a two-step with slight hip movements ala vallenato but even that is a stretch…
Merengue
How to Dance It
Just listen! If you aren’t automatically moving your hips back and forth, side to side, you should check your pulse.
Merengue is ridiculously easy to dance. You move on every beat. You can do spins, turns, all kinds of neat stuff, and because you move on every beat, it’s easy! Take as little or as much time as you want to spin her around. Move back and forth side to side or stay in place, just do not stop moving your hips! You’re also probably going to want to dance a little closer together than they do in this video (typical reserved Spaniards…)
Reggaeton
I could go with Gasolina by Daddy Yankee, a song pretty much everyone, including Americans, have heard, but I have to go with a personal favorite of mine:
Reggaeton clasicos… there just isn’t anything quite like it. The new stuff, while incredibly popular, just feels more pop-esque…
How To Dance It
Grab a girl off the dance floor and get close. Most likely it will be back to front, with you dancing behind her. You might think whoa this is super intimate at first, but after awhile the times you do front-to-front will seem much moreso.
Pretty much everyone dances reggaeton. It’s just your basic grinding style (called perreo here) and is a great dance to show off your hip work you’ve been practicing with the other dances (jajaj…).
Salsa
You can’t discuss Colombian dancing without going over salsa! Cali style salsa (based in Cali, Colombia) is its own flavor of salsa known for a lot of fancy footwork moves.
Plus the music is just so good…
How To Dance It
Differing from Cuban style (with lots of spins and turns), Cali style does not (as someone who thinks all the Cuban spins are overrated this is great).
Cali style salsa also takes a lot of its roots from Cumbia which is reflected in the music. Plus there is a lot more slower romantic style salsa music that they play.
Salsa Choke
Salsa choke can be considered the ‘street style’ salsa. Also starting in Cali, but much more recently (2000s).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnTgYHP7G0E
How To Dance It
While it looks tricky, its a lot easier than some of the complicated regular salsa maneuvers (and personally I find it the most fun BY FAR). Think hip hop mixed with salsa.
The salsa basic step is kept the same, except a tap on the 4 and 8 instead of a pause, and the basic step is usually side to side, moving in a line.
The rest is lots of flourishing and flow. FULL HD!
Vallenato
Do you hear accordions?
Is basically everyone in the bar yelling/singing along, with shots of aguardiente raised in the air? (Could also be guasca…)
Do you see this classic image on the screen in the bar?
Then you’ve got vallenato!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kufSArVzQI
And there you have it! So polish off those old leather shoes or dusty sneakers (typical Colombian footwear…), order up a media of Ron De Caldas, and get moving!
