Timba Dancing

Juan Formell: "I don't invent these dances -- I just watch the dancers and when I go home, I try to come up with music that is inspired by the dances I've seen that night."

In Cuba, music and dance are inseparable. From religious music to rumba to danzón to son to chachachá to timba, the rhythms and the dances were created simultaneously as inseparable parts of the same whole.

Dance is also the key to increasing global awareness and acceptance of timba. Outside of Cuba, timba remains a cult genre, with a small but fanatic following. Many "yumas" who have learned to dance alsa, merengue and reguetón become confused when the band or DJ plays a timba track. It's not that timba dancing is harder than salsa dancing -- it's just very different.

Timba.com's Dance section has two important missions:

1) To increase awareness and appreciation of timba dance styles across the globe.

2) To help musicians, dancers, and listeners understand the deeply-rooted relationships between timba dance and timba music.

This second mission is a monumental one. After spending years listening to musicians argue about "clave", I thought I was prepared for anything, but the nastiest clave conundrum can't hold a candle to the semantic mayhem that ensues when dancers start trying to explain their chosen artform.

With that caveat, we begin with two of the most articulate sources of dance information and instruction:

Dos Con Dos

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