It is the fast and typical dance of Guajira; in it, the woman, pursuing the male as she dances, must do everything possible to put him on the ground.
The typical costume for women has a cotton coiffure with the form of a mitre, characteristic tunics of certain African communities, sandals with three stitches, and they paint their face with really original forms. Men wear loin clothes or guayuco, made with a long piece of cotton fabric fastened with a wool belt; over the head, a cap made of vegetable fibers with a tuft of feathers, and they dance barefooted.
CUMBIA
This rhythm is known in Cartagena as bullerengue or bullarengue. The cumbia is danced only by women. During the festivity of the popular cumbiamba in which a variety of tunes are played (as base tune, mapalé, fandango, porro, and others), women, specially the ones of urban classes dance with the thundering sound of the coast drum, men and women paired but loose, without touching hands, turning around the players, the woman, making more passive movements than the man's, defends herself from the insistent siege of the male, who, during this dance, does not stop his obstinate gallantry. In this dance, each couple moves according to their inspiration. The singing is regulated by the rhythm marked by the palms of the hands.
Women wear skirts or polleras, shirts, are barefooted, they generally use a handkerchief over the head, and candongas (large round earrings), with notorious makeup; men are dressed in white, with pants turned upward and shirts with closed wristbands, they are also barefooted, they wear a sombrero vueltiao or corrosca (a kind of hat), handkerchief around the neck, machete, and a colorful knapsack.
EL GARABATO
It is a hideous dance, imitation of those of the middle age, and in it, the hooker typifies death, bearing a scythe with which he goes trapping the dancers.
The goleros are the choreographic figure with probable origin in some folklore tale of verbal tradition; it is the story of a lazy donkey that decides to work no more and lie asleep. When sleeping, it dreams that the vultures, followed by their king and the "Laura", its companion, are going to eat him. The owner of the donkey is a hunter who has decided to abandon it due to its usefulness, but observing that the dream of the donkey has turned into reality, and will have a tragic luck, he shows up with his dog and interrupts the banquet which is about to start.
VALLENATO
In the territories of Cesar, Magdalena and Guajira the songs called "vallenatos" are found. These are: Son, Paseo, Merengue and Puya. None of the vallenato tunes has a specific dance; in them, the most outstancing happenings of the provinces are sung, as a sung diary or verbal tradition.
The vallenato is danced by couples in a strolling manner, and it looks like a walk under the rhythm of the accordion.
EL TORBELLINO
Its strong indigenous ancestry is marked because its rhythmic cells are singing a traveling chant of the yuco – motilón indians, the karakeney, the musical interpretation is in charge of the Colombian string trio (tiple – small guitar, bandola -- mandolin and guitar) and the santanderean group of tiple, requinto (fife) (as singing instrument instead of the bandola, zambumbia, carraca, quiribillos, esterilla, pito, chucho, raspa de caña and pandereta).
LA GUABINA
It is a sung tune, rather than danced; it is exclusively vocal (singing with no music), and in the interludes, the torbellino is danced, as usually in all the Vélez zone. The danced guabina has an single sample called the guabina chiquinquireña; the instruments used to accompany the guabinas keeps its traditional richness, and is supported in the part of the melody by the fife and small guitar (tiple), some times aided by the coarse cane flute, and always by the chucho, carraca, quiribillo and cane rasp, as by the tambourine and the puerca or zambumbia, in the rhythmic part.
PASILLO
The pasillo appeared near year 1800, when the new bourgeois, semi-feudal society of Spaniards and wealthy Creoles looked for a kind of dance more appropriate for the courteous environment in which they lived. Its origin followed the liking of European culture, as was the Austrian waltz, and in this way it was adapted in Colombia, adding a more accelerated and even vertiginous movement, in its choreographic form. In Colombia it received this name as "pasillo de paso", as it is a dance of small steps.
EL BUNDE TOLIMENSE
Mixture of bambuco, torbellino, and especially, the guabina huilense; it is a particular piece of music of Alberto Castilla, baptized as it is for its significance of "mixture and confusion of people, medley of diverse things", second meaning of the word, after tune, song and dance of the Pacific littoral.
EL BAMBUCO
It is the basic tune and the most important and representative musical and choreographic expression of the Andean region, for its wide dispersion, covering 13 territories. Its origin is hybrid, as it conjugates Indian tradition melodies with various rhythms. It is vocally interpreted by two voices. There are six varieties of bambuco: Sanjuanero (also known as bambuco fiestero del San Juan), Rajaleña (bambuco sung in roguish couplets), Fandanguillo y Capitusez (bambucos in duel of couplets), Vueltas Antioqueñas, and Guaneña.
The bambuco is as a sentimental expression, "a country idyl", that marks shy stammering of love in the steps of a candid dance. The man pursues delicately; the woman consists shyly.
EL CURRULAO
It seems to come from the traditional drum of a sole patch called cununo, and of the adjective cununao or cununado, making reference to the tunes and dances in which this drum participates.
About its choreography, it is a dance with great plain surveying richness (steps) and a varied stereometry (figures); the tall gestures of men and women, the ritual seriousness in the faces and the grace of the attitudes aided by the turning around of the handkerchiefs, give them a rotund plastic vigor or force.
The typical costumes represented with no necklace, as they wear a handkerchief, flannel instead of a shirt, short pants made of canvas or linen, barefooted; the woman wearsa simple gown and flowers in the hair.
SANJUANERO or bambuco festivo: It is a variety of bambuco that uses a group of instruments called Cucamba, composed by a tiple (kind of small guitar), queco flute, louse of bladder or bolillo, bass drum, puerca, chucho, cane rasp, and orange tree leaf.
EL JOROPO
Its name comes from the Arabian term xärop, meaning jarabe (syrup), for its Andalucian or Flemish origin, which is notorious in the clog dancing and in the acute-tone voice tempering, suspending the obliged compass. A variety of joropo is the pasaje, which could be defined as a slow, rhythmical joropo with descriptive and lovely lyrics; it is commonly seen today using the harp instead of the mandolin, which was a must in the joropo recio (strong variety of joropo).
In this dance, the couples dance striking their feet on the floor, and loose; the body keeps, giving much importance to the striking of the heels, which is fast. In a flirting dance, the plainsman tries to conquer the woman, rotates drawing a spiral and turns tightening progressively pursuing the center occupied by the woman, who, careless and circumspect gets nearer to the man.
AMAZONÍA
Habitado por las comunidades indígenas Ticunas y Uitoto en la región amazónica colombiana las manifestaciones culturales estan determinadas por la cultura ancestral de los aborigenes, sus danzas, su folclor son muestra de la cosmovisión y cosmogonía de estos aborigenes