Dancing With Visions - The Dance I Enjoyed - Cumbia - Tighnari
Author Notes: So, I wasn't initially going to include cumbia as a dance for this series but after the lovely @theroseredreaper suggested I include a chapter using it and even suggested I use Tighnari for it, I couldn't resist. So here it is and I truly hope I did a good job of writing this dance style! The performance in this fic was inspired by the youtube videos "How to dance:Cumbia - Basics (Part 1)” and “Cumbia Turns with Arm Combination | How To Dance Cumbia | Online Dance Classes | Waldo & Jacqui”. This fic was written while listening to the song “A Donde Vas” By Carolina Lao. Just like the rest of this series, Reader is female. I hope you enjoy!
If you would like to read more of this series, the fics can be found here: Dancing with Visions Masterlist.
Type: Female reader/ dance/ fluff/bit of flirting from Tighnari /sfw
Word Count: 1283
Collei sat off to the side, her hands resting on her legs as she leaned forward with anticipation, and I found myself smiling at the young lady, shaking my head slightly.
Somehow, I wasn’t surprised that she’d decided to learn a dance. She was always pushing herself to try new things, and I had no doubts she would want to show her new moves off to her friend, Amber, on her next trip to Mondstadt.
I hadn’t hesitated when Tighnari had asked for my assistance teaching her. It had been quite some time since I’d last danced with my friend from school.
Me and Tighnari had stayed in touch, of course, but with his busy schedule, dancing was hardly anything he had time for.
In fact, most of the time our interactions were just correspondence through letters. I was more likely to see Collei or Cyno than I was to see the ever-busy forest watcher.
I stood next to the young, green-haired lady while we waited for the man in question to arrive. And after a brief moment, I glanced her way once more with a slight smile, noting the nervous way her fingers were lacing and unlacing themselves, “Don’t worry, the cumbia isn’t hard, and, as you’ll see once Tighnari gets here, it’s a fun little dance.”
I walked over to the middle of the floor where I’d already blocked out three squares with tape, two in front and one in the back, “I’ll show you the basics real quick though, so you can watch for that when me and Tighnari do dance.”
Collei nodded, her eyes already bright as she looked from the squares and back to me. Under her fascinated stare, I stepped into the two front squares that were side by side and glanced up at her.
“So I’m going to tap forward with the heel of my right foot before stepping back into this back square. Then cross over with the left foot into the right front square before bringing my right foot back forward to stand in the same right, front square with my feet together.” As I spoke, I did as I said, pausing between motions to check if she was following.
“Now tap forward with the heel of your left foot before stepping back with that same foot into the back square.” She nodded at my instructions, watching my feet closely and causing me to smile in quiet amusement as I continued, “Now cross over with the right foot into the left front square and bring your left foot up to stand with your feet together.”
She looked up at me when I stopped, and I smiled, “You just keep doing this same motion over and over, though you’ll have a slight twist in your body as you do the motions to tempo. Easy, right?”
I quickly demonstrated the same steps at the actual dancing tempo, smiling as she nodded with a smile of her own.
“Already getting started without me, I see,” My motions froze at the sound of a familiar voice, and I twisted to see Tighnari smiling at both of us from the doorway he was leaning up against.
I crossed my arms, smiling at the young man and tilting my head slightly in a teasing fashion, “Well, you weren’t showing up, so I thought I’d go ahead and start teaching her.”
He pushed himself off the door frame, a smile on his face as he walked over to where I stood, even as he looked over at Collei, “And, how has she done? Have you understood everything Y/n said?”
Collei nodded, smiling as her eyes darted between the two of us, “Yeah, everything made a lot of sense.”
I smiled almost smugly over at my partner, “See? I’m a good teacher.”
“Uh, huh, I guess that means you still remember the steps then?” His tone held distinct undertones of teasing that all but had me rolling my eyes.
“Of course I still remember the steps; I’m the one who signed us up for classes, remember?” I twisted, taking his hands in mine as I grinned at him and already beginning to shift slightly to the music that Collei started for us.
His lips twitched up into a fully visible smile, “Yes, as I recall it took quite a bit of time away from our other school work.”
I snorted, starting to shift with Tighnari, both of us already matching the beat and falling into the rhythm like we’d never stopped dancing together, “It was good for you.”
His eyebrows rose as we started to turn, sarcasm filling his voice, “Enriching even.”
I laughed quietly, letting him spin me lightly before my arm raised so that he could spin under it. A small part of me wondered if Collei was able to follow us. If not, we could always break it down for her later.
Off to the side, I could see her smiling, bobbing along to the music as she watched the two of us.
Tighnari spun me again, having long since let go of one of my hands so that he could better shift around the space with me, a smile on his face as he watched me.
I twisted so that my back was now to him, and he shifted as I extended one arm. He took my hand as his other hand rested lightly on my waist, and I glanced at him over my shoulder, my voice softening so that Collei couldn’t hear me over the music, “Say, why do you think Collei wanted to learn the cumbia?”
I wasn’t able to keep the curiosity out of my voice, and he sighed slightly, a smile still on his face as he matched my volume, “I may have mentioned something about how you made me take classes. It probably piqued her interest.”
I snickered slightly, twisting so that he could spin under one of my arms, now holding both my hands before he led me to the same, “See? I knew you enjoyed it. Why else would you have mentioned it to your student?”
He snorted slightly, shifting so that we were facing each other once more, briefly in a hold more like what one would expect from a partner dance. One of his arms wrapped around me so that he could hold my waist while his other hand held one of my hands, my other arm wrapped around him and my hand pressed to his back, “I’m not so sure it was the dance that I enjoyed so much as the partner.”
He slipped back so that we were only attached by one pair of conjoined hands as I smiled in surprise at him, “Well, aren’t you feeling a little flirty?”
He chuckled slightly before we twisted and let go of one another’s hands.
We both looked up at the same time at Collei as his arm slipped around my back and mine around his shoulders.
The young woman looked at us with a bright smile, and I felt myself smiling in return as Tighnari tilted his head, “Did that all make sense?”
I laughed at his words, shaking my head as he looked my way, “Tighnari, you haven’t even explained it to her yet.”
“Well, you said you had and that you were a good teacher,” He smiled at me, his eyes glimmering and giving away his teasing nature as I gave him a half hug.
I leaned against him before looking over as Collei started speaking, “It did make sense! When do you think I can try?”
Her eyes were bright and her hands pressed together excitedly as I laughed slightly, “As soon as you’re ready!”
Jake is the most popular dance instructor at the studio
He can teach anything ballroom or Latin, but everyone loves to see those hips sway
His favorite dance is the Cha Cha, although it's the slow and sensual Rumba that sweeps his lady partners off their feet
Despite his love and natural aptitude for Latin dances, he is actually quite good at the Foxtrot
^ To that end, little old ladies, who are all more in love with him than the young ladies, proudly parade around the dance floor when an old Foxtrot plays
Jake has the highest sales in the studio, the area and even the state. It takes exactly one lesson to want to buy a whole dance program with him.
He is the perfect gentleman - professional, composed, always neat and tidy, and he smells divine.
However, he is so devastatingly handsome, some women like to think he flirts with them. (He doesn't, he's just charming)
The middle aged women get catty and jealous about who takes more lessons with him, who gets the best lesson time slots, and who gets the most dances with him at a social mixer
Jake wins every competition he enters
The studio has a strict non-fraternization policy that Jake adheres to religiously. On the dance floor, he can make a woman believe she is the most special girl in the world, but he's never crossed the line, ever. He has no trouble getting a date outside the studio.
This all goes right to hell the day you walk in for your first dance lesson.
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I’m finding more ways to keep dancing. I feel like an old dog learning new tricks. It’s hard – I can’t return to places that do country swing, the partner-reliant dance I’ve been doing for 12 years. So now, I stumble and fumble and try to pick up new moves. Because I won’t stop dancing, even if I can’t be around you.
headcanon request for the bros with an mc that dances super well? but specifically latin style dances (merengue, salsa, samba, bachata etc) hope ur doin well btw :>
Oooh! I love this request--it is going to be a bit of a shorter one, so please let me know if you’d like me to come back to this one and take my time on a longer one. <3
Let’s remember that these boys have been around a long time, so Impressing them takes something very special. That being said, MC’s dancing skills have blown them away.
Lucifer’s pride wouldn’t let him be unprepared for any sort of dancing situation, so he’s one of the brothers who can be a dance partner (albeit a rather stiff one) for MC. As they dance, they can expect to hear frequent praise from the eldest on their form, rhythm, etc.
Mammon is wishing he’d cared enough to pick up dancing over the centuries he’s been alive. However, if he can’t be MC’s partner, he’s sure as hell gonna watch and put them in situations where he can show off their skills. Wait, is that *insert your preferred song for any specific latin dance style* playing in The Fall? Mammon certainly had nothing to do with it, but y’know if it’s playing why don’t you go embarrass all the demons with how much better you are, MC?
Levi.exe has stopped working. Like Mammon, he almost wishes he’d bothered with learning to dance. However, he’s certain MC would never want to dance with a gross Otaku like him, making him insanely jealous of anyone who can dance with them. If MC wants to take pity on him, offer him a few lessons. It’ll take a while for him to figure it out, but if MC suggests he approach it like learning a new rhythm game, he’ll start improving. However, if he decides against it, he’s always happy to watch and hype MC up. N-not that he likes them, or anything.
Satan would have learned specifically to be better than Lucifer. The fact that Lucifer wants to dance with MC, who happens to be an excellent dancer, is just a bonus. He’ll be louder with his compliments, more fluid with his movements, and overall just try to present himself as a better dance partner. However, all of his praise is sincere--he is genuinely impressed by MC’s skills, understanding how much work they must have had to put in. The brothers have had centuries to get to this point, and MC’s skills blow them all out of the water.
Asmo is the third one vying for the chance to be your dance partner, and he’d absolutely be the one most into it. He’ll publicly requests songs MC can dance to when they’re out at The Fall, try to get them to enter competitions with him, etc. He’d even start a separate social media account just for MC’s dancing if they’ll let him. He’ll gush over their skills at any given occasion, loudly bragging about it to anyone who will listen. After all, it’s not often the Avatar of Lust finds such a breathtaking dance partner.
Beel will be MC’s biggest hype man. He understands how much work any physical activity takes to perfect--add in the work it takes to learn different rhythms and style of dance and you’ve got one very impressed Avatar of Gluttony. Unfortunately, every time Salsa dancing is mentioned, he gets hungry, something he finds very embarrassing.
Belphie is incredibly impressed, but too apathetic to really care about learning. He will go with Beel to hype MC up but probably fall asleep pretty quickly. That’s about it, Belphie isn’t really one for physical activity but he can admire it and the work it takes from afar.
Elien Bervoets is a stunning, 34 year old, wheelchair dancer from Belgium.
Elien was born with spina bifida. This is a congenital condition which caused her to be paralyzed from the waist down and left her without any feeling in both her legs.
Elien and her sister, Greet, who is able bodied, started Ballroom and Latin dancing in 1997, when they were just 9 years old. After six months, they made their debut in the Belgian National Wheelchair Dancing Championships and they immediately won the first prize in the junior division! This tasted like more! There was an immense amount of spectators in the large dance hall and they had loads of fun!
Until now, Elien and Greet won an amazing amount of 30 National Championship titles and 12 Benelux Titles. In 2015 and 2016, they won the first prize at the World Championships in respectively Tokyo and The Netherlands.
Besides their own professional dancing career, Elien and Greet followed programs in both The Netherlands and Belgium to become certified wheelchair dancing instructors. They are now the head trainers of an enthusiastic team of wheelchair dancers in their home country.
Elien now laughs when she thinks back to the time when people often reacted with disbelief when she told them about her dancing ambitions. "You can't do that because you're in a wheelchair", they said. I don't think there ia any way to show the world that if you're in a wheelchair, nothing is impossible!
I’ve been thinking a lot about same sex dancing because of Strictly and while to start with I was so excited about it, now I’m just frustrated that it hasn’t happened sooner. Maybe it is revolutionary at a national and international stage, but you can guarantee in dance studios around the world there will be girls dancing with girls and boys with boys. I did ballroom and latin for nearly 15 years and can count on one hand how many times I danced with a boy.
This is commonplace for people learning to dance and I hate that tv studios will argue that they won’t allow it because they don’t want to alienate (a homophobic) part of their audiences, but if those same audiences looked in on dance studios and saw young children dancing with their friends and having fun there would be no problems. There wouldn’t be the immediate assumption that they are gay or a lesbian, they’d just assume they were learning to dance and enjoying themselves.
What makes this even worse is that last week we saw some pictures from when Oti competed at Blackpool as a child. She danced with a girl and I’m sure there were countless others. Not a word was said about this but the amount of hate and backlash Nicola and Katya got is ridiculous. If it’s not frowned upon in a learning environment or a competition setting, tv studios need to realise that it’s not going to stop people watching their shows and just celebrate dance in all its forms.
