It is Chumba Chumba time!

Chumba chumba is one of the most feared dances, especially if you are Chairing the Opening Plennary and spanish antennae do it during the roll call.

To tell the truth I don’t know how it started… I’ve heard that it's a dance from AEGEE Oviedo but I can't confirm this [1]. Anyway the important about "Chumba Chumba" is that it's famous around AEGEE's world, recognised as a distinctive mark for Spanish antennae, but not many people do it correctly...

So, now I’ll show you how to make a perfect chumba chumba in 3 simple steps:

1)    Knowing the Spanish vowels (Skip it if you are Spaniard):

    In Spanish we just have 5 vowels, no more and they are:

        A, a /ʌ/

        E, e /e/

        I, i /i/

        O, o /ɒ/

        U, u /ʊ/

    And remember them in this order, not another! A, E, I, O, U 

2)    Knowing the lyrics:

    The reason of the success of “Chumba-chumba” lies in the simplicity of its lyrics. Either if you are from Japan, Armenia, Latvia or Germany, you’ll be able to learn them and pronunciate them easily. These are the lyrics:

    Pa, paraba, paraba, pa pa pa, (Chumba chumba) x4

    Pe, perebe, perebe, pe pe pe, (Chumba chumba) x4

    Pi, piribi, piribi, pi pi pi, (Chumba chumba) x4

    Po, porobo, porobo, po po po, (Chumba chumba) x4

    Pu, purubu, purubu, pu pu pu, (Chumba chumba) x4

As you can see, it’s just the first sentence, repeated 5 times, one for each of the spanish vowels, and just changing the vowels in the first part, keeping the “chumba chumba” the same during the whole dance. This is why the first step is to know the spanish vowels. And to make it easier, here is a translation of the sounds.

Pa, paraba, paraba, pa pa pa, (Chumba chumba) x4

/pʌ, pʌrʌbʌ, pʌrʌbʌ, pʌ pʌ pʌ, (tʃʊmbʌ tʃʊmbʌ)x4/

3)    Knowing the dance:

This is the most simple thing of all, but at the same time the one most of the people do wrong!

In the moment when you are singing “pa, paraba, paraba, pa pa pa” everybody must be standing without moving!!!! Not jumping or whatever, just singing al loud as possible, that and looking at each other. But in the moment that we start with the “chumba chumba” we have to jump into the group, bumping each other but without hurting. The aim is not to take the other person to the ground but just to create a group. And the jumps will stop when we start the next sentence “pe, perebe…”.

Ready for  Chumba chumba??                  

                                           Posted by Juanola


[1] I'd say that this song was first heard in NWM Benicassim in 200, introduced there by Xavi from AEGEE-Castelló,,, Miguel