Has anybody watched the latest video release of Shakira's "whenever wherever"? It is an excellent samba with an exotic twist. She is an amazing dancer as well with excellent control of her center thanks to her bellydancing training. Here is my point: I think bellydancing is an excellent avenue to supplement the training of the latin dancer specifically in samba. It offers flexibility, suppleness, speed in the pelvis as well as increasing pelvic range of motion. Its music offers great rhytmic quality, not to mention its sensuality. I know of two videos that use bellydancing as fitness workouts that may be very helpful as supplemental training. These are the videos named "Bellydance , fitness for beginners, hips, buns and thighs and the one for arms & abs. You can order them from "naturaljourneys" at www.naturaljourneys.com
I believe that bellydancing and samba share similarities and hence benefit the latin dancer.
Cheers