Hey,

this is one of my main problems in Bachata at the moment: Leaders, if you learn something new in dance school and you like it, what do you do to be able to lead it actually on socials?

The thing is, when we learn something new in dance school, after doing it a few times I'm very comfortable with doing it in dance school. But doing it on socials doesn't work that easy cause the follower is not prepared for it so it requires actually good leading from my side. That's the problem, where can I practice? I don't have a practice partner and probably won't find one.

With beginner figures, it usually works instantly on socials without any problems. With the more intermediate ones, it does not. And the intermediate figures are exactly what I'm aiming for. Quite difficult and fun but usually not dangerous as some advanced ones when done right.

One of the things I try to learn at the moment is a side or forward wave in shadow position into 1,5 DJ turns into a half cambre into either a wave or a half rotisserie (depending on the music). We have practiced many figures very close to that in dance school but I can't lead it perfectly cause i have problems with the hand switch after the first DJ turn and the transition into the half cambre.

Also there are many other things I've learned that never made it to my social vocabulary. It is so frustrating cause I put so much effort into learning those figures, thinking of how I combine them to match the music better and so on but it feels worthless.

Followers: Do you think it's a bad idea to practice on socials? What do you think when a leader is trying things he is not 100% capable of doing yet and the figures fails? Since my style of leading is very very soft, pretty much nothing will happen other then loosing the basic step for a second. Is it uncomfortable for you or is it fine? Is it rude to ask after dance if I can try the figure slowly again to practice?

I've heard that followers want leaders to only do things he is 100% comfortable with. But how should I progress when I'm only allowed to do things I can already perfectly do.

Hello! Are there any people who can share their experience and opinions on the Wild Divas Ladies and Men Style Festival in Rome? I am particularly interested in class quality, space to move, in masterclasses (whether they are worth it - I guess they do though), in parties (is music ok, is there enough room to dance, how easy it is to get a dance with the artists) and any general comments you might have! Thank you! I would really like to go and I would appreciate any insight.

P.S. I am a follower

U.K. based, can’t speak for London as I don’t go there yet for dancing, but where I live in England there used to be a booming scene, new faces constantly, new people starting out, parties used to be full to the brim and people would come here from all around the U.K., and now it’s a complete 180.

Most parties struggle in my eyes. The bulk is made up of devoted students or former students of said school, and even then the numbers have dropped significantly - prior to this, it was actually a challenge to move through the dance floor at times, now it’s a breeze.

I’ve started dancing after covid, and I hear from a lot of people that the scene still has not recovered, and it has definitely changed.

It sucks to see, as I really miss seeing the new faces and it being a push out of my comfort zone, which I know is a separate topic, but now attending lessons and the parties is nothing ‘special’ for the most part.

Admittedly I’ve not done much salsa, have done few lessons here and there this year, but I haven’t explored much into the other dance scenes.

Thoughts?

I'll start.

First of all, I rarely give this advice in it's generic form, because I consider it about as helpful as telling someone who struggles with a pull up to "pull harder", instead I'm always trying to be very specific. ​​​​​

Then, there are usually tiers:

• Absolute beginners, get told to forget ​​​​​​​all the hip moves and just walk around to the music. The goal is to dance from one side of the room to the other, while keeping track of the bear, but also while breaking the step-step-step-tap pattern again and again.
• Next level is posture - do the former ​​​​​while not looking down, film yourself until happy. ​​​​
• Next level is usually hip movement and the merengue basic. I make them focus on their weight distribution, hip position, and timing, all while being on the spot, until this is second nature, and the left-right basic can be styled with hip movements /light ​shoulders ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​.
• After that it's general body awareness - first step is usually on the spot waves and chest control. That means learning to isolate the chest as the most important element.
• If they can do all that, i usually just recommend hip hop, house, or commercial dance classes, so that ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​people can actually learn more complex patterns of body movement. ​​​​​​​​​

I’m a beginner to bachata and dancing in general. I’ve been to a few social dances, learned some stuff, and have a general idea of how things work, but I definitely need structured instruction. I found a 4 week beginner class that starts tomorrow. It’s one class per week for four weeks, and the total cost is $100.

Any recommendations? I’ve attended BSWC and BCN Sensual Family weekend in March this year, most likely going to Bachaturo as well, however I’m wondering if there’s anything else that I’m missing out on.

Also, how do you make the most of your festivals? I realised that I need to do more of the social even during the day, as that’ll brush off any rustiness and prepare me for dancing socially, as usually my first social night is the ‘worst’ as a lead, however, I’ve improved a lot this year so I know it’s gonna be wayyy better this time around.

Any advice?

New to bachata and looking to find a practice partner, someone also starting out, patient with themselves and with me since we'll both be learning, and wants to actually improve rather than just casual once in a while.

Two questions for this sub. Where's a good place to actually find a practice partner, apps, local groups, socials? And where do people usually practice, is it mostly at socials and classes, or do people find space to practice one on one outside of that?

Appreciate any pointers 🙏

There are so many beautiful songs and dances out there. Has a dance ever made you overcome with emotion because of how beautiful it was?

What was special about it? Were you able to ever recreate that feeling?

Your thoughts help me grow and get better

I'm tired of being and feeling alone when I go out. How have you connected with other people? Is it weird to strike up conversations with strangers in between dances? I don't know what to to do when I'm not dancing. I'm sitting alone by myself like a weirdo. How do I approach this? Please help.

I recently went to a club in Colombia. When a bachata song was played, everyone went on the dancefloor to dance to it. But they danced completely different from dominican, modern, and sensual style. Most people just swayed the hips, did the tap, and a few rare turns.

Is this the most common way it's danced in Latam (besides the Carribbean and bachata socials)?

Hello bachateros y bachateras,
I am looking for the best hidden gems of traditional bachata songs. My dance instructor knows many songs, especially all of the popular and traditional ones, and I have accepted the challenge to find some that she has never heard before. To accomplish this, I need your help.
Please give me your favorite songs, or just most obscure ones that you think nobody listens to except for you - the rarer the better. I trust together we can uncover and share some hidden gems.

Hey,

I've started dancing Bachata about 8 months ago. Every single time I read threads on reddit, many people say that you should focus on your basics, you don't need flashy moves, work on the fundamentals first, don't impress, followers enjoy very simple dances with good fundamentals.

To be honest, this makes Bachata very boring for me. I would definitely agree that fundamentals are very important and basics like your basic step, basic turn and very simple things add up to basically everything you do. But do I really need to have a perfect base to build more complex techniques on it?

Currently, I take classes 4 times a week. 1x beginner level, 1x intermediate (the level is quite low there, I would also consider it to be a beginner class) and 2x advanced level (probably more intermediate by international standards). I do social dancing about 3 times a week. Is there anything wrong with that? Am I rushing anything?

I feel like it's quite nice to learn more intermediate techniques like DJ turns, tilted turns, Rotisseries and other Sensual/BachaZouk things early in order to get used to the movement pattern. Basically practicing everything including basics at the same time.

I'm not trying to impress anyone with complicated figures but I really enjoy more intermediate stuff so much and it just feels great to lead those things. I would consider myself somewhere between beginner and intermediate so I do take classes above my level at the moment. Do you think this will slow down my process? I will not skip beginner classes for a while cause I get very good feedback from the instructors there.

Hi,

I've been taking bachata classes for about 6 weeks now as a leader (1 hour of class per week, plus 3 beginner workshops, ~3 hours each).

I've got the basic step, box step, and a simple turn down . But I'm hesitating hard on going to my first social class (there is one in my city every week)

My main worry: I only really know 3-4 moves. I'm not sure I can fill an entire song without running out of ideas or just repeating the same combo over and over and looking like I'm stuck on a loop.

• For those who've been through this is this a normal stage?
• Did you wait until you had more moves, or did you just show up and figure it out
• Any tips for surviving (and enjoying) a full song ?

I like bachata, the connection with people, the musics but with 1,5 you can imagine that I am doing a lot of mistakes.

hi everyone, I am going to DR in late August early September for a week, and my initial plan is staying in Las Terrenas just to have a mix of nature, outdoor activities and bachata tradicional. I understand that bachata sensual is very limited in the DR so I will try to get some bachata tradicional training and go to some socials. Do you recommend any specific spots in Las Terrenas? Would love to know about the names of the places so that I am prepared in advance. Also feel free to recommend any specific bachata instructors or schools in Dominican Republic. Thank you!

Hello everyone, I am looking for a way to get ahold of either a full live of Romeo Santos and Prince Royce’s full concert, or just somebody that managed to record videos before the show started, while they showed people from the crowd in the big screen…
As me and my wife were in it and would love to keep the video as a memory
I hope someone could help me out :)

Saw this video recently and I’m super excited for how far we’ve come on this journey.

Posted a couple of videos here about 6 months ago and got a ton of useful feedback, so thank you to everyone who took the time back then. I really tried to take it to heart.

Last time, a lot of the feedback was that I was doing too many patterns without the technique to really back them up, so that’s specifically what I focused on. So if you saw my last videos, you’ll probably recognize a lot of the same moves, just hopefully better hahaha.

Quick context before the videos: I’ve been dancing about 10-11 months. My follower has been at it for a few years and is way more experienced than me. We’re posting these together and both of us would genuinely love feedback, so please don’t just look at the lead, we really want to hear thoughts on her too, and I’ll make sure any feedback for her gets passed along.

I’d love to know where you think I’ve improved the most and for both of us, we’d love to know what the biggest weaknesses are that you still see for either of us, and if you had to narrow it down, what 2-3 priorities you’d set for each of us over the next few months. We’d also find it super helpful to hear which things are worth taking into a private lesson,

One request: last time I got some really helpful comments, but also a few that were pretty harsh. Would appreciate feedback that’s specific and honest but not just tearing things down. We genuinely want to get better, just prefer criticism that actually helps rather than just being blunt for the sake of it.

Links to my old posts:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bachata/s/81AodHgIHX

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bachata/s/jhBD5bZR0g

Thanks to anyone who takes the time to watch!

I've been noticing that I don't enjoy advanced (sensual) bachata because of several reasons:

1) stage 4 jack-and-jill-itis: many "most advanced" followers just stress me out by trying to hit every single accent in the music and memorizing all the salt shakers etc. In return, I'm doing that too, but it's not fun anymore because most of the time we're not communicating movements, we just anticipating for the next salt shaker to show off random club moves to maximize musicality at all cost.

2) the bachata aristocracy: the "advanced" community is superficial and closed. If they don't know you and you don't look like a Barbie/Miguel, they're gonna make a grimaced face and say they need a drink and run away (and then sometimes dance with someone else in +-20 seconds). You won't see them dancing with beginners, they usually hide away at (or behind, if possible) the DJ booth like they didn't even come here to dance. And then no matter how much space there is in the room, they dance around the DJ booth, where there's no space left to do anything safely, except showing off random club moves and grinding.

3) lack of real connection: personally, I dance because I like communicating movements through physical connection. But it feels like even most advanced bachata followers just try to recognize which popular IG move I want and then go off executing that one (while also trying to hit those salt shakers too). With zouk followers we sometimes ended up doing things together we've never thought before and it felt right, all because they don't assume and try to stay connected all the time.

3) batata: beginners are still trying difficult moves without having proper fundamentals, risking injury. This can also make the previous points more understandable. If I was a follower, I wouldn't want to risk suffering through a song full of bad cambré's if i didn't have to.

Did you have a similar experience? Has it always been like this?

Hi,

Can anyone help me? I’m looking for the bachata remix of Particula by Major Lazer.

I’ve been learning Bachata for a year and see that women mostly wear crop tops to classes and socials. Or they wear camis, halter necks or tube tops. I don’t see any woman wearing a normal length feminine top. Sometimes I feel out of place coz I am conscious about wearing these types of tops or showing skin. I am not particularly slim. Is there any benefits of wearing crop tops / camis / halter necks / tube tops?