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Edwin: Dancing bachata, this is how to do the bachata square. So we’re going to start first by going to the left on the number one, we’re going to go one and fourth, two, three and tap. Now we’re going to go to the right. Right, back, middle and tap. Let’s do it a little faster. We’re going to go side, forward, middle tap. Side, back, middle tap. Side forward, middle tap. Side, back, middle tap. Now this step is very interactive. We’re going to show it to you first from this angle, diagonal.

We can do it in close and open. We’re going to start in close. We’re going to go five, six, seven, and one, two, three tap, five, six, seven. Gentlemen, notice how I’m off to the ladies’ side to avoid stepping on her feet and so she can have her own path when she goes forward. So always make sure we’re protecting the ladies, especially their feet.

Five, six, seven, now we’re going to try the open position. Three tap, five, six, seven tap. One, two, three tap, five, six, seven. Gentlemen, there is a little resistance that I give her, to guide her forward and back, to kind of lead her into the step. And ladies, you keep a nice little resistance that helps us to kind of push and pull, as well.

Daniela: Ladies, it’s very important for you to collect your feet. When you’re going back there’s no tap there, but you collect your feet. You collect to go forward, tap. Collect to go back, even if there’s no tap. Make sure you keep it sexy and clean. We don’t want open legs when you are wearing a sexy dress.

Edwin: And gentlemen, just make sure that you’re really marking the steps as you’re going along. The ladies always show off their legs, but we’re always there to mark for her just in case, at the end when we’re ready to dance again she knows where we are, because I’m marking the timing for her, but I’m also guiding her with my posture. So now let’s demonstrate it with some music. Tap, five, six, seven tap. One, two, three tap. Side forward. Side back. Now in an open position.

Daniela: Remember lades, don’t forget about the resistance.

Edwin: And gentlemen, this is an interactive step, so again make sure you’re interacting with your partner. Be playful. Smile at each other and that is your bachata square.

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Edwin: How to bachata with a partner? We’re going to learn how to go from opened position to closd position in bachata. We’re going to start first in open position. Five, six, seven tap and one, two, three tap, five, six, seven tap. One, two, three and five, six, seven tap. One, two, three tap, five, six, seven, now going to open on five, six, seven tap. So the key number here is going be five, gentlemen. On the number five is a really good place for you to go from open to close and vice versa.

So first let’s break down from open to close. So we’re going to go five, six, seven and one, two, three, four. Make sure you really know what you’re going to do here, so you can guide the ladies. You don’t have to bring the ladies’ arm all the way up. Just give her a nice little toss and she follows through. Gentlemen, make sure that you avoid these kinds of things, the ladies do not like this much direction. Just make it nice and relaxed, nice and smooth.

Daniela: Ladies, just style your hand on to his shoulder.

Edwin: When you are ready to go the other way, we tap and we go, five, six, seven tap. One, two, three and tap. Now to go into open position this is more of dual effort kind of thing. You’re going to slide away from each other slightly by going five, six, seven. Gentlemen, notice how my arm all it does is it slides out, catches her palm.

Daniela: We stay connected the whole time.

Edwin: Right. You don’t have to jerk your body out or disconnect to them. Find her hand; just make sure that it’s a nice big slide and you catch. Let’s try it slowly first. Five, six, seven and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven tap. One, two, three and five, six, seven tap. Now gentlemen, you can also do this going forward and back. Let’s demonstrate with music.

We’re going to start in open first and one, two, three and five, six, seven,tap. One, two, three and five, six, seven one more. One, two, three and five, six, seven. Now we’re going to turn around to do it from the other side. Five, six, seven and one, two, three, five, six, seven tap. One, two, three five six, seven, forward and back. Just once, slide out.

Danieal: Ladies, remember always be graceful with your arms.

Edwin: And back up and five, six, seven and that is how we go from open to close position in bachata.

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I’m going to demonstrate how to incorporate a body roll and a booty roll into bachata timing. We go one, two, three and booty roll and one, two, three body roll, down and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. And now to break it down, we start to the right. Only half of a bar. One, two, three, four, booty roll with the left leg together with the right to go another half bar and to the left leg going forward to your body roll, and reverse, tap and right back to your basic.

To break down the booty roll and the body roll we bring the left leg out for the booty roll. It makes a whole circle so it hits the left side, the back, the right and then back together to the right. For the body roll we have our left leg forward. We go body roll, down and up. So we do first the chest, the ribs, the pelvis and stick the booty out. Very important and then we bring it all reverse.

Let’s try this with music. Booty roll, body roll and now let’s try the other angle, and booty roll. Left leg and body roll forward. Left leg forward and up and back angle and booty roll with the left, basic, body roll, basic, and that’s how we do a booty roll and body roll to bachata timing.

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Edwin: Guitar timing in bachata, so the guitar is the dominant instrument in the bachata, and it is also called the requinto. The sound of it is going to go… You’re going to notice that the steps are going to be more stacked up and a little bit faster. Let’s demonstrate that slow first. Five, six, seven and one and two and three, tap, five and six and seven, tap… Step, step, step, break. Step and step and step, break. Step and step and step, break. Step and step and step.

So to break it down, first you need to make sure that you feel light on your feet. Make sure that you don’t plant your heels. Don’t make yourself extra heavy and all you’re doing is kind of like tiptoeing to the side so we’re going to go, step, step, step, break. Step, step, step, break. Very important that we switch sides on the break, so that we can go to the other way. Tap step, step, step, switch step, step, step and switch.

Daniela: And for ladies, we can always remember we have our hips, move them, so when you’re doing this step your buttocks are moving out. So step, step, step, tap. Step, step, step, tap. You can also use your hands, place it on your waist or coming off. Once again, feel sexy.

Edwin: And gentlemen, you can also use your hands to maybe follow the ladies or roll your hands in front or shoulders. Feel free to explore different things that you can do with your upper body, so that you don’t feel stiff on the top. And that is your guitar timing. Let’s try it with the music.

What we’re listening is for… And five, six, seven and make sure you’re switching direction, so you’re going this way to the left tap, and switch, and that is your guitar timing in bachata.

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Understanding the music in bachata. The most important thing, other than building a connection with your partner is building a connection with the music. You have to train your ears to listen to every single detail in there. There’s gonna be a base, a bongo, a guitar and other instruments that are going to make your dancing come alive. So what I want you to always think about when you’re dancing by yourself or with a partner is listen to the energy of the music.

The music might be mellow, sometimes smooth, sometimes very rough, sometimes very fast or very stacky and I want you to use your ears to kind of like pinpoint when the music changes, and using your body energy, you’re going to transfer that to your partner. And then you’re going to have the same energy that you have in the music. And remember since we’re only listening to one song, and we’re listening to the same song, our energies also have to match.

Now I’m going to just demonstrate this pattern. It’s going to be a very simple pattern, but we’re going to change the energy level. So we’re going to go basic basic. We’re going to open open and in out in. Open and in out in. So what I want you to notice is how this is gooing to change with different energy. So let’s say that the music is very smooth, we’re going to go one, two, three tap, five, six, seven push away.

You keep your posture, not too much movement just very smooth, very mellow, but you’re still interacting with each other. Now if the music is kind of like the traditional Dominican music that is very, very stacked up and very fast, you’re going to think a little bit maybe shorter steps, but more fast paced. So you’re going to think more one, two, three tap, five, six, seven and push away, in out in, and push away, in out in.

So the one thing to notice is when you’re dancing smooth, you can smooth out your feet on the ground a little bit more, so you don’t have to pick it up every single time, but when the music is stacked up, you pick up your feet a little bit more. So we’re going to demonstrate the different energy with some music. So this is nice and smooth, nice and relaxed and now we’re going to go into a little bit more energy and now, back to smooth. So what you’re doing is you’re listening to the music to understand where the breaks are in the section change and you’re using that to build a connection with your partner.

So, if you want to dance a little bit, more stacked up, I get my partner’s posture to follow mine, and I stack up my feet as well, rather than if you wanted to smooth it out a little bit more and now we’re dancing a little bit more smooth, kind of like skating on the ground. So remember to always train your ears to listen to every single detail in the speed of the music and that is how we change our energy dancing bachata.

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Daniela: So ladies, what to wear when dancing bachata? We can wear jeans. We can wear shorts. We can wear skirts and dresses. Just make sure your skirt is not too short, that if you move your hips too much it might rise up, and then people might see things that you don’t want to be showing in public like that. Also your dress, make sure it’s not flowing, because the same thing, if you make a turn then your dress goes up, and then everyone is going to end up seeing you. It’s very important to also wear shorts if you want to. If you do have a flowing dress that you want to wear, if you wear shorts, that’s completely fine.

Edwin: And gentlemen, for us it’s very casual. You know it depends on why your dancing. If it’s just to get better at dancing, you might want to bring a little towel or maybe a change of shirt, a change of clothes. It gets very steamy in a lot of parties in clubs, so you want to be prepared. Gentlemen, I would always carry deodorant or something that you can refresh yourself with. Jeans, if its summertime, maybe shorts. I would stay away from pants that are too tight, gentlemen.

Especially if you are looking to do big steps, because they will not let you breathe, so make sure that you have a nice relaxed fit or slim fit, but not tight jeans. You also want to make sure that your shirts are not too colorful, because the sweat shows, when its very colorful. Bright colors means the sweat is going to show instantly. So unless you have a change of clothes, I would stay away from the bright colors. So always be prepared and just bring some extra shirts and deodorant.

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Edwin: Different breaks in bachata, so in bachata we had the tap, but there’s a lot of other breaks that you can explore. We’re going to teach you a couple of them. The first one we’re going to talk about is the bachata heel break. So we’re going to put out our heels, on the fours and the eights. Five, six, seven, eight. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. The idea behind the heel is to make sure that your heel is nice and sharp on that break, just as if you were doing a tap.

Daniela: And ladies, make sure when you do your heel tap forward, you have your legs closed. We don’t want to do one, two, three, heel, okay? It’s right in front of you.

Edwin: Now for the next break, this one is a tap in the back. We’re going to use the toe to either tap across or behind. We’re going to show you different ways, so make sure you that you explore however you feel more comfortable. Five, six, seven and one, two, three, tap, five, six, seven, tap.

One, two, three, tap, five, six, seven, tap. One, two, three, tap. Five, six, seven, tap. That’s going to be the tap behind. Remember you can put it right behind you or you can send it across, depending on how you feel. Make sure you do it with confidence and smooth. The next break is going to be the scoop. The scoop is going to be picking up your foot. Gentlemen, what we’re going to do is just lift it up, like this.

Daniela: And ladies, we’re going to scoop up, so as soon as your toe hits the floor that’s when you bring it up. Make sure you don’t kick it out.

Edwin: Let’s try it. Five, six, seven, eight and one, two, three, up, five, six, seven, up. One, two, three, up. Five, six, seven, up and one, two, three, up. Five, six, seven, up. Now for those of you who are interested in getting better as performers, make sure that you always point your feet down. If you keep your feet like this, of course it’s an option, but make sure that if you want to develop good habits, always point your feet down.

Now we’re going to do the last one, which is the shuffle behind. This one is a little bit more complicated, so I want you to pay attention slowly. Five, six, seven, eight and one, two, three shuffle, five, six, seven, shuffle one, two, three, shuffle five, six, seven and shuffle.

So what’s happening here is we’re going to take three steps one, two and three. On the fourth step we’re going to quickly alternate our feet, right/left, and then continue to the right for five, six, seven. And do the same thing on the other side, left/right. Let’s try it a little bit faster. Five, six, seven, eight and one, two, three shuffle. Five, six, seven, one, two, three shuffle, five, six, seven shuffle one.

Now let’s demonstrate all these breaks with music, so here we have the heel, then we have the tap behind and remember, you can cross it behind or send it straight back, depending on your choice. The next one is the scoop and gentlemen, of course you can scoop as well, gentlemen. But for us it’s more natural to just bring the knee up. And the last one is the shuffle behind. Shuffle, one and those are your bachata breaks.

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Edwin: So now we’re going to talk about beginner steps. This is a very short pattern. You are going to start to the left on one, two, three, tap, five, six, seven. Then you’re going to go outside and middle, top, outside and middle, top, outside and middle, top. Outside and forward, for one,two, three and slide six.

And basic and one, two, three. Half to the right, half to the left, and five, six, seven. Now let’s break it down. This pattern is going to start with the basics, so lets do the basic first, five, six, seven and one, two, three tap, five, six, seven break from here. We’re going to push the weight to the outside, open step, middle break. Then we’re going to do it on the other side. Open step, middle break. Gentleman, notice how my shoulders are rolling as I go out. Open,step.

Daniela: And ladies don’t forget your hips. They’re going out and tap.

Edwin: And gentlemen, make sure that you use the same distance that you’re going to the left, also to the right. Now the next part is going to go forward, you’re going to lead with your left leg in front. Five, six, seven and one, two, tap behind and slide. Lets try that again. And one, two, tap behind and slide.

So make sure you’re dragging out your foot as much as you can, up to the last number and then we go to the left. So now we’re going to do the last part. And one, two, three, tap. Here you want to have your foot in front of you, because your going to lead yourself forward into a twist. So you’re going to go, twist to the right, tap and same thing, twist to the left, tap and basic to the right.

Now lets put it together a little bit faster and then with music, five, six, seven, eight and one, two, three, tap, five, six, seven, tap. Outside stomp, middle, outside stomp, middle, outside and outside, now forward and one, two, tap behind and slide. And basic step, twist to the right, twist to the left and five, six, seven, eight. Make sure your confident and secure. Now let’s try it with music.

Daniela: Ladies remember your hips, also you can style.

Edwin: And gentlemen, shoulders. And feel secure, nice and strong.

Daniela: Same thing here. You can slide back with the arms and basic.

Edwin: Twist.

Daniela: Twist, booty out.

Edwin: And five, six and seven. Gentlemen, don’t be afraid to move your hips on the twist. The ladies do it, it’s okay for us to do it as well and that is your simple bachata pattern.

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Edwin: So this is the drunken step in the bachata, otherwise known as the grapevine. So we’re going to start by doing the basic to the left and one, two, three tap, five, six, seven step. So the first thing to notice is we didn’t tap this time, because we want to make sure that all the weight is on the left leg, to allow the right leg to go up. So let’s try it nice and slow. Five, six, seven and one, two, three tap, five, six, seven step. One and a three and a five to collect your feet.

So now to collect your feet, there’s a couple of different ways to do this. Gentlemen, if you feel that your feet are very slippery or there’s powder on the floor you can easily bring it in very smooth to squeeze in your buttocks and squeezing your feet together or if you don’t have time or the floor is too grippy, you could just hop and bring your legs together.

Daniela: And lades, you can also hop and bring your legs together. Since we have heels, it’s very hard to bring it in slow, but another way is that if you’re open here, you can just bring it in slowly one by one doing your bachata basic.

Edwin: And there’s going to be a lot more to explore, in terms of closing your feet, you can also bring one leg in. So play around with this, see which ones will work. Let’s try it nice and slow, from the top. Five, six, seve, tap and one, two, three tap. Here, we, go step. One and a three, and a five, six, seven and one.

Now let’s talk about the timing of the grapevine going backwards. So the drunken step is supposed to look like you’re kind of falling and catching yourself each and every time, which is what makes this step look so cool. So when you’re making it over to the back make sure that your timing is nice and sharp. You’re going to go one and a three and a five, six, seven and then you can either do a drop or just complete your basic to go to the left.

So let’s try it with the timing. Nice and slow. Five, six, seven and a one, two, three tap, five, six, seven, eight. One and a three and a five, six, seven, eight and one. Now let’s demonstrate it with the music. One, two, three, five, six, seven and one and a three and a five, six, seven, eight. Here we go. So ladies, notice how you can do different things. Gentlemen, we don’t always have to do the same things. Let’s try it one more time. Five, six, seven and, and that is your drunken step in bachata.

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Edwin: Bachata pattern for beginners. This pattern is going to start with the basic five, six, seven and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and one, two, three, four, in out in and one, two, three, four, in out in and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight.

Now let’s break it down. We’re going to start with a basic five, six, seven and one, two, three, four, five, six and stop right here. We’re getting ready to do the push and pull. So first thing gentlemen, is to create the space for the ladies to be able to come in. We’re going to push off one, two, three and tap for your break. Here, we’re going to pull each other in, so she’s pulling me as well. We pull, push back, pull and the tap comes to the middle, and now we’re ready to start all over again for one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight.

Daniela: Ladies, remember the resistance that we spoke about earlier, in our arms? Make sure you use your muscles, so the guy’s not pushing the air and he’s actually pushing you.

Edwin: And gentlemen, be careful not to push the ladies or pull the ladies too much. Remember that they are in heels and they need to feel that support from you. Make sure that you just push, pull, push and pull. Let’s try it one more time. Five, six, seven and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and one, two, three, four, in out in and one, two, three, four, in out in.

Now the next part is for the ladies’ turn, so we’re going to start with the basic one, two, three, four. Gentlemen, we prop the ladies up. This time she’s not going to spin fast, so give her time. Just hold her hand up,and let her show off here, a little bit of her sexiness.

Daniela: So we’re going to go for a four corner turn. What does that mean? We’re going to spot the first corner and turn. Spot the second corner, third corner, and the fourth corner brings me back to my partner.

Edwin: And gentlemen, as this is happening you’re making sure that you’re letting the ladies take the corners, each and every corner. It’s going to emphasize on her hips, so overdoing is marking the time. Let’s try that slowly. Five, six, basic and one, two, three, tap. Here she goes, tap.

Daniela: One, two, three, tap. Five, six, seven, tap. One, two, three, tap and five, six, seven, tap.

Edwin: Now let’s demonstrate this with music.

Daniela: Remember ladies, feel sexy, move your hips.

Edwin: We’re going to demonstrate it one more time and different ways that you can add some variation and that is your basic bachata pattern for couples.

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So this is bachata intros and breaks. A lot of songs are going to start off with a rhythm that might not be bachata, but you know that later on it turns into bachata, so a lot of the times we don’t know what to do during this time. Sometimes we wait, sometimes we just sit down until the bachata starts or sometimes we just look at our partner like, what are we going to do? So we’re going to teach you some steps that you can do that are very simple.

This one is a swing tap. So all you are doing is swinging your body left and right. We’re going to start by going swing tap, swing tap, swing tap, swing and tap. So if I’m dancing with my partner, and the music starts. There’s a lot of music that starts with maybe do-wop intro or a smooth melody. So all we’re doing is kind of like, feeding off of the music energy. We’re thinking swing tap, swing tap. Oh, I know this song. You’re just biding out with each other, and then music starts and you think, boom back into bachata, tap, ba ba ba, tap, one, two, three, tap and stop it right here.

So you’re also going to hear music that in between the beginning and the end you’re going to have a lot of different breaks and sections, so during that time you can also feel free to listen to the music. If it repeats again, you can slow down again in the middle of the track, and when you hear the bachata beat or the break start to kick in, we drop and go back into our basic. Now with that in mind you’re going to see a lot of places where the bongo does a little flam, where it’s called the bongo jab. It goes clack clack and those are the moments when we know the music section’s changed. For example, we can go one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and one, two, three, four, five, six, clack clack. So then we’re ready to start the section.

So we’re going to play a song, so you can try to listen to the different breaks, and we’re going to demonstrate them with our partner. So listen to the break and now you hear that the music is different. Now we have the guitar has a different melody, and then you have the bongo jab, which is the flam. It plays twice, so you can drop twice and you can also think of just stamping on the ground when you’re switching section. Make sure you really feel that you’re really connected to your partner, so she can do those things with you as well. Always, gentlemen, make sure you’re listening to the music. Ladies, try your best to follow the gentlemen. Gentlemen, if you hear the breaks, make sure you demonstrate it in enough time so, that she can follow you and you’re not doing them by yourself. Listen to the music and learn those breaks and that is bachata breaks and intros.

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Edwin: Intermediate footwork in bachata. This pattern is going to be a little bit different. We’re going to go one, two, three, tap. You’re going to go kick forward, kick back, kick forward and cross. Turn all the way over and five, six, switch and twist, twist, twist, tap. Twist, twist, twist, tap. Twist, twist, twist and prep and turn. Up and swing, swing for one, two and three.

Now let’s break it down. This pattern is going to start with just the first three steps. One, two, and three. Here you want to make sure that all the weight is on the left foot. Feel nice and secure, nice and stable. Tap first. Collect your foot. This is a prep and then you kick forward, one. Kick back, two. Kick forward, three and cross. Turn yourself over. For a basic, five, six, seven into your swivel, swivel, swivel, tap. Swivel, swivel, swivel, tap. Swivel, swivel, swivel, tap, break and turn. We’re going to go up and swing left, swing right, then into our basic.

Let’s try it a little bit faster and then with the music. Five, six, seven, eight and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. One, two, three, four, five and seven. One-three-five and seven into our one.

Daniela: So ladies, make sure that when you’re doing your heel in the first step you are centered, and don’t try to kick your leg really high. It’s just a little playful heel here and then you switch to turn. And also ladies, after that when you do your basic and you go into your twist, you can play around here with your tap or bring your leg up or do heel-toe. And then when you twist, make sure you twist your body to do the turn. You turn on the ball of your feet, okay? Make sure you don’t turn on your heels, because you will lose balance.

Edwin: Gentlemen, for your twist I want you to make sure that you’re nice and stable and use your elbows and your upper body to guide yourself around. Try not to give yourself too much force depending on the floor and the speed of the music. If the music is fast, try not to prep too much. Just prep a little and push over. If the music is slow and very smooth, then you can prep a little bit more, and take more time to glide.

Now let’s try it with the music. One more time and just have fun with it. Feel that beat. Feel the energy in the music and basic, and that is your intermediate bachata pattern.

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Daniela: So how to perform bachata? Performing is very interactive. You interact with your partner or with your teammates or you interact with the audience. It’s actually very fun. You can be flirty. You know you can express your feelings. It’s like telling a story, conveying what you have made to the audience.

Edwin: And pretty much, you know you have to try to understand and maybe, speak to your teammates about why you’re performing. Is this for choreography in a sweet sixteen? Is this for a competition? Is this just for a social gathering or for a party? Every single audience is going to be watching you, either for the first time or a repeat, so you want to give everyone something.

Make sure that you have eye contact with your audience. You know when you’re performing, you have to leave your heart on stage each and every time. You can’t get too comfortable to the point where “Oh, I already know this, so I’m not going to go all out.” You have to go all out each and every time, no matter what level you are.

And I guess the best tip I can give you is, you always have a message and make sure that everyone in the audience, either understands the message; not everyone will like the message and not everyone will want to follow up on you; but you want to make sure that people understand what you’re trying to say. So make sure you’re clear on all the messages in your moves, make them as clean as possible, rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. You can never practice too much.

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Edwin: Advanced bachata pattern with your partner. So we’re going to start by first basic in close position, 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 and 1-2-3 and hold. 6-7 and 1-2-3-4-5 and 6 and 7. Drop 1-2-3 and inside turn. Lets try it with the music. One more basic, push back-push and repose, 7 and 1, 3 and 5, 6 and 1 and inside turn. One more time. Now when you ‘re doing this pattern, make sure you are having as much fun with it as possible, and practice stepping your feet quickly around and keeping the lady secured the whole time, and that is your bachata advanced pattern.

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Edwin: How to put together a bachata dance routine? The first thing is the music. You have to find music that’s meaningful to you. That has a message you want to convey. Listen to the speed of the music. Listen to every instrument in there, until you identify yourself with one that you want to choreograph for. Make sure you listen to the bongo. Make sure you listen to the guitar. Make sure you listen to the bass and also the voice, the vocal timing.

If you don’t know Spanish, maybe you take some time to actually read the lyrics out in English, and have someone translate it for you, so that your dance looks like it’s coming from you, knowing and understanding the music, rather than just picking moves and putting them in there. And once you pretty much tackle the music, then it’s just understanding you know, what this routine is for, and that’s pretty much all behind putting the routine together and then it’s just pretty much preforming.

Daniela: Also, another thing you want to think about is if you’re going to do it for a group or only a couple or for professional dancers, for beginners, what if you have a mixed group? You want to think about different transitions. Maybe to have a group doing advanced work and then they leave out of the stage and then beginners come in or you know play around with it. Have them move around transition, things like that.

Edwin: As professionals our main goal is to tell a story, paint pictures and also make it as entertaining to the crowd that you want them to feel that they can jump in, and want to learn your choreography and that’s it.

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Edwin: Bass timing in the bachata. The bass timing is going to be a little bit longer than the bongo, so we’re going to take a first step to extend and then we’re going to collect with two quick steps. Let’s do it slowly first. Five, six, seven and one and three, tap, five and seven, tap, one and three, tap, five and seven. The sound of the bass is going to be… so we’re going to transmit that sound into our feet. First let’s try it slowly and then we’re going to break it down with the music. Five, six, seven. You’re going to go, step and step, break, step and step, break, step and step, break, step and step, break.

Daniela: And ladies, you can add a body roll. You can add the leg going back. You can also do different styling’s here, whether it’s with your body or with your leg, with your arm. Whatever you like.

Edwin: And gentlemen, feel free to also explore different things. You can cross behind your other foot or you can extend the leg behind, and play around, there’s going to be a lot of different things you’re going to see. Just make sure you feel comfortable and secure. Let’s try it with the music. So the sound that we want to hear is… Now we’re going to extend this timing going forward and basic in the middle. What you want to see is that you feel like you’re hesitating, before you tap and also on the other side, and that is your bass timing in bachata.

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Daniela: So ladies, we want to find the perfect shoe for us to dance. We want them to be comfortable, flexible. We are four hours or more, dancing per night. So the shoes that I wear are Burju shoes. You can get them through burju.com or from Maria Palmieri on joelsalsa.com. You can also find different types of shoes that are maybe less expensive like from Capezio or World Tone, and for the gentlemen.

Edwin: Gentlemen, for us there’s not a lot of choices out there, in terms of brands. But I would say stick to comfortable shoes. You know try to stay away from boots, anything that makes you feel heavy. I usually wear low-top sneakers or tennis sneakers, anything very low-top. And I would say the best thing is actually, like just work shoes or shoes that are formal or semi-casual or semi-formal, anything that’s low.

Make sure that they’re durable gentlemen. Make sure that if they have laces, make sure that they’re not bulky. And just be conscious that when you are dancing with the girls, if you step on them and you have boots, she may never dance with you again. So make sure that whatever you wear you feel good in, and also doesn’t feel too bulky when you are dancing.

Daniela: Ladies, you also have to think about what kind of heel would you like. There is thick heels, thin heels, stiletto heels, four-inch heels, three. You know you have to find the best one that’s for you. You have different types of materials, leather or suede or satin, so you really have to try it and really dance on it, and figure out what works best.

Transcript

Advanced footwork in bachata, this cara, is going to incorporate a lot of the different timings in bachata, and some of the previous timings that you saw in the series. So we’re going to start with the left basic and one and three, four, five and six and seven. And one and three, four, five, six, seven, eight. And one, two, three, four, swing, tap, swing, tap.

Let’s try it one more time. Five, six, seven and one and three, four, five and six and seven, eight. One,and three, four, five, six, seven, eight and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Now let’s try it with some music. Basic one, two, three and one more time. So now, if you would like to understand more of the mechanics behind a lot of these steps and different timings, make sure to check out the other bachata videos in this series.

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Bachata basic with the bongo. The bongo is one of the most important instruments in bachata. The sound of the bongo is going to go… so you have three hits and then the tock is the big hit with the hip, falls or the breaks. We’re going to start by going to the left. Five, six, seven… and stop it right here.

From here we can definitely go forward and back or in place. Let’s try it very slowly first without the music and then we’re going to kick in. We’re going to go one, two, three. Here you’re going to use the ball of the foot to push up your hip and then we’re going to go the other way for five, six, seven and eight.

So we have one, two, three and four. Five, six, seven and eight. One, two, three and four. Forward and back. And one, two, three and four. Five, six, seven and eight. One, two, three and four. And now in the center one, two, three and four. Five, six, seven and eight. One, two, three and four and stop it right there.

So first let’s hear the bongo, so you can hear with the sounds and then we’ll show you the steps. You have your three consecutive hits and then one on the top. We count them and it goes one, two, three hit. One, two, three hit, so that high hit is going to be connected to our tap. Let’s demonstrate with the music. Five, six, seven tap. One, two, three hit. And forward and back. And last in the center and that is the bongo basic with bachata.

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Bachata tips for men. So men I’m going to give you some tips for your social dancing. The first one is how to ask the ladies to dance, how to deal with rejection. So the first thing is you’re going to gracefully ask for the ladies with your palm face up, she accepts, you’re ready to go. If she says no gentlemen, you gracefully walk away. Try not to really be persistent on the ladies, they sometimes have too many dances and they just want to relax, so we have to be respectful about that.

Second thing is gentlemen; we are here to support them, and to see that they look the best they can, so that they can get dances with the other people, right? So try not to be the kind of guy who overpowers the girl or shows off. For example, you’re dancing and you’re over here, not even looking at her eyes, showing off all your moves while she’s there, just “What’s going on?” So gentlemen make sure you take time to connect to the lady.

Make sure that every dance is a story. You’re connecting here. You’re smiling at her. She’s smiling at you. You’re looking at something together. You’re looking at each other and you’re looking around together. Everything you do, make sure that she shines and you’re there to support, unless you let each other go, which is a good moment for you to then show off some of your steps.

So the first thing is when we’re dancing, we’re always looking at the ladies. If she looks comfortable she smiles. If she’s uncomfortable she doesn’t smile, so we have to make sure that we see what’s going on. Maybe we’re too close. Maybe we’re too far. Maybe we’re just doing the same move over and over. So give her something that she can work with.

Gentlemen, make sure that she’s turning. You let her take her time to turn. Try not to rush the lady, so if she’s doing a slow turn, you watch her. Let her go around. So it’s all about making her look good. Try not to do too many tricks or too many moves while the ladies are doing their moves, all right?

The last thing gentlemen is to avoid being the kind of guys who give the ladies multiple turns, five, six turns in bachata, that’s too much for the ladies and that’s for other dances. So make sure that the ladies always feel comfortable with everything you’re giving them. So if you’re giving them one turn, she smiles, she likes it. That means you can do it again or do something else.

Gentlemen, also be careful not to show off too much, make sure that you’re not connected to anyone else on the dance floor, but your partner. And the last thing gentlemen with that in mind, try to always make sure to stay away from the bathroom list. The ladies have a list of all the guys that you shouldn’t dance with and I’m not supposed to tell you this, but don’t be on that list all right? Just make her look good and you’re safe and those are the Bachata tips for men.

Transcript

I’m going to demonstrate how to follow the lead of the man. First of all ladies, make sure you put your left hand on the shoulder blade of the gentleman and our arm is resting on his right arm. Basic five, six, seven and one, two, three. Five, six, seven. One, two, three. Five, six, seven.
Next is push and pull, we’re you’re going to show the resistance on the arm. We’re resisting. If we don’t resist, this is what could happen, and then the step looks much different from what it should.

The next step we will do the cues for the gentleman, when he’s doing a turn. We go basic, one, two, three. Five, six, seven. Hand goes up we turn, and then we always look back to the gentleman to see what else he’s going to do with his hand, so we can grab and be ready for the next step. And the last tip I will give you is always try to focus on the gentleman’s shoulders and chest.

That’s where the arms are going to be moving and that’s the easiest way to see if the gentleman will do a toss with the hands or a turn, and now let’s try it with the music. Basic and for the push and pull resist, use your muscles. One more time, good. Now remember the focus. Look at the gentleman’s arms, see what his next move will be. That’s how you follow the gentleman’s cues.

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Daniela: So I’m going to give you a little tip for women when we’re dancing. When we’re dancing with a gentleman sometimes they like to get too close, and we don’t feel comfortable dancing with them like this, because we might not know them. They just might be some random person that asked us to dance. Therefore the way we try to push away is the elbow pushes out with the hand and he will understand that you don’t want to be that close.

Therefore you will have more space to open up and always smile, everything’s okay. Make eye contact, feel sexy, be sexy. And also if a guy is asking you to dance and you wouldn’t like to dance with him whether you had too many dances before, or you just want to have a drink, or you’re sitting down or you really don’t like how he dances, which is okay.

He will ask you to dance and you say, No, thank you,” politely with a smile, making eye contact. Make sure you don’t look away and say, “No, no, no, not you.” because that’s not nice. That would be very rude. So always very nice, “No, thank you” or if you would like to dance with that person later on, because you’re too tired at that moment you can say, “No thank you, but I’ll take the dance later.”

And there is nothing wrong ladies with you asking the gentlemen to dance. So if he doesn’t approach you again, you know it’s okay don’t get offended by them not coming back, but you can go to them and be like, “Okay, would you like to dance now?” And they will always say yes.

Edwin: Yes.

Daniela: And those are a few tips for women.

Transcript

Edwin: Where to dance bachata? Pretty much, nightclubs that play Latin music, you have sometimes salsa, merengue, and bachata. There are a lot of clubs here in New York that play salsa. You can look into socials, bachata festivals, congresses. There are a lot of places to go. If you’re in the city and you’re not sure exactly where to go, ask around or check on the website joelsalsa.com.

We’ll have a section for you that tells you what different places you can find to dance and pretty much dance classes, you know we have dance classes here in the city. You have the nightclub, Club Cache. Every Friday night, we’re there all the time, so it’s a really good place to go dancing bachata.

Daniela: You always have the congresses and festivals, if you like to go and take workshops, where you can dance bachata all night long with great parties.

Edwin: That’s pretty much it. There’s so much to do with bachata and you can also dance it at home. Just put on the radio, wash some dishes and just dance to the music. It’s a very good music to dance to, whether you’re alone, with a partner or with a group of friends. That’s pretty much where to go dancing.

Transcript

Edwin: This is an intermediate pattern in bachata. We’re going to start by first getting into the back-to-back walk. We’re going to go one, two, three push, five, six, seven and walk behind each other, so you’re interacting with each other. One, two, three and we open up on this side. For the ladies slow turn, on five-six and seven. And gentlemen, fast turn, five-six-seven-tap.

Let’s break it down. So this pattern is all about interaction. You have to make sure you feel comfortable with your partner. Smile, you’re looking at each other. It’s kind of like you’re vibing off of each other and the music. We’re going to start by just pushing the partners off. One, two, three, you stay connected with both hands. My right hand gentlemen, comes above and my left hand below, and you’re going to get the ladies into something called a hammer lock. She’s going to go across and her arm is going to lock behind her, like this. From here…

Daniela: Ladies, you keep doing your bachata timing, so notice that my right leg is on my top, and my left leg is standing.

Edwin: And gentlemen, make sure that you do not switch your feet at all. Here gentlemen, my hand stays up, because I’m going to go right under this arm and then bring the other one up, as this one goes down. So watch this, you’re going to switch ba-ba-ba and now, both of my arms are down. This is where the interaction happens.

Now you’re going to pull the ladies from this arm slightly and guide them to the other side for one, walk over here. Tap and one, walk over here, tap. On this side gentlemen, you’re going to let go of your left hand. Stay holding on to the right and just give her a slight pull that turns her into a half twist to face you again. Now the ladies do their slow turn.

Daniela: This turn we’re going to do it on two counts, so we’re going to go around, facing the back wall, and then back around facing your partner.

Edwin: And gentlemen, your turn is going to be a little faster. You’re going to go one, two, three and switch behind the back, tap. And gentlemen, if you need help with the switch behind the back, make sure to check out the videos about your turns. Now let’s try it a little bit faster.

Five, six, seven, eight and one, two, three, tap. Five, six, seven tap. And one, two, three, hey. Five, six, seven, hey. One, two, three and pull, six, seven, eight.

Daniela: Ladies.

Edwin: Two, three, tap. Five, six, seven, tap. One, two, three, tap. And five, six, seven, tap. So the first thing to notice before the music is make sure that you’re interacting with each other. Very important, even if you don’t smile, at least you’re looking at each other. You’re kind of vibing off with each other, we’re just nodding around. Make sure, gentlemen, before you pull the ladies in, look to see that it’s safe. Because this is a very tricky move and you want to make sure that the ladies are safe on the other side. All right, let’s demonstrate with music. One more time, from this side and that is your intermediate bachata pattern.