Bachata Styles and Why You Should Learn Them All

Bachata is a Latin-American social dance style originating from Dominican Republic. Nowadays there are 3 different sub-styles of bachata that are being danced all over the world. Currently, sensual bachata is the most famous, so if that is the only style you know, it is good to also educate yourself on the other two.

Dominican Bachata

Bachata comes from Dominican Republic, and Dominican bachata is how the dance originally looked like. It is characterized by emphasis on footwork and hip movements. There are a lot of “signals” in leading that you have to know to be able to follow – the leading may not necessarily be logical. I love Dominican bachata because it is very musical and there is a lot of room to express myself. There are not too many turns or difficult head movements.

One of my favorite Dominican bachata dancers is Carolina Rosa. Check out this video of her below and definitely follow her on Instagram as well.

Bachata Moderna

Bachata moderna was actually born outside of Dominican Republic. This is the modern version of bachata danced all over the world, which has influences from salsa and elements from both Dominican and sensual bachata. The basic move of stepping side-to-side became prevalent and that’s we learn today when we take our first bachata class. There are fast turns and dips which aren’t that common in Dominican style. Bachata moderna is a great style to enjoy bachata even if you don’t like to dance in a sensual way.

Here’s a bachata moderna after-class demo from Demetrio & Nicole who are known for great bachata online courses.

Sensual Bachata

Sensual bachata was created by Korke and Judith in Cádiz, Spain. They mixed moves from brazilian zouk dance and show dance with bachata moderna and turned it into a more challenging and flashy dance. There are body waves and isolations, and it can be slower and more sensual than bachata moderna. Sensual bachata dancers continue to integrate new moves from zouk and the style keeps gaining popularity all over the world. I love sensual bachata because it is fun, flirty, challenging and I can use my whole body when dancing.

There are a ton of famous sensual bachata artists now, here is a demo from Gero & Migle whom I see leaning heavily towards this style.

Benefits to Learning All Three

It’s beneficial to know all 3 styles and also recognise the music suitable for each, because they are all played at bachata parties. It is considered inappropriate to dance sensual bachata when Dominican bachata music is playing and vice versa – it is very strange to do Dominican steps to a slow flowy remix. Even within a regular bachata song there might be a moment where instruments play and it sounds more Dominican – this is the time to switch styles and add some footwork.

Have you already taken classes from each style? What do you most enjoy dancing?

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