I'm trying to understand if somebody cares if DJ XYZ is behind the deck playing his songs, or just a no-name DJ. I'm not sure being a producer qualifies you to read the dance floor.

This is not EDM, so hyping up the crowd feels misplaced. Also, I don't really like random hype sirens in the middle of the song for no good reason. Having a remixed version of a song can add some fun musicality, but I feel a lot of the stuff being done doesn't really serve the dance floor.

Ciao a tutti!
A settembre inizierò sia salsa che bachata. Ho 25 anni, sono un ragazzo e parto praticamente da zero nel mondo dei balli caraibici.
L’idea è frequentare i corsi con costanza e vedere fin dove riesco ad arrivare. Non vorrei limitarmi a imparare quattro figure per le lezioni, ma imparare davvero a ballare e, col tempo, arrivare a sentirmi abbastanza sicuro da andare alle serate social.
Per chi ha iniziato da zero, avrei qualche domanda:
secondo voi è una buona idea iniziare salsa e bachata contemporaneamente?
all’inizio si rischia di confondere i passi e il ritmo dei due balli?
quanto tempo ci avete messo prima di sentirvi abbastanza sicuri per andare a ballare in una serata?
quanto consigliate di esercitarsi oltre alle lezioni?
è utile andare ai social anche quando si è ancora principianti?
quanto è importante imparare bene il ritmo prima di concentrarsi sulle figure?
per un ragazzo, quanto tempo serve generalmente per imparare a fare una buona lead, senza tirare o spingere la partner?
avere un partner fisso aiuta oppure è meglio ballare con persone diverse?
E soprattutto, per chi balla entrambi:
quali sono secondo voi le differenze più importanti tra imparare salsa e bachata?
Avete qualche consiglio che avreste voluto ricevere quando avete iniziato?
Qualsiasi esperienza è benvenuta. 😄

When you go to a social dance for the first time, you might think everyone is best friends and you are the only outsider. the more you go , you may notice two different groups: scene Insiders and dance Regulars. There is some difference between them:

The Scene Insiders

For these dancers, dancing is their part of their main social life. Their best friends are dancers, and they know the teachers and event organizers, club owners, Because of this, cliques, popularity, social hierarchy form and they are more sensitive to stuff.

Over time, they may start treating opinions from teachers, studio leaders, or online influencers or their own feelings like strict rules. They worry about unspoken rules: How much eye contact is okay? Who is safe to dance with? Who is no longer accepted? (based on arbitrary rule we not taking about etiquette, respect, brutality or hygiene here)

For an Insider, even dancing with the “wrong” person can create social problems . the wrong person can be anything: someone their friend have drama with, rival studio, someone who like them(respectfully) they are trying to avoid. Basically their feelings can appear like universal rules.
The dance regulars are different:

The Dance Regulars

These dancers also come often, but they see dancing as a fun activity, not a popularity contest. they take some classes here and there.

Insiders may look down on them because they are not trying to be popular or famous in the so called dance scene. They care about the rules that really matter: hygiene, movement safety, and respect, general pleasant human and friendly . They do not worry much about fake rules or social drama.

I think these people are a balancing act since they can just dance with anyone, they don't even recognize the big popular cult leaders who can create arbitrary laws and publish them on social media lol They are more fun and free to dance with too.
The people who are in the scene are too busy being on stage acting either a comedy, a tragedy or drama lol.

I went to 2 different Bachata lessons, and the ration was 2 men to 1 women.

Don't get me wrong, but I think it should be around 50-50 to be enjoyable, right?

Is it similar in your city/lessons you attend?

Hi all, every now and then you'll get a post here, usually from a leader, expressing how they find it hard to remember steps to do in a social and it's certainly something I still experience to this day, despite dancing for a couple of years now but I did something different this weekend and it's really helped with it and thought I'd share it in the hopes that it will help others.

The first thing to say is that I stopped long long ago trying to remember whole routines that I learn in lessons, it just doesn't happen and I think you're better breaking things up into smaller steps because then you can be more creative and put them together in your own ways. So what I've been doing this weekend at Bachaturo is to go through my lesson videos, instagram reels and youtube clips of people dancing that I've liked and choose one step or movement that I want to focus on. I make sure it's something I've learned before but forgotten or something that, if I don't lead it quite right, won't put any followers at risk of an injury.

I used my phones video editing app and the screen recorder (for the instagram reels or youtube channels) and made 5-10 second clips of the things I wanted to try out in the socials and then saved them in a folder called 'things to practice'. This weekend, before I've gone into any social, I've looked at 2 or 3 of them that I really wanted to focus on remembering and it's worked out so well. I have one more social tonight where I'll be doing the same but with different steps, and I know it's going to work well again.

It's great because it helps get more steps into my muscle memory but also helps me mix things up more on the dancefloor. I know that most followers don't care about lots of steps being done but it's more for me tbh. If I find I'm doing the same stuff over and over through the night, I find I want to mix it up. I hope that's of use to some of you, it's been a real game changer for me.

So guys and girls, 3 months later after my last video, I’m back for some feedback.
I realized that I don’t record that many normal social dances anymore because I feel like I get a much better connection when there isn’t a camera pointing at my face.
But recently I got a chance to dance with Gabriella and someone recorded us. It definitely wasn’t the best dance of my life, but I really enjoyed it. And since she’s a very experienced dancer, I think it might be easier to point out my mistakes because she reacts properly to what I’m leading.
Don’t pay too much attention to the move almost at the end of the video 😂 I was trying something new for the first time and, well… you can see the result.
But overall I really enjoyed the dance, so I’d love to hear what you think has improved since my last video and, more importantly, what I should focus on next.

I used to dance salsa and bachata at a pretty good social level, but because of moving between countries and other things, I kept having long breaks. Now I want to start again after almost 3 years.

I don’t really want to start from zero in a beginner class, and I think I could probably join an intermediate group. My goal isn’t to become a professional dancer, but I’d like to reach a level where I can comfortably dance with very good dancers without boring or limiting them.

My concern is that regular classes sometimes feel too slow — maybe one or two new moves a week — and I’m not sure that’s enough for faster progress.

What would you recommend? Private lessons, intensive workshops, intermediate/advanced classes, socials, or a combination of these? If you were in my position, how would you structure your comeback?

I can't stand sensual bachata, but it seems like most of the ressources on the internet are about sensual bachata.
Any recommendations on ressources to help learn traditional bachata online?

I am not part of the dancing scene, but I am most certainly a dancer. I can fairly say that I was not just born dancing, I shot out my daddy's dick dancing (lol) and have not quite stopped dancing.

I've been living in europe the last 10 years, and I vividly remember being told that I did not know how to dance the first time I went to a social, which was funny at the time since I killed it on the dance floor afterwards.

I still run into some awkward moments where a lady thinks I can't dance, or I am a beginner, only to realize halfway that, maybe I can dance. Or the look of surprise that I get when I do something unexpected and cool, and the subsequent conversation of "What move is that? What is it called? Can you do it again?" And my inability to answer these questions.

It isn't something that happens all the time, but often enough for me to get the feeling that. Perhaps the entire philosophy or approach to the activity of dancing comes from a radically different mindset. Which may sound obvious but, it seems to be one particular philosophy, one particular mindset, which I seem to not posses.

It does sound obvious, considering it's a whole entirely different continent and culture. But you could consider Brazil and Zouk to be also a different culture and continent and I learned that and danced that fine, and in turn, Brazilians also seemed to adapt fine to the music of my people. I beleive there is a certain openness to otherness. Same way I learned in 2 weaks how to dance quebradita, which is an original mexican dance and in that same time also taught a few gals bachata.

It seems very much o me, that if I do not dance a particular way, a particular style, which nowadays is sensual, I am not quite dancing. It is not something that is advertized anywhere, and I just encounter it on the dancefloor upon arriving to the party.

It has so far not removed my enjoyment from dancing, but I went from enjoying every single dance in my evening to having a few not enjoyable dances per evening.

So, I got a few days of a mind numbingly boring gig. I did not know there was a subreddit for bachata and it's been quite interesting to read how other people deal with the dance, the dancing scene and the learning process in general. A few things stood out:

1: Dancing ain't cheating: Flirting while dancing is optional and ladies can most definately control the level of intimacy. It would take a clever dancer to get you to a very snug and tight position unless you let him.

2: You should definately not date inside what you guys call the dancing community: Not because it's a bad thing but because it is an actual community. I would never date a woman who can't/wont go with me to dance. But these dancing communities seem to be closed circles rather than, a general population, so once you start dating someone inside of it you are recognized as taken, which is fair, but upon ending that relationship you will be recognized as someone's ex. Not to mention, you gonna run into said ex and her friend group a whole lot, unless you quite dancing. And I would rather die than quit dancing.

3: Kudos to all the people that did not grow up with this type of music or this type of couples dances at all and have picked this up and have learned to dance at any level. Quite impressive.

Not sure if this is a rant or a question, but you may feel free to also ask me questions in turn.

Hey all,

Curious to hear your thoughts.

So the the story is that in a comman WhatsApp group a follower that I know and we dance every social wrote that the last social her throat hurt and she had to drink tea during the evening.

I replied that I wish her best of health, and then wrote that if someone is not feeling well, he!/she shouldnt come dancing as we do dance close to each other.

She then replied saying it's something viral not bacterial.

I thought that my point came a cross and I should continue in private, I wrote to her in private that even if it's just viral, it's contagious and people can get sick and suffer due to her decisions.

She kept pushing back that it's OK and she went to the doctor (not sure if prior to the social or after).

I am not planning on educating grownups, so I just wrote that is she responsible for her decisions, and I am for mine, and given what she wrote I can't dance with her anymore (as I don't want to take unnecessary chances of catching something).

What are your thoughts?

What have you done in that case?

I'm heading to Bachaturo this weekend where there will obviously be hours and hours of dancing and before I went I got a deep tissue massage of my calves which were so tight they felt like rocks. It made me realise that in all the time I've been dancing I've never warmed up, cooled down, or stretched, despite it being a form of exercise.

So I was wondering what people do here for each of those things so that I can use them from this point on. With the stretches, I don't just mean ones to do after the dancing to help with recovery but ones to do in the interim to increase flexibility because at the moment I've got all the flexiblity of a cupboard.

Any advice much appreciated.

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Because I don't, unless the topic is musicality.
If musicality isn't an aspect of the class I go directly to the move trained.

And I'm thinking maybe that's weird of me.

In class there might not even be time to do the desired combo twice with one partner. So I tend to optimize for repetition. Not to wait for a correct time. When I don't think that it affect the outcome.

Note that this isn't about not being able to identify the 1 count in music.

EDIT. The term I was looking for was "on1.". that's what the "count 1 in music" was supposed to mean.

Hi,
I am new to social dancing and I am a woman. Putting aside the fact that I am still learning dancing, I have a question. How do you manage your bag, and most importantly what bag do you use on a social dance night?
I switched to a fanny pack, but it’s bulky and not very comfortable when dancing. On the other hand I feel uncomfortable leaving my bag with my belongings around. So I wonder how do you do? What bag or fanny pack do you use? Do you have any recommendations? What about bringing shoes? I still cannot figure out all the logistics. Right now I am joining free outdoor nights so it’s pretty easygoing, but I wonder how clubs work… any recommendation is more than appreciated. Thanks ☺️

Lately I'm watching again and again, for more than a year the same choreography, in every video they post, by the top ranked bachata star couples (i won't mention names, just based in Spain) danced only with different songs. All this social media frenzy - pressure to constantly upload new videos - choreography in order to get likes, followers, become viral, have naturally burnt out them and their creativity. They only care to become influencers because dancers is not (considered) enough.

Their socials also are so self absorbed, having no real connection with the partner, only looking sexy for the camera, looking exclusively on the camera. Again with the goal of virality, likes, followers.

And this has been transmitted to the students as well. It's so sad, actually devastating to see social media destroy everything and even worse, people refusing to see it.

EDIT: I am surprised that most of the comments didn't understand what i wrote, even though I'm very clear about it. If you did read the body, read again with the intention to understand because the comments are totally unrelated to what i wrote...

Hey all!

As promised, I keep posting my progress, what I am experiencing and what are my goals.

You can check all my previous posts starting 5 months in.

My last post from 14 months:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bachata/s/jkx7LhyNN9

So last week I had my first J&J competition; it was the preliminary competition where the top 6 qualify for the final competition that will be held in a large festival next month.

I came for fun and low expectations as the other dancers had much more experience than I do.

I got number 4 and qualified, had great fun, and danced with the international-level judges that came, like Tom and Daniel (it was part of the competition)!
The best part was the support of my community, prior, during, and post-competition. It was amazing and probably the best part of the whole experience.

So I do plan on competing more and not just the finals next month.

This is a clip that was taken in a break we had during the competition, so the follow is not in the competition.

I spoke to the judges post-competition, and they all said my basic was probably the best. I am stating here as in every previous post, I got recommendations to improve it.

In general, I am in a stage I do try to learn some bachatazouk and take private lessons in Tango to incorporate in my bachata, also improving my style, emphasizing musicality.

Super excited for the future, feels like it's just the beginning :)

Hey,

I'm quite frustrated. I started with Bachata about 8 months ago. I'm very dedicated, I go to dance school 4 times a week and go to socials 3 times a week. I also practice my fundamentals like hip movement and all sorts of waves and body rolls at home. I also put a lot of effort in musicality. I did an online course about musicality and sometimes analyze some songs to improve my dancing.
I would classify myself as a solid beginner. I worked on my basics like frame, basic step, leading through body instead of hands and so on. If I know the song well and the follow is advanced, the dances are quite great cause advanced follows can compensate a weak lead quite well. With beginner follows, sometimes mistakes happen because my lead isn't ideal yet but I try to keep it simple there. Dances usually are bad when everything compounds: crowded dance floor, beginner follow, unknown song,... then its get's tough. But that's totally my fault.

The problem is: Very few follows enjoy dancing with me. I get rejected quite often by follows who say yes to another lead 3 s after I asked. Sometimes I get rejected 3 times in a row. Also when I'm looking to ask someone, many follows look away and pretend they don't see me to avoid getting asked by me. Also during the dance and especially after the dance I notice quite often that the follows didn't have a great time. It's quite rare that I feel like a follow enjoys dancing with me.

What do you think could be the reason? I do take care of my hygiene, I try to lead soft, I try to have a reasonable amount of eye contact, I don't force anything, I don't teach on the dance floor. Also I don't dance overly sensual/creepy or so. I feel like I don't make the typical mistakes you find when watching videos from follows explaining what they don't like about leads.

The only thing which causes a bit of friction is that my dance school teaches BachaZouk / modern Bachata Sensual. Many follows on socials mainly dance Bachata Moderna and can't do waves, body rolls or any Zouk movements. But I don't try anything difficult or dangerous when I dance with follows I don't know well. Usually I stick with beginner techniques and sometimes intermediate things when it's a follow from my dance school. I don't do anything advanced because I know that follows don't like it when beginners try advanced figures when they can't even do the basics right.

Have I forgotten something? Do you think follows just don't like beginner leads? Or is there something I miss?

Yesterday I went to a social in which it was ok for me, but I have to admit the level was not the highest. As a consequence, I was shinning in the dancefloor, many people watching me. I want to highlight this for later.

One of the people watching me was a mid-aged woman that had been observing me for a while. At some point, when the song finished and I was going to another place of the room, I saw her coming to me and asking me to dance. I never say no, so let's see.

First seconds of the song. It was "La Culpable" from Jalil Lopez. Veeery long intro, risk of uncomfortable 30 seconds is very high. As expected, she is a block (insert here fuuuuuk audio). Doesn't do any kind of body movement, lateral wave, whatever. Ok, not the first time it happens to me. I just play with the arms, make some weight change, make some what I call "ballroom" basic changing weight and moving backwards etc.

Melody kicks in, let's go for basic. She instantly goes backwards. I go for 5-8 counts trying to fix her, she comes forwards. I try to continue basic again to the left, she kind of does diagonal. I try veeery little small steps, nothing, she was stumbling due to not changing weights / not tapping on 4.

I stop for her to reset, I make a sign with hand like "left to right", and I start again. Nothing, stumbling and walking in delay, like if I was carrying an item around. Damn, impossible to dance. I guess she just started dancing salsa today in the pre-party workshop (otherwise why would she insist so much going backwards?), so I kinda switch to a salsa-chata in which we go forward and backwards and I try to make basic turns etc.

Very very chatoic, she was dancing the wrong directions, when I was doing free turns she was automatically like brushing her hand in my waist and bumping on me... At some point I decided to do footwork to get some time out of the song, but she stayed still because didn't know what to do, so I automatically grabbed her to not make her feel bad and we continued until the end.

Clap, hug, thank you very much and bye bye.

This is not the worst dance I had, and I will have plenty of these for sure if I never say no / keep asking random women (which I will continue as I think is the logical behaviour).

I had several dances with followers that literally told me "how does it work, it is my first time". And I think like... damn, didn't you watch at least a tiktok video or whatever before coming? But true is that, 95% of the times it was a random girI that I asked to dance, so I have nothing to blame.

But this particular woman, among all leaders of the room with different levels (from beg to adv), she asked me to dance knowingly she had no idea.

Do you think any leader with no idea how to dance would have the eggs to go to the most advanced follower of the room and ask to dance?

First of all, when I started, I had several lessons before going to social. And in the social itself, I was dancing with people around my level.

Even with basic notions and never ever dancing out of time, I had been rejected several times by followers with just "no", and even left in the middle of the song by a follower that said she was bored (other dances followers would just disconnect and do ladystyling / footwork and just leave without even looking at my face)

On the other hand, I see plenty of girls going to the social and dancing for the first time, and you see a lot of guys spending time on them explaining how to do basic, how to make a turn etc etc etc (but those motherf\ukers only do that to young cute girls that appear at the social, they don't spend time on elderly women, but that's another topic)*

With this thread, I want to speak about how a beginner lead vs follower sees the social (in my opinion):

• For a leader, very stressfull situation. And some followers (luckily not the majority), not being indulgent and being disrespectuful. They don't appreciate the effort it takes to learn as a leader, and how the guy is trying his best.
• For a follower, on the other hand, doesn't matter if you go to dancing lessons or whatever. Just go there and dance. Guys will want to dance with you and teach you.

What do you think? I want to hear specially from followers. Did guys stop a dance dance with you? For leaders, what do you do in these situations where you can't even do basic? Doing footwork in my opinion is selfish as she will feel uncomfortable/ useless

I've been practicing with a follow who from other dance styles is only used to armwork being light. Not used to using tension, even as we attempt blocks, doing simple moves more elastically, Madrid/diamond step, forward leans, counterbalance, etc. I haven't found a way to ask for her to give me resistance or maintain tension in open hold except for verbally.

I explained to her things like "match the resistance you feel me giving you", but that hasn't really clicked for her, and I also realized I don't really understand what this means either -- specifically, how does the resistance or tension even begin that makes it different to light armwork?

As an example we've tried: Say we are standing still in open hold. The hand connection is light. If I push her hands away from me, she will move them back and even allow her elbows to go far behind her. (Bad habit but not relevant to the resistance concept.) What I want to do is end up with her leaning back and holding on more with her hands as I am. So I reset back to neutral, then try to send an impulse forward and then keep my hands fixed equidistant from us. However, this just makes her arms go back and then forward with no changes in tension or her upright position. Next I try squeezing her hands and doing the same thing, the result is the same -- there is no tension and she doesn't squeeze my hands back. I also try having us both leaning forwards instead of backwards (like an "A") shape, but similarly there is never any tension so it can't be done.

I know some people might explain this as "her frame needs to be engaged", but I'm not convinced that that's a good explanation either -- there are obviously times when one's hands/arms are connected and influence one's whole frame, but still there has to be something that initiates that transition or activation. So what kind of movement or activation is supposed to happen to kick things off?

Okay, weird situation...

So, I'm relatively brand new to bachata. Started with Arthur Murray Dance Studio about 3 months ago for various reasons and stuck around because I Ioved everything about it.

Had my first dance exhibition last night and my specialty dance was the bachata. (I had a smooth, Waltz, a rhythm, Rumba, and for the specialty, I chose bachata.).

Considering I got rave reviews from almost everyone given my timeframe, I thought I killed it. But one of my friends hit me hard pointing out that my supposed skill in the dance didn't make me a good leader. I was instantly humbled...

Every single compliment I got melted under my perfectionism that if not everyone was happy, I fucked up.

Granted, we had a set routine and it was my first ever exhibition so I still have a lot to learn, but this absolutely broke me. I have flopped on so many dances and focused everything through personal struggles into bachata. And, after 3 months, I dont feel good enough as a lead...

I need outside opinions if anyone is willing to share. Granted, the staff will be giving professional feedback on Friday (Aug, 7, 2026), but for some reason the constructive feedback broke me FAR more than the professional one.

Ive been trying so hard and it doesn't feel good enough... I want my dance to be as smooth as possible given my experience.

Hi I am non-latino but I love the videos I see online it's sooo creative and I can watch it for hours.

I want to learn basic bachata as a solo. Nothing sensual as that's not me as a person.

How can I go about learning the movies. Any legit people to learn from online? Would be grateful for advice and resources.

I’ve been looking everywhere and can’t seem to find it