How to Be a Good Bachata Sensual Dancer (2024)

Traditional Bachata vs Fusion vs Bachata Sensual

So you want to know how to dance bachata sensual.

Bachata Sensual is a romantic dance, branched out of Traditional Bachata from the Dominican Republic. Developed by Korke y Judith in Cadiz, Spain it’s the newest style of bachata.

Each style of bachata has a very distinct foundation. Dominican bachata have their weight on the back of their hip to allow them to do more footwork and hitting the ‘accents’ in the guitar. I think of Alex and Desiree when I think of traditional or Dominican bachata.

Modern bachata, which is the most popular bachata style in Australia and in the US incorporates a lot of Salsa turns. Lots of turns, spins, and hand tricks. The hands are very dominant in generating force. The most recognisable bachata moderna couple is Ataca y Alemana.

Sensual is a lot of body movement, head rolls, body rolls, rounded dips, and generating the force using the body. It’s also very fluid, and it’s easy to chain the movements together. The most recognisable dance partners would probably be Daniel y Desiree.

I started when sensual was still in its early stages, no one was teaching the proper foundations yet. My first sensual teacher who’s now teaching in Melbourne completely tore down everything I knew about bachata. One of the hardest things I had to learn was forgetting a lot of things I learned from the ‘moderna’ style.

Yes you can copy sensual movements using moderna technique but it won’t feel the way it’s supposed to feel. Which is soft and flowy.

When learning a new style, you must learn the foundation first. When bachata evolved to moderna, dancers had to learn coordination with their hands. Now, a lot of fusion dancers who dance sensual will feel ‘rough’ if they don’t use their body enough and still rely on their hands.

Bachata Sensual is all about understanding how the body works and using energy that comes naturally (gravity and momentum) to lead and follow and accentuating your body as much as possible.

So how exactly can you dance bachata sensual better? Let’s break it down:

How to Dance Bachata Sensual

Levels

Do you remember in beginner’s class when they teach you to raise the hand of the follower to indicate a turn? In sensual, you use your levels (up and down) as preparation. Soft knees, slightly bent knees, bent knees all can mean different things.

Therefore, it’s important for the leaders to know how to control your own body to control the level and for followers to not just follow the movements side to side but also up and down.

You have three positions for your knees:

1. Locked
2. Soft
3. Bent

And you have to make sure you switch between these positions well and not get stuck in one knee position.

Circular

Sensual is all about being flowy and round. One of the most important thing to learn is to create a full circle motion without cutting corners.

This is especially important for followers. You must be able to make sure your movement follows a smooth, rounded line while holding your own weight.

Meaning you draw a line with your movement that resembles a round circle instead of a triangle.

Momentum

The reason advanced dancers can lead lightly is that they understand and know how to manipulate energy. Knowing how to use gravity to your advantage so you don’t have to use force.

This is probably one of the most difficult aspects of bachata but it’s one of the most satisfying skill to master. Once you have it, every other move will look and feel nice.

Isolation

One of the funniest things that I noticed about my friend (who’s not a dancer) is that he can’t raise just one of his eyebrows. He can only raise both together. What I realised is that it’s because he doesn’t know how to isolate his face muscle.

Building awareness of your movement is crucial. You need to control every single part of the body. Meaning, knowing to isolate your muscles. Many people think this is easy, but it’s not.

For example, when learning how to do a chest isolation, most people unknowingly move their hips or some other part of their body. When they’re learning a body roll, their shoulders get all tense and raised really high.

Angles

Angles are very intricate in bachata sensual. We can do body rolls in different directions and it changes the muscles you use. Leading this has to be clear. You must apply the correct amount of pressure to help the follower get to the right position before starting the movement.

As a follower, you need to use proper weight placement so you know where to put your weight. To practice, do a simple body roll in different directions while making sure your weight is on the right side as explained in the video).

Additional Resources:

Articles – How I Overcame Shyness and Learned Latin Dancing, Build Confidence By Learning How to Dance Bachata

Videos – How to ‘Feel’ the Music by Listening to The Instrument – Bachata Musicality, What to do during the intro? Bachata Tutorial

Private Lesson (Sydney only)

Jack and Jill Tool by SDB (host your own Jack and Jill Competition)
Videos

Online Course

Instagram (short tutorials, reels, social, etc)
Youtube (move breakdowns, in-depth tutorials, social, etc.)

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