Private lessons only
Authentic Dominican bachata
The original Dominican form of the dance: closer to the ground, driven by footwork, and danced in connection with the music rather than as a sequence of shapes.
Read this first
Available as a private lesson, not a group class
Before anything else, so nobody plans a Monday around it: we teach authentic Dominican bachata as a private lesson only. It is not one of our weekly group classes. The Monday classes at Robina Community Centre are Cuban salsa and rueda de casino.
Private bachata lessons run at our own studio in Nerang, one to one or as a couple, with Stephen or Nikoletta.
What it is
Bachata came out of the Dominican Republic around the middle of the last century, built on guitar music and shaped by bolero, son and merengue. The dance follows the music rather than the other way round. Dominican bachata music carries a lot of emotion openly: love, passion and sadness, often in the same song, and the dance is a response to that rather than a decoration on top of it.
For most of its life nobody learned it in a dance school. It was learned at parties, from family, by watching and joining in. That matters for how it is taught: the goal is not a clean routine, it is being able to hear a song you do not know and dance to it with somebody you have just met.
What that means on the floor is footwork. The Dominican style is busy at ground level, with syncopation and small quick steps that answer what the guitar is doing.
Good to know
- One hour per lesson, with Stephen or Nikoletta.
- Choose a male or female instructor.
- Bachata is played at most Latin socials, so it pairs well with salsa.
Three dances, one name
How it differs from modern and sensual bachata
Most bachata taught in Australia is one of the later styles. Modern bachata smooths the footwork out and adds turn patterns. Sensual bachata adds body movement, isolations and dips, and is the style most people have seen in videos.
None of those is wrong, and we are not going to tell you the school down the road is teaching it badly. They are different dances that share a name and a genre of music.
The distinction matters when you are choosing what to learn.
If you want the style you have seen in a performance video with a lot of body movement, that is sensual bachata and we do not teach it. If you want the dance as it is done socially in the Dominican Republic, with the footwork intact, that is what we teach.
Which one do you want?
- Dominican: footwork, timing, close connection.
- Modern: smoother, turn patterns.
- Sensual: body movement, isolations, dips.
Sourcing the word authentic
Where we learned it
Stephen has travelled to the Dominican Republic multiple times to learn bachata directly from top masters there, and has twice won 1st place in the Australian Bachata Championship as an amateur. Nikoletta teaches it as well, and students can choose either instructor. You can read more about Stephen and Nikoletta.
If you want to hear what we mean, the singers to start with are Yoskar Sarante, who died in 2019 and whose recordings are still the emotional benchmark, along with Zacarias Ferreira, El Chaval, El Torito and Alexandra. Put one of them on and the footwork makes more sense than any explanation of it will.
There is Dominican bachata footage on our performance videos page if you would rather see it than read about it.
Learning it here
Private lessons run for one hour at our Nerang studio, for one student or a couple, with a choice of a male or female instructor. Complete beginners are welcome, and so are dancers who already do another bachata style and want the Dominican footwork. The exact studio address is sent to you when you book.
Rates
- One lesson, 1:1 $90
- One lesson, couples $150
- See all four options.