Is Dancing Bachata Close Together the Original Style?

There is a growing discussion going on between Bachata dancers and teachers from the United States, Europe and from the Dominican Republic. The issue: what is real Dominican Style Bachata dancing? And, are the international Bachata dance instructors who are pretending to teach Dominican Style Bachata teaching us the “real deal”? Or, is it only a big commercial hoax?

This article gives the real answers to these questions.

Bachata dancing has flourished over the past 5 years. Now, we have the following Bachata dance styles: Dominican Style Bachata or “DomiBachata”, Bachata Standard or Tradicional (not to confuse with Dominican Style Bachata), Bachata Fusion, Bachata Moderna, Urban Bachata, Bachatango, PornoBachata, BachaSutra, and Ballroom Bachata. We can expect more Bachata styles “popping up”, as even more Salsa teachers embrace Bachata and try to find a unique selling brand. Some of the styles mentioned above are considered sub-styles of others, and having little differences with other Bachata flavors.

Wikipedia has a hard time “keeping track” with all these emerging Bachata styles, and there is a lot of  contradictory information circling the Internet on the definitions and the main characteristics of these different Bachata styles.

The development of Bachata music on the Dominican Republic has been very well documented. That is why we know that the first song to be designated as “Bachata” was "Borracho De Amor" (English: "Drunk Of Love") sung by the first Dominican Bachata singer/songwriter José Manuel Calderón. The song was first recorded on May 30th, 1962 and we also know that Bachata music derives directly from the Cuban Bolero music. We also know that Bachata musicians suffered heavily from the persecution caused by the late Dominican dictator Trujillo and from the discrimination by the upper class. But, we have little to no concrete information about the origins of the dance. We do know that Bachata dancing started in brothels in the Dominican Republic. Many have therefore concluded that the first Bachata dancers used to dance mainly in closed dance position or in “body to body” position.

This is not true!

I grew up on Curacao – an island in the Caribbean with a large Dominican population – and my late grandmother came from Santo Domingo. In my experience, the original Dominican Style Bachata dancing looks more like what Troy Anthony and Jorjet Alcocer – the ones who started to promote Dominican Style Bachata on a global scale – are teaching. The Dominican prostitutes tried to incite the men and attract their attention with their Bachata dance by making sexy dance moves and the men tried to show off to the ladies with their fancy footwork. Body contact would only last for mere seconds. Logic dictates that the women would not dance close together with all the men, because they would lose the attention and interest of other potential clients in the process. The “Dominican Box” comes from the traditional manner in which Dominicans used to dance Bachata.

Watch this video clip of Troy and Jorjet explaining the fundamentals of Dominican Style Bachata.

Watch the next clip of the winners of a Dominican Style Bachata dance competition. See how she is asking him to dance at the beginning of their Bachata routine.

Many participants will find all the answers to these questions during the Dominican Republic 1st International Bachata Festival.