Bachata Dance: 3 Mistakes to Avoid

Whether you just started Bachata Dance last week or have been dancing for years, we can all suffer from the same common mistakes. You can also call this Bachata Etiquette, but really call this “How I can make sure people don’t avoid dancing with me!” Some of these mistakes I made and I took too long to learn…it cause some problems for me. Let’s have you avoid when you go out dancing Bachata.

Embrace your partner, don’t put them in a vice.

Confidence comes from feeling like you can keep your own. We get it, it can be scary and you cling on to your partner like a life preserver. The closed embrace should be like a hug, not a waffle iron!!!! Leaders, approach your embrace with your right arm around the lady’s ribcage like you’re hugging her, and relax your wrist and hand. Followers, try not to cling on for dear life – gentle pressure with your closed side (left) and adjustments between turn patterns and footwork figures will do wonders for how you feel as a follow.

Be respectful

Bachata Dance is a massive community in of itself that you find out about when you start to dance regularly. Reputation matters and you don’t want the reputation of being rough, creepy, or forceful. The most important thing is to start a dance in an open handhold and if you’re dancing with someone new (or barely know), stick to a spacious closed embrace (rather than just going for that chest-to-chest connection). Save the big dips, body waves and super sexy moves for people you know!

Relax, it’s just dancing

If you’re just starting to dance Bachata, concentrate on your fundamentals and body rhythm more than anything. Like any closed embrace dances (Argentine Tango and Kizomba are other examples), the beauty lies in the connection, not in how many moves you know. Enjoy the moment, friends!

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