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hey guys in this video we're gonna be
going over a commonly asked question
which is how do you become a better
bachata dancer faster so
here are uh
there are three kind of big things and
then a couple tips at the end yes okay
so the first kind of i'm gonna break the
whole thing down into thirds so the
first third of improving
is taking classes group classes so this
is where you're gonna learn new moves
and what we say is like adding moves to
your move library right it's kind of
like if we go back to the analogy of a
language it's like learning new words
and how to say them properly right so
that's where we learn techniques and
moves
so we really want to keep going to
classes so we expand our capabilities
and the moves and also improve those
little finer points so we don't become
lazy or sloppy dancers that's where you
really learn those techniques so a
little tip on on that so you can
reap the benefits of actually going to
class one thing that you want to do is
obviously search around your area and
we'll find multiple locations hopefully
you're in a spot that has a lot of if
you only have one it's fine but if
you're able to do this look for three
spots
and
try to avoid going to a studio
if you can't try to find a club that
teaches bachata because the good thing
about this is you can stick around and
social dance at the end of that so if
you have we'll talk about this later
like two and one take advantage and try
to learn at a place that has dancing
after because it's always good to
practice especially with the students
from class so you don't have to go
somewhere alone and be scared especially
if you're a girl or a guy and you have
familiar faces to dance with right after
a class setting
yeah it's nice to have that like he said
you kind of build the you start to get
to know the people and then you feel
comfortable dancing with those people
afterwards if those instructors aren't
the best instructors in your area okay
then you don't have to force yourself to
take the classes but it is nice if you
want to get to know people always just
try to find the people who are giving
the most techniques
yeah so
the moves are great techniques are what
you really want those finer points
finer details about the move is what
you're really looking for in a good
instructor yes so the next
chunk that'll make you a better dancer
is taking time outside of class to
practice with somebody it doesn't have
to be the same person all the time you'd
actually probably benefit from it being
different people but practicing with
somebody you're the moves you know and
your new moves so that your new class
doesn't go to waste yes so we really
want to take that time to practice this
is also where you would get feedback
from your partner how did that feel did
it feel clear were you confused um was
there enough tension there did you feel
supported or on the reverse end for the
lady you know am i am i back leading
whatever the questions are you get the
feedback from your partner and kind of
fine tune your move that you just
learned it's very hard to perfect a move
in that one hour class or two hour
whatever it is so you want to take that
move and then perfect it with your
partner
somebody outside of class yeah so a
little tip on that especially if you're
a guy
some of you might be watching this and
be like all of my friends don't like
bachata i don't have anybody to practice
i can't find anybody that wants to do
this with me so how do i actually do
that a lot of you might be in that
position so this goes also back to the
first one so again you want to make sure
you're taking classes
and when you're in those classes a way
you can actually do it if you don't have
somebody to practice with is when you
guys usually you guys rotate in a class
setting so you'll be dancing with
multiple partners right at the end when
before they say like rotate and go to
the next partner
right after you try the move
um this is for guys or for the girls
it's not just for like just the leads
ask your partner like i just like we
just did this move like how did that
feel don't say anything just be
receptive to see how they took it
because there's no right or wrong answer
because what feels good to one person
might feel bad to another person but see
the overall average like okay 70 of the
people said like this felt good so you
can tweak it a little bit to see how you
can adjust to each person but ask each
partner that you dance with in a class
setting how was that how did that feel
am i too rough am i too light so you can
start finding your
your proper lead your proper father
follow if you're a girl you can say like
oh how am i am i too heavy like am i too
like or my arms not giving you enough
like enough tension so this is a perfect
way to ask for feedback if you don't
have somebody to practice outside um
of a dance class setting or just like
somebody that you know that wants to
practice with you off um off a class
setting yeah and sometimes people will
even um if you see them a lot you can
kind of say hey you want to come a
little bit before class or
let's say you're doing intermediate you
want to practice a little during the
beginner class and then we'll go to the
intermediate together something like
that sometimes people will do that and
they kind of go off in class or or maybe
you become friends there's a lot of our
students who are
really actually friends and they go do
stuff outside of class like this snorkel
and travel yeah so you can become
friends with these people and then say
hey you want to meet up
at this gym in their aerobic center
practice some people will do that so
it's up to you you can make friends and
practice outside of class but it's
definitely the most a really important
part that almost everybody neglects that
will make you better
way faster
definitely a trickier part but you can
do it the next chunk is social dancing
so
this is one that a lot of beginners are
a little bit afraid of they'll run from
this one yeah and that's understandable
he's got some good tips that he'll go
over in the end so this is why social
dancing is really important
if you want to become a good social
dancer if you don't want to become a
good social dancer then
whatever you don't have to do it but if
you want to become a good social dancer
which is why most of you guys are
learning is um
social dancing is like it's in the
moment right it's happening fast you're
you're having to learn how to remember
moves when you're in that kind of panic
mode like oh my god i don't remember and
you've got to pull moves up and you're
kind of freestyling right there's no
pre-choreographed thing it's completely
up to you and your partner to get this
right in a class you know what's being
taught she knows what's being taught and
you're doing what you know and there's
like
it's not the same right so when you go
out on the social dance floors really
testing your ability to lead and you're
a bit and the ladies ability to follow
the move and
it's
kind of the fun of it but also the part
that makes it nervous you make it a
little scary yeah but it
that's where you really learn to lead
and it's where you really learn to
follow um in a class you have no idea if
you're leading it right because a lot of
the girls are back leading they're they
know what's doing it so they're helping
you along but social dancing they're
going to help you they don't know what's
going on
so it's a test of your ability and it's
a test of her ability to be able to lead
and follow that it is
hands down the thing that made me a
better dancer faster um
but if you
are like some people and
you social dance too much and you don't
take enough class and you don't practice
you become a sloppy dancer and your
techniques aren't there and you can see
it so we really want to take these three
pieces the pieces are
class practice and social and we want
them in
equal thirds more or less yes so you're
spending the time in equal proportions
doing that so you are advancing your
techniques you're advancing your move
library your
your ability to lead them in a social
dance but you're also practicing them
right
another reason that we practice is so
that you don't take a move right from
class try to do it social dancing and it
goes horribly wrong right so it's
important to do these in equal thirds
yes but he's got some good tips on
social dancing yeah so i mean even
i'll speak from my example like i'm
dominican like people assume like all
dominicans know how to dance bachata and
salsa and everything but
i chose the sports background or the
sports route if you may so i was playing
sports my whole life i didn't really
dance i'm like nah that's not cool or
whatever and i just played sports my
whole life so i had to learn how to
dance i had to take classes how to do
the same thing that we're telling you
now so
i can honestly tell you if you're like
90 of our students or 80 of the students
or you're like me
i was scared to go social dancing i
avoided it for
quite some time like i'd go to class and
leave go to class and leave but i wasn't
getting better i wonder why because i
wasn't practicing yeah and i wasn't
doing social justice i would i wasn't
putting myself in a setting that would
make me think on the fly freestyle and
practice the things that we were doing
in class with multiple people so
i'm going to speak in in a way where i'm
going to
take care of the people that are scared
to social dance and give you little tips
in that way and the best thing kind of
we
kind of talked about it earlier is you
always want to use class as a little
safety net when you're in class you're
presenting yourself you're around people
that are there wanting to learn and do
the same things that you want to do and
they are scared too yeah so it's good to
get
become friends with these people even if
you're not like a like an extrovert and
you don't know how to like talk to
people or whatever you're kind of shy
we're both not extra like i was super
super shy so there's a way you can do
that so if you take a class you're
obviously gonna have to talk to the
people you're gonna actually have to
dance with them so even if you're not
friends you can you can even say like
hey are you gonna stick around and dance
after you're gonna hang around if you're
not even in a club you want to stick
around for like five minutes and
practice the moves and and try to dance
a little bit or whatever we'll put on a
song from my phone
this is a super opportunity because you
don't even have to have friends or
whatever you can just grab the people
from class and practice right after if
there's music or if you're at a studio
you can stay for five minutes just
practice a song let's put a song and
let's go to the corner over here and
practice what we did
one out of ten people will say yes i'm
guaranteed that number is a lot short
i'm just like guesstimating like one out
of three people will probably be like oh
cool let's yeah let's practice because
that's what we're here for yeah so
that's just a good little technique to
do so if you're scared to so scared to
social dance this is something that you
can do
if there's social dancing right after
the club if you're at a club
don't
make it a lot of pressure on you just
stay for three dances and that's it even
one if you're terrified even if you just
want to do one dance and run it's okay
the next time you do do two dances and
run three dances and run all the way in
so you can stay a whole night and dance
but there's no set limit like i have to
stay here for two hours and practice
everything i
take it whatever time you need
is just taking a little bit and that's
how you're gonna start being able to
progress and get out of that
shy timid bubble of learning how to
dance or social dance practice yeah and
something i did for real and i still
do when i'm doing new dances is i just
say i'm a complete beginner i have no
idea what i'm doing and i'm just trying
to have fun and i'm trying to learn so
be patient with me and if they don't
want to dance with me they can tell me
at that time you know so like if a guy
he literally asked me like you wanna
dance i'm really new
and 90 of the time
99 they were like totally fine
you know they didn't care as long as i
look like i was having a good time if i
messed up i would just laugh it off
and they would have they thought it was
funny a lot of people i even told that
tip to my sister when she started
learning and just laugh it off have a
good time they only care that you're
having a good time and there was a guy
who thought she was so like i think
called her smiles and wanted to dance
with her because she was giggling and
having a good time and he actually
enjoyed dancing with her because she was
honestly just having in the time of her
life um and the same thing with the guys
i've danced with beginners and they're
like i'm really i'm really new so
do you mind if if i'm new
and i didn't care but it gives me the
opportunity to say i'm not interested if
i don't want to dance at the beginner
i'm totally fine with it so we just had
fun and we had a basic and we just had a
good time and i was patient with him
because he's just starting you know and
we had a good time so if you just are
vulnerable right at the beginning and
say i have no clue i only know the basic
do you mind just doing the basic the
whole time and you laugh it off honestly
sometimes those dances are the most fun
so you get to connect with them while
they're learning and they're just
starting yeah
so anyways i hope that helps and just
being vulnerable one
last thing that i want to throw in there
in parentheses
is
make sure to dance with everybody as
much as you can
so
again if you want to start off and just
dance with five people that's fine just
what
if you're going alone for example if you
have a girlfriend boyfriend and you only
want to dance with each other then only
do that but if you're going alone it's
good to practice with different leads
and different follows so you can get
exposed to different things so you're
not stuck learning one type of style or
you're just used to one person because
everybody's gonna feel different so the
more you can
you're able to lead a wide range of
people it's gonna just make you stronger
as a leader and a follower so you're not
just used to one thing yeah we've seen
that where someone they they are dancing
with their girlfriend they've been
dancing with their girlfriend and only
their girlfriend they try to dance with
someone else and
strangely none of the moves go that well
and then they all of a sudden they feel
like what i don't understand why it's
not working maybe they think it's the
girl that they're dancing with but
really it's because your girlfriend or
that person that you're only dancing
with they know you're moved so well that
you're not really even leading and she's
not really even following anymore
because you guys just know each other so
well that it's not actually that good
for your dancing abilities yeah and
that's how you're going to get to know
people so it's like for example when i
started learning how to dance like i
asked somebody and then they introduced
me to five of their friends and they
were like oh girl so i'm like sweet i
can dance with all this whole group now
and they were super super cool so that's
what's gonna happen you're gonna you're
gonna see that effect happening you're
gonna ask somebody you're gonna get
introduced to their friends if you're
like in a little group or something and
if not that's fine you're going to dance
with somebody they're going to go their
own separate way and then you dance with
somebody else so this is how you're
going to be able to also start making
friends because you're going to get
familiar with your face and you're going
to see them next time like hey i saw you
last time in class or whatever you want
to dance again and it's going to get
easier and easier yeah even this that is
true to this day i dance with him a lot
because we teach and
do these videos but as soon as we go to
a social and you know i love dancing
with them but i do try to dance with
other people so that i don't you know
build habits of dancing with only him
and knowing his moves um so even even to
this day i exercise that rule of trying
to you know dance with as many people so
i get i don't get used to a certain way
of dancing so again we hope this video
helped i know it's a lot of talking but
some sometimes we say something that
just hits a home run for somebody and
like yo that's a cool tip let me go
practice that now and the more we can
expose these little tips to different
people maybe that'll create another
dancer and again we just want bachata to
keep growing so hopefully something that
helps resonated well with you and you
can use it and implement it in your
bachata life
so we'll see you guys in the next video
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