Sensual or Bachata?

O

Offbeat

Son Montuno
I always wonder where is 'bachata' in the so called sensual bachata, which is very popular especially in Europe. Neither the music not the dance is bachata. So why call it sensual bachata. Why not call it just sensual and get on with it. You are either dancing bachata or sensual but not both.

At the recent NYC BIG festival when I popped in to the the bachata room at the time they were playing a music that had absolutely no bachata beat to it. Sooner slow song. You could have danced zouk to it as well the way music was going.
 
It should just be called "sensual body rolling" as that's what has become popular to learn.

Or how about "dance this if you can't dance anything else" dance.

Or maybe it should be called the "let's get it on" dance.

Many possibilities.

To be frank, all of my most recent memorable dances have been in Bachata Sensual, but not for dancing reasons :D
 
NYC BIG festival was a mix bag as far as bachata was concerned. The floor was much smaller than the salsa floor. Depending on the DJ, it was either good old fashion bachata and Dominican bachata music or sensual. There are some DJs who play predominantly sensual music.

I finally discovered a place in my local scene that plays sensual type music, though hardly anyone can dance sensual. This place is ten minutes from my home and has been having weekly bachata nights for years. I accidently went last week to meet a friend. I was surprised to see it packed and playing crappy music (it always plays crappy music for salsa as well). The few salsa people who venture out of there, discover how poor salsa dancing and music is in that club. At one time years back, the instructor use to leave the club after the lessons to go and dance at a real salsa club!
 
Well, in most restaurants if you order the meal with truffles, you are not getting truffles either, but some valueless stuff and a few drops of 2,4-dithiapentane ...
Sensual bachata is just 1 of 100000 similar examples ...
 
vit said:
Well, in most restaurants if you order the meal with truffles, you are not getting truffles either, but some valueless stuff and a few drops of 2,4-dithiapentane ...
Sensual bachata is just 1 of 100000 similar examples ...
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This particular clubs has three nights a week dedicated to Salsa. One night dedicated to Bachata. They never have a DJ. In last ten years, I might have gone to this club over two dozen times or so. They always play crappy music from play list. The level of dancing is atrocious. It caters to the crowd that never gets past beginner level skills no matter how long they dance there. Only a few who escape from there are startled to find out what real salsa dancing is when they venture out to other socials and clubs in the area. I haven't seen such heavy sensual anywhere else in my local scene (which still has a lot of good dominican style dancers or better to say non-sensual dancers and DJs who play good non-sensual music).

I have only met two or three people who are say they like sensual music and dancing (they moved from elsewhere to the area), but these people are also hardcore salsa dancers. I hadn't come across anyone else locally who was into sensual thing until I visited this neighborhood club. May in over 40-50 couples on the floor, one couple was good at sensual, a few others were trying to dance bad sensual and the rest either had no clue what they were dancing or they were dancing standard bachata steps.
 
Offbeat said:
I always wonder where is 'bachata' in the so called sensual bachata
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Marketing in order to draw from the existing latin dancer pool. "Sensual" is a bit too generic. Not too mention wrong, since it's more sexual than sensual imo.

I propose "overly sexualized body rolling with a touch of fake dramatic expressions" as a new name!
 
Offbeat said:
Neither the music not the dance is bachata. .
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what kind of music is it danced to then?

i was djing at Bachata event recently (and i was playing Bachata ironically enough) and two girls came to me and said "can you play some sensual bachata music because we have only done workshops in sensual bachata and not taken any lessons yet in traditional bachata"

wtf ?

from what i can see, during the shows and classes they are often using reggaeton songs remixed into Bachata. it wouldnt really be my preference, but whatever.

but why cant you dance 'sensual' Bachata to Bachata?
 
often danced to remixes of pop songs with an added bachata beat. Example (apologies in advance):



And you can dance sensual to regular bachata music, but it seems many prefer not to :/
 
LarsM said:
often danced to remixes of pop songs with an added bachata beat. Example (apologies in advance):



And you can dance sensual to regular bachata music, but it seems many prefer not to :/
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Well, it's nice dancing but I don't understand why they think it's a social dance. I can see myself dancing sensual bachata with a significant other, but not with a random girl at a party.
 
Daniel & Desiree are demo-ing interpretive Bachata with a lot of body rolling. Looks good when you have a dedicated partner who know your moves, but good luck dancing like that with a complete stranger. When I hear that kind of music, I only do my experimental interpretive crap. Good times.
 
matty said:
what kind of music is it danced to then?
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Certainly not bachata. Sometimes to pop songs with some bachata beats appearing and disappearing. Sometime to songs which have no bachata beat but are on the lower side of the tempo.

As I said, the music and dance are both sensual :D


matty said:
i was djing at Bachata event recently (and i was playing Bachata ironically enough) and two girls came to me and said "can you play some sensual bachata music because we have only done workshops in sensual bachata and not taken any lessons yet in traditional bachata"

wtf ?
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:D

matty said:
but why cant you dance 'sensual' Bachata to Bachata?
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You can dance any dance to any music. But dancing 'sensual' to bachata music, still is a far cry from bachata as we understand it today.
 
When I hear this kind of music like in the clip, it is killing me ... worse than this is only urban kiz music ...
 
is the word Sensual a little misplaced? would it be more apt to call it "show bachata"? or "European Bachata"?
it doesn't seem to be that all of it is sensual, and when it is, it seems that the emphasis is on it being outwardly sensual, as in, for an audience. Normal bachata is already sensual, isnt it?

i say this with no intention of offending people who like it by the way, i dont dislike it im just curious.
 
matty said:
is the word Sensual a little misplaced? would it be more apt to call it "show bachata"? or "European Bachata"?
it doesn't seem to be that all of it is sensual, and when it is, it seems that the emphasis is on it being outwardly sensual, as in, for an audience. Normal bachata is already sensual, isnt it?

i say this with no intention of offending people who like it by the way, i dont dislike it im just curious.
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Pretty sure the ship has sailed on the name, though I agree wholeheartedly.
 
LarsM said:
Pretty sure the ship has sailed on the name, though I agree wholeheartedly.
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Agree though most people shorten it to sensual.

All I am saying is that it shouldn't be associated with Bachata. Not only is that cultural appropriation, but also gross misrepresentation of what bachata is. Which mieads new people who start dancing sensual to think they are dancing bachata when infact they aren't able to dance it with someone that actually does. So no. Neither 'show bachata' or 'euro bachata' is proper if the wheel is to be turned back.
 
Bachata Sensual is such a misnomer. Many of the dance moves can be danced sensually. But they are done in a very rough way which is not Sensual. It should be named

1) WannabeDance
2) SexyMachoDance
3) FusionShow
4) DanceShowOff
5) OverdoDance

They are changing the meaning of the word Sensual.
 
Also they play a theme where the guy is very much macho, and the girl is sexy.

Its completely opposite of the word sensual. Sensual grabs your senses because of its emotional impact, its smoothness, its softness. It could lead to a sexual connection I do not see the SexyMacho theme in the word Sensual.
 
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