If you want to know how to dance bachata, you may not know that, although bachata is a unique style of dance, there are different trends and evolutions of original dance style in the world, such as Dominican bachata, sensual bachata, modern bachata and so on, and even countless names and possible combinations.

The fact is that bachata is currently booming and regardless of the trend or style you choose, I will tell you the 3 main differences between dancing bachata sensual and dancing bachata dominicana for you to choose or decide which you prefer to dance having more information at your disposal.

Bachata emerged in the bars and brothels of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic during the 1960s. It was known as music of bitterness for the concept of melancholy provoked by dislike, always reflected in the theme of bachata songs. But it wasn't until the 1980s that the media made a big impact on the genre.

Today, being a style of dance so widespread in the world and having passed a few years since its inception, bachata has received many influences and so today we can see these 3 differences that exist between two of its evolutions, Dominican bachata and sensual bachata.

In the Dominican bachata the focus is on the feet

On the one hand, in the Dominican bachata, the movements of the feet seek to follow all the sounds of the guitar.

In sensual bachata it is also important to follow the 8 times with the feet but it is not where the focus is because they are based on the movements of the body as we will see in the next point.

A perfect example to hear guitar chimes and see the movements of the feet in the Dominican bachata.

Dance partner: Rodolfo Montaño and Deisy Carrera.


The focus on movements is on the bodies in the sensual bachata.

Sensual bachata is so called because of the sensual movement of the bodies. Both the boy's and the girl's waves are characteristic, and the bodies tend to be closer together and making many more figures.

On the other hand, the movement of the bodies in the Dominican bachata tends to be more centered on the feet and hips but without so much wave.

The best thing is to see an example to check the movements of the girl and boy in the sensual bachata.


Dancing partner: Daniel & Desiree (follow them on go&dance)


The figures of sensual bachata vs Dominican bachata

Sensual bachata figures focus on encouraging body movements and Dominican bachata figures focus more on the feet although there are always nuances, combinations and diverse fusions.

On the other hand, Dominican bachata songs tend to have a lot of guitar as we have seen in the first video and the songs with which bachata sensual is usually danced can be remixes of normal songs like the song All of me remixed that we have seen in the second video.

Finally, if you want to see a very clear example with the differences between them, this is the video with which the world champions of bachata Ronald & Alba improvise dancing sensual bachata until the second minute 2:15 and from then on they dance Dominican bachata.



And here are the three basic differences between sensual bachata and Dominican bachata.

Our commentary although bachata is unique, it is true that there are tendencies and styles that people like better. Personally, what I like best is to blend styles, learn from everything, keep an open mind and create your own style.

Now tell us in the comments of this post which bachata style you prefer and why. We'd love to hear your story. Thank you very much!

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Thanks for making the dance world bigger!

Differences between sensual bachata and Dominican bachata