by Gary & Catherine
Bachata is a genre of music that originated in the rural neighborhoods of the Dominican Republic. It’s often characterized by romance, especially tales of heartbreak and sadness. In fact, the original term used to name the genre was amargue ("bitterness," or "bitter music"), until the term bachata became popular. Bachata, as a dance form, also developed with the music.
Throughout much of its history, Bachata music was frowned upon by the Dominican society and associated with rural backwardness and delinquency. Deemed as something for those from the lower social classes, there was a time when Bachata music was seldom played on the radio, and almost unmentioned on television and in print.
Bachateros were also barred from performing in high society venues - having to content themselves instead with gigs in the bars and brothels of the country's notoriously crime-ridden barrios. The music was influenced by its surroundings and many of the songs from this era spoke of drunkenness and prostitution, which only fuelled the cause of those seeking to brand Bachata as music for the ignorant and uncouth.
Despite its unofficial censorship, Bachata remained widely popular. By the early 1980s Bachata's popularity had grown to a degree that the media embargo began to crumble. Caving to popular demand, more radio stations began playing Bachata and Bachateros soon found themselves performing on television as well.
Bachata in the mean time, had begun to take on a more dance-hall sound: tempos increased, guitar playing became punchier, and call and response singing more prevalent. Bachata-style Merengues, or guitar Merengues, also became an increasingly important part of the Bachata repertoire.
By the early 1990s, the switch to electric guitar was complete, and the Bachata scene became dominated by two new young stars: Luis Vargas and Antony Santos. Santos, Vargas and the many new style Bachateros who would follow achieved a level of stardom which was unimaginable to the Bachateros who preceded them. They were the first generation of pop Bachata artists and received all the hype and image branding typical of commercial pop music elsewhere. It was also at this time that Bachata began to emerge internationally as a music of Latin dance-halls.
Today, Bachata is as popular as Salsa and Merengue in Latin American dancehalls.
Bachata the Dance
The dance consists of a four-step beat achieved with a walking Cuban hip motion, and a unique “pop”. The dance can be performed in two positions: open and closed, depending on the setting and mood of the partners.
Like Merengue, dips are not original to the dance and turns are done infrequently. The male leads the female with subtle communication using pushing and pulling motion on the hands to guide the direction in which to move or to hint on upcoming turns. The female may also provide communication using her left hand to indicate whether she is comfortable or not dancing in a closed position.
Dance Variations
Modern Bachata (Nueva bachata) is a new version of the traditional Bachata brought about through the younger generation of Bachata dancers. This style incorporates more free style moves. This involves intricate footwork: enchufles, lock steps, guapachas, slides, etc. The female, along with the male, will incorporate the footwork with a difference being in her isolated hip movements within the Cuban hip motion.
Bachata Tango (Bachatango) is a style of dance incorporating Tango styling. It is characterized by embellished kicks, dips, turns and long pauses generally used in Tango as well as other popular Latin Dances. This dance is performed in a very close position with fewer elaborated foot styling than Bachata due it's focus being more on sensuality. It focuses on overextended Cuban hip motion. The basic steps are the same 8 count as Bachata only that it produces a side to side motion, while occasionally moving back and forth. The “pop” count will be used to add elaborated sensuality and varied Latin dance styles. Although this dance has been used to dance to Bachata, it has evolved to being used to dance to Tango as well. It should be noted that 'Bachatango' is a foreign introduction and is unheard of in the Dominican Republic - Bachata's country of origin.
E.Motion Bachata
At En Motion, we have incorporated both open and close hold styles into our classes. Particularly, we incorporate a unique close-embrace hip leading technique where the connection of hips and body isolation movements are infused into the dance. This ensures control over both weight transfer and hip movement which help in ensuring synchronization of movements for both male and female (including the hip movement which is largely isolated in all other styles).
In addition, we have infused elements of many other different dance forms such as Tango, Jazz, Hip Hop and so on, into our syllabus. Another important component is the interpretation of different Bachata songs in a beautiful and artistic manner so that the dance may be felt even more deeply.
We term this affectionately as “E.Motion Bachata”.
Source: Wikipedia
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