Welcome to part 1 of a running series of tips and tricks for getting better at bachata - and other forms of dance!
Whether you've just started out or have been doing classes for ages and feel like you've plateaued, at some point in your dance journey you'll find yourself saying "how can I get better?"
As with any seemingly impossible task, the best way to tackle this is to break it into smaller, more manageable pieces. First of all, what exactly do you want to get better at?
Social dancing?
Of course the best way to improve your dancing is to just do more of it! So simple, yet this is something we end up having to remind our beginner and intermediate students alike.
You may have heard of the 10,000 hours rule for mastery of a subject, but if that seems too daunting why not aim for 100 hours for proficiency? Going to your one hour bachata class once a week will take you a couple of years to gain competency, but if you manage to up that to one hour a day, that goal is now achievable in 3 months!
Of course, it's difficult to find somewhere to get a full hour of bachata social dancing every day, but getting out for a social event for a couple of hours a week will definitely get you towards your target hours much, much faster
Every Thursday at 8:30pm after class we run our 100% Bachata practica, giving everyone the opportunity to dance bachata - without having to wait between salsa and kizomba songs!
Looking better while dancing?
You've finally seen a video of yourself in action and you're shocked to discover that your moves are nowhere near as suave and flashy as you thought! While your brain is great (or just okay) at stashing away all the moves and patterns you've asked it to, it's very poor at judging what all your various muscles, joints and body parts are doing at any given point during a dance - especially if you're heavily focused on keeping time or what moves are coming next (we'll cover these off another time)!
You need to get lots of solo practice under your belt to understand how to show off your form with pizzazz. Establishing a mind-muscle connection is the key to training your body to do what your mind's eye is imagining. Your trusty mirror will help you immensively with immediate feedback on how your body rolls, movements and isolations are looking - from the front at least! For most people, their main mirror time is in the bathroom when brushing their teeth or getting ready to go out. Why not utilise this time to practice your basic footwork? It will also encourage you to take smaller steps!
You can also ask a friend to film you when practicing turns and other angles which may be
difficult to see in a mirror. If you're shy, a tripod or conveniently placed book can prop up your phone, allowing you to film yourself
An overlooked place to practice your upper body isolations is in the car! In the comfort and privacy of your next commute, try moving JUST your ribcage, shoulders or obliques without your hands being affected. This is a great way to learn how to access those muscle groups while training to keep your arms and hands still, which keeps a clear connection with your partner and prevents mixed signals or interrupted frames. If you're unsure whether you can pull this off safely, maybe wait for the next red light
Musicality?
Have you ever watched your favourite dance couple's latest videos and been wowed as they hit every break, buildup and instrumental at EXACTLY the right time and wished you could do the same? Keep in mind that these guys are professionals and dedicate a LOT of time to training. Besides knowing each other's natural rhythms, they very likely have also rehearsed this routine a countless number of times to make it look SO spontaneous and amazing.
As a regular, non-professional dancer who is just doing this as a hobby, you may not have the hours to spare or dedicated partner to train with, but you can help your musicality along by just listening to more bachata whenever you can!
If you've got bachata music playing while you brush your teeth, in the shower, in the car, on your headphones at work, you're absorbing hours of rhythms and melodies into your subconscious. If you find yourself nodding your head or tapping your toes along to the beat, even better! This is your body starting to automatically tune into the rhythms that you're going to be dancing to.
Bachata is polyrhythmic, meaning each of the individual instruments' rhythms unify to form a unified 'bachata rhythm'. It takes a lot of practice to identify these instruments and the different rhythms they make. The bachata breakdown album (available on Spotify!) is an excellent resource to help train your ears, and after giving it a listen you'll learn to appreciate your favourite bachata songs in a whole new way.
If all else fails, even just rote memorisation of songs as they hit repeat will help you to identify repeating patterns, instruments or breaks that will give you a hint when to pull off JUST the right move
Hopefully you found these tips useful! We cover all this stuff (and more!) in depth during our classes, but stay tuned for Part 2!