How to Latin Dance: Bachata – Basic Steps

this is a popular dance out of the
Dominican Republic hi I’m Rebecca
Brayton and welcome to watchmojo.com and
today we’re at Centro PES dance school
to learn the bachata
so this is how we’re gonna do it we can
start with our feet together and just
for the sake of everybody being on the
same foot right now we’ll start with the
left foot so we’re going to take two
steps to the side like this we’re going
to do one two three stop there keep your
right foot available and we’re going to
do a little hip motion like this four
that’s going to be on the fourth beat
now we do the same going the opposite
way and one two three and hip up now
keep doing this this is the side basic
when you’re actually dancing with a
partner it’s going to be smaller but for
now just to understand it we’re going to
do it nice and big like this you keep
transferring your weight and then a
little hiccup with the hip right there
okay towards the sky up and one two
three and five six seven
that’s our side basic we’re going to do
the same thing now going forward and
back so everybody starts with the left
foot stepping forward here we go and one
two three
leave your leg and back and do the same
hip motion and now go back right left
right and hip one two three and up five
six seven again go front front front
with the hip back back back with the hip
he’s doing it now at some point in time
you’ll feel more relaxed and you’ll
start to add your arms a little bit like
this and your upper body as well so
that’s the forward basic in the bachata
we’re going to show you now what it
looks like when you put the two together
as well with your partner so take a look
at this gentleman you will start with
the left foot ladies you will start with
the right because we’re always right and
here we go one two three and hip five
six seven up one two three and you’ll
notice as we do this we’re kind of a
relaxed posture it’s really meant to be
dancing when you’re having fun down
south on vacation so you don’t have to
hold up a very firm posture at this
point and now we’re going to try doing
the forward basic jump when you go
forward ladies we go back and one two
three the hip one two three and tap one
two
three go up one two three and one and
that is your bachata basics so guys now
you know the basics we’re going to
introduce you to what we call a spot
turn to the right and we’re going to
start with our basic step to the left
here we go and we do one two three and
hold now we’re going to try doing our
next three steps turning towards our
right here we go and one two three and
tap now just walk it to the side we do
one two three
repeat and turn turn turn and hip now as
we do this we’re going to try our best
to turn on one line so we’re really
going to keep it as straight as possible
and then just come back towards our left
side we’re going to show it one more
time and five six seven and that’s it
now we’ll show you what it looks like
when you do it with a partner once again
we start to the side with the basic one
two three and hip
five six here’s where it would start we
do turn turn turn and tap come back to
the side again lift the arm gentlemen as
she goes under it and five six seven
prepare and turn two three now as we’re
doing it on the dance floor it’s going
to be much smaller and much tighter so
take a look this is what it would be
like on the club dance floor two two two
and hip five six seven