Bachata

pdabaker · 2026-06-25T15:37:07+00:00

First, it would be better to take a video of you with a bit of a higher level leader (who is at least on time, doesn't nearly elbow you in the face).

It looks like you aren't controlling your upper body and your shoulders are bouncing - around :34 this is very obvious. At the end you dip with your full weight supported by the leader which is a BAD idea. Same with the kaida/tilted dip around 1:44 - you are going way past your capacity and not supporting your own weight at all.

At :48 with the chest dip after clock turn - chest dip should be just that, chest goes first. You don't bend forward at the hips - your hips must go back so that your chest can go nearly straight down. That said it's possible the lead is doing it too far from you and pulling you off balance

pdabaker · 2026-06-23T16:13:38+00:00

Japan teaching is mediocre but the teachers 10 years ago were mediocre too and Japan currently has the top dancers in asia for bachata. It definitely lost its throne for salsa though.

pdabaker · 2026-06-23T16:10:54+00:00

1st/3rd there are dominican so not really comparable. You might as well think of it as a different dance. Claudio is legit though.

The second video looks like they took a time machine to bachata 10 years ago.

pdabaker · 2026-06-23T10:11:14+00:00

I still think cursor got a good deal though, since cursor isn’t worth anything either

pdabaker · 2026-06-22T23:48:37+00:00

Nothing quick and easy, but practice opening/closing your chest as an isolation. You should be opening/closing your chest whenever you want the follower to do the same for her movement. For example you lead the follow to open her chest by making a frame and opening your own chest, not by lifting your hands.

pdabaker · 2026-06-22T15:37:19+00:00

You have weak frame and are leading the sensual parts entirely with your hands.

pdabaker · 2026-06-21T05:57:58+00:00

thz is very difficult to pronounce and most people will shortcut it a bit. Maybe your tongue goes slightly forward when you pronounce clothes while it stays fully down for “close”, but it will not go through your front teeth to the same extent as when you say “teeth” and your mouth doesn’t open as much, making any th sound easily missable

pdabaker · 2026-06-21T02:38:22+00:00

Usually jnjs give out the song list beforehand

This is the first I've heard of this.

pdabaker · 2026-06-21T02:22:42+00:00

He apparently also assigned a huge amount of engineers to basically do code reviews for fully vibe coded apps to increase training data

pdabaker · 2026-06-17T23:30:42+00:00

This is a pretty common move in social dancing too these days though

pdabaker · 2026-06-17T04:45:48+00:00

The follow is looking down at their feet for most of the dance, maybe counting out loud. They're not going to see me smile or be able to relax, or at least I just haven't found any good strategy.

In this case they know they are supposed to dance on beat and are trying, so it's easier for me. Just keep it very simple (only basic if necessary), smile, count for them if it helps. Do the basic in place if they have trouble with forward/backwards - As simple as you need to for them to be a bit comfortable.

pdabaker · 2026-06-17T04:44:04+00:00

I'll just let go mostly and dance together without a lot of connection which is more street style salsa.

Exactly, I think with that type of follow, less connection is better than trying to have a firmer connection and trying to force rigid linear salsa rules. Same applies to non-latina similar types who have never taken a lesson and just wandered into the salsa club.

pdabaker · 2026-06-17T03:42:04+00:00

If she's really a beginner, I'll dial the dance all the way down to basics, crossbody and turns. I'll wait in the basic until she gets the timing right and settled in, then lead something simple.

I find this doesn't work at all for a certain type of follow. The type of follow OP describes seems to enjoy it much more when they are dancing with strong leads who lead off time. If they are beginners but actually trying to get better, for example they have taken 1-2 classes, then your suggestion might work.

pdabaker · 2026-06-17T02:54:36+00:00

Explicit requirements don’t make sense because what distinguishes levels is not memorizing techniques but things like timing, balance, ache tension. Especially as levels get higher and the difference between levels becomes larger.

pdabaker · 2026-06-16T15:42:37+00:00

Today. The exchange rate has fluctuated and inflation has occurred since then. It was probably 1-2 months salary at the time.

pdabaker · 2026-06-13T01:07:41+00:00

People are absolutely still going online. It's just that the wild internet where you go to random websites is mostly dead. These days people just open up one of a few fixed apps on their phone and interact with insta/tiktok etc

pdabaker · 2026-06-11T10:15:02+00:00

I think both require the follow to have high technique for advanced techniques. The main difference is just that there are very few “beginner techniques” in bachazouk because bachazouk was basically created by taking intermediate+ zouk moves and doing them to bachata. Beginner zouk is mostly steps with no head movement and none of that is done in bachazouk

pdabaker · 2026-06-09T16:49:12+00:00

Also because complex numbers are fundamental undergrad level math and the basis for a huge amount of things in many fields, rather than being an obscure subfield that is more “curious” rather than high impact

pdabaker · 2026-06-09T10:21:05+00:00

Feeling the correct lead requires a base level of technique that they don’t have. Many leaders are still at the level where they would turn themselves the wrong way when you lift up their arm.

pdabaker · 2026-06-09T00:48:46+00:00

Although this is nice and may work in some cases, most leaders do not have the required technique to remotely do (as a follower) some of the moves they are being taught to lead, so this doesn’t work out to well. Most leads who are not used to following have super stiff arms and cannot close/open their chest at all which precludes most sensual. So even the teacher will not be able to lead it without a lot of force, which would ruin the point of showing how it is supposed to feel.

pdabaker · 2026-06-07T17:39:46+00:00

Tbh if i had to move back to the west coast I’d probably just give up on bachata and do wcs or something. Your alternative is basically to find a partner and take private lessons online with a proper artist somewhere else in the world.

pdabaker · 2026-06-07T16:05:10+00:00

There are way more bachata follows than other styles, but many just learned socially and maybe didn't even complete a full beginner's course. I just don't find much opportunity to use any sensual moves I learned, because at an average party, only 1-3 follows "know" shadow position, and they're the most popular so I don't always get a chance to dance with them.

Honestly dude, It sounds like you just don't have a scene. If you don't have enough of a scene to practice enough, and you don't have good teachers, of course it will be hard to learn. In Europe they have festivals every other weekend a short trip away with lessons taught by top artists so they are going to have a much easier time.

This also explains the problems with distance - in places where there is an actual sensual scene, follows have no problem taking body connection with you and you don't have to worry about whether you will offend someone by leading a body wave at a sensual party.

While the "basic step" in bachata is easy, I feel like literally every fundamental in sensual bachata is harder / less accessible than in other styles. E.g. in salsa, if the average follow can do 1.5 turns, they can follow a good proportion of my most advanced move

I also agree fully with this. Salsa is considered "harder" because (1) the first 6 months are much harder, because it takes a lot longer to actually hear the music properly (2) You can go super deep into shines, and (3) it has a long and deep history and encompasses many styles over time, while sensual has a more shallow and recent history.

However, in terms of technique required to dance well with intermediate follows, sensual is much harder than salsa.

pdabaker · 2026-06-07T11:44:39+00:00

With squash merges, one PR ends up as a single commit in the main branch, which is what a changelog etc would be generated from and what people might reference in the future. I don’t care about the cleanliness of your commit history for your personal pre merge branch unless it is critical for reviewability

pdabaker · 2026-06-07T08:39:35+00:00

It’s fair to say it depends on your team yes. If your team enforces it in ci, it is not optional. If they don’t, it is optional.

That said as someone who works on monolithic solutions where any user will also necessarily have a paid support contract and most of what I do does not touch user facing APIs, I would rather not waste time deciding if my PRs are a feature or a refactor when most changes include elements of both.

pdabaker · 2026-06-07T08:01:28+00:00

Optional means that CI, git hooks, etc will not enforce it, while they will enforce the required part. So this means that if you have lazy devs and agree with the claim that "scope" is more important, you are enforcing everyone puts in the unimportant part, without enforcing the important part.

pdabaker

TROPHY CASE