Bachata Beginner Group Class

Understanding the different group classes

• This class is designed to appeal to the beginner and intermediate alike.
• Our beginner classes trend towards more foundation information
• Our intermediate classes trend towards challenging the student
• Our styling classes focus more on an artistic aspect of the dance
• Our Series classes build towards the same goal from week to week.
• Students should approach a group class setting at Social Graces with the idea that they will gain something rather than everything.  Every student will take something different as everyone as different tastes and goals.

Cost

Drop in fee is $15 and active students can attend this group class for free.

Dress code

We do not have a dress code, but we encourage you to dress for comfort.

Singles and couples welcome

You do not need a partner to attend any class at Social Graces.

History

Bachata dance developed with its accompanying music genre, also called Bachata. The first Bachata music recordings were created immediately after the 1961 assassination of Dominican Republic’s 31-year dictator, Rafael Trujillo, who had repressed the dance. Like the period it came from, Bachata music and dance often tell a tale of heartbreak and sadness.

In the 1970s, Bachata music was seldom broadcasted and was banned from high society venues. Bachateros appeared solely in bars and brothels, mostly in the poor, countryside neighborhoods. Thus, the music and dance were influenced by their surroundings: sex, desolation and corruption. The Dominican upper class considered it vulgar and crude. It wasn’t until the 1980s that Bachata took on a more dance-hall sound with increased tempos, punchier guitar notes, and call and response singing.

Bachata gained popularity as more radio stations caught on to the upbeat rhythm. By the 1990s, it modernized further and emerged internationally as a music and dance for Latin dance halls. Dancers and dance schools modified the box-step pattern to a side-to-side pattern. In 1992, Juan Luis Guerra won a Grammy for his Bachata Roja, which legitimized the genre and made it more widely acceptable.