WanderingSalsero

Jorge Elizando....self improvement machine

I've said it before but it's worth saying again:

Jorge Elizando is the best thing to have happened to bachata in a long time.  Sure, it's a big world out there and everybody can't like the same thing.  If that were so, it'd be a pretty dull world.

But still......I'm not personally aware of any bachatero who has spent more time, let alone made a conscious effort like Jorge has, to learn more about different kinds of dancing and integrate it into bachata.

If more salseros were as progressive about salsa as Jorge has been about bachata, I think the salsa world would be much the better for it.  That's not likely to happen however because the reality of life is there's always a lot more hamburgers sold than steacks.  Most people go for the outward glamor of salsa.....at first. 

The result is that salsa congresses, it seems to me anyway, have become more like martial arts tournements.....i.e. everybody does the same old stuff.  Just re-hashed.  Yeah, there's a few groups and dancer who bring in innovation and creativity.  But not many.

What brings this up is that I just had a brief Skype chat with Jorge.  He's in Buenas Aires now, doing some classes and also taking tango lessons.  You can bet-the-bank that what's he's learning in all these travels is showing up in what he's teaching.  In the biological world it's called 'cross-pollination.  And it's a good thing. 

God doesn't just part the clouds and give certain individuals a master DVD of 'HIS' latest styles.  It takes real people to actually open their minds and seek out innovation and creativity.  Like Jorge Elizando has been doing for the last 3+ years. 

Those of you who are lucky enough to attend his upcoming Dallas Bachata Festival, February 5-7, 2001, are most assuredly in for a globally oriented treat!

Nice Bachat and music from Italy

No really super fancy steps here but I thought their styling and interaction was very good.  And I especially liked the music.  It's romantic like bachata is supposed to be.

Excellent Choreography....IMHO

There are some things or qualities that it's hard to put a specific name to but you just recognize when you see it.  And unique dance choreography is one of them.

The video I'm posting here is, in my humble opinion, is an example of excellent choreograplhy. 

I found it on a Google Alert link that turned out to be on one of Salsa Crazy's newsletters.  Apparently it's a student group located in Australia.  That's what it said anyway.  Although those ladies looked pretty 'grown up' to me.  I guess they must be student dancers.

I followed the link in the YouTube 'more info' block and it lead to: 

www.LatinDanceSensation.com.au

 

In clicking on it, it's apparently is from a very professional dance studio.  So.......no wonder the dancers were good, eh?

Anyway.....I think you'll like it.

P.S.  Bachata seems to be very popular in Australia, doesn't it?

More on the evolution of bachatango

I'm still interested in these recent appearances of the 'all new' bachatango'.  Or whatever it's called.

I went back into YouTube just now and, sure 'nuff, there's more videos about it.  Most of from Italy again too.

So it looks like to me that it's not something 'flash-in-the-pan'.  In fact, judging by the demeanor and dress of the people I saw dancing it, I'd say that it almost looks more like bachata has infiltrated the ballroom rather than tango has come to bachata.  The majority of the people I saw in the videos definately did not look like 'club' types.

I haven't been able to talk to my friend Jorge Elizando about it.  He's been to Italy so I'm sure he's seen this new style.  I just know I like it and I'm eager to learn more.  I only hope it doesn't get too 'deep'.

Regardless of what I find out, my guess is that with all the all or mostly bachata events popping up lately and in the future, you'll be seeing this in some of your classes.  And just as traditional bachata appeals to the sensuality of salsa dancers, I think this new style will even more...as long as it doesn't get too stylized and instructors don't get so strict about it that it's no fun.

Here's some recent videos I liked (or at least, like something about them):

Nice PDF about history of Bachata

Click here to learn about the early history of bachata.  Document includes lots of interesting pictures too.

Bachatango media with Apture

I vaguely remember having it before but maybe I never used it.  Regardless of that, I keep getting emails from www.apture.com about how cool it is.  So I'm trying it again.

It's got something to do with being able to embed media links in posts.

So I'm going to see what I can pull up for you about that new type of bachata music I've been writing about.....bachatango.

Yeah........looks like it did...something.  I'll work with it some more.

Bachatango...........growing

I'm seeing more and more videos on Youtube of some extremely pretty bachatango.  Something's brewing.  It's kinda what Jorge Elizando started with his www.bachatatango.com but......more extreme and more obviously tango rather than bachata.  Almost 50/50 bachata and tango.

I like it.

Don't confuse the foreplay with the orgasm....bachata-tango.

Over the last 3 years bachata has definately come a long, long way.  I don't see how anybody can deny that.  And actually, even going back a few more years, you realize don't you that bachata has only been 'out of the cultural closet' for not-that-many years.   I'm referring the it's under-the-table early years in the Dominican Republic where it's from.

As I've admitted several times previously, I actually like bachata more than salsa....  if I had to make a choice.  And I think with the events of especially the last 3 years or so a lot of other people have come to the same realizaton.....i.e. they were 'closet-bachateros' themselves.

But the point of this post is to say that I have reason to believe that we ain't seen nothing yet.  All the great things we've discovered about bachata in the last three years were not the orgasm.  They were only the foreplay.  There's some things coming down the pike, real soon, that I think are going to eclipse what's happened so far with bachata by a magnatude of 10X or more.

What am I talking about?

Well, I went out dancing tonight.  To Caliente in Itaewon.  Caliente isn't really my favorite club but lately since I've been doing this casino rueda class I've made some new friends and one of them, a Korean guy named Neon, is also a big casino rueda fan and for some reason which I don't fully understand he likes Caliente.

So I've been going to Caliente on Saturdays because he has a small circle of like minded friends and we've frequently been able to do some casino rueda there at Caliente.

Got it?

So.....tonight I'm there and I happen to know the DJ.  I don't know his name but he plays pretty good music and I always say 'hi'.   I used to see him over at some other clubs I go to but....I guess DJs bounce around a bit too, right?

Anyway, I'm loitering around the dj booth tonight and I say something to him about bachata becoming very popular in the US right now. 

Then he proceeds to tell me that there's a new dance.  Related to bachata.  He's calls it 'bachatango' or something like that.  I wasn't sure I heard him right and I sorta assumed he was talking about the 'bachata-tango' as started and promoted worldwide by the No.1 Globe Trotting Bachatero, Jorge Elizando.

Then he proceeds to look in his files (he had a digital DJ rig, you know) and he finds a particular file and hands me a headset and says, "Here.....listen to this."

I listen to it and.........Holy Shit!!

It wasn't like anything I've ever heard.  I listen to some pretty eclectic stuff, right?  But this was a quantum factor more exotic than any bachata I've heard ever.  It really had a serious dose of tango in it. 

I still could hear the bachata in it but it had a very, very distinct tango quality to it.  Much more sensual, stylized, ballroom-ish, passionate than regular bachata.  I really liked it.

Well, my interest is up, right?  So when I left the club I trotted down here to this PC bang where I am now and got into YouTube to see what I could find.  Actually, I think I went to Google first but it just so happened that a YouTube video was first on YouTube.  That happens a lot with videos, you know.

Once I got into Youtube I keep clicking on videos that had the title 'bachatango'.  I think that's what it said.  It wasn't "bachata-tango".  It was a variation of that.  I looked at one video...way cool.  And another.....way cool.  And another.....way cool!

I looked at enough videos to see that there was a consistently 'new' twist and style to this new upgrade of bachata.  Initially, it seems to have more accordian in the instrumentation.  Like tango.  And it seems to have slightly different melodies too.

The element that seemed to remain the same from traditional bachata was the clave part.  What do you call that instrument.......the wood block and wooden stick thing?  I don't remember.

But it's still there in bachatango.  And the rhythm of bachatango doesn't slow down and pause as much as it does in real tango.

But it does have, in several of the videos I saw, those same dark, passionate, slinky, suck-my-toes moves that you see in real tango.  Really sexy and beautiful.

So what does this mean to the dance world?

It means that if you thought that what people like Jorge Elizando (actually I mean 'primarily' Jorge Elizando) has done with bachata during the last three years of his meteoric rise and redefining of the bachata genre....if you thought that was something.....I suspect you ain't seen nothing yet.

I've been watching, as best I can from where I am, what the three prime factors in bachata right now have been doing.  That would be Jorge Elizando, Juan Ruiz and Rodney Aquino.  They're all doing some great work.  Even if bachata never evolved one bit more......it's still become a world-class dance.

But I happen to know that there's some (that's "some".....plural) major national events coming up soon.  So I'm putting two and two togather. 

Most of the videos I saw tonight of this new kind of bachata, bachatango, came from Italy, it seemed.  And guess who's been travelling more in Europe and the Meditteranean more than any other 3 guys the last year or two?

Yeah......our ol' Texas Home Boy.....Georgie Elizando!!

You don't suppose he's picked some of this new stuff do you? 

And you don't suppose he's got some killer new products and/or material and/or events up his sleeve........do you?  Hmmmm??!

I'll tell you one thing:  If I had to make a choice about who I was going to keep track of and learn everything I could from about the kind of new bachata that set souls on fire......it would be Jorge Elizando.

Remember that it was Jorge that coined the phrase Bachata Fusion in the first place.  And that's exactly what this is.  If I was looking for the newest, freshest, most innovative bachata on the planet, I'd go to Jorge Elizando.

And if I heard that Jorge was doing a workshop.....or some other type of event (hint....hint! ;-) anywhere withing driving or flying distance of me........man!  You can bet I'd beg, borrow or steal the money to get there.

(BTW........I hear airfares are ridiculously cheap lately.  You might want to check what they are to say........someplace like uhhhh......Dallas?)

One thing I've discovered lately is that bachata has become very popular all over the globe.  In places you'd never suspect.  Like........China, Singapore, Spain, Italy, Germany, Russia, Australia, Korea and other places too.  And guess who's been living out of a suitcase the last 2 years travelling to all those places?  Guess who probably knows these global superstars better than probably anybody else in the US?

I'd think it would be good 'ol George.  George Elizando, I mean.

If you want to see what got me started on this, go to YouTube and look under 'bachatango'.  Or you can try 'bachata tango' too.   You might find some of George's videos from earlier Bachata Bootcamp World Tours tjere but I'm sure you find some of this new stuff I'm talking about too.  You'll recognize it when you hear it.

It's really amazing.

What I've seen tonight is going to raise the bar once again for bachata.  It'll never be the same.  It's that much different and that much mo'betta (more better).  And I predict that people will like it. 

They'll like it for the same reason that they liked George's original idea of bachata-fusion.  He discovered that bachata gave dancers, and especially women, the chance to be sexy and passionate in a way that salsa never did (not for the average dancer anyway). 

And when he made that DVD with Camille Yanantuano (did I spell that right?) that was a precursor to what I see going on now.  I always thought Camille was hot and I've noticed she's been involved in several other new products too.  That's great.  She's gonna be 'the right girl at the right time' if this new stuff takes hold like I think it will.

This new, third-generation, bachata is just made for gals like her.  Or anybody else who's been looking for a sophisticated looking, sexy but easy to learn dance to do.  I never took any tango lessons so I can't say for sure but I don't see the general dancing public, in the US anyway, every getting heavy into tango.  It seems too highly formalized to me. 

Of course I could be wrong on that.  Possible but not likely :-)

But if bachata teachers and community leaders can adopt this new, more simplified tango-bachata-tango styles, I think people will really love the results and fun they'll have.

I suspect the last three years were just the first stage of the bachata-rocket.  Get ready for ignition of the second stage.  I can feel it coming.

And keep your eye on Jorge Elizando too.  You never know what he's up to......til he does it.  But when he does do it.........I guarantee you it'll be ground-breaking and earth-shaking.

Jorge get's 'the big one'!

Anybody who knows anything about latin dancing in Houston, Texas knows who SSQQ is.  SSQQ ("Slow-Slow-Quick-Quick").  SSQQ has probably introduced and trained more people in the various latin dances (i.e. salsa, bachata, merengue, cha-cha) than any three other studios in Houston.  In fact, that's actually where I first learned to dance.

And anybody who knows anything about bachata very possibly knows who Jorge Elizando is.  Jorge is a personal friend of mine and he's the guy who really opened up my mind to what bachata can be.  He's also the guy who, probably more than any other, has brought bachata 'out of the closet' and made it a joy to thousands of people in the US and Europe.  

No doubt about it.  Two great names in their respective niches of the dance business.  And now, for the first time ever, they're working together to bring two exciting days of bachata master-level training to the good people of Houston, Texas.

SSQQ is without a doubt the most unique dance business entity in Texas.  Probably in the US.  SSQQ is special to thousands of people in Houston, Texas because they've been able to build a totally unique combination of quality dance instruction along with a unique social program that keeps people coming back to SSQQ year upon year upon year.  Many people take SSQQ classes repeatedly not only to improve their skills but also for the diverse social programs provided by SSQQ.  

Jorge Elizando, of course, is a modern day dance teacher success story.  I remember when Jorge was a music teacher in a junior high school there in McAllen, Texas and he was struggling to get started as a professional level bachata instructor.  We used to attend many of the same salsa events there in Houston, Texas although it was only later that I really got to know him.

Jorge always enjoyed and excelled at dancing salsa and bachata.  But in 2004 his professional career got a critical spark when he was exposed to the idea of doing bachata in a rueda format.  The idea originally came from Hips On Fire in Boston, Massechusetts  The following year Jorge and I went to the Miami Casino Rueda Congress in Miami, Florida and that's where I first saw Hips On Fire and bachata rueda.

At that time Hips on Fire, for reasons known only to them, had no interest in producing any instructional DVDs for bachata rueda.  But Jorge saw the light and less than 3 months after returning from that 2005 congress, Jorge had his first instructional DVD on the market........"Bachata Rueda".

At first, if the truth be known, Jorge didn't get much support from his 'home folks' in Texas.  Nobody else thought bachata had much 'box office' appeal.  But Jorge didn't give up and through entrepreneurial zeal, hard work, and going 'out on a limb' in more ways that one........he succeeded. 

I'm happy to say that I helped Jorge get a few of his first bookings in Houston.  And gradually, as studio owners and promoters discovered what a great teacher Jorge was and how satisfied his students always were, they opened up to having him at their events. 

A year later, after producing another DVD or two while still maintaining his full time public school teaching position, Jorge had seen where his full potential lay.  He went full time into the dance business.  It's been a wild and successful ride since then.

Since then Jorge has taught in every  continent of the world except, oddly enough, Latin America.  But he's taught throughout Europe and the US, as well as in Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, Australia, China and Japan.  And along the way he met the lovely Sao Mai (perhaps his future life partner too......from what I hear).

And......he's done all this while still building one of the most impressive arrays of instructional DVDs in the dance business.  I'm not even sure how many it is now......easily 10+.

Jorge's unique style of bachata is know as bachata fusion because he's taken the best qualities of bachata, the traditional dance from the Dominican Republic, and added to it steps and stylistic elements from several other popular dances such as rueda, tango, merengue and salsa.

Jorge enjoys what he does and it shows.  Now Jorge, one of the most successful people in bachata, is teaming up with SSQQ, one of the biggest and most successful dance studios in the US, to bring two days of bachata instruction like Houston has never seen before.  No doubt it'll have a major effect on bachata dancing in Houston for years to come.

Jorge is doing a two day workshop, August 22 and 23, there at the SSQQ studios in Bellaire (a part of Houston), Texas.  It's a large and excellent facility and a great place to have a workshop like this.

Am I glad to see it?

You bet I am.

I remember when Jorge was just getting started in his new career and used to sleep on my couch when he came to Houston to do a workshop.  At that time, I lived in Houston and was friends with Sonia Farr, owner of another very successful studiothere in Houston, Sonia's World of Dance.  In fact, Sonia was the first studio owner in Houston to give Jorge any kind of chance to show what he could do in a workshop.

Suffice it to say that Jorge doesn't have any trouble getting bookings now.  But even so, getting 'into' SSQQ as an 'outside' instructor is not something easily done.  I can assure you of that. 

I know it's not easy to get into SSQQ because I spent over 2 years in classes there myself and even taught one crash course (in casino rueda).  I know several of the instructors personally.  SSQQ never brings in outside instructors.  they just don't do it....until now.  It is a de facto recognition that Jorge is a big name in the bachata business.

And I'm glad for him.  I think bachata is a beautiful dance and probably offers the most flexible opportunity for self expression of any of the latin dances.  Yeah, I like salsa too.....especially timba and Cuban style salsa.  And lately I'm also interested in learning more about kizomba.  But right now bachata is 'tops' in my book....and so is Jorge Elizando.  If you're anywhere within reasonable distance of Houston, Texas on August 22 and 23, I'd highly recommend you attend this workshop at SSQQ. 

I'm hopeful that we might be able to get Jorge back to Korea sometime this year to do another series of classes for us.  If we can do it, I know he'll be greatly appreciated here too.  He's already been here once....back in December. 

I think he'd be a perfect choice for our dancers at Candela Dance Studio because he can teach not only bachata, but also bachata rueda and casino rueda.  There's a chance that it could happen because I know that he might be going to Vietnam sometime soon.  Maybe we can get him to come by Korea.  We'll see what happens.

Bachateros (Au.) Double Barrelled Workshop

I don't really know him, and them, personally but I get the impression that Juan Ruiz and his Los Bachateros down in Australia are doing some serious kick-ass advancement for the bachata cause.  On this page you'll see that they've got a workshop coming up that's going to be teaching not one.....but two different styles of bachata. 

It sounds like something I'd really enjoy but, of course, I can't make it.

Juan Ruiz is known for his 'bachata moderna' style of bachata but the 'bachata dominicana' teacher will be Airagdin Pavon More, AKA: "El Moro", who has his own dance company in Australia, is teaching the 'bachata dominicana'.

I've seen Troy and Jorjet doing that style of bachata and it does look like fun.

Yeah......no doubt, bachata is really proving to be a very diverse style and one which lots of dancers have been very receptive too.  I don't think there's any doubt that the recent growth of the popularity of bachata in the last couple of years is due primarily to one guy, Jorge Elizando from Texas.

I remember when Jorge had to beg promoters to let him teach.  All he wanted to do was have a chance and he gave the promoters a totally 'no risk' guarantee regarding the money, etc.  I won't go into that but suffice it to say that he doesn't have any problems getting bookings now.

The only other big proponet of bachata that I know of in the US is Rodney Aquino.  I think Rodney was heavy into bachata too but I don't believe he went out on a limb financially to promote it like Jorge did and I don't think he was travelling worldwide like Jorge did. 

Jorge quit his 'day job' after just his first year in bachata.  I remember when he'd sleep on my couch when he came to Houston to do some of his first workshops that I helped him promote. Now of course, he travels worldwide and, rumour has it, is even found a nice young lady who's fixing to be his partner for life (if you know what I mean).

But that's not to say that any one of these guys is better than the other.  Actually it all goes to prove what I always thought....i.e. that there was room in the market for another dance.  Everybody was all wrapped up and focused on salsa because that's 99% of what was being promoted and taught.  But these guys, Juan, Jorge and Rodney have created and grown a whole new dance culture and one that I think offers a lot more to more people than salsa does.

For what it's worth, I think we're going to see something similar with both kizomba and  rueda.  Notice I didn't limit it to 'casino rueda'?   But I won't go into that now.

Anyway........this workshop in Australia looks like it'll be a good one.  Make it if you can.