BACHATA RUEDA WORKSHOPS & WORKSHOPS ON OTHER DANCES

In June 06, Jorge Elizondo came to the D.C. area and gave his workshop on Bachata Rueda. We held the workshop at the Madeira School's gymnasium in Mc Lean, VA where the DanceInTime Saturday classes are held.

Jorge has an extensive set of Bachata moves that can be done in Ruedas or just in one on one Bachata dancing. He worked through the list, including a cool partner exchange move (like the Dames of Salsa Rueda). By the end of two hours, many steps had been covered, including some with spins in one direction and back in the other. We danced all the moves in Ruedas at the end of the workshop. There were over two dozen dancers so it was a nice size circle and everyone had a great time. To learn more about Bachata Rueda, you can go to Jorge's website. He has some nice videos so you can see what the dance looks like, and you can order his instructional DVDs on his site as well. It is: BachataRueda.com.

A photo of the class with Jorge front and center is shown below!

In addition, the "inventors" of Bachata Rueda, Christina Pujol originally from Spain and Seemore Johnson originally from Costa Rica did workshops in April, 09 at the Baltimore area DIT location.  They taught Salsa, Bachata Rueda, and  most notably, performed and taught a fabulous fusion of Bachata, Tango, and Bolero.  Seemore explained at the outset of that workshop that many of the Bachata dancers also do Tango and so their idea was to enable them to do their Tango moves to Bachata music on the dance floor.  Basically, they transferred dynamite Bolero and Tango moves to the Bachata rhythm and the new dance is at once elegant, sexy, and dynamic.  The moves were well taught and the concept is truly original and unique.  Watch for their CDs!  For more information on this duo's excellent work, visit: HipsonFire.com.

Above:Workshop in Baltimore on "Bachata Rueda" and "Bolero Tango Bachata," both original "fusion" dances that Hips On Fire developed. Spring 2009

Then during spring of 2009, a workshop was done right after the Rueda class on Zouk which is a unique dance form that resembles Salsa.  Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll let the video of this Zouk demonstration by Willem Engel and Sarah speak for itself!  Click here to see a Zouk video.

You can see many elements of the dance that make it sensual and sexy!  Willem's email in case you want more info, is wcengel@gmail.com.  Sarah, his partner in this video, does Zouk in NY where there is a large Zouk community.  She joined him for his lessons in the US.  Willem has another partner or two who do shows with him in other countries.  Interestingly, Willem has a Ph.D. in science and has put his science work on hold for the time being to teach and dance Zouk all over the world!!