Carlos y Paz

“This turn is really easy. It gets complicated when you try to do something — when you try to help your partner, or try to turn yourself. That's when it starts getting hard.”

Teaching a turn and explaining that it actually gets harder when the follower tries to intervene on their own

“It's what I call the oval — you connect all the dots and move like you're making a circular movement, and then you hit a certain point on purpose.”

Introducing the 'oval' as a bachata musicality idea — instead of hitting every beat, you stay in the flow and accent only chosen points.

“In terms of body technique, it's 90–95% the same as zouk. Not the footwork. There are differences in things like how you exit a turn, or the basic you use to create head movement, so we made small changes and adjustments to make it easy to fit this movement inside bachata.”

Explaining in detail how close bachazouk's body technique is to zouk, and which parts were adjusted

“Most of the body technique comes from zouk technique, and the basics, the rhythm, the music — most of that comes from bachata.”

Explaining where the technical elements of bachazouk come from

“Torsion is when you turn out to the side, like this. Right now I'm not using torsion — I'm only applying contraction and extension.”

Drawing the line between the pancake and torsion (twisting).

“Bachazouk is its own independent style built on bachata music. You use bachata music and fuse in a lot of zouk movement, so it's not fully zouk and not fully bachata — it's its own thing.”

Opening remarks defining what bachazouk is

“When the music is really complex, it can end up feeling like too much. You have to choose what you want to play with.”

During the oval explanation — musicality advice about picking certain elements to play with instead of reacting to everything in a busy track.

“The energy has to keep going, without breaking. Don't chop it up like 'one, two.' You just keep it going.”

Stressing that the flow of energy shouldn't break during the turn

“First I change my head, and as I go up I do the extension. Then she can just stay right there. She doesn't need me.”

Explaining that the follower can hold their own balance independently, without the lead's movement propping them up

“She should always be right in the center of your position. You're not walking together.”

Explaining that the lead shouldn't walk along with the follower, but keep the follower centered on their own axis

“It's not sensual bachata mixed with zouk. It's bachata mixed with zouk.”

Correcting a common misconception about bachazouk

“You need the weight on the metatarsals — the ball of the foot. Never on the heel.”

Explaining how the weight sits in the foot during the pancake.

“This frame stays here, and this frame doesn't change. The movement is this, and the elbow stays up — I don't bring mine back down to reset until my partner lowers their elbow first.”

Demonstrating how the elbow and frame hold their shape in the frame multi-turn pattern

“Always keep it in front of your diaphragm — not in front of your chest.”

A close-up note on arm position and upper-body alignment.

“Creating direction matters, but I don't push her. I create the direction with my whole body, not with my hand.”

Demonstrating the difference between pushing with the hand and creating direction with the whole body when leading, at a workshop

“The energy she has isn't because I'm pushing her into it — it's because she has that energy herself.”

During a head roll demo, explaining that the follower's movement comes from her own energy, not the leader's force

“Zouk isn't just head movement. Doing a turn while you're doing a head roll takes counterbalance and axis rotation — there's a lot of information you need to know in there.”

Clearing up common misconceptions about zouk and bachazouk

“In this part, the important thing for the guy is to focus on creating the sense of direction first.”

Stressing the lead's core job while teaching turn leads

“If she has to turn on one foot in place, that's hard for her. Give her the space to take a step.”

Explaining why you need to give the follower room to travel on a turn lead

“Even when you lead through a full forearm connection, the important thing is still to create the direction with your whole body.”

The principle he emphasized while demonstrating forearm-connection lead technique

“I try to keep as much bachata as I can. Then I add zouk technique on top. I use bachata as the base.”

Answering a question about the bachata-to-zouk ratio in bachazouk

“If you lead with just the arm, her head drops forward. I want her head to open up like this.”

Explaining the kind of lead that creates bachazouk's signature head movement

“You respect the bachata basics, and you have to match songs you can actually dance that to. Bachazouk didn't start from zouk music.”

Explaining that bachazouk grew out of a bachata foundation

“I try to keep as much of the bachata basics as possible, so it keeps feeling like bachata and looking like bachata.”

Explaining his principle of protecting bachata's identity even within bachazouk