(Bachazouk) We've Been Dying to Know!!! How Is Bachazouk Different from Bachata? Soo & Nara Lay Out 2 Formulas @ Zouk Night LATIN

Why this video

It's easy to lump bachazouk together as 'bachata with a bit of zouk mixed in.' But the two dances are different languages. The Sunara teachers sort out the difference with 2 formulas — and keeping each dance's grammar clearly distinct, instead of blurring them together, is actually the way to dance both of them well.

What's different

- Bachata — the pulse of the floor, taps and hips rising up from the ground. You 'stamp' into the beat. - The zouk texture — one unbroken, continuous wave, head movement, all about flow. You 'pass through' the beat.

Once you can tell these two apart, your body switches languages automatically when the music changes.

To mix them well, you first have to be able to tell them clearly apart.

Just one thing for today

Start by listening: is the song playing right now a 'stamp' song or a 'flow' song? Then match your body to that language — the mixing comes after.

“Whatever sequence you use, on the basic you use a down basic over four counts to build one musical block. When you're building a sequence in bachazouk, you have to do your interpretation and build the sequence inside those four counts.”

Introducing the four-count musical block formula while explaining what separates bachazouk from bachata.

“Basic one is just a pretty basic. From the second count you start building the move. Around the third count you start making it zouky with the frame and your breath, and with the fourth count left you explode into the sequence and finish it.”

A step-by-step breakdown of how the sequence stacks up, count by count, inside the four counts.

“In zouk, apart from certain situations, dancing parallel to the ground is the baseline, and the wave creates the head's base through traveling — bachata, on the other hand, uses up-down the whole time and is danced on the spot a lot of the time.”

Contrasting how zouk and bachata use the body — traveling waves versus up-down on the spot.

“When you use a head move, exaggerate it a little more than usual — leaders, take a big breath in so the lady's chest gets lifted, and use way more frame.”

CONTEXTExplaining the breathing and frame work a leader needs when bringing zouk-style head moves into bachata

“You built the move on the spot, so you've got no momentum, right? That's why you have to use your frame to open the follower's elbow outward. So we need to be able to create the preparation even without momentum.”

CONTEXTExplaining that bachata has no traveling momentum, so the head-move prep has to come from the frame instead