I am on an all ladies Bachata dance team, and I'm wondering if any of you have any tips on how to make your dancing smoother. I videoed myself practicing, and I am doing all the moves and staying on time and everything, but when my teacher dances, it flows so beautifully and looks so sexy; it's like she's one with the music. But, it looks really mechanical when I'm doing it. She keeps telling me that I need to work on smoothing it out, and I can clearly see that, but I have no idea how to accomplish that. Does anyone have any tips/tricks for making your dancing flow better?

Our bachata dance team uses latin technique from American rhythm ballroom to give it the look we want: feet turned out (from the hip socket), step with bent knee turned in, delayed hip action from bent and straight leg, lead with rib cage isolation, stay grounded to the floor.

Do you have a link to one of your videos you can share?

Tim

Thanks for you reply! This is my latest take of practice. I got off time a couple of times and lost my balance because I was concentrating on my body movements, so it's a little embarassing to share, lol! But, it has improved ALOT since I started learning this routine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGiRjXOxGVg

I'm kinda surprised an instructor is NOT instructing you on how to fix your dance. That's what you are paying them for.

What I see - you are turning with no foundation. Meaning if you do not put your foot down and then turn you will always lose your balance. You can not build the 2nd story to the house without the foundation.

You are not rolling thru your ankles. You are stepping.

As was stated go back and learn Latin technique from American rhythm ballroom. Even gold level champions start out with these beginner movements when they practice. It's the foundation to all Latin dancing.

Thanks for the feedback BallroomChick. I will keep your tip for turning in mind. Rolling through my ankles is something I remember hearing about a while ago from a different instructor, but I can't remember how to do it. I can ask my ballroom instructor about that, though (not the Bachata instructor).

I definitely like the American Rhythm Ballroom technique better than the street style. It not only looks better, it's also a much more effective and ergonomic way to move. I was originally trained in this technique. However, this performance is using street style, and my Bachata instructor has been "breaking me out of" using ballroom-style cuban motion. Since there will be other girls performing with me, I have to match their body styling.

That being said, there is a lot of crossover, and when I want more technical help with something, I ask my ballroom instructor instead of my Bachata instructor. For example, the 2 suggestions you gave me should apply no mater what style. I will bring those up to my ballroom instructor.

I get what you're saying about my instructor struggling to fix me, but I'm pretty forgiving about that because #1 - it doesn't cost much to be on her team and she only charges $25 to take a private with her and #2 - in-spite of not having formal ballroom rhythm technique, she still looks amazing when she dances and I would be happy to look like her. I know that in the short run it will create bad habits for my ballroom rhythm, but in the long run, it's creating much greater body awareness and will be nice to be able to switch styles. I know that a lot of ballroom dancers don't have that perspective - many think learning street style is "bad", but in my opinion it's not bad it's just different. Learning both styles simultaneously is difficult, but I think it will pay off in the end - at least it will make me more versatile if nothing else.

Thanks again!

Learning other dance styles should help your dancing. I know that learning Argentine Tango has helped my Ballroom dancing--though the technique is quite different.

Thanks, nloftofan1. I agree!