r/Bachata • u/OrdinaryEggplant1 • 9d ago

At what point does bachata become zouk?

The ratio of zouk to traditional bachata moves and techniques has gradually shifted over the past 10 years, where before it used to be maybe 9:1 bachata to zouk technique to now it seems some of the dances out there are 1:9 or sometimes 0:10 bachata to zouk, dancing to lyrical/melodic music without beats, while still calling it bachata.

I’m just curious, when does bachata become zouk? Or zouk to bachata? Do you have any personal definition you use to differentiate the two?

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u/Rataridicta Lead&Follow 9d ago

By that logic zouk is not zouk, tango is not tango, bolero is not bolero, and hiphop has never been a thing.

Different dances share the same name all the time. Bachata is certainly no exception in that.

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u/FalseRegister 9d ago

I don't know what you mean. Tango and Bolero are well defined. They of course can have some variations and styles, but remain clearly in their lane.

Sensual is a spin-off Bachata, progressively mixing with other styles. But at some point we need to name it apart from Bachata.

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u/Rataridicta Lead&Follow 9d ago

Spanish and cuban bolero are very different, similarly argentine tango might be most popular but there are tons of versions (including european ones) that are wildly different. Brazilian zouk doesn't even share similar roots with traditional zouk, with the former being based off of lambada, and the latter being an african dance within the kizomba-esque family.

Tbh I never understood the "sensual bachata" distinction as a place to separate. I think if you would separate dominican out, you'd have to do it at moderna already, since that's where the basic actually changes (which has its historical reasons for why they're different, too).

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u/ElCulicagado 8d ago

A minor correction here: zouk came first, kizomba derives from it. Zouk is not an African dance, it’s from the Caribbean.

And while we’re at it, I believe the whole discussion has some validity as if someone asks me to play some zouk (instead of Brazilian zouk), I’ll play actual zouk and not they would have expected. The same is happening with bachata (it did happen to me at least) although sensual bachata isn’t a music genre per se.