I Love Bachata

So, me and Rodney have been talking about Bachata for a while over Facebook. When he got invited to the Swedish Bachata Festival I was so excited to meet him as we are such good online Bachata friends. So we met in Sweden and boy did we have fun Weekend!

So here is my interview with Rodney, he is a great guy and very smart, so I hope you enjoy it.
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Tony: Hey Rodney, how long have you been dancing Bachata?

Rodchata: I would say that I started getting serious into bachata since the year 2000.

Tony: How did you get into Bachata?

Rodchata: Ok, this is long…I think it was around 1996; I found bachata and began to love the music in the Dominican restaurants at the El Alto area of Manhattan. But first, I have to mention that I love playing and listening to the guitar. I grew up appreciating the guitar greats such as Jimmy Page, George Harrison, Neil Young, Stevie Ray Vaughan and others. So when I first heard a bachata song, it got my attention. I instantly liked the simplicity and intensity of the music. Of course, I was always in the Alto area of Manhattan not just cuz of the music but great Dominican food as well!

As far as dancing it, I never really paid much attention to it then cuz, for one thing, the old folks dancing it were just moving in a very simplistic manner; they were dancing close, moving side to side and forward and backward with little steps. That was all.

Then I got back to San Francisco. I remember an old friend dancing with a girl they call the “bachata queen” at the Roccapulco club. Her hip movements got my attention, LOL - it was quick sexy snaps of the hip moving side-to-side. I thought, wow, that is a nice way to dance bachata. So I started dancing bachata with her..she ended up teaching me on the dance floor showing me how to move my hips and do the side steps. Now you gotta understand, I was the leader of Salsagang Group then, which was two years young at the time, and some people were watching. Needless to say that I could not, for the life of me, dance it! So yes, I hated it for a year. But a year later, some clubs actually played one bachata for a night and I found myself dancing it and getting good at it without even being aware of it. This is what happens when you dance under the influence of Tequila - haha! But I began to dance it more and more and really got acquainted with the music. I went to a Los Angeles salsa club, they played some bachata and I really moved my hips like no other. One guy name Milton started calling me Rodchata. He even began mentioning the Rodchata name on salsa websites. In fact, He posted a video clip all over of Olivia Dasso and I dancing to bachata. Thus everyone started calling me Rodchata.

Tony: Is there a specific reason that inspires you to teach it?

Rodchata: I began teaching bachata when I saw a need to teach it in the Bay Area. I gotta give credit to a Nicoyan guy name Armanto Tam. He started teaching bachata in the Concord area way back when I didn’t even dance salsa. But for some reason, he stopped doing it. I brought him to San Francisco to do a short workshop for a Salsagang event at the Cafe Cocomo, but even though I didn’t get a chance to watch him, I heard good reviews about the lesson and how people liked the bachata dance. When Armando formed a band called La Verdad, I knew that he was onto new and different things already, and since I began studying the Dominican culture, I decided to carry on the torch of teaching it as well.

Tony: Do you have any funny stories associated with Bachata?

Rodchata: Haha! That’s funny that you asked that. There are many funny stories since I started teaching bachata and whatnot. Beside the traumatic, surreal experience dancing with the so-called Swedish Blond name Antonia in Gothenburg (you all can watch that in youtube)…there was an incident during one of my bachata workshops in Palm Springs 4 years ago. Apparently, there were some Dominicans taking my intermediate bachata workshop…one fella interrupted me by asking a question, “Excuse me, where is the hip, aren’t you suppose to bump your hip on the 4th beat?” I said, “Nope, no, hip.” He insisted, “Yes, there is! I am from Santo Domingo and we bump our hips!” But I insisted, “You’re wrong, there is no bump!” We went back and forth like that and people were laughing, until a hot Dominican girl said, “Whoever brought that hip bump to Santo Domingo, he should be shot.” Laughter all over the place!

Oh, there’s another you might like…I just got done teaching bachata at the Northwest Salsa Congress (Tacoma, Washington) and I got into the elevator with a bunch of instructors. There was this guy trying to mess with me (I won’t say his name) by saying, “Hey Rodney, what is your nationality, you know, your heritage?” I could tell he was up to no good, but I was ready. I said,” I’m Filipino.” He laughed and said, “Really, what in the world got into your mind teaching bachata then?” (Laughter all over the place) So I responded, “Well, what is your nationality?” He said with a proud gesture, “I am from Mexico.” Quickly, I responded, “What the hell are you teaching salsa for, you should be teaching Quebradita.” Laughter all over a small elevator and someone farted in the process…and it wasn’t me, I swear!

Tony: hahahahaha! So, what is your favorite Bachata Track?

Rodchata: For a bachata track, I would say my all time favorite is Bachata Rosa and the whole album by Juan Luis Guerra because it changed the whole world of bachata and the way it was viewed by the elites and the world.

Tony: Where do you see Bachata in the next 3 years?

Rodchata: More bachata festivals, parties, workshops, performances all over the world. In fact, I am following your advice; there are three routines bachata routines in the making with my dance group. The bachata dance is not stopping its evolution and you are actually one of the few guys that helped spread the dance, Tony.

Tony: What advice would you give anyone who thinks it is not worth learning Bachata?

Rodchata: OMG, you’re gonna get me going on this topic! Let me put it this way and give you a little bit of background first…bachateros in DR back then were a minority. The majority of Dominicans couldn’t care less about the music and probably didn’t know that certain people were dancing to it. There was such a stigma to bachata. During Trujillo’s reign, it wasn’t even recognized, and he made sure that merengue was king! It was dismissed as poor man’s music, eventually associated with rogues, libertines and prostitutes, enjoyed only by the coarse and vulgar lower classes. There was lots of vulgarity and sexual innuendos on the lyrics of the song. I think we can call this ghetto in the western world, LOL

According to my research, Juan Luis Guerra was testing the waters of playing bachata by including it as a long intro to the song Como Abeja Al Panal. He was curious whether people would actually like it. The result…it became a best-selling single that it prompted him to make the Bachata Rosa album. The rest is history, the album won several Grammy awards and it catapulted Bachata to the world. The Dominican Elites appreciated a tweaked version of bachata in the based of bolero with a more romantic version and clean lyrics.

As bachata music evolved from being played with trash cans, güira to electric, bongos and base guitars, the dancing also evolved. The traditional emerged from the original style. Keep in mind that the stigma came from the way the music lyrics was composed and the way it was dance at the whorehouses. The traditional style came away with that by emphasizing more of an open position during a dance with more footwork.

Over the years, the dance has evolved even more as the music was being embraced by the Western world, thus, the modern style emerged mixed with certain moves from salsa, merengue, tango, lambada, just to name a few.

I got into dancing it because of its simplicity and the ability to move my hips with a dance partner. When I embarked myself in teaching it, I constantly did many research and interviews to put things in perspective and to be able to create a formula in teaching it with versatility in mind.

So to your question, either you really like bachata or you don’t! The dance makes you one with the music and your partner. If that isn’t happening when you try to dance it, then I’m not surprise why you don’t like it. My suspicion is that people that don’t like bachata are the same people who thought that any closed-dance such as, tango, bolero, Cuban son or merengue are boring.

Tony: What is your favorite Bachata move?

Rodchata: I don’t really have any favorite moves because every time I learn or discover a new move, I apply it on the dance floor everytime. I suppose it is fair to say that I like and love every move that modern and traditional bachata can offer. But my favorite move to teach is what I call “The Wedge” - it’s a hip motion that resembles the letter V in the alphabet.

Tony: Do you have any tips to share to the Bachata World?

Rodchata: I actually do. If there’s one thing that saddens me about salsa, it’s the very fact that Circular style hates the Linear Dancers. Both parties claim such authenticity. They call each other names like “ballroomers” “robots” or “the elbow hitters”…

This is the same way I fear for the growing bachata community to emulate such childish behavior. Whether you dance traditional only, or modern, or the so-called original, we shouldn’t hate each other. Certain people might not dance the same way you do, but that is absolutely OK because we are dancing to the same music. Or you can just do the other option, learn and dance every style there is because you never know what type of dancer you’re gonna be dancing with.

Tony: Excellent Rodney, is there anything else you want to add??? I.e., your website, Classes etc

Rodchata: Sure thing. I do have several bachata websites that I think people would love. One of them is www.iBachata.com; it’s a great international bachata social network where bachateros can create their own groups and whatnot. Everyone is there, in fact, Toke D’ Keda just registered. And the site is complemented by www.BachataNews.com. Of course, if anyone wants to buy dance DVDs like bachata, salsa or other dances, I do have an online store at www.rodchata.com. You can check my local classes at www.mysalsateacher.com, or just send me an email - Rodney@rodchata.com

Thanks for the interview, Tony. And say hi to Dani for me, you two are one of the few great couple I’ve ever hung out with in Sweden.