Bachata Ambassador and Yocasti Auténtica COMBINING Bolero and Chachacha.

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DR12 proudly presents
Bolero Music and Dance

DR12 will teach you to dance Bolero and we will dance it in one dine&dance party. The previous festival participants were very excited, especially when we had Jose Manuel Calderon (world's first bachatero) concert in DR8 Bolero Night.

Jose Pepe SanchezBolero (Bolero Ritmico, Bolero Cubano, Latin Bolero) is a music written in 4/4 time (originally 2/4 time). Bolero was born in the late 1800's in Cuba, then spread to all Latin countries and around the world. The first known bolero is Tristezas, written by José Pepe Sánchez 1885 in Santiago Cuba. Nearly all the latin music genres like chacha, son, bachata, mariachi and salsa has their roots in bolero.

Bolero Logo

You should learn the bolero music, musical goals and the way to dance it in order to become an excellent chacha, son, bachata, and salsa dancer. Knowing the history will help you in understand the essence of dancing, e.g. why "less is more" principle. Bolero is romantic and emotional. It's easy to distinguish bolero from other romantic and slow music like POP music (musica POP) and ballads (popular song, Baladas) due to it's clearly audible and danceable rhythm.

Alci Acosta

We regard Alci Acosta as one of the best ever Bolerista. We will centainly play a lot of his music in the Bolero Night parties.



Ancient Boleros

• Carlos Arturo - Evocacion
• Maria Luisa Landin - Que te vaya bien
• Rolando La'Serie - Esta noche me emborracho
• Rolando Laserie - Cada noche un amor
• Alci Acosta - Amor gitano
• Alci Acosta - La Copa Rota
• Alci Acosta - La carcel de sing sing
• Antonio Machín - No me vayas a engañar
• Antonio Machín - Angelitos Negros
• Antonio Machín - Esperame en el cielo
• Roberto Ledesma - La Gloria Eres Tú
• Roberto Ledesma - La Pared

Anthony MachinRolando La'SerieLedesma

Modern Bolero

• Gilberto Santa Rosa No pense enamorarme otra vez
• Joan Sebastian - Secreto De Amor
• Juan Luis Guerra - Burbujas de Amor

BOLERO DANCE

Please, look at the video on top of the page. It pretty "wild", because it combines Bolero and ChaChaCha. Actually Cha is part of the Bolero family dances and many dancers believed Cha being part of Bolero. It's a good practice to combine Bolero Traditional with Bolero Cha. Look at the Bolero -> Cha -> Bolero transitions in the video.

Traditional Bolero

Bolero has been danced in the past 140 years through countless "official" and "unofficial" ways.  Unfortunately the traditional ways have disappeared in the absence of documentation. The young generation of Latinos regard Bolero just embracing in a closed position, not a bad idea because bolero is supposed to be a romantic dance.  However there are several real ways to dance bolero. We created our way (Vesa&Yocasti) thru extensive world-wide studies. We honour also how “Hips on Fire” (Seemore Johnson from Costa Rica and Cristina Pujols from Spain) dance it. When you watch the Hips example 1 and example 2 please take into account these being shows, not social dancing.

The Latin way to dance the 4/4 time Bolero is with 3 steps (quick-quick-slow). The goal is to move the upper body smoothly and constantly during the whole 4 beats although the legs do just 3 steps. Bolero is not tap accented like bachata. Instead we stretch the upper body during the beat 4 without moving the legs. Remember: no tapping, no accenting. Bolero basic steps are really easy to learn and after a one-hour workshop you'll be ready to dance. Understanding the slow pace is the trickies part. Bolero rhythm is easy to hear but expressing the music and dancing to the music is challenging in a closed embrace position. You have to dance a lot to get the musicality into your head and the body to sensually interpret  the music.


Vesa&Yocasti Bolero Demo

Many bolero songs include chacha sections, which means alternating bolero and chacha during the same song or you might just do bolero or just chacha. BoleroBachata means dancing bolero or bachata music with bachata steps but maintaining bolero-like body movements. BachataBolero means dancing the romantic bachatas with bolero steps. Bachata, chacha and son have all evolved from bolero. Therefore you can mix and match them. Take steps from one and use them to other genres. In fact it is fun and not too difficult to go back and forth between bolero, chacha and bachata in the same dance and it looks impressive and professional. We will teach you how to do it.


Vesa&Yocasti Bolero Dancing

The ballroom competition rumba was derived from bolero-son. Finnish lavarumba is closer to bolero, but has competition dance decorations. Latin bolero as such is not a competition dance. Latin Bolero is a social dance and we will keep it as a social dance. Latinos didn't learn bolero in dance schools, because there weren't any (exceptions apply). Therefore social bolero dancing don't have any spinning, dipping and complicated hand turns.


Vesa&Liccelot Bolero

Professionals debate and theorize bolero. DR11 BOLERO PARTIES are debate-free. We will just play the best bolero music and everyone can enjoy it in their own way. We'll help newcomers to get started and the advanced dancers to get some styling techniques and the ability to mix bolero, bachata and chacha. There is nothing wrong in dancing all the bolero songs with bachata or chacha steps if you don't learn the bolero steps quickly enough.