I wanted to let you all know about an upcoming film that will hopefully be screening here in San Diego.

El Duque de la Bachata is the story of Joan Soriano, a Bachata Musician from the Dominican Republic.  The documentary follows his struggles to reach his goal of a releasing a hit CD and success as a musician. The story is also unique as it shows how his family is affected and involved in this musician’s life.

The film documents Joan’s bachata and merengue career, giving us all an in depth look at what rising artists must go through to make it big.   Joan has been featured on the Rough Guide to the Bachata and on the documentary Santo Domingo Blues as well as performed and recorded with big name bachata musicians such as Joe Veras and Zacarias Ferreira. However, at 35 he still has not had his own hit and is feeling the pressure now to make it big more than ever. Within the last few years, a music producer named Benjamin de Menil from IASO Records has begun recording a CD of Joan’s music and is now moving toward the CD’s completion with high hopes that it will be a hit.  El Duque de la Bachata is full of  great music, Dominican culture, and intimate portraits.

The film is produced and directed by Adam Taub.  Mr. Taub is looking to screen the film here in San Diego from June 17th to the 27th and is looking for venues to host a question and answer session, screening, and possible bachata dancing event.  If you can help you can contact Mr. Taub here.  Thanks to Mr. Taub for producing this great film!

For many in the Salsa and Latin dance scene, Bachata is not as well known as the other Latin dances.  Indeed, when it comes to this native Dominican dance many of us know very little about the influences that formed what we understand today as bachata.  Fortunately, others have extensively studied the history of bachata dance and compiled their findings. 

I recently was sent an email about one such resource in the form of a book called “Bachata:  A Social History of a Dominican Popular Music” by Deborah Pacini Hernandez.  I’ve included a synopsis from Google Book Search for you all to review.  

An interesting aspect about Deborah’s book is the comparison that she makes between the development of Bachata and Rap music.  She identifies that both genres share a parallel history in the way both became more main stream and respectable.  

Check out the book and share your thoughts about it by leaving a comment.  Enjoy!

Recently I wrote an article about Jorge Elizondo and what he is doing for bachata dancing around the world.  Well, Jorge is now coming to San Diego!!!  The World Bachata Bootcamp Tour will be here in mid July to host bachata workshops on everything ranging from Footwork Fundamentals to isolating & controlling body movements in bachata dance.

For those of you interested in attending the bachata workshop, Ritmo Bello & San Diego Salsa and Latin Dancing Meetup Group will be there to support Jorge’s mission to spread Bachata dancing in San Diego.  To find out more information (including venue and registration information) please go to the San Diego Salsa and Latin Dancing Meetup Group website page for the event.

To get a glimpse of what you’ll see at the workshop check out the video in this post.

Hope you are all

doing well. Well, the Monchy and Alexandra Bachata concert is coming up here this Saturday in San Diego and for all those wanting to learn or brush up on their bachata dancing I found the perfect resource for you.

Bachata Fusion , managed by Jorge Elizando, is an online resource for all things bachata. As he puts in his own words his mission is to "spread the love of bachata all over the world and encourage people to live a healthier, more active lifestyle." In keeping with this mission, Bachata Fusion has many resources geared towards making bachata dance that much more accessible to the general public. Most notably, Jorge has produced a number of bachata instructional videos and written a number of articles helpful to the learning of bachata dance. Other online salsa resources, like the Wandering Salsero , point out that Jorge is well traveled in spreading bachata dance around the world.

Now when you show up for the concert Saturday there is no excuse for you all not to go out and dance bachata.

Have fun and keep dancing!