We had the good fortune of connecting with Jorge “BachataJorge” Elizondo and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jorge “BachataJorge”, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
Risk taking played an important part of my dance career. I took the Latin dance Bachata, which was not immensely popular with the Latin dance studios & salsa dance festivals and made it popular all over the world. There were very few instructors teaching bachata in the USA. I decided to share my unique style of bachata called Bachata Fusion to the world by creating my World Bachata Fusion BootCamp tour & by producing my own DVD series called Learning to Dance Bachata. I decided I would take all the risk and create my own opportunities by offering my bootcamp for free to dance studios across the United States. I offered each studio a percentage of my earnings and I took all the financial risk of travel and studio rental expenses. This was a win win for each studio that accepted my offer to come teach. I made it easy for them to say yes. My risk paid off and I traveled all over the World teaching my style of BachataFusion to Latin dancers. I help inspire local dancers to start teaching and hosting bachata parties. Today, Bachata can be danced in every part of the world because I took the risk to self-funded my bachata bootcamp. I believe I have had the journey of a lifetime by seeing how my Bachata Fusion Bachata Bootcamp helped shape the Latin dance scene around the world.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I was born and raised in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, where the sounds of Mexico, the Caribbean, and the United States meet. In this unique environment, I trained in music education and Latin dance and developed “Bachata Fusion,” a style of dance that combines turn patterns and body movements from traditional Bachata, Tango, Cha Cha Cha, and Salsa with many original moves. The end result is an expressive, active style of dance that removes all barriers and allows dancers to be more creative. Formerly a public-school teacher, Jorge’s passion for teaching equals his passion for dancing. My Bachata Boot Camp tour has taken me to over 500 cities throughout North America, South America, Asia, Australia, Europe, where I have taught tens of thousands of students.

Throughout all my journeys, I continued to develop new concepts to share with the world. I now focus my attention on mentoring and inspiring the next generation of dancers by organizing & producing various Bachata Dance festivals around the world. I am also excited to be celebrating my 15-year anniversary of my Dallas Bachata Festival next October 19 weekend at the beautiful DFW Airport Marriott North Hotel.  The event started off small and now has a yearly attendance of over one thousand dancers that come from all over the United States. My mission is to spread the love of bachata all over the world and encourage people to live a healthier, more active lifestyle

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I do not live in the Dallas Area, but I have been organizing the Dallas Bachata Festival for the past 14 years.
I have several restaurants where I enjoy eating and places where I enjoy having an enjoyable time.

Favorite restaurants:
Royal Chopstix Chinese Restaurant in Irving
Yummy Thai in Irving
Hard Eight BBQ in Coppell
Entertainment Venues:
Hangout Restaurant & Sports Club
Ripley’s Believe It or Not!
Margaret McDermott Bridge
Grapevine Mill Mall

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I would like to give a shoutout to Javier Sepúlveda Jr. from McAllen, TX.  Javier opened the global Latin Dance market by helping me build my online shopping website to sell my instructional DVDs and promote my World Bachata Fusion Bootcamp tour. Javier, professional photographer, took my first dance photos for the launch of my Learning to Dance DVD marketing campaign. I am grateful to have a friend who saw my vision and helped me take my first step to making my dream come true.

I would also like to say thank you to Marisa Wong, who was my dance partner. She helped me develop and create my style of BachataFusion. Marisa was an amazing friend and gave me all the support to create fun and exciting Bachata dance movements that we shared with the world in 8 of our Learning to dance Bachata DVDs.

Website: www.dallasbachatafestival.com

Instagram: @bachatafusion , @dallasbachatafestival

Twitter: https://twitter.com/bachatajorge

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Bachatafusion

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/BachataFusion

Other: TikTok @bachatafusion IG @dallasbachatafestival

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