My Honest Review of Sensual Week
I recently attended Sensual Week, an exclusive Bachata training in Cadiz, Spain created by the founders of Sensual Bachata, Korke and Judith.
The program is a week filled with educational Bachata workshops and socials every night. People told me Sensual Week had the highest level of social dancing they had ever experienced.
Now that I’m back, many people have asked me:
- How was my experience?
- What did you learn?
- How was the level of dancers?
- How much did everything cost?
- Was it worth it?
This blog post is my full review of the program. I’m publishing this to bring transparency for people (maybe like yourself) who are considering future editions of Sensual Week.
Note: I am not getting paid by Sensual Week to write this post. I have no formal affiliation with the Sensual Bachata brand by Korke and Judith. As I was writing this, I realized I had more to lose than to gain by sharing any criticism of the program.
However I couldn’t find any balanced reviews online about Sensual Week, likely because many people are connected to or employed by the Bachata Sensual family. I seriously thought about not publishing this at all, but I decided to do so for the best interest of dancers like you and me.
🚨 Important update: I sent a draft of this piece to the Sensual Week organizing team to see if they wanted to address anything before I publish. They provided respectful pushback to some parts of the article. I provided all their responses (quotes have been edited for brevity) with indented text like this, along with my responses to their feedback.
Why I wanted to join Sensual Week
I love learning new things and training hard in whatever I do. So hearing from past Sensual Week attendees that this program had:
- The highest level of dancers in the world
- Small workshops by Korke and Judith and their team
- Amazing social dances every night for a week
- Opportunity to meet new lifelong friends
- Training in the birthplace of Bachata Sensual
It was a no-brainer for me to apply.
My three goals were to:
- Review all my techniques and foundations
- Improve (holistically) as a Bachata dancer AKA find my blind spots
- Gain more knowledge as a teacher for my course, Bachata Library
I later learned international artists go to Sensual Week with different goals of networking with event organizers, promoters, and artists.
While networking wasn’t a priority to me in that sense, the thought of connecting with amazing dancers from around the world got me pumped!
Sensual Week Application – 3/10⭐ 4/10⭐
The application process was atrocious.
They gave us a link to click on to open the application at an exact time and date. You then fill in a few personal details and include a link to a video of you social dancing for a minute or so.
That sounds simple - right?
Except when the exact time hit, the link wouldn’t open.
I had 3 different devices open trying to open the Google form link but I kept getting an error. All my friends did too.
Sometimes I’d get lucky when I refreshed the page and I would actually see the form. I typed all my answers in less than 30 seconds and clicked submit. But then… another error.
I recorded video proof of these errors and DM’ed Sensual Week’s IG account for help. No response, even after following up.
I posted a story and tagged Korke and Judith. No response.
I commented on Sensual Week’s official Instagram post. No response.
I asked at least a dozen friends if they submitted their applications. None of them were able to get on their main application, even though we were all there at the exact time and date they requested.
After 10 minutes, the link took us to a different form that read “Sensual Week Waiting List.”
My friends and I put our names on this secondary form successfully. But we followed their original instructions perfectly. Why were we passed to a waiting list?
I get it. There was too much demand. Technology can crash. Shit happens - I’m not upset at that part.
What made me frustrated was they didn’t acknowledge this error at all.
They didn’t respond to me. They didn’t respond to any public comments about their mistake. They didn’t post an IG story explaining what happened.
They could have easily won me back to their side by saying,
“Hey everyone. We did not plan for this much demand and the technology we chose had failed us. We’re sorry. Please fill out this new form by EOD and we’ll make sure your application goes through to our main list. Thank you for your understanding.”
Idk. Maybe I’m asking for too much? 🤷
🚨 “We acknowledge that we encountered difficulties due to the overwhelming response. Given the volume of applicants—over 1,200—it was a significant challenge to send personal messages to each individual. We certainly understand your frustration, and we did post messages that day to inform of the situation, we have attached one for reference.”
- Sensual Week team
Tam’s response: I told them that I didn’t expect a personal message but just a general announcement. I didn’t see the IG story (above) during the application window. It’s not exactly an apology, but it did acknowledge the errors. So I boosted my rating from 3/10⭐ to 4/10⭐.
But I’ve been told this has been a problem for years, not just in 2024. I don’t understand why there needs to be a contest for who has the fastest internet speed anyway. There are many other ways to solve this.
The simplest one off the top of my head is to keep the application open until a certain deadline. And if you really care about who was first (which IDK why because they ended up having extra spots they needed to fill after all), Google Forms automatically tracks submission times. This way, everyone can successfully apply and the organizers can prioritize the people who submitted the form first.
Or simply let everyone go through and judge each application based on merit. That might take more time but it would be the more inclusive move.
Sensual Week Logistics – 8.5/10 ⭐
The team won me back because the logistics for everything after the application were very well organized.
The team sent me an email in May saying I was accepted into the program. I had the option to join the July or August edition.
Oh yeah - that’s a new feature. Sensual Week has become so popular that this year was the first time that they hosted two editions.
I opted for August since that fit better for my schedule.
Everyone in the program is split into different colored tracks that best suit what the team thought you needed most based on the video you sent. They placed me in the Yellow track.
“In this track, you'll go all-in on refinement of technique, tension, and connection to enhance your resources with a wider range of movements. You'll learn to control your body while adapting to the range and limits of your partner, utilising all the fundamentals.”
I really like the idea of going into small groups and having a more customized curriculum. Whether that was accomplished is questionable (more on that below).
This division also helps with scheduling purposes. You can see the Yellow track’s schedule below, along with all the other colors.
Sensual Week created a WhatsApp group that was very helpful for connecting the community and answering our questions.
Registration was smooth. Workshops started on time. Buses to and from the socials arrived and departed on time.
As an event organizer, I was impressed with how smooth everything felt post-application.
One of the “big” things I’d change is the timing of the morning workshops. I had three classes at 10AM which sucked because the earliest bus to leave the nightly socials was at 3AM. I understand why they had to create such a packed schedule but the morning classes were brutal for people in my tracks.
Location in Cadiz, Spain – 7.5/10⭐
Cadiz is a small, coastal, and quaint city in the south of Spain. It was a really beautiful yet very traditional Spanish city.
We arrived on Sunday and nothing was open. Restaurants close in the middle of the day and late at night, so you need to arrive at a certain time window to eat.
Service is slow. Paying the bill is slow. Old ladies think they run the place and will cut you in line for ice cream and steal your cab (both true stories lol).
Restaurants serve mostly Spanish tapas everywhere. So it was hard to get a nutritious meal unless you cooked at home. But sharing some tintos de veranos with your friends by the beach is a vibe. 🍷
If you love small-town beach vibes, you’ll love Cadiz. I personally prefer cities with better infrastructure but this was a nice change of pace.
We had workshops at Hotel Parador de Cádiz and took buses to different venues for the nightly socials. I thought the hotel and social dance venues were beautiful.
Accommodation
You can stay at the hotel if you have that generational wealth moolah.
My friends and I shared a slightly bougie Airbnb next door to the hotel. I think each person paid ~$750 USD for 7 nights.
Other people stayed at Airbnbs within a 10-minute walk of the hotel at a more affordable price.
🚨 “While we understand [Cadiz] may not be the most central, it’s important to highlight that this is where Bachata Sensual was created…Additionally, this location allows us to provide prime services to participants at some of the best prices in Europe.”
- Sensual Week Organizing team
Tam’s response: I hear the team and understand why they chose to keep it at Cadiz. If I were them, I’d probably do the exact same thing. The rating is based on my personal preference for a city where I can buy nutritious food without worrying about what time it is and use Uber (or any ride-share service) to avoid walking 45 minutes home from Sunday's pre-party.
Sensual Week Workshops – 6/10⭐
The workshops were… underwhelming.
So splitting into small groups with customized tracks sounds like a good idea. Right?
But it didn’t feel customized at all. Rumor has it that these tracks are actually divided by skill level.
- Black (best)
- Red
- Purple
- Green
- Orange
- Yellow (lowest level)
Whether that’s true or not, I could care less about status and rankings. All I cared about was improving my craft and dancing with amazing people around the world.
But my Yellow track didn’t feel customized at all. It felt quite generic.
I’ve designed curriculum professionally for business courses (and now with Bachata Library). I’ve written books. I’ve facilitated 4-day live experiences.
When you welcome someone into your learning program, it’s best practice to tell them what they will learn or what to expect. Then at the end of the course, you recap everything to hone in on the key lessons to ensure expectations were met.
At the start of the Yellow track, they didn’t make it clear what they wanted to teach us.
They didn’t mention anything about the track description that they shared months ago. We just went straight into the classes. And after the last class, we learned a random-ish figure and that’s it.
No good-bye. No connecting everything we learned in the track together.
There’s a big missed opportunity here.
My suggestion: Explain to us what we will learn, why we’re learning it, and how it all fits into our “customized” tracks.
That is, if they’ve actually come prepared with personalized curriculum design for all the tracks...
OK what did they teach us? The track mostly reviewed fundamental concepts.
- Merengue basics
- Bachata basics
- Bolero basics
- Sensual Body movements
- Closed position
- Semi-closed position
- Open position
- Frame
Stuff like this.
To be fair, I like reviewing fundamentals. I think it’s extremely important to revisit and master the fundamentals.
But at the same time, I ALSO want to be challenged.
Of course, I learned a few new things. But I didn’t feel pushed.
I asked my friends from the Yellow, Green, and Orange tracks if they felt challenged by the workshops. The majority said no. They wholeheartedly agreed with my assessment. 😵💫
And these friends aren’t full-time teachers like I was. They were hobbyists who loved dancing.
I wondered why this is…
Tam’s theory
My theory is that 5-10 years ago, Sensual Bachata wasn’t mainstream. So people who went to Sensual Week were getting training that they couldn’t find anywhere else. And what they learned felt mind-blowing.
But today, the playing field has leveled out with Sensual Bachata exploding in popularity.
There are a plethora of fantastic Bachata teachers around the world. Amazing congresses and weekenders are happening all the time. Plus the internet has helped people like myself learn (and teach) Sensual Bachata in pretty good detail.
Even Korke and Judith + the team that they’ve trained are spreading Sensual Bachata in far corners of the world. So information that used to be exclusive to a select group is now far more accessible, making the content here underwhelming.
This is my take - I could be wrong.
🚨 “We designed [the tracks] to focus on the foundations of Bachata Sensual, as we believe a solid foundation is essential for growth. While we appreciate your desire for more challenging material, we encourage you to consider that foundational concepts are beneficial for all participants.”
- Sensual Week team
Tam’s response: I clarified to the team that I strongly agree that we should review Foundations. But I emphasized that I also want to be challenged, not just do review for the entire week.
Sensual Week Bonus Tracks – 8.5/10⭐ 8/10⭐
On top of the general track, there are bonus tracks you can take for an additional fee.
I did the Dominican track and holy cow, the workshops were so difficult in the best way. Evelyn and Carolina were phenomenal and passionate Traditional Bachata teachers.
My friends really liked the Styling tracks. I kind of wish I did them too but I was afraid of burning out from doing too much.
I had a friend who did the Foundations track and he told me he thoroughly enjoyed it.
I didn’t take all the bonus tracks so it’s hard to comment here, but I’ve only heard positive things across the board! If you agree or have a different take, DM me @tamphambachata.
I changed the original rating from 8.5 to 8 because of the additional cost of 90 euros for two 2-hour workshops. I wished it was more affordable, especially after already paying for the full program (cost breakdown below).
Sensual Week Socials – 9/10⭐
The socials were the best parts of the week.
The DJs played great music. The teachers came out and danced with us. Everyone at the socials had good vibes.
I really appreciated how the SW team stressed having no cameras so everyone could be extra present. I met a lot of great people on and off the dance floor.
My favorite socials were in a venue called Diwali. The vibes felt more intimate and they had great seating options to lounge on.
The only downside with Diwali as a venue was SW let in people who weren’t part of the program. So I danced with 3 beginners back to back and I felt so confused… until I realized they were outsiders. 🤷♂️
Despite those dances, I left the socials at Diwali on such a HUGE Bachata high, thanking my past self that I did all the things before to let me end up where I am now.
- Taking my first Bachata class in 2019 even though I was scared AF
- Quitting my job to take my first Bachata sabbatical in 2022
- Starting the first iteration Bachata Library in 2023
- Quitting my job again to pursue Bachata Library full-time in 2024
- Training Bachata intensely across Mexico, Toronto, Poland, and Spain (blog post coming soon)
Good job, past Tam! 🥹
The worst night was Monday’s Gala Night. The first 3 hours felt like High School prom. We were awkwardly standing outdoors eating finger food while listening to mellow music.
When they finally called everyone to the venue… we had to endure their 30-minute Flamenco show lol. It’s past midnight by now and we weren’t dancing any Bachata yet. What the heck? 😆
Some friends really liked the Gala night so this is just my experience.
Humans have a bias to talk more about the negative stuff over the positive things. So I’ll stop there and stress that I really did have an amazing time at the socials, hence the 9/10⭐ rating.
It was a week of social dancing that I’ll remember for a long time.
🚨 “We want to emphasize our respect for the origins of Bachata Sensual, which are partially rooted in Flamenco. The performance you experienced featured family and friends of Korke and Judith, sharing their long-standing traditions. As a fellow dancer, we hope you can appreciate the unique opportunity to witness the authenticity.”
- Sensual Week team
Tam’s response: I hear them. But after hours of standing, I would have preferred to finally start dancing (especially since it’s our first official social of the week) instead of standing for 30 more minutes to watch a Flamenco show.
The level of social dancers – 8/10⭐
You kind of have to be an addict to fly to Spain and devote an entire week to training Bachata. So the level was consistently skilled with one caveat.
Not everyone was amazing as I had been told before I joined.
People told me this group had the highest level of social dancers in the world.
I believe everyone in my Yellow track was good, but only a few followers were amazing. I also heard mixed reviews from the Green and Orange tracks.
At the socials, I danced with a wider range of levels than I had originally assumed. My friends also agreed with this assessment.
Good, but not everyone was “amazing” or “elite” as we had expected.
The better dancers were in the (rumored) higher tiers like Purple, Red, and Black. I enjoyed almost all my dances with everyone in those tracks. And it felt like a toss-up for everyone in the Yellow, Orange, and Green tracks.
Tam’s theory
My theory is that the level became saturated this year once they offered two groups.
In previous years, they would curate ~250 of the top dancers for one Sensual Week experience. So you were meeting the cream of the crop.
Now imagine if you accept ~500 people this year.
You need to expand your curation process and accept some people under the previous bar. Plus, the elite dancers have their choice to attend July or August editions, which increases variance.
If this is true, I don’t blame the SW team at all. In fact, I would have done the same thing if I were in their shoes. I think it’s a logical business move and it allows them to give this special experience to more people.
It just messed with my expectations, which perhaps is my fault for having them in the first place.
How much everything cost – 7/10⭐
The 1-week program costs €440, paid in two installments. This included two hours of training every day and transportation + entry to the social every night.
Additional tracks like Styling or Foundations cost an extra €90. I ended up taking the Dominican track which included two 2-hour workshops.
- Accommodations (7 nights): $750 USD
- *Roundtrip flight From Toronto to Madrid: $600 USD
- *Train from Madrid to Cadiz: $90 USD
So excluding food/drinks, the base total is roughly $2,000 US.
Sensual Week is quite an investment, hence my review here.
*There was an option to fly directly into an airport near Cadiz but it was more expensive and had a longer flight duration. So the more fun and economical choice was to fly to Madrid to dance there for a few nights (I didn’t include those costs above) before taking a train to Cadiz.
Would I recommend Sensual Week?
I genuinely had a great time at Sensual Week.
Despite some criticism, I think the team did a stellar job curating a high-level group of Bachata dancers for a week centered around training.
And let’s be honest: who else in the Bachata game is hosting these educational experiences?
I commend the Bachata Sensual team for creating this program and on a bigger picture, for everything they’ve done to popularize the dance I love so much.
While I’m grateful I went this year, I probably wouldn’t do it again unless they had a learning track that really interested and challenged me.
From a pure learning perspective, I had a better return on investment when I took classes/privates in Spain/Poland for a month.
I know not everyone has that freedom and flexibility. So if you’re looking for a concentrated week of training and dancing, Sensual Week may be a good fit for you.
Their curation of amazing dancers for a week “off-the-grid” with the Bachata Sensual team is hard to beat (unless you self-organize your own training program).
My advice to you if you plan to go
- This review is my experience. I’m human and I come with many biases. Talk to other people who have been through the 2024 program to get a more balanced perspective.
- Rooming with my flatmates was the highlight of my trip. Our delirious post-social discussions were amazingly stupid and hilarious. Go with friends or find people in the Whatsapp group chat to live with.
- If you’re debating on taking bonus tracks, I recommend doing just 1. Doing more may burn you out.
- There were a lot of unofficial meetups to train, social dance, and record videos. You had a choice to partake in anything you wanted or rest up.
- Don’t forget your intentions! If you’re there to network, put yourself out there. If you’re there to train, ask others if they want to train with you.
- Stop and enjoy the sunset every day. It’s beautiful.
- Go out to eat when the kitchens are open. Lunch is 1-4 ish and dinner is 8-10 ish.
- Buy food/snacks to eat after the socials. Stock up on electrolytes and drink them every day.
- It’s ok to skip a social to recover. You’re dancing every day for an entire week. Pace yourself.
- Take naps in the afternoon or before the social to get your energy up.
- If you can, arrive early so you can adjust to Spain’s time zone.
Lastly, forget everything you’ve read here. Remove your expectations lol 😆
Thanks for reading. I hope you can see my genuine efforts to write a balanced review for this program. Happy to hear your feedback or answer any other questions on Instagram @tamphambachata.
If you’re newer in your Bachata journey, I have an online Sensual Bachata course called Bachata Library. It covers everything I wish I had known about Bachata when I started dancing six years ago. You can see our epic training series here (totally free) or our classes/tutorials on our YouTube channel.
BIG THANK YOU to Christine, Kristine, Tatiana, Ron, Ryan, and Janine for reviewing drafts of this post. I appreciate you making my thoughts clearer and filling in the gaps that I’ve missed.
And of course, I need to give a proper shout-out to the Sensual Week organizing team for hosting SW and for your comments on this piece. I have the utmost respect for everything you all do. Whether or not you agree with this review, thank you for being open to hearing feedback.
