the BACHATA Dominicana teacher training team
We are a team of professionals with extensive experience in teaching, performing, and organizing dance events. We are all educators of bachata and other aspects of Dominican culture. Our vision and goal is to elevate the quality of teachers around the world, and prepare them with the tools to continue spreading the beautiful dance of bachata, that we all love and care about, while still maintaining the essence and roots of it’s culture.
JUNIOR AQUINO
Junior Aquino was born in the Dominican Republic in 1987 and took his first dance steps as a child.
At the age of fifteen, Junior began studying bachata, salsa and other traditional dance styles at Plaza de la Cultura in Bonao, after which he continued his dance career at several dance schools in the Dominican Republic. At nineteen years of age, he became an important representative of the bachata in his hometown of Bonao when he began organizing competitions, socials and other events.
Junior has been teaching bachata and salsa since 2008 in the Dominican Republic and has also participated in national competitions and acted as a dancer in film and television productions. Since 2014, Junior has taught and performed at congresses, festivals and other events all over the world together with his dance partner Carolina Bustamante and their pro and student teams.
He is the founder and owner of Keloke Dance Company who organizes Keloke Bachata Festival, the first all Dominican festival in Scandinavia, and Keloke Bachata Adventures, a dance tour in the Dominican Republic. Since 2021 he runs his own dance school in Stockholm together with his dance partner Carolina Bustamante, Keloke Dance Studio, which specializes in the dance styles originated from the Dominican Republic. He is seen as one of the most renowned artists and instructors in the world in his genre and one of the biggest promotors of the Dominican culture, dance and music.
ALEJANDRO GIL LINDSTRÖM
Alejandro Luís Gil Lindström (aka Sueco) was born in 1988 in Gothenburg, Sweden, but moved to Spain at the age of 4. He loved dance from a very young age and at age 13 he started a breakdance group along with five Dominican friends. Sueco became more and more involved in the Dominican culture and started to go to Dominican parties and clubs where he took his first bachata steps. He fell in love with the music and to this day he still has no favorite among the bachata artists as he thinks they all have their own essence and style.
In 2013 he became part of a group of salsa Caleña where he met his current life and dance partner Johanna who inspired him to learn even more about bachata and bring his dancing to a professional level. He loves all Latin and Caribbean rhythms but his favorite styles are bachata and merengue.
Sueco & Johanna have been dancing together since 2013 and have won several bachata competitions. Since 2016 they are teaching and traveling on a professional level while residing in Madrid where they also have their own group of students. Their goal is to share their work with the world and to spread the Dominican culture.
EDWIN M FERRERAS
Edwin Ferreras is a knowledgeable and enthusiastic ethnomusicologist and scholar. Born in 1984 in San Pedro De Macoris, Dominican Republic he moved to Washington Heights, New York at a young age.
While in New York City, he earned his BA in Music Education with a secondary concentration in Music. After graduating, Edwin began an international dance and teaching career and in 2016 began working with dance and business partner Dakhóta Romero and in 2017 formed their educational dance company Areíto Arts.
That same year Edwin was awarded and recognized as International Ambassador of Dominican Arts by Pablo Abreu and the Dominican Culture Club in New York in conjunction with the Asociación de Bailadores de Manoguayabo in the Dominican Republic. As Cultural Ambassador from 2017-2020, he worked to further spread Dominican Arts around the world. In the 2018/19 school year Edwin received two awards from the New York City Department of Education, “Excellence in Teaching” for achieving tenure and the Master Educator Award titled “Teacher of Teachers.”
As a world-class educator, he has taught and trained dancers from all over the world; his professional credits as educator and curator include HBO Max Romeo Santos “King of Bachata,” Facebook Global, Youtube Studios, Curriculum development and teacher training for NYC Department of Education, City College Dominican Studies Institute, NYU Afro Caribbean studies, Dream Project Bachata Academy in the Dominican Republic and New York.
CAROLINA BUSTAMANTE
Carolina Bustamante was born in Quindío, Colombia in 1991 and from a very young age she started to fall in love with dance.
In 2007 Carolina left Colombia and moved to the north of Sweden but continued learning and taking dance classes by regularly traveling to the capital Stockholm. In 2012 Carolina decided to move to Stockholm permanently to dedicate herself fully to the dance. Starting from zero with only a desire to dance and evolve she was soon a highly skilled dancer teaching both salsa, bachata and kizomba. She started traveling to congresses and festivals all over the world to learn more and has during the last couple of years dedicated herself fully to bachata, merengue and the most popular dance styles in the Dominican Republic.
In October 2015 Carolina spent a month in the Dominican Republic taking classes and dancing while falling even more in love with the Dominican culture. She has since then developed her own style and enchants dancers and students all over the world with her femininity and sensualness.
With her dance partner, Junior Aquino, and their pro and student teams, Carolina has taught and performed at congresses, festivals and other events all over the world. During the last couple of years Carolina is also leading her very own team of ladies, BachaQueens, with some of the best female bachata dancers in Stockholm and Sweden.
Since 2021 she runs her own dance school in Stockholm together with her dance partner Junior Aquino, Keloke Dance Studio, which specializes in the dance styles originated from the Dominican Republic.
DAKhóTA ROMERO
Dakhóta Romero is a multi-talented artist with lifelong experience in both music and dance. She was born in Los Angeles, California on the Summer Solstice of 1987 with Native American, Hispanic, and Scandinavian roots.
Dakhóta has been studying dance almost as long as she has been walking, and started her professional career dancing in a Sesame Street produced Music Video at the age of 8. She distinctly remembers the moment her passion for Afro-Caribbean rhythms emerged in her teenage years, when her grandmother taught her chachachá.
While studying abroad at University, Dakhóta was introduced to bachata and instantly fell in love. After earning her BA in Music, and after 10 years of studying bachata music and dance, in 2017 she co-founded Areíto Arts (an Afro-Caribbean Dance company specializing in history, music, and culture) along with her dance and business partner Edwin Ferreras. Together they have worked at dance events across 6 continents, teaching many world class international artists along the way, and have been featured educators at various teacher trainings, which have professionally developed instructors globally.
Dakhóta’s professional credits include Insider, Telemundo, News Stations in the US, Canada and Dominican Republic, Bachata Academy (DR), Lincoln Center (NYC), Museum of New York, and Guinness World Records.
Dakhóta is also an accomplished singer. She has performed all over the world with renowned artists including Joe Veras, Alexandra “La Reina de la Bachata,” and Carlos Santana to name a few, and her debut bachata “La Mujer de Tu Vida” has taken the dance scene by storm.
As an Indigenous woman, her passion for culture, history, and representation translates into her creative work and love for Dominican Arts.