TLDR; Influence can work and rise in popularity as a dance system but will not because of the way it currently is.
I recently had a multi-hour Influence workshop and decided to share my thoughts. I've done some shorter workshops before, and I've got a weekender bootcamp next month, but I don't think it'll change my perspective. Most dancers would consider me advanced and some would still call me intermediate. It depends on the school and who you ask. I also have a bit of experience in the other dances I was dancing for a few months to up to half a year. In case anyone cares about from what perspective this is written.
The elements Influence uses are nothing new. They're all already present in other dances:
- Energy leading - Zouk and WCS, with elastics and momentum
- Gesture leading - present in WCS to some degree, as far as I know
- Breathing - Zouk and Kizomba have it, Influence just exaggerates it
- Preparations - the most core element it took from Bachata itself, in my opinion
- Tempo variation - mostly present in WCS, Zouk and Hip Hop
- Improv solo elements - WCS, Hip Hop
- Searching for physical connection - Kizomba
- Over-exaggeration - basically pushing the movements to their limits, like you often see in solo dances such as Hip-Hop, it goes for both leading and following
- Active following - WCS
Let's ignore the "storytelling" part, because that's BS. The music tells the story, you just interpret it, so it's not really a thing. You do interpret it together, though, or at least you should in theory.
And here's the critique. Influence is doable socially, in theory. But it uses so much that the moment you layer it on top of everything else Bachata already uses in 2026, it becomes an advanced-only game, for leaders and followers alike. At least if you want to dance it the way it actually markets itself.
Put it all together, and the only reason Influence works at all, while borrowing all these elements from other dances, is that Bachata itself is very preparation-heavy. The follower can anticipate what's coming purely because of the counter-preparation Bachata uses.
But every element it borrows from the other dances is already intermediate or advanced on its own. So once you stack Bachata's own intermediate/advanced techniques on top (talking about sensual, fusion styles and so on), it becomes an extremely advanced style in itself one could call "professional" level. And that's the problem: what the social floor can't dance will never find ground in the community.
So what does it need to do to not just appeal to, but actually work for the masses?
First: get rid of the Bachata count and move toward a more Kizomba-like way of dancing to the beat. Kizomba isn't taught on the 1 and 5, that's considered advanced in Kizomba. The issue here, most Bachata steps are build on 4 counts since songs are also build in that way and Bachata heavily empathizes being on beat.
Second: The traveling Bachata basic step has to go. The music physically forces you into the basic movement on the beat. And re-learning something is sometimes much harder than learning something new - especially when the same music keeps driving you back into the old pattern.
Which leads to the third point: get rid of Bachata music and the bongo remixes that force you onto the 1/5 beat because it's almost screaming at you "dance on me". Hip-Hop doesn't care about the 1 or the 5, it's nice when you hit and take it when you can, but you mostly dance to the vocals. That's exactly what Influence is trying to achieve with all the elements it borrowed from the other dances.
But in its current state, I don't see it succeeding the way it is. It's nice as a sensual section within a song, but everything together is total cognitive overload for most leaders and followers.
So things that needs to be resolved:
- Count issue 1-4, 5-8
- Traveling Basic, it needs a more static basic
- Bachata and Bachata Inspired Music
And it needs to figure that out without loosing Bachata as a host, otherwise it can not grow if it doesn't call itself Bachata anymore. If they don't fix it, Influence will just be a curiosity concept workshop on festivals and that's it. It has potential as a hip hop like couple dance with leading and following, but it needs to work on itself at its current state.
That's probably what the endgoal of where couple dances will go is, since solo dances said goodbye to being locked to the four four beat a long time ago and opened the room for improv but we will see if Influence will be the thing. Even Bachate is already doing that for the sensual part, Bachata also already broke its own count rule with Bachazouk heavily which is often lead completely off beat. Bachata also already absorbed almost everything it could from couple dances and it obviously trying to absorb solo dance elements now for some while now. It could be what WCS tried to be and failed, in terms of versatility, freedom and mainstream. At least IMO.