Bailes Are Back — And the New Generation Is Making Sure They’re Inclusive

People decked out in vaquero boots, hats, button-downs, fringe, and wide-leg jeans. Loud music pulsating with accordions, horns, and drums. A sense of relief and escape from life’s stressors. These are the things you see, hear, and feel when you step foot inside a baile — an event where people gather to listen to, and, more importantly, dance to Mexican regional music.

“It's an amazing experience. Once you go there, you forget about the real world,” 21-year-old Hillary Domenzain tells Refinery29 Somos. “In the moment, you’re just enjoying the music, the vibes, being with your friends, your family, or whoever you're going with.”

A Houston, Texas-based professional tambora player and dancer, Domenzain also goes by the stage name Hillary La Calentana. When Domenzain goes to the baile on one of her bad days, all it takes is one song for her mood to change for the better. 

Once an outdated social gathering for our moms, dads, tías, and tíos, younger generations are breathing new life into the art and community of bailes. As a new generation of Mexican artists began reinventing traditional Mexican regional music in 2020, young people were also reimagining its dance cultures. But with the Covid-19 pandemic forcing everyone to stay indoors, Domenzain explored baile through social media.

“I got most of my following during the pandemic, because there wasn't much to do, so I just used that free time to record TikTok videos,” says Domenzain, who has more than 846,000 followers on the platform. Making dancing videos in this style was the only way to interact with baile culture in 2020 and 2021.

Unable to meet in person, people dressed up, played music, and danced on the social media platform. Domenzain’s peers — like El Baile Twins, Vicente Herrera, and Cheque El Huapanguero — kept baile culture alive digitally. They brought the ‘fits, dances, and music to audiences via phone screens.

Once the world opened back up, so did bailes. And people like Domenzain immediately ran to the gatherings. “Whenever bailes started opening up, I didn't hesitate to go,” says the musician and dancer. 

With the younger generations taking over, one of the main things that evolved in baile culture is the crowd composition. Back in the day, the baile-goers were mostly Mexican and Chicano. Los bailes de hoy are a much more inclusive space, as Tiaunt Lewis, who goes by the stage name Chocolate Uno, proves. 

Lewis, who’s Black American with Southern roots, is one of the most recognizable figures of the current baile culture. He has almost one million followers on TikTok and is often hired to dance at concerts and quinceañeras.

And it all started because of a viral performance he delivered at Picolandia in 2021. Picolandia is one of the largest baile events, which takes place at the Pico Rivera Sports Arena in Pico Rivera, California.

“I went there, and all eyes immediately shot on me because I was the only Black guy,” recalls Lewis. “Everybody was making a circle around me, and I would dance in the middle. It was so fun.”

But Lewis isn't the only non-Latine dancer celebrated by the baile community. Both online and in-person, there are star performers like Lewis and YouLovElla_ — who has dedicated her entire feed to bailes and ranchero lifestyle — as well as everyday baile goers.

Bailes, both the events and the dances they literally refer to, have been a staple of Mexican culture since the early aughts, says Estevan Azcona, PhD, an ethnomusicologist and professor at the University of Arizona’s Southwest Center. 

Like the Zoot Suits of the 1940s, who’d find joy amid discrimination and race-related violence through Pachuco Boogie, the younger generation is also using these traditional styles of music and dance to find belonging and bliss. 

“The ways in which the new generation is communicating themselves into the world is through these forms that are obviously also forms of curation,” Azcona adds. “They're choosing what is important to share [on social media] on top of what they do.”

Similarly, the bailadores and culture curators who are driving bailes today do so as a result of being confined to their homes (and phone screens) five years ago. “We’d been locked up for a long time, and I had so much energy. I had so many creative ideas I wanted to do [at the bailes],” says Domenzain. Namely? “Dancing in front of people [instead of] doing some short videos in my living room.”

In doing so, young people like Domenzain and Lewis are innovators and drivers of baile culture. 

For instance, Domenzain was excited to publicly show a style of dance that she popularized on TikTok. “I know how to dance to everything, but my main thing is zapateado calentano.” Calentano refers to “Tierra Caliente,” a region in southern Mexico — particularly Michoacán, Guerrero, and the state of Mexico — where the land is hot. It also refers to the style of fashion and dance that Domenzain practices.

Lewis drives forward bailes just like Domenzain, infusing dances from his own culture with his favorite baile classics — like “Mambo Lupita” and “La Boda Del Huitlacoche,” which has 227 million views on YouTube at the time of writing. For instance, Lewis created a dance he calls “krumpeteado,” which is a blend of movements from krump and zapateado.

“You could do the basic zapateado step and then incorporate a hip-hop move during that,” says Lewis. “As long as you’re doing the basic zapateado step with your feet, you're good. Upper body is on you — you could even do the worm. That's what makes how I do it so unique.”

Azcona says that previous generations would be so happy to still see young people dancing to zapateado and huapango, which the ethnomusicologist says is just as important as the corrido. Bailes, like other events and dance forms, will always evolve. 

Ultimately, the excitement, sound, and innovation of bailes isn’t just about culture. Azcona says that, at its core, “it’s about vibrancy, exuberance, and energy.” And as Domezian and Lewis prove, it’s also become a space for cross-racial and cross-ethnic unity.