Ballroom Dancing

[Chris Silver]

I was just curious to know how many people actually ballroom dance, or have ever tried it? I personally love it, I've been ballroom dancing for about 5 years now!! Its so fun!!

 

[Crono]

I'm mostly a swing dancer, but I have learned a little ballroom. I really like some of it, especially tango and waltz. I haven't gotten any farther than the basics though. I would like to learn more, but I dedicate most of my time to swing dancing instead.

 

[Chris Silver]

I love swing dancing, heh, it is so fun. Besides swing, did you really only try the smooth though? Or perhaps the standard, depending on if you were doing American or International... If you really want to get into it though, Rythm and Latin are the best, thats where you do you swing, jive, samba, mombo, cha-cha, rumba, etc....

 

[Crono]

I've only had a few classes on ballroom dancing. Most of what I've learned has been what I was taught informally on the dance floor or by experimenting on my own. I don't know if the teachers were teaching American or International, but from what I know about the two styles, I suspect it was American. I actually do dance salsa and cha-cha occassionally, both of which I do enjoy. As much as I like waltz and tango, there isn't much opportunity to dance them here.

 

[Chris Silver]

Well yeah, being a teenager, I know that the waltz, and foxtrot, tango, those are the type of dances you do at balls... where the cha-cha, salsa, mombo, etc... is where you can freestyle with friends at parties... thats why I've always been more into the rythm and latin than anything

 

[Multi-Elis]

I did a year of it. Waltz, Chachacha and Rock were my favorate. I stopped for lack of time

 

[Chris Silver]

I did a year of it. Waltz, Chachacha and Rock were my favorate. I stopped for lack of time

Really? You should really get back into it if its what you really like to do, check out 'Ohio Star Ball' sometime, it is the biggest ballroom competition in North American, I atend every year, I am actually thinking about meeting an online friend there perhaps this year, he sounds really interested in it, and people all around the world atend it, its a absoulute great place to meet new friends and pick up on excellent dance steps

 

[Multi-Elis]

Well it's for lack of time that I don't get back to it. To give you an idea - I do on avrege 2 hours of ballet or contemporary dance a day, in addition to finishing up university.
What I found most difficult, mind blasting even, is slow waltz. You know, you have to change box direction every time. And when we had to turn, I was lost. The girls who danced with me in the role of a guy did much better than the guys. I have a retired friend (he's over 60) who likes to dance and did years of ballroom dancing before getting into folkdancing and circle dancing. He was willing once to lead me in a slow waltz, down a sidewalk, but I was too embarrassed. When I told him how difficult it was, and how I was having a hard time remembering to change feet, and how guys would get mad at me for not remembering, he told me that if the partner is good, I shouldn't have that problem. He should do the leading, and be good enough so that I don't have to think about it. That was reassuring.

 

[Chris Silver]

Yeah thats very true, if the guy can lead, the lady shouldn't have to hard of a time following, heh, I do agree, Waltz is hard, or at least for me anyways, I don't do to much of smooth or standard myself, I do alot of the rythm and latin you see, so I only know the basics for smooth heh, LOL
but yeah, I would be embarresed doing waltz on the side walk too, heh


But I do about 6 hours of ballet, 6 hours of modern, and about 4-5 hours of ballroom a week atm, which I would be doing more of the ballroom, but I can't with school (my ballet and modern classes are in school hours) so... heh this summer I'll be cranking up the time I spend doing ballroom heh

 

[Multi-Elis]

Wow. at age 15 doing all that dance. You beat me with your ballroom.
You know the difference between slow waltz and regular waltz?

 

[Chris Silver]

no, I never knew there was a difference, I just asumed it depended on the beat of the music how fast it is, but there arn't any different moves or anything that I believe like there are lets say between Latin Rumba, and American Rumba...

Maybe there is, I'm not sure, like I said, I'm not much of a smooth dancer (heh) 15 year old boy, I'm more into the fast dances, fun ones, and stuff like that... I love choregraphed dances, you can add hip-hop and modern, and all kinds of other stuff into it, as long as the base of it is ballroom ya know, especially for showcases, that is when you have the most flexibility (you know, without judges like at competition heh) however, some studio's do hire a judge or two for show cases, I guess it just depends on the event

 

[CarrieROBINS]

i think ballroom dancing rocks!

 

[Quantum_Man]

My fiancee and I love ballroom dancing. We were in the ballroom dancing club in college, that met once a week. My favorites are swing, cha cha and waltz.

 

[Chris Silver]

yeah I love college teams, my father was the coach of a college team for a couple years, and they met I think every monday and wedsday, and I always got to go along, it was always alot of fun, got some good material out of it, and the college students were always a blast to hang out with heh

I'd have to say cha-cha is one of my favorites too, I also like mombo alot too, and the samba line dance is a blast

 

[Multi-Elis]

So the difference between slow waltz and normal waltz, is that in slow waltz they make up for the slowness by making it more complicated: You have to change direction every so many steps. It's not like in normal waltz where it's up to the guy to decide how and when to change the direction of the steps: here you have to follow a certain pattern. The turns are down whith special orientations, and done in a very precise way. Other steps are added that you wouldn't have time to do well in normal waltz. This is only the beginning of the difficulties.

 

[Chris Silver]

lol sound like, heh

I had thought for a minute that it might had been Vinease Waltz, but I guess not... so is slow Waltz your favorite then??

 

[Multi-Elis]

no, just the one I struggle with the most.

 

[Chris Silver]

heh =P

I struggle alot with smooth dances too, like Waltz, Tango, etc...

What is your favorite dance then? In ballroom that is, I'm sure ballroom dancing isn't your favorite style, is it??

 

[Multi-Elis]

my favorates were the chachacha and rock. I had a hard time with the salsa beat, but as soon as the empty spaces were filled in which chachacha steps, it was wonderfull. And then rock is very similar.
One day I changed calsses in mid semester from a salsa (and chachacha) class to a class that does a bit of everything and they were doing the waltz (normal). This one really nice guy in the class taught me in five minutes the steps, and he was really nice and good at contact with people, so his leading the dance was great - to the limit of his knowledge. Any way, waltz came so easy, I guess partially because of all the ballet I've done. So I also love waltz.

I once danced with a dance group where we did dances on the street. There was one swing dance I wasn't part of that I really liked. Well, when I asked my ballroom teacher to teach us swing, it didn't resemble anything I knew. Except for the Charleton, which I never got and can't remember how to do.

You do ballet, right? I read an article about a danseur who prefered partner dancing in ballet than in modern or contemporary. He said that in ballet he got to dance out all the beautifull parts of a couple in love, and in the others, it was like showing how the couple doesn't get along well at all. Do you do partner dancing? Or are you considered to young for it? (I don't know at what age guys start.)

 

[Crono]

I once danced with a dance group where we did dances on the street. There was one swing dance I wasn't part of that I really liked. Well, when I asked my ballroom teacher to teach us swing, it didn't resemble anything I knew. Except for the Charleton, which I never got and can't remember how to do.

Ballroom-style swing is completely different from swing dancing done during the swing era, so it's possible that the dance group was doing the more authentic swing dancing. There are also many different styles of swing dance (lindy hop, west coast swing, east coast swing, charleston, balboa, blues, collegiate shag, Carolina shag, St. Louis shag, boogie woogie, jitterbug, jive, and hustle, just to name a few). It is probably fair to say that ballroom dancing and swing dancing are two different categories of dance with ballroom-style swing being an adaptation of swing dancing.