COMPETITION BENEFITS SOCIAL DANCING. This website is dedicated to social ballroom dancing, not competition ballroom dancing. However, it is appropriate to acknowledge the debt that social ballroom dancing owes to competition ballroom dancing.
Before competition ballroom dancing the only form of dancing that was precisely defined by a system of notation was ballet. The ballet notation was appropriate to and adequate for ballet, but inappropriate to and inadequate for ballroom dancing.
Competition ballroom dancing resulted in a careful study of ballroom dancing, revealing the secrets of how good dancers danced. New notation was developed which was especially appropriate to describe ballroom dancing. The new notation was used to document good dancing which enables ordinary people who study and practice to dance like the rare few who were born with exceptional talent. The new notation is explained most fully in the book by Alex Moore, which gives detailed instructions on how to do international standard competition dancing.
The form of competition dancing most closely related to social dancing is international standard, previously known as international modern. This is because it is based on a man leading a lady around the dance floor. By contrast, the type known as American smooth is based on show dancing, having flourishes similar to ballet, and choreographed separation between the partners.
COMPETITION ON AMERICAN TV. The former PBS program "Championship Ballroom Dancing" ended in about the year 2000. Fortunately it started again under a new name and a new format in 2006. It is called "America's Ballroom Challenge". The 2007 edition aired in five parts on your local PBS station on Jan 31, Feb 7, Feb 14, Feb 21 and Feb 28 in the evening, unless the adversaries of dance in your community prevailed on your station to substitute something else. A different style of dancing was featured in each of the parts. The 2008 edition is scheduled to start airing on wednesday Jan 30 2008. Mark your calendar.
It might be a good idea to record the program when it appears again. Then you can compare what you see with things described in this website, such as the ballroom hold, the differences between ballroom and latin described here and here, the differences between American and international ballroom dances described here and the description of the viennese waltz. If you have a reminder program on your computer, make a note.
The popular program "Dancing With the Stars" on ABC gives a false impression of competition ballroom dancing. When contestants are supposed to be doing slow foxtrot, tango, or quickstep, they are likely to do onestep instead because it is easier, and the judges do not object, they give the contestant a score of 7 out of 10. At least onestep is a ballroom dance, not a latin dance. Sometimes the contestant substitutes a latin dance or a freestyle show dance for a ballroom dance, then the judges do object. No matter whether the judges object seriously to a latin performance or a ballroom performance the audience protests loudly at the judges. The teachers who dance with each contestant are nearly all specialists in latin, not ballroom, so the latin performances are usually more authentic than the ballroom performances.
I have never been happy with the way ballroom dancing has been televised in the competitions with six couples on the floor at the same time. The audience is never afforded the chance to evaluate it as a competitive sport. This is because only brief glimpses of each couple are shown during a dance. The audience might see one couple's best move, another's worst move, the audience has no way of knowing. Good cameras are inexpensive today. The proper way of televising would be to have two cameras following each couple from opposite sides or opposite corners of the room. With 6 couples this would require 12 cameras and 12 camera operators. The show as actually televised should show each couple's entire performance in turn during a single dance, switching between the two cameras following that couple as needed to get the best view at any moment. Thus the viewer would see the same dance 6 times, and be able to compare in detail each couple's performance. While it might require fewer cameras to show each couple in a solo performance, they would not show the competitive spirit that is so exciting to watch. Even if it is decided not to show each couple's complete performance, they should at least be allowed to complete two figures before switching the camera to another couple.
Another important point is that all of each couple should be shown, from head to toe. No shots of heads, feet, or elbows! It is instructive to see why the Fred Astair movies showed dancing so well. The Fred Astaire biography by Bill Adler on p.113 explains. "He wanted no cuts to close-ups, no cuts to feet in motion, no cuts of the shoulders moving, no cuts of isolated parts of the body inserted in the flow of action. It destroyed the concept of the dance. So did overhead shots, wierd-angle shots, and straight-down shots from twelve o'clock high. The camera should shoot about eye level, or perhaps even below that... . Dancing was the whole body--or it was nothing." This did not mean that there could be no cuts. On p.114 Fred explains "If, however, the 'B' take is much better in one sequence, while the 'A' is better in another, the best sequences are pieced together, but the sequence of the dance itself is never broken." The Astair dolly was developed to move the camera about two feet off the floor. The dolly followed the movement of the dancers, it did not have a separate movement of its own. Today zoom lenses would achieve a similar effect. The zoom should keep the couple filling the frame from head to toe. The zoom should not be used to make the dancers seem far away at one moment, close up at another.
COMPETITION VIENNESE WALTZ. The international competition Viennese waltz is a much simpler dance than the others. One improvement that has been proposed is to add more figures. This lacks imagination, shows a lack of understanding of the true nature of the dance. It is a social dance, with lots of dodging and weaving on crowded floors. The proper solution is to borrow an idea from skiing where flag poles are introduced into the slalom events. A disk with rubber on the bottom to avoid damage to the dance floor and weighed down with two small sandbags could have a flagpole in the center. Dancers would be required to dodge and weave between a series of such obstacles like skiers on a slalom run. If this scheme is not acceptable, another way of making the dance more interesting and more challenging would be to use music with tempo variations typical of Viennese waltzes in the 1800's.
BAD COMPETITION DANCING. The different dances should have a different look and feel about them. This is especially true in international standard. It is less true in American smooth, where all the dances tend to look like travelling swing dances at different tempos. Back to international standard. Slow waltz should be dreamy, swooping, swirling. Slow foxtrot: cool, suave, flowing. Tango: determined, aggressive, prowling, grounded. Quickstep: smooth, lively, playful, uninhibited, flying. Viennese waltz: elegant, serene, flying. But with the exception of Viennese waltz, non-syllabus figures are legal. Dancers who are mediocre at syllabus figures try to spice up their dancing with non-syllabus figures that sometimes destroy the character of the dance.
Continuous pivots in tango have have a flying quality, not a grounded quality, and have nothing to do with tango. Many competitors eliminate the walk and progressive sidestep from their tango and it looses its prowling aspect. The prowling provides a much needed contrast with the livelier figures.
Hopping and charleston in quickstep may be legal, but they are not not smooth and miss the point of quickstep. Some competitors do nothing but hopping and Charleston; absolutely no real quickstep. Perhaps there should be a separate competition dance for hopping and charleston.
The situation is even worse in some latin dances. A couple may do nothing but play acting in rumba, no real dancing of any kind, without doing a single syllabus figure in their entire performance. Perhaps the skimpy costumes killed syllabus rumba, which would look best with the man in a white dinner jacket and black tuxedo pants, the lady in a light colored tea length full skirted cocktail dress.
For more on competition dancing click here .
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