
Three Worlds of Ballroom Dance
Ballroom Dance and DanceSport World is divided into three primary sub categories: Social Ballroom / Competitive Ballroom / Exhibition Ballroom. And for those who question the resemblance and differences, Richard Powers was able to come up with a very detailed breakdown on the differences between the three:
What is the essential difference between the three? The main distinction is that they have different audiences. Who are you dancing for, beyond your own enjoyment? |
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(DanceSport) |
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Then looking closer at the differences…
What are your audience’s expectations? |
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What is your attitude? |
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• Flexibly adaptive. You value and accommodate to styles that are different from your own. |
• The many styles outside of the official syllabus are usually considered to be incorrect. |
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What is the attitude concerning mistakes? |
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• When a Follow does something different from what the Lead intended, he knows it’s a valid alternative interpretation of his lead. • Social dancers are happy if things work out 80% of the time. And the other 20% is when most learning happens. |
• When a Follow does something different from what the Lead intended, he considers it a mistake, which is to be eliminated. • Competitive dancers work hard to achieve 100%. |
• For amateur performances, audiences mostly want to see that the dancers are enjoying themselves, so mistakes are tolerated. |
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What is your reward? |
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• The satisfaction of becoming proficient in a dance form. • Self confidence. |
• The satisfaction of becoming proficient in a dance form. • Self confidence. |
• The satisfaction of becoming proficient in a dance form. • Self confidence. |
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Are there standardized steps and technique? |
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Is there a standardized style? |
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Is there a fixed choreography? |
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Does it require split-second decision-making? |
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Difficult technique
To state the obvious, competitive ballroom technique is designed for competitions. If dance technique is easy, judges won’t be able to separate the good dancers from the very best. Therefore competitive ballroom technique is intentionally difficult, so that only the very best dancers can master it. It requires many years, and extreme focus, to master this technique. U.S. Ballroom Dance Champion Stephen Hannah said, “You must want to go to the very top and be the very best dancer. You must be able to use your time seven days a week without allowing any other influences to interfere.”
Conversely, social ballroom technique is intentionally easy. Dance partnering is challenging enough as it is, to coordinate one’s movements with another person. And most people want to dance with their friends as soon as possible. Therefore social dance technique is intentionally expedient, so that dancers can focus on their partners instead of intricate footwork.
Originally posted by Richard Powers. Read the full article HERE
Photography : Egorich.ca