Contact in dancing

[fire_dancer]

Although I've only been dancing for a little bit, I've still seen some differences in the way that people teach the connection/contact aspect of ballroom. For example, in Foxtrot some teachers are advocates of not touching your partner at all (with the exceptions of the frame, of course), while others tell their students to have ribcage/ribcage connection. The same goes with Waltz.... I know much of this probably deals with expertise (you wouldn't expect a new dancer to dance a 5-point connection in Tango), but can anyone please explain the best connection to have with each smooth/standard dance?

Thanks!

[Chris Stratton]

I don't really think it differs between the dances (though the details are slightly different) but instead depends on what goals are trying to be achieved, in what order.

While there have been recent world champions between which you can see flashes of daylight, and those between which you can't, the end result of any fully thought out path should be fairly similar - it's the path to that point, the opinion about which tradeoffs are temporarily acceptable and which ones are not, that differs between teachers.

[arianiah]

For ballroom i took a workshop with Jonathon Wilkins and Ketusha Demidova and they had us dance with our partners with our hands to our sides. So we were only connected at the torso/ribcage. It was interesting but it really makes you more aware of how your partner moves and how to lead/follow to make you dance more smoothly. It helps you keep that connection tight so you aren't depending on just your hands to do the lead/following.

[Chris Stratton]

Yes, there are indeed a variety of approaches to teaching - I can recall having a rather famous teacher backlead me by my left hand alone through figures I hadn't at that point realized were possible in foxtrot... the necessary information is wherever you choose to put it and seek it.

[tangotime]

I find that quite interesting -- the comment about j.ws. approach to the no hands position-- talk about the wheel turning a full circle !!-- when i was but a very very young amat- ( early fifties ) i decided to go to peggy spencers studio in Penge ( a good train ride from london ) during the course of the evenings dance -- she announced was time to have some fun-- and proceeded to inform all present that they were to rise-- grab a partner and commence to dance feather--rev turn-- feather finish and natural-- you guessed it hands behind the back !-- some things never die---- p.s.-- for those of you who do not know whom she is-- at one time-- the doyen of english ballroom and presenter on eng t.v. for " come dancing" series-- world championship coach and adjud ( G. Hearne is her protoge )

[fire_dancer]

So what I'm hearing is that to touch or not is all up to the style of the competitor, and though the body connection shouldn't be overbearing, it should at least be there a little?

[Chris Stratton]

Sort of... good couples tend to be at least visually close the majority of the time. The bigger difference is the priority - some consider it a basic requirement, others that closeness and/or contact will be created in time as skills that might enable it are developed. And even at the end of the process you can often still see a difference in appearance between couples where contact is "important" to keeping them coordinated, vs couples where it is "incidental" as a result of the fact that they are coordinated.

[yaniv]

Since you have only been dancing for a little bit, I recommend you focus first on connecting through the frame with no (or very little) ribcage connection to develop your dance technique. Of course when you're actually dancing full-out -- whether it's socially or competitively -- you want to have both types of connections activated. There is a subtle difference of focus between different couples, but both connections are there. After all, dancing is much more enjoyable when actually get to touch your partner :)