A dance calling?

[pygmalion]

In my web travels, over and over again, I've seen the same story. A person may have danced for years, tried different dance disciplines, and, all of a sudden, they are introduced to a new discpline and fall in love. Or they never danced at all, and now have become reall dance freaks -- sometimes even dance professionals.

I've heard a lot of that from salsa dancers who start in ballroom or swing. But when the salsa bug bit, they were hooked for life. I've heard it from an Argentine tango dancer who used to do ballroom and now is a recognized figure in the AT world. I've heard it from my lindy teachers who started out in ballroom, too.

Question. Have you experienced a dance "epiphany," so to speak? Did you start in one dance discipline and end up in another? Or did you get to a point in your life, and have the importance of dance "revealed" to you?

How has it affected you?

[Sagitta]

I started out with swing as there seemed to be a lot of it around here, where I live. Then when sasla came along I knew that was the dance for me. I tried it out, tried to stay away, but came back to it. For me it was the question of the music. Salsa music speaks to me on a subconscious level in a way that no other music can!

I know of one person who started out doing salsa, but once she did a bit of cajun/zydeco she was hooked. I beleive here it was the question of musical attitude. She does cajun/zydeco and rueda now.

[LauraB]

Well, I've told my story before, so I'll just sum up: I started with ballet and jazz, and always dreamed of being in a ballet company. Injuries occurred to *destroy* that dream. A couple years later, I discovered ballroom dance (as a teacher!), and have never looked back. I love it more than ballet now, and I am so glad that it basically fell in my lap.

[DancingMommy]

It was that way for me......

I started out in Ballet/Tap/Jazz and when I found Ballroom I was hooked for life... AS I delved deeper into partner dancing, I found that I have specific favorites that I "bust out" better than others.... Most notable; Quickstep & WCS. I'll drop what I'm doing (even eating) for those 2 dances. Everything else is "ok" but I couldn't live without them.

At the last USABDA dance here, they played a Quickstep... Not just any quickstep, but one I knew every break, high point, etc in the music. It's one of my faves because it has such neat cresecendoes. I had to sit on my hands since I'm about ready to pop with this kid.... Hubby wouldn't dance it withme because he was afraid I'd sprain a cervix or something. We did however dance every WCS (or variant thereof) that came down the pike. 8)

To me, the epiphany comes when you realize that if a certain type of song comes on, you can't *not* dance to it. I could dance Quickstep all day and night and never get tired of it. Hubby is Foxtrot fanatic.

I think we all have our favorites that won't let us go. The more you know about dancing and the larger lexicon you have, it gets better and better.

[Larinda McRaven]

I have a BFA in Theatre and Stage Perfomance. All through college I was taking dance classes as requirements. Everyone knew that I could not dance. It was b.a.d...!

One night, right before I graduated from college, I met a person that would change my life forever, his name is Don, and I still am great friends with him. At the time he was a ballroom teacher and competed in American Rhythm, now he is into country western. A few weeks later he said "hey my studio is having a dance this Sunday, why don't you stop by and keep me company."

I went in the studio just to hang out and suddenly everyone was showing me stuff. I was doing all of the dances, american and international, by the end of the night.

I never looked back!

[Pacion]

I have been told that I was always dancing as a child and eventually got my desire to have ballet classes. Haven't stopped since. :oops: But, even when I don't get to dance, say in a class/club, I still find a way to dance :lol: next time you pass a bus stop and someone is dancing, look at them carefully :wink:

Then, I found salsa or salsa found me :lol: "it is my favourite dessert" :lol:

[TangoCharlie]

I started doing latin and ballroom before I discovered Ceroc (Ceroc being a version of modern jive) and was hooked! Ceroc is just so much more fun and the beauty of it is that for a beginner, there's hardly any technique and zero footwork to speak of. I still do latin and ballroom but Ceroc is so diverse that you can dance it to anything (pretty much) so it comes in very handy!

[dancin_feet]

Started in Jazz / Ballet / Tap as a kid and was introduced to ballroom through that. Never really had a preference at the time. When I started dancing again about 10 months ago, I looked to ballroom as a way of meeting people through dancing. The moment I started again, it all came flooding back. I had my epiphany and realised that this was what my life had been missing all along.

Now I wouldn't give up my "partner" dancing for anything. I don't ever want to specialise, I think I would get bored if I did. I just want to be good at everything!! :lol:

[Pacion]

The moment I started again, it all came flooding back.

:shock: I had a similiar experience a few weeks ago! I went to my first ballet class in years :!: and my arms remember to "breathe" during the opening bars of the music, my head wanted to turn/angle depending on my lead arm and which leg was extended :shock: It is an amazing experience and great to know that the hours of study/buckets of money spent, didn't entirely go to waste :lol:

[Sagitta]

The moment I started again, it all came flooding back.

:shock: I had a similiar experience a few weeks ago! I went to my first ballet class in years :!: and my arms remember to "breathe" during the opening bars of the music, my head wanted to turn/angle depending on my lead arm and which leg was extended :shock: It is an amazing experience and great to know that the hours of study/buckets of money spent, didn't entirely go to waste :lol:

It never does. :)

[DancePoet]

My first memory of dance is catching glimpses and liking Fred Astaire, Ginger Rodgers, Gene Kelly, and probably others in old movies on T.V. I also remember seeing a film with Hines and Barishnikov where the tap dancing was very cool. I also recall watching ice dancing during Olympic telecasts, and vaguely remember enjoying a ballroom dance competition on T.V., too. Unfortunately, dance wasn't something encouraged in my family, and my parents had six kids which made finances tough. I had one sister take ballet for a bit, but that didn't seem to be for me.

Then many years later, mid 80's, I saw a tango in "Scent of a Woman. At the time I remember feeling it was something I had to eventually learn. I recently went back and viewed it again, and discovered it wasn't as great a scene as I remember, but it still gets my adrenalin moving. Now I have been dancing since last summer, and I continue to be drawn towards tango. I like the subtlties, the music, the movement, and that special something that comes from deep down inside, driving me to learn more, and experience the magic.

I like other forms as well, prefering the smooths to the rythmns, but I haven't felt any of them draw me in like tango. Perhaps there will be some more surprises, like I just learned how to do a basic foxtrot grapevine which tickled my fancy, yet tango continues to intrique me and I can't wait to learn more!

[danceguy]

I started with Ballroom Salsa, then did just about every dance I could...but eventually came back to Salsa and was hooked! I still do a little Ballroom now and then...and have considering getting into WCS.

Salsa is still my favorite though...I find I can express myself the most through the dance and music. :)

SG