Ballroom Specifics

[Jack]

Ballroom, Ok now when you start learing these different dances, how many do you work on at once, for me Salsa is all I can handle.

Your thoughts***

[Genesius Redux]

Ballroom, Ok now when you start learing these different dances, how many do you work on at once, for me Salsa is all I can handle.

Your thoughts***

Hey Jack-

That depends on your teacher, the studio, and your energy. If you don't think of dances as exclusive, you start to see how the principles can interrelate--what you do in salsa/mambo can be translated into cha cha or rumba. Many of the steps in foxtrot can be used with some modification in waltz.

Right now I'm working on about 12 different dances--foxtrot, waltz, tango, bolero, samba, salsa, mambo, rumba, cha cha, East Coast Swing, West Coast Swing, Hustle. I know a little about Lindy and Quickstep, a tiny bit of Viennese Waltz. But the technical aspects you're working on can be easily transferred from dance to dance. In most ballroom settings, yes, you learn patterns, and the patterns differ from dance to dance, but the basic principles and techniques you pick up eventually make it possible for you to learn new steps and patterns more and more quickly.

If you're thinking of branching out from salsa and doing a little ballroom, you should work on the dances you most enjoy. I would suggest, to start, maybe some cha cha, rumba, waltz, tango, and East Coast swing. That would give you a broad variety of dances to work on. If you really feel you can't do more than three, then I would suggest rumba, waltz, and tango; or rumba, tango, and East Coast Swing. The cha cha is going to be so close to a lot of what you're doing in salsa that you'll be able to pick it up later pretty easily.

My 2 cents!

Genesius

[Adwiz]

Genesius is right, it depends a lot on what your objectives are.

But I would generally recommend working primarily on Waltz in Standard and Rumba in Latin. These are slower dances and force you to focus on the technique. Once you have that, the same technique applies quite well to some of the other dances, only faster. Jive is radically different, and so is Tango, but even if you work on those at the same time, that would mean you really only have to focus on four dances instead of 10.

Most people leave Slow Foxtrot and Samba for a little while as they develop some comfort in the other dances, because these are more challenging. And only competitors generally work on Paso Doble because there are so few opportunities to use this dance outside of high-level competition. I haven't even begun to work on PD myself for this reason, even though I've already started competing.

[SDsalsaguy]

I'm fiarly in line with Adwiz on this one... if you look at what groupings tend to exist, and which are the preliminary comp groupings for multi-dance events, then Rumba & Cha Cha in Latin and Waltz & QS in Ballroom are probably a good place to start...

[Genesius Redux]

From the point of view of learning, I totally agree that the waltz is likely one of the best introductory dances in ballroom. Tango, however, is more likely to be useful in various social settings--at least where I have danced socially--and I think more immediately fun.

But yes, the slower control is I think fabulous for working on transferable technique. 8)

[twodance]

Every dance in the world and every move you can think of is broken down in to four things. Walking steps, chasses, triple steps and rock steps. So it's just as easy to learn 10 dances as it is to learn one. By working on more dances you can interrelate the steps from one dance to another.

[etchuck]

Some studios in the world may offer this, but I personally think that there should be a 2/3-class-long session in basic dance technique for partner dancing before or while taking beginning dance classes. Frame and connection, body-centered-leading, communicating as a leader or follower. Counting footwork and steps tends to distract from these other very important concepts which work in all types of partner dancing.

That being said, if you do club salsa, I'd suggest trying out mambo. ;)

[DancePoet]

I'm with etchuck on the technique stuff. Very useful to learn the basic ideas of technique. These can be helpful when learning new styles.

Regarding the number of styles, I am focusing on learning seven, and know some of the basics of at least eight others. It is very neat to discover how much can be transfered from one style to another.

[Genesius Redux]

In what I've done, most technique is taught in the course of private lessons anyway. While some beginner group classes can focus on the very basics of the technical, the primary aim of the group class, in my view, is getting everyone up and comfortable and dancing. The secondary aim (or the real primary aim if you think from a business angle) is to get everyone in the class pumped about taking privates. If you try to slip too much technique in too soon, you send a lot of your clients running for the hills.

I usually think of myself as a pretty technically oriented person when learning something new--but looking back on it, I don't know that I would have been ready for a lot of technical stuff early on. You need to learn the basic patterns of a dance first.

I remember learning waltz for the first time--I was imitating rising and falling long before I started learning how to do it. And the imitation of the rise and fall that I was seeing in more advanced dancers (along with my background in music) also led me quite naturally into hitting the 2 rather than the 1.

In rumba, I'd been working on the general feel of the dance, especially the hold in the basic step, for at least a couple of months before I was introduced to Latin motion.

And I guess I've also noticed that with some beginning dancers, it takes a long time just to introduce the "basic" basics that some of us take for granted. You change your weight when you step. Leaders put their right hands on their partners' shoulder blades, not their waists. Step directly into your partner rather than duck-walking.

Don't get me wrong--there's nothing quite so awful in my mind as someone who has learned a whole bunch of steps and no technique. I danced the other night, a cha cha, with someone who'd been at a franchise studio (no name on the public forums) who had her own ideas of the steps she was doing and did them independently of any lead. That was the fault of the studio because I knew she was taking privates and had been for over a year. But it's not the fault of group lessons--a group lesson is a group lesson, and depending on the size of the group, its purpose is mostly to be fun and social.

There are a couple of other threads on this stuff though. Structure of a Private Lesson, What Makes a Lesson.

Cheers,

Genesius

[etchuck]

True, one should learn technique in a private lesson, although you have to know that's what you want in a private. Most people who are casual social dancers wouldn't think about spending money on private lessons. But there are regular constants that should be important anyway that you can do in a group lesson. Connection and frame at least is important, as well as being able to adjust for different partners. The teachers here who instruct in salsa or swing put a big focus on technique and connection for their beginners' sessions in a way that no other ballroom teacher had ever done for me before. They do an excellent job of pointing out the "common mistakes" that most people make so that we are at least knowledgeable that leaders should not really put their hands on their followers' waists or lower. But differentiating between putting weight on the ball and the heel of the foot I think is important, because you need to be in balance when you are dancing; if you cannot understand how important that balance and connection are, you're going to step on someone, or someone will step on you.

Essentially it's a question of eliminating the fear of running straight into someone while dancing and breaking a leg. Think of it as injury protection.

Characteristics of dances, from hip/Latin motion to rise-and-fall, on the other hand, I think are dance techniques better covered in small group lessons among dedicated dancers.

P.S. In searching for other places to dance in DC, I did notice that the dance studio of the person from whom I take a private does teach a series of group classes specifically on technique for beginners and intermediates. (ChevyChaseBallroom.com, I think)

[Jack]

My teacher for privates is keeping me on hearing the beat, and staying with it, technique too. I can learn the moves zi went to her for a tune up that dind't take me long to find I needed it. I may venture in the ballroom arena at the end of the year, but it seems Salsa goes on forever.

[dancin_feet]

I am intensively working on 7 and playing around with another 6 dance types. I can be working on up to 6-7 different dances a week! Depending on what we work on in my private lesson (could be 2 or 3 different dances), what groups are covered that week, etc. Then there are the weekly parties which generally cover a bit of everything anyway. Some people can only handle 1 or 2 dance types in a week. Much more than that and they get confused as to what steps go with what dance. Even if they are having 2-3 private lessons a week. :shock:

Just depends on your ability and you goals in dancing. I do believe though that the further you progress, the more you should be able to take on and not get confused, if that's what you want to do, of course. :wink:

[Jack]

Wish I could handle that many dances at once, but Im in the process of getting another partner, the one I had had major foot surgery out of action 6mo.
I think I am a slower learner than others, especially if we learn 2 complicated moves in 1 hour. I have started writing it down when I get home,maybe that will help. Ya'll are great thanks for the advice from all of you.

[KevinL]

I think I am a slower learner than others, especially if we learn 2 complicated moves in 1 hour.

Two complicated moves in an hour is plenty, if you really leard how to do them.

I have started writing it down when I get home,maybe that will help. Ya'll are great thanks for the advice from all of you.

Writing things down in a way that will help you remember them is among the best things that you can do to improve your dancing. Keep it up!

Kevin