Creativity in Ballroom

[DancePoet]

Hi folks!

A post by salsachinita over on the salsa forum got me wondering.

I have seen some very high levels of creativity in the rythum dances. At the higher art/skill levels of the smooth dances how creative can it get? Certainly using sylabus patterns, form, technique, etc., in different combinations and ways helps to interpret a particular piece of music, but what about the creativity in patterns? Are there folks creating new stuff? What's going on up there at the top?

[Chris Stratton]

As a formalized style, American smooth probably offers a greater range of creative interpretation than its cousin standard - in addition to a greater variety of positions there is less binding tradition, greater variety in costumes, etc. Larinda can probably speak more to what is presently being done with that freedom, but it is clear that the style inherits from latin, rhythm, ballet, jazz, theater, etc in adddition to its ballroom roots.

You also made an interesting comment about intepreting the music - one thing that I think is unfortunate about most competition dancing is that it pretty much ignores the music except perhaps for a few exceptions amongst the highest level dancers - and even there, preplanning will probably override response to whatever music you get at the comp. I get the sense that the swing community pays a lot more attention to the music than the ballroom one does - I remember in my first few weeks of dancing assuming that learning to fit musical phrasing in (newcomer competition american rhythm) swing would be import, only to be suprised that no one had a clue what I was talking about. I pretty soon quit worrying about it much - though I did notice in a competition this past weekend that in one round, the viennese waltz felt wierd because I just constantly felt off-phrase to a greater degree than usual.

[DancePoet]

Thanks Chris for the comments.

I have only competed in two comps at this point, but I will be doing more. Yes, what I have observed at the Bronze levels is that everyone seems to be focusing on technique, as they should, yet very little is done matching the mucic. And I can see that since the music is not known in advance it would be difficult to interpret the music, unless you are lucky enough to hear music played that is familiar to you.

Even though I am very much a beginner, in dance styles where I have some knowledge of more then just a handful of basic steps, I find myself trying to make the dance connect with the music when I dance socially at least once per week. I have been focusing on Tango, Cha-Cha, Foxtrot, Rumba, Waltz, Hustle, and while I have dabbled in other styles, maintaining focus helps me acquire more knowledge and practice skills that can be used towards artistic dancing. I tend to hear the same music from week to week so I get to hear the same pieces enough to begin matching the patterns to the music. This is not easy, and the more room I have on the floor the more I can be creative with what I am doing. The patterns and my skill level is somewhat limited at this stage of my learning, but I'm looking forward to incorpating new patterns to match the music better.

When I can get my emotions, the music, and the dancing to match, a true dance high is achieved even if it's only for a portion of the song. When this happens it seems my partner's enjoy the dance as well.

Knowing Larinda has a high skill level and having seen her in action winning a recent Pro catagory in American Smooth at a comp I attended in Connecticut, I suspect she can help here, too.

[Adwiz]

Syllabus competition levels (up to Gold) are designed to teach the athletes to consider technique very seriously. This is why technique matters so much at these lower comp levels. This is why you are not allowed to go beyond syllabus steps. Only a minute percentage of people are such natural dancers that they can learn fast enough to bypass this system, so the structure works very well.

Once you master the Gold syllabus level, then (the thinking goes) you have enough muscle memory and technique knowledge to start getting creative with your moves and to interpret the music. Up until then you are normally so wrapped up in thinking about the technique that you can't really be thinking about musical interpretation. However, there is room for that in pro-am, even full bronze. I've seen some awesome pro-am performances based entirely on musical interpretation yet staying within strict syllabus step limitations.

I've also seen a number of social dancers who are very comfortable dancing creative stuff at a step knowledge beyond Gold, but whose technique is pretty terrible. And while it's always fun to watch people enjoying themselves like this, it isn't really a pretty sight when they mangle the technique. You end up with a creative performance that looks bad because the body is broken throughout and the footwork, head movement or arm styling are lazy or plain ugly. To look good creatively requires technique. The problem is that if you now try to teach people like that the fine points of technique it becomes a huge task, much more difficult than starting out with a focus on technique.

But at the highest levels, there is awesome creativity being developed, even in the Standard/Smooth dances. One of my favorite videos each year is the World Superstar Festival (an annual event in Japan featuring the world's best dancers). What I see done in the Standard dances there takes my breath away.

[DancePoet]

Thanks Adwiz! I certainly will continue working on technique. I even ask technique questions in group classes. Yet I'm likley to continue dabbling in creativity as well.