Social Dancing with DP

[dancingirldancing]

How do you allocate dances when you go social dancing with DP ?

Do you dance the whole social with your comp partner only or only certain dances ?

Do you only dance your 'comp' dances with your DP ?

I am just interested in how people divide their time between DP and friends and new ppl at social.

DP is not really possesive or anything so it is not an issue for me.

I just want to know how other couples do it.

[euchoreo]

that really depends on the partner, the need to practice, and the other options.

I only do latin, so I'd say half to 3/4 of all latin songs go to DP and the rest to everyone else. If it's a slow night, then I sometimes dance nearly every dance with DP.

As for leading vs routine, I'd say it depends on practice need. If one of us is frustrated or if we need more practice on connection, we do lead-follow. Otherwise, we generally do routine. Then again, our connection isn't that great (vs my connection with some other people I social dance with) so that contributes. I suppose if I had a better connection with my DP, I'd to 1/2 lead-follow

[Telematt]

I regularly "social" dance with my partner, but we intentionally pick events where neither of us know many people so that we can dance almost exclusively with each other. We're obviously intending those events to be competition practice, and not really trying to be social. It's just a convenient time where we have music to dance to.

There's a particular social I have gone to for a long time for actual social dancing, long before I had a dance partner (I started as a purely social dancer). My partner doesn't usually go to that, but I've had the same thoughts/questions you pose if she were to go more often. I feel it would be rude for me to not spend at least 1/4-1/3 of the time dancing with friends instead of only my DP. There are a few people who go to that same social with their partners and dance mostly with their partners, but they do dance with others as well, and I never hear any complaints from other people about it. I would probably tend to ask my DP to dance a lot because I really like dancing with her, which is a big part of why we became dance partners.

Typically we'll dance the dances we're preparing for competition. Those occasions are our best time to work on lead/follow skills, and in many dances we don't have routines yet, so usually we do lead/follow. In a couple dances we only recently have routines, so we also practice trying to remember our routines at the speed of the music (with a dance like Jive that's sometimes a challenge for us). But we also will continue dancing if we mess up our routines.

We do tend to sit out the dances we're not competing in, mostly to rest, but we'll sometimes dance other styles that we both know (like salsa) just for fun, so that dancing with each other does not always feel like a high pressure thing.

[jjs914]

When I go out social dancing and DP goes as well, we usually aren't there to practice for competition...but just to have a good time.

So we'll usually dance the first and last dance together. And we'll dance together periodically throughout the night. How often just depends on how many people are at the social, how many people we know at the social, etc.

[Nate F.]

I've been dancing socially a lot longer than I have with DP so when we are at a social I do tend to ask her a bit more than the other girls but I still try to divide my time evenly. At our socials there is always a big shortage of leads so if I danced exclusively with DP the other girls would be very unhappy with me! And most of the girls at our socials I have known longer than I have known my DP. So I still do like dancing with them even if they don't dance "properly." Also there are some dances, (tango, ECS) that none of the other girls know so I dance all of those with DP.

[kayak]

I think that monopolizing someone's time if they aren't romantically attached to you would be preventing them from the chance to meet the right person. So sharing dance time is a better idea. Having fun with a variety of people is what social dancing is all about.

[waltzguy]

Interesting question. This is how I break it down:

Standard

First W-T-F nearly always goes to competitive DP, unless it's some funky music that's not suitable for International Standard.

Second W-T-F often goes to DP.

Third or subsequent W-T-F nearly never goes to DP, goes to anyone I ask or anyone that asks me. Or, sit out to rest (although that usually never happens because if I don't ask, I get asked).

A rare V or even more rare Q would always go to DP.

Latin

50% of Latin goes to my unofficial quasi-DP in Latin (different from Standard DP).

The other 50% goes to anyone I ask or anyone that asks me. Or, sit out to rest.

Non-Ballroom

Just go with the flow, depends on who's there.

[Naululani]

We go social dance sometimes for just relax and remove the tension from our dance practice.
When we dance social dance, we don’t dance with the completion material, we just make cozy hold and just enjoy music and company.
Since I am new comer to the area I live, I love to meet and dance with people at the social dancing too:D
My friend dance expert told me that being a ballroom dancer, we cannot ignore the roots of ballroom dancing.
I don’t want to become a dancer only dance with partner in competition...