Is ballroom dancing for senior citizens?

Just curious. I've been thinking about why the ballroom dance forum here has the most topics but falls way behind salsa in the number of active posters. and I came up with ballroom demographics as a possible answer. Ballroom has a lot of older patrons, while salsa has a lot of younger (computer literate) patrons.

We can talk about DF participation another day, if you like. In the meantime, I'm thinking. Why is ballroom populated by so many seniors? Hmmm. Is it that seniors are the only ones who can afford it? Or that social dance, at least, i=s so lacking in physical challenge that they can do it? Or is it that the ballroom industry targets them, because of their relative wealth? And is that just a US phenomenon? Anyone have ideas?

Personally, I think it has more to do with the "stigma" attached to ballroom that it is an older person's activity.

Though, that is changing. There are a lot of younger couples starting at our studio. Whether they will stick with it is another thing. I also think that the younger generation is always after the next "thrill". They may try a lot of things, but most don't stick with anything. I have been guilty of this myself, until dancing came along! :lol:

Just my observations .....

I've had many people tell me that in their town, ballroom dancing is dominated by people over age 65, that women outnumber the men, and that any men in attendance are part of a couple. But, this has not been my experience. At the venues where I dance, people in their 40's and 50's predominate, the gender balance is roughly equal in all age categories except the over 60 crowd (mirroring society in general), and most dancers are unattached. I see a fair number of collegiate dancers, but not many people in their 30's.

Salsa dancers tend to be 20's - 30's, probably because salsa is mainly a bar/nightclub dance, and that is the age of the crowd that frequents those venues.

If anyone makes a movie that makes ballroom dancing fun for the under-40 crowd in the same vein that nouveau-swing and salsa and hip-hop... perhaps there may be revived interest. Of course, as long as people are getting married, there's always a market.

As it stands, I don't know... I guess in my case because I hang around a lot of college-age kids, I'm a bit more optimistic. Many of our free large-group beginner lessons have around 20 couples attending and most of them are undergraduates.

That's still not to say that we shouldn't completely disregard it. It may be a nice display of community service to have a team go to a nursing home and perform a dance or dance with them. I've thought about it since one of my service clubs in high school would do skits every Christmas at a nursing home.

etchuck said:

Of course, as long as people are getting married, there's always a market.

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Right, there's always the teach-us-how-to-dance-in-four-weeks market. (I'm not an instructor, but I've heard and read stories about wedding couples. Of course, I realize not all of them are that unrealistic.)

Ballroom ages

Well, I'm a single 43 yr old man who just started taking private Ballroom lessons 1 year ago. I seem to be in the minority as far as a 40 something ballroom dancer. The instructors are in their 20's-30's. Most of the students are in the 50's. I do see alot of seniors at the Showcases. Of course there are the 20 something couples learning a wedding dance. I really enjoy the dances and they do require alot of skill to master. I don't see any younger single women Ballroom dancers unfortunately. I think its still important to know the Ballroom dances, but I'm going to start working on learning more of the Salsa, Mambo, Merengue dances so I can at least find a partner. I do have to say that I really enjoy the interaction with 50+ dancers.

Also, I really like the idea mentioned about performing or dancing with seniors in the nursing homes. I would like to do that someday. I'll mention it to my dance group in the studio.

What we (the youngsters) call "ballroom", seniors call "dancing"! When they learned to dance as teenagers, they did foxtrot, lindy, waltz. maybe a little cha cha. For my Mom, who's now 82, and her contemporaries, learning to dance was just part of growing up. Unfortunately it's not something we do today unless a specific effort is made.

Just look at any movie from the 40's-50's--everybody knows how to dance. And American Dreams on TV--wouldn't it have been great to learn all the new dances on Bandstand!

At socials, I'm quick to accept dances from silver haired gentlemen. They may not follow a syllabus (or maybe they learned from Arthur Murray himself :wink: ) but they're almost always good leaders, and have good timing!

Hmm, I noticed a definite age gap when I was doing Ballroom. Some nights I'd show up at our local dances and I'd be the only person there under 40...not a big deal but it made me feel a little weird at times. When I starting doing Salsa I found the age distribution to be much greater, more people my age but many older as well.

I wouldn't say it has to do with the dancing being easier...I remember one couple who must have been in their 50's and they were AMAZING to watch doing Waltz and Foxtrot. Both were in incredible shape and they could dance my socks off any day of the week. I agree as someone said that the Ballroom dances may be more familiar to the older generations, as these styles of dance are what they danced in their youth.

I've seen the opposite as well though. I went to another dance venue for Swing that was mostly Lindy folks...and it was full of teenagers and high school kids! I felt kind of out of place and some of those youngsters could really dance...but I'd say it was partly due to the instructors who teach to a younger crowd.

Another factor...at least in my area, the Ballroom dances are alcohol free. I love this aspect as I'm not a drinker...perhaps this is why most of the younger folks are hanging out at the Salsa spots? I've noticed that just about everyone at the Salsa events drink...and many can't seperate the two.

Thoughts on this anyone? What are the Ballroom dances like in your area in regards to drinking?

Best,

SG

Re: Ballroom ages

GalaticDancer43M said:

I don't see any younger single women Ballroom dancers unfortunately.

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I dated a 20-something woman who did ballroom dancing. We got talking with each other at some salsa events, but her first love in dancing was smooth ballroom. (In fact, I was inspired to buy my first Frank Sinatra CD by her, even though I'm ten years older than her.) I kind of regret that I didn't make more of an effort to improve my minimal smooth ballroom skills and find places for us to go ballroom dancing. So anyway, they are out there, although I think she would have agreed that she is somewhat of an exception.

Re: Ballroom ages

GalaticDancer43M said:

I don't see any younger single women Ballroom dancers unfortunately.

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I'm 31 and a single female ballroom dancer doing ballroom, latin and south american or street latin, whatever you want to call it. I'm not unusual at my studio. To try to get the guys in (at any age) is the problem.

The general stereotype, in a nutshell, is that the ballroom community is too anal. The emphasis is on learning syllabi, the point is to not have fun but to impress the judges, or to one-up other dancers.

Lindy is fun, latin is sexy, tango is seductive, hustle has the disco era panache... What does ballroom have?.. Well, it *can* have all of the above, but it's not immediately obvious. Those positive aspects are masked by the issues of competition, and overly rigid notions of what's correct and what's not.

This is all a shame, because ballroom brings together so many disparate dance forms -- this is great if you enjoy dancing to more than one type of music. The diversity and versatility is very much fun. However, therein also lies the downfall: jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none effect kicks in.

Ballroom swing doesn't have the fun, the raw energy, the smoothness of Lindy. Ballroom latin or tango (so I'm told ) doesn't compare to what would go on in a salsa club, or at a milonga. Ballroom waltzes are fine and well, but folk/vintage dancers would soar through your fastest Viennese waltz, and then go on to polkas, leaping redowas, schottisches -- something that you wouldn't ever see at a ballroom dance.

There are my two cents... I'd still try to join the ballroom team here, but practices this semester overlap with lindy dances

dancin_feet said I'm 31 and a single female ballroom dancer doing ballroom, latin and south american or street latin, whatever you want to call it. I'm not unusual at my studio. To try to get the guys in (at any age) is the problem.

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I wish we had your problem... the only women at my studio are the instructors or part of a couple... and they only dance with their husbands/BF's... so I normally get to dance 1/2 or 1/3 of the time…

Re: Ballroom ages

GalaticDancer43M said:

The instructors are in their 20's-30's.
Most of the students are in the 50's. I do see alot of seniors at the
Showcases. Of course there are the 20 something couples learning
a wedding dance.

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I see the same thing except, I'd say the average age of the
instructors is 25 and the average age of the male students
is 60+. I haven’t seen any female students, but I’ve only been
there 6 weeks. :wink:

There seems to be much more variation in the age of the
couples (20’s-60’s).

To me it's ALL Ballroom... Maybe it's how you define it.

From my perspective, it's ALL ballroom, Latin, Lindy.. whatever toots your horn. I mean, when the music starts, you should be able to dance whatever the heck you FEEL like dancing without worrying that you aren't conforming to some arbitrary standard that says.." This is a _______ song. I must dance _____ to this song or people will judge me" (unless you ARE being judged)

Being on the verge of 43 and female I have noticed that it depends on the studio you go to as well. Here in the SF Bay Area we have a very large assortment of studios and ballrooms out there.
My (now) hubby and I took lessons at a studio in the "south bay" that seemed to cater to the older crowd. The younger folk that did show up were either getting married or were singles just starting out. We liked it well enough and our instructor was a "man's man" whom hubby felt comfortable learning from, so we contracted with them for 2x a week during the 8 months before our wedding. I couldn't help but be reminded of the studio and people in "Shall We Dance?" which is one of my favorite films.

The furniture in the waiting area had been there for the last 30 years...but was still plush and clean. Tiny round table lined the dance floor which had been worn down clear to wood. It hadn't seen a polishing in decades. They kept goldfish crackers on the tables and the walls were lined with photos of the owners and assorted famous people (like Sandy Duncan) from the 70's. . Every holiday they hauled out the same decorations that they must have had for years... and the ladies bathroom held giant shoe racks for the "regulars" to store their practice shoes and extra Aquanet hairpray and RightGuard deordant in case one needed to freshen up. The mens room stored all the janitorial supplies. The place smelled of old etobacco smoke (prohibited since the 80's) and air freshener.. I thought it had character and fell in love with all the different "personalities" that came and went. The owner whom we'll call "Vinny" had moved to the area with his wife from somewhere on the east coast 30 years ago... but he still has his east coast style about him. "... :ladiesma: and is always ready to sign you up for his next big shindig. At one time he must have been a REAL ladies man, now his pompdorish hairstyle and polyester pants trip him up a bit... :wink: Yep, someday I'll right a book about that place.....
Anyway, I always thought it was a shame that there weren't more people "my age" 8) .. as in under 60.

After doing a little bit more research, I found the reason why we were missing the "cool crowd" at the studio. There is a HUGE ballroom located nearby that catered specifically to the younger, hipper crowd (Starlight Ballroom). http://www.starlitedanceclub.com/

Now we have moved 30 miles north and I'm discovering even more places like the Metronome, and The Allegro which offers students 50% discounts. I suspect that the folks in those venues are a bit younger although we have yet to make the trip to check them out.

The interesting thing is... the reason we found that first studio was because I had searched high and low on the web, and it was the ONLY place that showed up when I did a search for ballroom dance for my town. Now, of course the others are finally catching up with that "old fogey" place, who brilliantly built their simple but effective webpage that popped up on Google everytime.

Mark one for the "technically challenged" crowd.
:lol

Two things. One, when I started this thread, I should have added a disclaimer. There are a lot of computer literate seniors out there, including my parents, who are 73 and 80. They email, check the web, and do almost everything I do on the computer.

And two, the best social dance I've ever had was with a gentleman in his mid-eighties. Old enough to be my grandfather, and the smoothest lead I've ever experienced.