Do C&W and Ballroom Mix?

This is a serious me-specific question. I'm in the process of moving to a big C&W town, (as you probably know :lol: ) and I've been pondering this. Do serious C&W dancing and ballroom mix successfully? Is it possible to do both well? Or would dancing one genre add challenges in learning the other?

Meaning, do I have to pick?

I know a lot of people who do both. Modern country dance technique is not a lot different than ballroom technique, anyway. A bunch of ballroom teachers went over to country 10-15 years ago when it was more popular, and influenced it.

At our studio they mix in a pretty good variety of 2-step and WCS. I think it adds to the variety of the crowd. We certainly play more ballroom, but there is about 10% CW.

My biggest worry is that the relaxed nature of C&W will interfere with competitive ballroom, which is where I plan to go. :? I guess the only thing to do is try both. What the heck. I guess I could always do competitive C&W. I think there's quite a bit of overlap there.

Yes, from what I've seen at the one or two CW events I've been to, and from what Vince has told me, competitive CW is starting to fall more and more in line with competitive ballroom technique and styling.

CW and Ballroom

I think it depends on whether or not you are out to have fun or compete...I cant really say about the competition side, I just go out dancing, be it "ballroom" or salsa (which is techincally ballroom) or CW. I have only taken one CW class (semester long) and I can do the basic rhythm 2 step (out here is called arizona two step) and a little of the progressive two step..country swing and country cha cha, but I learned those from other styles....anyway, I find that when I go out ballroom dancing, and by that I mean every song is a different dance, so a waltz followed by an american tango, follwed by merengue, and so forth...some ballroom places will play a CW song, and some wont...its amazing to see what the ballroom dancers dance to the CW songs when they don't know CW steps...

I don't think it should be that much of issue. You could look at social C&W dancing the same way as social ballroom dancing. And if you really like C&W, try it competitively. Just dance and have fun doing it!

A number of people here do swing and country-western competitions frequently. A few of them also teach ballroom, and yes, I'll agree with everyone else: nowadays C&W has a strong influence from ballroom technique.

That being said, I am sure there is some competitive ballroom folks where you're going to be.

Dallas? You bet. The studio I plan to attend has group "competitive" classes four times a week. :banana:

But the bulk of the social dancing around town is C&W, so I figured I'd ask. Can hanging out and dancing at the bar in my neighborhood (yeah. right. I'm going to live in the snooty suburbs. LOL) hurt my dancing? It looks like the answer is it depends. Good enough.

pygmalion said:

My biggest worry is that the relaxed nature of C&W will interfere with competitive ballroom, which is where I plan to go. :? I guess the only thing to do is try both. What the heck. I guess I could always do competitive C&W. I think there's quite a bit of overlap there.

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My C&W has never been labeled as "relaxed" so I guess you can figure out my stance.