Comp. dances.. Amer. style

T

tangotime

Forum Master
Have often wondered, why, with all the rich heritage that some of the Amer. style dances have, they never attained the longevity ( read that inclusion ) in the Amer. Rhythm and Smooth categ. for Comps... for e.g.

Rhythm...

Bolero

W.C.Swing

Cha Cha

Mambo/ Salsa

Merengue



Smooth........

Waltz

F/Trot

Peabody

Tango Argentino

V. Waltz


Just thought it would make a fun topic...( and , I know, some of them are already there )
 
Yeha, not sure either. Only ones on that list that I don't see regularly in competition are AT and peabody.
 
Ah, so just referring to the standard 9 in pro competition. OK, that makes more sense. Hrmm, have to leave for owrk now, but will have to givev this some thought and maybe comment when I get there. Not that I'm particularly qualified to venture an opinion. :)
 
West coast swing and tango argentino have or had communities all their own, and as they haven't died out yet, there's no need for their remaining dancers to resort to the ballroom community to keep those dances alive.

Last time I saw peabody danced regularly, it was 20 years ago and the average age of the dancers was 70, so doing the math, I'd guess there just aren't that many people interested in the dance any more.
 
Larinda McRaven said:
I still don't understand the OPost at all... Tangotime, are you simply asking for the introduction of Peabody and the replacement of Swing with WCS as well Merengue for Rumba?
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I,m not " asking " for anything... just curious about what people think... and by the way.. thats your opinion.. and even if I did want to make changes, that would be mine .
 
Larinda McRaven said:
A few years ago I was asked to prepare a demonstartion of American style Quickstep for Ohio Star Ball.
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Didn't Tim and Michelle Mason do a showdance one year that was basically what Quickstep would be if it was danced in American Style? I vaguely recall something about The Mask.
 
Larinda McRaven said:
I think there were three finalist couples that were asked to do it and we all agreed that we were not interested in doing Charleston kicks and stuff.
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But you know that if it were added to the competition dances, that's what it would end up as!

Okay, half kidding. More seriously, how did you envision it?
 
Maybe it's jsut because I've already been curious about this, but I read the question not as to why don't we change the American 9, but more asking historically how we ended up with these 9, when there are all the others with such history in this country. Not that I have an answer, just saying. Maybe it's just me though.
 
etp777 said:
but more asking historically how we ended up with these 9, when there are all the others with such history in this country.
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There is a simple answer to that... blame the " english ".. they adopted then adapted, many of the established social dances, that the States had perfected ,and essentially put them into medal test and Comp. categories.

"They ", were laying down rules in the 20s ,on the hows, whys and wheres of dance, and continue on that same path today ( more or less )

Dances that morphed...e.g.. Bolero became Intern. style Rumba.. Guajira became Cha cha.. One step became Q/step, T/Arg became, etc.. I think you see the point .
 
etp777 said:
Maybe it's jsut because I've already been curious about this, but I read the question not as to why don't we change the American 9, but more asking historically how we ended up with these 9, when there are all the others with such history in this country. Not that I have an answer, just saying. Maybe it's just me though.
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I think it's basically that those nine were the most popular among American style competitors when the dances were standardized, which I believe was about 25 years ago.
 
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