How long would you keep dancing if the song never ended?

Ballroom Guide

Ballroom Guide

Member
I've always just wondered this. I know it would never happen, but just imagine we're in the Twilight Zone. You're at a competition, it's a song you're unfamiliar with, and it just goes on and on. Maybe like some of Meatloaf's 7 minute songs, or maybe it was built to repeat back into itself for 10 hours. Let's also assume everyone else keeps dancing, and you are the first one to say anything.

What would your reaction be, as a competitor trying to follow decorum, and how long would it take you to have that reaction. What do you suspect the reactions of the top dancers in the world would be?
 
No time like this weekend at the MAC to find out. *evil grin*

But seriously, knowing myself, I'd probably just keep dancing until I physically couldn't anymore (probably around the 2 minute mark, because my stamina is horrendous).
 
Ballroom Guide said:
I've always just wondered this. I know it would never happen, but just imagine we're in the Twilight Zone. You're at a competition, it's a song you're unfamiliar with, and it just goes on and on. Maybe like some of Meatloaf's 7 minute songs, or maybe it was built to repeat back into itself for 10 hours. Let's also assume everyone else keeps dancing, and you are the first one to say anything.

What would your reaction be, as a competitor trying to follow decorum, and how long would it take you to have that reaction. What do you suspect the reactions of the top dancers in the world would be?
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In a comp heat or showcase, until the choreographed material runs out, of course.

In a social setting, with the right person, theoretically until they closed the joint.

But, in the many years of dancing, I've come to realize most, if not all, dancers are really not into the music and dancing elements themselves, but rather the pomp and circumstances, politics, and other agendas/fluff that relate to dancing, especially when they get more into organized dancing (and lose the innocence).

http://www.mtv.com/videos/collin-raye/806529/on-the-verge.jhtml
 
So this kind of happened to me for real. The only time I have competed was at a college comp. I was doing a Paso Doble routine where everything is pretty choriographed to the "stop point" (you know that spot in the song every comp everywhere stops at). However for this particular time nobody stopped the music! They played the entire song!
Probably one of the worst dances of my life lol. Me and my partner managed to string some stuff together but I assure you recovery was brutal and not very pretty. After the song ended comp coordinators/dj/whoever realized the mistake and asked who never heard the end of the song before. Just about every competitor raised their hands. It was quite horrifying at the time but thinking back it is humorous now.
So I guess my answer would be as long as everyone else is dancing I will be too.
 
This kind of actually happened. I was on a cruise (Queen Mary 2, absolutely lovely) and was at the nightly dance in the Queens Room. I was dancing with one of the nice dance hosts they have and we were doing jive. (Obviously not the level of effort one would put into a comp, but it's still pretty energetic.) The orchestra was interrupted by an announcement (we were getting ready to leave port so periodically they'd page passengers who hadn't been checked back aboard.) Instead of picking up in the middle of the song they went back and started over. I think we made it a total of something like 5 minutes of dancing before we gave up. It was a long song to begin with....
 
Wolfie said:
So this kind of happened to me for real. The only time I have competed was at a college comp. I was doing a Paso Doble routine where everything is pretty choriographed to the "stop point" (you know that spot in the song every comp everywhere stops at). However for this particular time nobody stopped the music! They played the entire song!
Probably one of the worst dances of my life lol. Me and my partner managed to string some stuff together but I assure you recovery was brutal and not very pretty. After the song ended comp coordinators/dj/whoever realized the mistake and asked who never heard the end of the song before. Just about every competitor raised their hands. It was quite horrifying at the time but thinking back it is humorous now.
So I guess my answer would be as long as everyone else is dancing I will be too.
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Do you mean they played past the second highlight? Or the third highlight?
 
In a social setting, I think I'd want to switch partners after about five minutes. Or, for something like VW, I'd need to go off in a corner and gasp for wind for a minute. :eek:
 
14 minutes doing Balboa. Of course, for that one, I knew beforehand because the DJ announced it. I've also done 8-9 minutes Lindy/ECS quite a few times, as one local venue had a "house band" of whatever jazz musicians were available that week, and some weeks nobody in the band was used to playing for dancers.... And 11 minutes to the Gordon Webster Band (he's done much longer versions of "I Like Pie", but people tend to stop dancing at around the ten minute mark and watch the antics he'll start at that point, e.g. http://ralf.zenfolio.com/dance/dclx2014/sunday_evening/h1e999178 and subsequent photos from an 18?-minute version).
 
Dancing Irishman said:
Do you mean they played past the second highlight? Or the third highlight?
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Sounds like past the second. I know one DJ in the area runs pasos to a minute 30, which usually comes right after the second highlight. I tend to stop there for all levels below Champ, but I'm at the mercy of whoever my chair of judges is and whatever point s/he tells me to stop the song. Sometimes there are so many couples on the floor that s/he wants to give the judges more time to mark.
 
Wolfie said:
Dancing Irishman, it was the song in it's entirety.
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Ok, I'm assuming that means to the third highlight, unless the DJ found a non-ballroom phrasing of Espana Cani (missing the tildes, I know). FYI, it's common to play to the third highlight in final rounds at a lot of competitions; you don't need new choreo, the phrasing from 2nd highlight to 3rd is the same as from beginning to first highlight, so you just need to loop back into your beginning (my partner and I use an 8-count to recover then loop into our second 8-count). Hope that helps for next time!
 
Dancing Irishman said:
Ok, I'm assuming that means to the third highlight, unless the DJ found a non-ballroom phrasing of Espana Cani (missing the tildes, I know). FYI, it's common to play to the third highlight in final rounds at a lot of competitions; you don't need new choreo, the phrasing from 2nd highlight to 3rd is the same as from beginning to first highlight, so you just need to loop back into your beginning (my partner and I use an 8-count to recover then loop into our second 8-count). Hope that helps for next time!
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Good to know for the future. Just took us very off guard, we tried to get back to repeating our choreo but weren't very successful. All other heats for the day they stopped at the usual spot.
 
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