This blog entree was written by a Fred Astaire Dance Studio employee and we HAD to share with everybody her humor and take on dancing!
"I attended a friend's wedding over the weekend, and there
was quite a bit of dancing at the reception. This friend is a lieutenant in the United States Air Force,
and therefore doesn't have a whole lot of friends who have received formal ballroom
dance training. So, I was
delighted to see that there were a handful of guests who had clearly taken some
sort of swing or hustle group classes and could manage their way around a
social dance. Watching them dance
the night away got me thinking about the "rules" and
"regulations" of social dancing that have crept into our ballroom
dance community and threatened to steal the fun away from the dance itself.
One of the "rules" I have heard so many novice and
advanced dancers obsess over is the idea that every song only has one dance
that is appropriate to use. In
some cases, sure that is true. If
you're at a party, and a Paso Doble starts playing, then you really have no
choice then to throw on your cape and stamp your feet. However, there are plenty of songs out
there that have several different dances that could be used. Let's take, for example, Michael
Buble's new song, "Haven't Met You Yet". You could dance a Foxtrot, an East Coast Swing, a West
Coast Swing, or even a Rumba. How
about "Boom Boom Pow" by Black Eyed Peas? It would be appropriate to dance a Cha Cha, Hustle, or (if
your feeling a little dramatic) a Tango!
When you strip away all the rules, technical restrictions,
and the numbers on the men's backs, Ballroom Dance is simply an art form. For many of us dance is a necessary
medium we use to outwardly express an inner feeling. So, when we are dancing for social reasons, how dare we
place so many limitations on ourselves?
If a song comes pumping through the speakers and you feel like dancing a
Cha Cha..... Then by all means CHA CHA MY FRIEND!!!
My point is simply this: We all learned how to dance for
different reasons, but I’m guessing the majority of people didn’t learn so they
could add more stress in their life or find another list of rules to
memorize. So the next time you
take to the floor, take a deep breath and relax. Focus on the joy, the motion, the music, and the art of
Ballroom Dancing. The moments we
do that are the moments that make life worth living."
