America's Ballroom Challenge

When Zirpu and I tell people that we ballroom dance, people immediately ask if we have have seen So You Think You Can Dance or Dancing With the Stars. I've seen one episode of each, and Zirpu hasn't seen either at all. I am only vaguely interested in the dancing, but the "judge reviews" really turn me off and that is the real reason why I don't watch them (and many others, like Survivor and American Idol). The shows have brought people into the studio though; for example, one guy whose background is in traditional Indian dance started about a year ago when he got interested in ballroom while watching "So You Think..."


However, I am interested in America's Ballroom Challenge, which is the broadcast of the World Professional American Smooth and Rhythm Championships shown on PBS. The Ohio Star Ball is a weeklong event in November, including workshops as well as many competitions. Jasmine Guy and Ron Montez (and Marilu Henner and Tony Meredith last year) had to pretend that they were "coming back next week" for the next phase of the competition, when it really happens all in one evening.

SPOILER ALERT:

Andrei Gavriline and Elena Kryuchkova [unfortunately no video from this year yet] won the whole event. I thought that they had relied too much on gimmicky costuming, particularly in the International Latin comp and in the short program, and then for the amazing show dance they did their costumes almost hid their bodies. Andrei, who is quite tall, uses his long legs to create great lines. In comparison Elena seems very short (it's hard to tell if she's short compared to normal-height people), but she can make her legs look almost as long as his. Inspired by Elena, I'm going to work on creating a long-leg look in my own dancing.

I am so uninterested in competing in dance that I can't even imagine why someone would do it. A few of my studio friends compete, and for one of them in particular competing only seems to create stress and take away the fun of dancing. She's one of the most competitive people I know, but she always seems drawn and worried before a big event. I can't imagine competing in front of hundreds of people, even if I were good enough to do so. Of course, I just want to dance well enough to not panic when a stranger asks me to dance - so far, I can follow well enough to get through an unknown step.


I like to watch the professional competitions and the exhibitions, and be inspired by what I see.

It's Only Natural

We received an invitation from some friends to come dancing at The Starlite Ballroom last night. Zirpu didn't feel like it, but I went. I've been hearing about this place for years, so I was interested in checking it out. It's in a totally unassuming location, part of what looks like a business park, and has only a small sign. However, the place is quite large inside, with a big main dance floor and two smaller floors as well, one of which was being used as practice space last night.


Zirpu and I have been on a break for a couple months and so it's been a while since I've been on a dance floor. I found myself a corner and did some basics to get warmed up, as it usually takes me about three dances to get in the groove of things. As the Starlite is well air-conditioned and large, I was getting chilled, but I didn't want to ask anyone until I was ready. I didn't want to embarrass myself making mistakes I know how to avoid.


Dancing socially with people I don't know is always an adventure. The AM style is designed to meet adjudicated standards and is very formal in comparison to the dance that people who learned in less formal environments in group classes and from friends. I don't know how to describe this, other than maybe the difference between marching and walking. They both get you where you're going, but one is more purposeful than the other. I can tell within a few moments how much experience my partner has and can usually adjust for that. Styling is different, but if the lead is strong I can follow that no matter what (and I keep count in case I get lost). I figure that can adjust my formality "down" when I'm dancing with non-AM people, if I need to do so, because there are good dancers out there with whom I can have fun.


When the DJ started the last waltz, I asked a man nearby if he would like to dance. You can tell when they do: First of all, if someone is still wearing their dance shoes, he or she is not done yet. Also, the men tend to lean toward the floor, as if they're being pulled by their heads.


I like the last waltz. Not because it's the last dance of the evening, but because everyone who's left wants to dance that dance. People really put their all into the last dance.

West Coasting

I just finished watching the finals of "America's Ballroom Challenge." The format of the whole competition, which is also known as the Ohio Star Ball, was changed this year, I heard, to reflect the interest in elimination/winner-takes-all competitions like "Survivor." If you didn't know very much about dance, you'd be impressed; if you knew as much about dance as I do (and I am familiar with only American style dances and only the Arthur Murray syllabus), this show would have blown your mind.


I know it's not on TV anymore, but I just had to say that. Hooray for Digital Video Recording! I would watch it again anytime.


Because I have chosen to take a "year on" and not work for pay, Zirpu and I have cut back the number of lessons we're taking at the studio. However, we plan to still use Monday nights for dancing, and this past Monday we started working on West Coast Swing with a video tutorial from DanceVision. It's not as easy as having the teacher right in the room, but we, who are used to using DVDs, are more frustrated by the time it takes to rewind the tape. Ron Montez is a good teacher and the video technique is as plain as can be, making it easy to see the steps. It is a little strange that his partner, Liz Curtis, doesn't speak at all, but she wears a short skirt so it's easy to see her legs.


According to this (and to Wikipedia), West Coast Swing was standardized by Arthur Murray, who noticed regional variations of the Lindy Hop. What we now call West Coast Swing is the way people were dancing it in the LA area fifty-plus years ago, and it became the state dance of California in 1987 (Oregon and Washington named Square Dancing as their states' dance in 1977 and 1979, respectively).


I think that "good" WCS looks like the dancers have wheels in the soles of their shoes. Here is a choreographed routine, and here you can see a (not-great-quality) video of the winners of a Jack and Jill competition, in which routines are not choreographed (Tatiana Mollman, the follow, is in both videos). My idea about WCS is that it's a relaxed dance, for playing, so thinking about competitive WCS seems counter intuitive, but I've caught the end of a WCS comp at the Allegro Ballroom and have danced two WCS exhibition routines at AM events with one of our dance teachers. Still, it seems to me that I should be able to drink some beer and still be able to get my West Coast groove on...

"Confusing yet quite impressive"

Well well well.

That's how we did last night.

Both judges were really impressed with our dancing. Honestly I think that our switch leading had them both so impressed that they didn't look as hard at our Bronze 4 as they might have otherwise, because neither of us felt like we danced as well as we have been in those dances. If you don't mind my bragging, this is what they said about us that I'm really happy about:

Switch lead:
We had excellent timing in foxtrot. We're usually fast - but then, Zirpu's usually leading.

Timing is good in tango. I'm really happy about this because it's hard for me to hear the "one" in tango.

Zirpu's spotting on the under arm turn in salsa is very good (it seems to me that the UAT must feel squished to him, since I'm ten inches shorter).

Regular form:
"It's a joy watching you dance" foxtrot.

Our patterns and lead-and-follow flow beautifully in rumba.

The notes from bolero are MIA. But we know what we thought - our footwork is terrible in bolero, though we dance the steps well.

We got high marks for our frames and for our "unison" - that is dancing together - in all dances. The judge we met with to go over the notes said that we have good discipline as demonstrated by our willingness to learn each other's parts. In his opinion we are ready to dance in Amateur Three competitions, which are comps in which pairs of students dance in one or the other or both of the categories (Amateur 3 Rhythm consists of cha cha, rumba, and swing, and Amateur 3 Smooth includes tango, waltz, and foxtrot). They were very excited about our dancing, which makes me feel a little bad about my cynical remark at the end of Wednesday's post.

The hundred or so people at the event last night loved the switch lead too. I think I led particularly well and that Zirpu followed particularly well.

Our honor dance cha cha was a lot of fun, and we laughed a lot during it because we had a few foot bobbles. A few people told me today that they were touched that we were dancing to our wedding song.

It was a good night.

Switch Lead II

On Friday we are graduating from Full Bronze in the regular format, and from Newcomer and Bronze 1 in (what we're calling) switch lead. In Bronze Four we'll be dancing rumba, foxtrot, and bolero. In Newcomer and B1 I'll be leading Zirpu through foxtrot, rumba, tango, and swing. because we're graduating from a whole section, we'll also get to dance our choice for the "honor dance;" we have decided that we will dance to "Watermelon Man" by Mongo Santamaria, the cha cha which was our "first dance" at our wedding. It's almost our anniversary and we're even going to start it off the same way.

Switch lead is very unusual. The foxtrot routine in which we started with my leading and switched to Allan leading halfway through was described as "very avant-garde" by two coach/judges. It's actually outside the rules for competition so it's not on the schools' agenda. Women learn to lead, of course, but it's not the main focus of most people's lessons. Gender roles are reinforced in Dance Land, and I feel that it's strange that I have chosen a hobby that is so attached to them. The people at our studio aren't attached to the gender roles; in fact, the teachers are rather excited that Zirpu and I are busting through and doing something so different.

The thing about gender roles is that everyone at the studio is "a modern woman" or "a modern man" and sometimes dancing feels like playing more old-fashioned roles. When people ask why we ar eleraning echa otehr's parts, we tell them the official answer, which is that knowing the other person's part makes you a better dancer. I think part of our desire to switch lead came out of our desire to do the nontraditional, unconventional thing... like Zirpu waiting for me to ask him to marry me, rather than asking me to marry him, or when we got our portrait taken at Excalibur with me in the Musketeer costume and him in the dress.



We'll see what happens on Friday night, and learn what the judges' reactions are on Saturday morning. We're not actually competing so it'll be allowed. I'm sure the reaction will be positive - it's a dance school after all, and they wouldn't want to chase away students. I'm interested in hearing what a real live competitor has to say.

Switch Lead

About two years ago, Zirpu and I decided that when we finished Bronze 4 we would go back and start over, switching the lead and follow. Several months ago we started just that, with me leading and him following. It's not as hard as I thought it was going to be. I thought the confusion of switching from stepping back with my right foot to forward with my left foot was going to last a long time. It wasn't easy to start, but once I got the hang of it that part didn't stay difficult. Basic steps and basic turns aren't as challenging as I expected them to be.

What are difficult are the moves that require stepping to the left or right, such as crossovers. In fact, crossovers are a great example (we are doing one in this photo). This is a step during which both partners step out to the side and open up, then step back and close, and then step to the other side and open up. It's in these steps that I have to turn my brain around, because we are turning the other direction than the one we're turning in when I'm following. Sometimes Zirpu and I switch back to "normal" lead and follow in these steps, back to what we're used to, what feels natural.

We always laugh when that happens.

Sometimes I find it frustrating to be struggling with steps that we already know, even though I know that it's an unfair expectation of myself: Sure, I know this or that step, but I know it as a follow. Leading is a whole different thing. I liked those bumper stickers that said "Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards and in high heels" but the fact is she didn't. Not to discredit Ginger; following isn't much like leading either.

Switching lead and follow is giving us a lot of opportunities to practice communicating! Dance is about body language, so we have to communicate with our bodies in ways we're not used to. When something goes wrong several times, we have to actually talk about what we're trying to make known, or what we're communicating when we don't mean to be body-talking at all, and we have to do it civilly.

Hold me close, let me go

Ballroom dancing has a reputation for being stuffy. I think this is because so many people have gone through Cotillion classes, where they learn foxtrot and forks at the same time. Tuxedos and gowns have a bad reputation just because they are formalwear - but ask almost anyone if they had fun at the prom and they'll tell you yes (I think those who wouldn't have fun at the prom don't go).

However, because I'm standing so much closer to someone than I would normally, I find myself being a little more formal than I would otherwise. Partner dancing has forced me to break my socialized response to keeping my personal space. Your and your partner's arms are only so long and usually you're standing twelve inches apart - and sometimes much less, as in tango and waltz.

I am gracious about getting stepped on (and about stepping on someone else) and when it happens I echo something someone said to me once at a PEERS event when I apologized for stepping on his feet: "I only need the bottoms, you can have the tops." I have a sense of humor about dancing off time, about dancing one dance to another dance's rhythm (foxtrot steps to tango music, for example), and when I'm dancing with new dancers I always try to follow our first dance teacher's advice, which was "You can always work on the ONE."

Tonight however I had an experience which totally gave me the willies. I attended a group class and was partnered with someone who didn't hold his hand flat against my back when we were in frame. I could feel him holding my shirt, or, most of the time, he was moving his fingers, as if he were scratching my shoulder blade. He was fidgeting around so much I thought he might be high, which would be so weird for our studio I can't even describe it. I have a good tolerance for weirdness but the teacher didn't have us change partners and after about fifteen minutes I could not stand it anymore. I went upstairs and talked to the studio owner about how this man's backscratching was freaking me out.

Daisey said that she would take care of it, and would talk to his dance teacher about working with him on keeping a flat palm.

So this has me thinking about what's weird when someone in your personal space isn't the thing that feels wrong. It's the way the lead is holding me, too low, too wiggly, too strong, that sets me off. Fortunately it doesn't happen very often.

Silver

Last night Zirpu and I "checked out" of Bronze 4 in the six majors - that is, in waltz, tango, foxtrot, cha cha, rumba, and swing. We checked out of B4 bolero weeks ago. A check-out is a test; you have to demonstrate that you can dance the required steps both with your partner and by yourself. Dancing alone makes it very clear that ballroom dancing is partner dancing!

What this means is that we are now officially Silver students. In the dance universe, the syllabus is broken into sections: Bronze one through four, Silver one through four, and then into Gold levels. Bronze one and two gives you enough to make your way around a dance floor, and three and four gives your technique and steps with more complexity. Silver is very fancy dancing, and Gold is competition-level training. With some differences in the steps at each level in the syllabi, this is true for Arthur Murray and USA Dance.

Many people assume that we started taking lessons at Arthur Murray because I wanted to, and/or because we were a wedding couple who came back. We started dancing on a whim - while driving up Foothill one day Zirpu said, "Look, there's an Arthur Murray studio, let's take lessons." It just happened to be a few months before we got married. Our first dance teacher, Sean Tamashiro, was really enthusiastic and choreographed the recessional as well as our first dance, but we weren't there because of the wedding.

By completing our Full Bronze, Zirpu and I are recognized as very accomplished dancers - it has been unusual for students to finish the Bronze program in our studio (though I think there are going to be a lot more Silver students soon). We have accomplished what we originbally set out to do, and now we have other goals, as well as other dances we have started to learn - salsa, Viennese waltz, West Coast swing, country two-step, and samba.

Among other things, dance:
1) Is the hobby that Zirpu and I share - our lessons are the times in the week when we know we will be together, dancing and learning together.
2) Has changed my perception of my body.
3) Has made Zirpu more comfortable interacting with people, whether he's met them or not.
4) Has busted my stereotypes of dancers and ballroom dancing (I mean, really, have you seen how sexy a rumba can be?).
5) Has led to friends that we would not have met otherwise.
6) Has given us a community and involved us in activities in the town in which we live.