Social dancing is an optional activity, so people can simply not do it during these days of the CoronaVirus. One of the dances that would be most dangerous is the Salsa Rueda. The people most impacted are dance teachers, who are unable to make a living now.”
For some years there has been a lot of talk and some action regarding adding high-level Standard (AKA Ballroom) and Latin dancing to the Olympic offerings. For those who might sneer that dancing is not very strenuous, we suggest attending a competition and listening to the couples panting after a 2-3 minute routine.
A greater challenge is that there is already a great sufficiency of different sports included in the quadrennial Olympic Games, with vastly different audience preferences among them. Prior to the Games themselves, the International Olympic Committee reckoned that half the world would watch (in large measure via TV or on-line).
Unfortunately, it is difficult to get comparable worldwide “ratings”. Actually, it’s always been a mystery to us why they are called ratings, which implies that higher ratings means they are “better” in some sense beyond just the fact that watchers tuned their TVs to those particular programs.
Fortunately, however, there is an irreverent website fivethirtyeight.com that focuses on opinion poll analysis, politics, economics, and sports blogging. The website, which takes its name from the number of electors in the U.S. electoral college, surveyed 57,448 people during August 3-4 (no description of who was surveyed, perhaps just visitors to the website) as to their opinion of the best Olympic sport. The whole account is humorous, but the most interesting finding to us was that Beach Volleyball was #1. Hmmm. We suspect that this relative newcomer of a sport owes much of its popularity to its participants, who are very attractive women in very skimpy outfits. On this basis, we would think that at least the Latin half of the Dancesport events would be highly popular because their outfits can be as revealing as the women’s Beach Volleyball ones. No?
Louisville, KY recently had a big party to celebrate its newest monument, an 11-foot diameter, 2,300-pound disco ball, to commemorate the city’s longtime role as the capital of American disco-ball manufacturing.
The heyday of disco-balls was during the 1970’s, when disco dancing was so popular. The signature dance at the time was the hustle, a sort of swing with several variations that takes some skill to make it look and feel good, but the music’s strong beat often also brings lots of unskilled “freestyle” folks onto the dance floor. For Wilddancer, it was difficult to learn the dance figures just by watching, because of their strangely syncopated steps in comparison to the more common and intuitive east coast swing or west coast swing dances.
Disco’s popularity was also helped by the Saturday Night Fever movie starring John Travolta (with his white suit and signature pose), with the Bee Gees’ “Staying Alive” song. And it also got a boost from the funny send-up of “Staying Alive” from the movie Airplane!
The disco feeling and faster tempo of that song are much better matches to the figures of the hustle than those of “The Hustle” that is often played today by disk jockeys unfamiliar with the dance.
Why do men die young(er) than women? There are lots of reasons. One of those reasons is “It’s Always the Man’s Fault.” That is especially true in social dancing, not only because that is chivalrous, but also because the man is in charge (he leads, she follows). In fact, it is one of the few times that a woman has to do exactly what a man tells her to do. But that causes a lot of stress and strain of leading. We have heard dance teachers opine that it takes a man four times as long as a woman to learn a dance figure.
The worlds of competition dancing and social dancing don’t overlap too much. Sometimes the studios where they learn do overlap, though. Wilddancer and wife took many lessons from another Senior Champion, James Kleinrath, at the now-extinct Imperial Ballroom in Redwood City, CA, where we frequently saw Winston and Lily Chow practicing. Their devotion and discipline were admirable, and it paid off when they won a Senior Championship. James told us that to become really good dancers, one needs to enjoy practicing. Perhaps that separates competition dancers from social dancers, because we did not have the time nor the attitude to do that much practice. And we wanted to be able to do a wider range of dances than most competitors can do, enabling us to dance in a wide range of venues to a wide range of music. Plus, the social dance floor is a whole different place, with dancers of all abilities that need to be avoided, while competitors normally can expect other competitors to obey the “rules of the road”.
If this is late July, it must be time for the annual National Dance Day celebration. You can see the background for this event on our original post. Yeah, we know that its scope is lots bigger than social couples dancing, but it’s a good excuse to get off your butt and move to the music. You can see more details here. Even better if you meet a special someone and see how romantic couples dancing can be. And then maybe you’ll be inspired to take a few lessons, and learn to move together as a couple.
Likely all Westerners and many Chinese wonder why Mao Ze Dong is worshipped in China. His tomb is the most prominent one. Etc. But he was an oppressive leader, which was reflected in people’s dress and entertainment. Deng Xiaoping was a lot more lovable. And people could wear nicer clothes and have their hair styled … and DANCE.
Couples usually go dancing for fun. And depending on the tempo of the dance and the length of time they dance, it is also good for fitness. But according to recent research, there is an additional benefit from dancing that doesn’t occur from exercise such as walking or running that produces the same amount of sweat. That benefit is improved balance which, especially for older folks (those same ones that actually know how to do touch dancing), can prevent falls and injuries (sometimes so serious they are hospitalized and die). This benefit comes from the unpredictability of a partner’s actions (similar benefits occur in doubles tennis). Skeptics could point out that the less skillful the dancers, the greater the benefit, while advocates could argue that the more skillful dancers have a lot more alternative moves, so they can surprise their partners in a variety of different ways, providing pleasure both to themselves and to onlookers.
Social dancing is where you find it. In our persona as Wilddancers we have danced in large public squares and parks in China (as the only Caucasians present–and with the background of a bunch of dance lessons–we naturally drew a crowd, all of whom wanted to dance with each of us). And this outdoor dancing happens in the U.S. as well … especially in places like San Francisco where the weather is usually good. (A little chilly sometimes, but when you’re doing the fast-tempo version of swing called Lindy Hop you get warmed up pretty fast.) Not only is it free, but from a small group with a boombox nearly 20 years ago it has expanded to a group as large as 200 on some Sundays, complete with instructors. This all takes place Sundays from 11am to 2pm on the sidewalk behind the de Young museum in Golden Gate Park.
Most high school baseball players are more comfortable being the lead-off batter or leading off from first base than they are leading a dance partner in a social couples dance. It helped a lot that their dance partners from the Terraces of Los Gatos retirement home were so willing. And with a little coaching from a dance teacher (and likely some nudging from their baseball coach) they were able to pick up a learn at least the basic “box step”. (Of course, they already knew about the batter’s box, so it shouldn’t have been totally foreign to them.) But this experience would get them past the embarrassment of dancing with a female of their own age, and even make them more confident and appealing … something all teenage boys are happy with.