Tag Archives: cross-step waltz

Senior Olympics Winner Trains by Dancing

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One of the good things about getting older is that your preparation for athletic competition can be more fun. According to The Wall Street Journal the nearly-99-year-old Jim Kales skipped doing most of the track and field events he specialized in, opting instead to dance three to five nights a week (three hours each session), play tennis six days a week, and bowl occasionally. His dancing expertise includes swing, cha cha, salsa, rumba, bolero, tango, foxtrot, quickstep, waltz, and Texas two-step. This year he won two gold medals, three silver medals, and a bronze medal.

New Waltzing Book by Powers & Enge

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Teaming up with Nick Enge, Stanford’s Richard Powers has extended his already wide-ranging coverage of new and old variations on the waltz to extol the benefits to one’s living style in “Waltzing: A Manual for Dancing and Living”. All ballroom dancers are familiar with the slow waltz, and more advanced ones with the fast Viennese waltz, but far fewer with the new cross-step waltz, and likely fewer with the older mazurka and hambo. And the truly adventuresome waltz geeks will want to try the five-step waltz and seven-step waltz, naturally in 5/4 time and 7/4 time respectively. Likewise, the authors have broadened the list the usual benefits of music, physical activity, and touch to include such aspects of living itself as social relationships, smiling/laughing, and giving. In keeping with the times, the publication of the book was crowd-funded. Sign up for a pre-publication copy ($20) here. Copies should be available in early June.