Creative Combination of Social and Competitive Dancing

Posted on March 31, 2014 by WildBill

Whether you’re already an enthusiastic social dancer, or just interested in an up-close look (from front row table seats) at world-class ballroom dancing, you might want to take advantage of a thoughtful “guided tour” during the San Francisco Open DanceSport Championships April 11-13 at the Marriott Hotel near the San Francisco Airport. Senior champs James Kleinrath and Melody Singleton, who have recently taken over the Imperial Ballroom in Redwood City (where Dancing with the Stars standout Anna Trebunskaya trained former San Francisco Forty Niners star Jerry Rice), will be the tour guides. Top dancers in all four divisions will be dancing Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot, Viennese Waltz, Quickstep, Rumba, Cha Cha, Swing, Bolero, Jive, Paso Doble, Mambo, Samba and more. Because the worlds of social and competitive dancing have recently grown apart, and because competitors are now being groomed (mostly outside the United States) to compete from an early age, these two worlds rarely overlap. Wilddancer believes taking advantage of local opportunities for promotion is all too rare in both the ballroom and country-western dance worlds, so applaud the creativity of James and Melody …who are exceptions, having started as social dancers, and are imparting their skills to social dancers. And if the past is a guide, there will be some opportunity to do social dancing during breaks in the competition, with a nice large floor and great dance music. The $50 tour will start at 8 pm on Sunday, April 13, and there is an optional dinner nearby starting at 5:30 pm. Contact James Kleinrath, at 650-591-6757 or jameskleinrath@hotmail.com.

Ice Dancing at the Winter Olympics: More Like Ballroom Dancing Than Ice Skating

Posted on February 13, 2014 by WildBill

Couples dancing needs a lot more promotion than it usually gets, but right now it may be getting a bunch of free advertising thanks to the growing list of household names sponsoring ice dancers Meryl Davis and Charlie White. According to the Wall Street Journal, their sponsors include Airwave (a Japanese mattress company), AT&T, Kellogg’s, Procter & Gamble, Ralph Lauren, and VISA. “Dancing with the Stars” has apparently boosted interest in ice dancing, and its choreographer Derek Hough helped the couple with their routines.

Young People Dance the Polka Too

Posted on October 21, 2013 by WildBill

The signature dance during the Oktoberfest season is the polka, which likely triggered Garfield’s creator to create this cartoon. Maybe the latest craze among teenagers is hip hop/street dance/urban dance. But if you check out “polka dancing performance” on YouTube, you see some terrific stuff—both competitions and social dancing. And things change. Today’s Dancing with the Stars might be tomorrow’s Polka Party. (Actually there are a bunch of Polka Dancing with the Stars videos on YouTube too.)

Murder Mystery Books Set in Dance Studio

Posted on September 12, 2013 by WildBill

A series of murder mysteries—Quickstep to Murder, Dead Man Waltzing, and The Homicide Hustle–with a beautiful and adventuresome heroine who is half-owner of a dance studio has lots of entertaining action that might inspire a movie or two. Author Ella Barrick makes no claim to be an expert dancer, but her sources on studio owner, dance teacher, and student behavior know their stuff. She even parodies Dancing with the Stars, with the thinly-disguised “Ballroom with the B-Listers”. Wilddancer liked the Quickstep and Hustle ones best, but all three are easy to read and good entertainment for non-dancers and dancers alike. And they put the romance back into dancing.

We need another good dance movie or two to get people excited about couples dancing again. Dancing with The Stars and So You Think You Can Dance are good entertainment, but they’re reality shows intended for watching (and making money for TV networks). And they are increasingly featuring dance types that social dancers can’t do. We hope that Hollywood beckons to the author and produces a film as good as Strictly Ballroom (1992) or Shall We Dance? (the Japanese one in 1996).

Which Star Athletes are the Best Dancers?

Posted on September 9, 2013 by WildBill

Not tennis players, according to The Wall Street Journal. The Journal’s reasoning was based on a handful of tennis players’ lack of success on the reality show “Dancing with the Stars”. But there are lots of factors beyond the stars’ dancing ability that play big roles determining their rankings on that show–the judges’ biases, the general popularity of the stars, and especially the show’s ratings (watchership). And the Journal’s definition of dancing was pretty broad, and included a bunch of stuff that goes well beyond couples dancing. But their point may be well taken. All-time tennis champion Martina Navratilova’s professional dancer partner, Tony Dovolani, blamed it on the need for tennis players to be “heavy-footed” when they hit the ball … a far cry from the classic “tripping the light fantastique” that is the goal of a ballroom dancer. Other tennis players put it down simply to lack of dance–or even music–experience due to their focus on tennis from an early age that leaves little time for recreational/social activities. And speaking of social, the smile on a dancer’s face counts for a lot, but tennis champ Monica Seles underlines that in tennis it’s how the ball is hit that counts.

Performances on dancing with the Stars is ABC’s highest-ranked (though declining) show is probably not the best gauge of athletes’ dancing abilities. Male athletes in popular spectator sports are usually big and strong, but not always nimble. Sometimes dance training can improve their athletic prowess, though. Cornell University’s football coach once sent several clumsy players to ex-Rockette Rosalie Bower Amoroso, who co-owns Ithaca Academy of Dance in Ithaca, NY, along with her ex-Rockette sister, Diane. Rosalie’s efforts apparently paid off, as she attended a game where one of her football player students did a “grand jete” (big jump) over a would-be tackler.

Financially, of course, the athletes are better off. Their performance on the baseball diamond, football gridiron, boxing ring, or tennis court is far better rewarded than elite dancers’ performance on the competition dance floor at Blackpool or other high-level competitions.

Will Teen Star on DWTS Boost Youth Interest in Couples Dancing?

Posted on March 18, 2013 by WildBill

The couples dancing community, especially dance studios and independent dance teachers, looked forward initially to the new Dancing With The Stars (DWTS) TV show, as it would have been expected to help drive a rebirth of interest in couples’ social dancing. Unfortunately, though, it was not a dancing show but a reality show, where the TV audience was more concerned about the personalities of the stars and the banter of the judges than about the dancing feats that skilled teachers could elicit from men and women who had been stars in sports or other pursuits. Hollywood got involved, with their interest in the ratings (i.e, watcher-ship) far exceeding any interest in the dancing itself. The stars were all household words in their own specialties, and often were no longer active in them, so they were happy to prolong their share of mind in American audiences. But the show did not drive many, or any, new students into dance lessons or studios. Now, however, there is a 16 year old woman named Zendaya who is a current star on the Disney Channel’s “Shake It Up” series. We can all hope that she will give a shot in the arm to couples dancing by her high-schooler fans.