Beach Volleyball is an Olympic Sport; How about Dancesport?

Posted on August 24, 2016 by WildBill

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?

The Gresham’s Law of Social Couples Dancing Today

Posted on January 7, 2016 by WildBill

Gresham’s law is an economic principle that is commonly stated as: “Bad money drives out good”. But this principle has much broader applicability. For example, to social couples dancing.

Human beings have a long history of dancing in some form, be it as individuals, couples, or groups. The first couples dance Wilddancer recognizes that is still being taught and done today in most western countries is the Mazurka, which started in the 1500’s. The first Waltz (the Volta) dates back to 1556, with many variations since then. The Ländler arrived in the Austrian countryside about 1690, then moved to Vienna and a variation became the Viennese Waltz. After these came (in historical order) the couples dances Bolero, Paso Doble, Polka, Merengue, Habanara and Milonga (now Tango), Foxtrot, Rumba, Samba, Lindy Hop (later called Jitterbug), Cha Cha, Mambo, East Coast Swing, Jive, West Coast Swing, Texas Two-Step, Hustle, and Nightclub Two Step.

People who have danced for many years will tell you that the Twist killed touch dancing. If so, the “Freestyle” that people have done for the last few decades (essentially waving your butt while shifting your feet a bit) has danced on its grave. Its two main virtues are that it does not take any training and it doesn’t take much space on a dance floor (assuming that the dancers are not too drunk). But it really isn’t a guy-gal couples dance, as one sees a lot of gal-gal couples (either the guys are in short supply or have two left feet). But the net result is that the unskilled dancers are monopolizing the dance floor and displacing the skilled ones, ergo Gresham’s Law of Social Couples Dancing.

Even worse, according to an essay entitled Dancing Properly by noted British philosopher Roger Scruton, Freestyle removes the sociability of the physical contact, and perpetuates the bad manners so rampant in current times.

Chinese Youngsters Complain Oldsters’ Dance Music is too Loud!

Posted on April 17, 2014 by WildBill

Chinese people love social couples dancing. They do it, along with numerous other fitness activities (tai chi, karate, hacky sack (yup!), …), in parks, usually early in the morning. Wilddancer has joined them in Shanghai and Beijing. We deemed ourselves too young to particpate in the “Seniles Disco” in Shanghai (lost in translation), but joined a group who had music that matched what we often danced to. And we had to dance with everyone in the group, essentially none of whom had ever taken lessons in western-style ballroom or latin dances. In Beijing it was on National Day, and our west coast swing made all our new friends watch (and applaud).

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.

Senior Olympics Winner Trains by Dancing

Posted on August 22, 2013 by WildBill

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.