Due to a lifetime of watching Fred and Ginger I’ve always wanted to try ballroom dancing. Unfortunately since I have two left feet and all the grace of a herniated wildebeast I’m afraid any newspaper account of me trying to tango would begin, “Among the injured were…”
I took three years of ballroom dancing, and have made a few half-assed attempts to learn lindy hop and east coast.
One of the best ways to learn is to ask questions. My various partners and I would flag down the instructors if we saw them doing a move that looked like something we could manage, and they were always willing to show it to us. Nothing beats one-on-one instruction.
I second (third? fifth?) the recommendation to dance with as many partners as possible. And don’t wear sweaters! It gets bloody hot in there.
As a side note: I’ve danced with a number of people, including three ex-girlfriends. After awhile, I began to realize that ballroom became a microcosm for my relationships; if we weren’t communicating in the real world, we weren’t communicating on the dance floor. The opposite was true, as well. So you might find out a great deal about your partner, Siege, that you didn’t know before.
Totally valuable. I always mix different moves when I lead.
I like following, as well – although I wish I had more opportunity to practice it. Most of the girls around here don’t lead, and the ones that do – well I can follow a couple of them reasonably well, but they have a lighter lead than I need. There’s a guy I will get to lead me sometimes when we have a dance within our little group (a local dance club). He has a great lead, so I can follow him well. (For the record, yes, he’s gay, and no, I’m not).
He doesn’t want to lead another guy at the local dance club, but then I don’t blame him – that’s outside the security of the known group, or the dance competitions where it’s no big deal seeing girls leading girls and guys leading guys.
In fact, at many of the competitions I attend, they have Jack and Jill competitions, which are informal contests, and you dance with somebody you haven’t danced with before. Variations on this, which end up being mostly the advanced dancers, include the Jill and Jill (girls leading girls) – and the Jack and Jack (guys leading guys). The latter usually ends up being hilarious.
And if there’s a tie in the Jack & Jill, you of course have a run-off.
In the Jill & Jill, this is a “Jill-off”.
And…
I took ballroom dance at the college I went to my freshman year and loved it dearly. I’ve since transferred and miss it just as much as I loved it. The ballroom dance society at my current school disbanded right before I got there because of insufficient interest. I’m a little upset about that. I’d love to find someone to foxtrot with again. sigh
I’m actually a total klutz, but the rhythm of my music helps me organize my movements. So does being forced to follow someone else. I just stop thinking with my brain and start thinking with my body. Which is easy with a tango, Balle_M. Just a foxtrot with an extra step and keep it steamy. Make some eye-contact and trust your partner.
God, I miss dancing.
Heh. How much fun would an SDMB ball be? Intelligent conversation and twinkling toes.
It could be a lot of fun!
I’ve now had my first Tuesday night and my second Monday night one. Let’s start with the basics, shall we? Both classes are taught by the same instructor, and she seems quite good. One of the things she does is have people rotate partners every so often so that you dance with each person of the opposite sex in turn. Monday night lessons can be taken on an individual basis, so they draw a larger crowd – about 20 people or so; Tuesday night lessons are part of a series; last night there were only 7 of us. Monday night’s the cha-cha, so she starts with all of us lined up, facing the mirror, working on the steps, then has us partner with someone. Last night, things went a bit differently in that she showed the men what they do first, then the women, then we worked together. As expected, we started with the foxtrot, but then we switched to the tango!
It’s interesting dancing with various fellows. There are some who are very good leads indeed, and some who don’t have a clue what they’re doing. I’m working at learning to follow, not anticipate and get a feel for the signals the guys are giving.
CJ
Just for you, CJ, I’ll bring my Tango CD to Gettysdope II.
I’ve dabbled in ballroom dancing for a few years, and I’ve taken a salsa class. When my life settles down I plan to take some more ballroom dance classes.
Miss Purl, I’d love to see a Dopefest ball. Shall we start planning one over in MPSIMS?
Go for it. I don’t know that I’d be able to attend, but I’d love to be the seed of the idea.