Little Fred and Ginger

Ballroom and Ballroom Latin are great dance styles to get your son/daughter involved in. The best age to start them off would be at around 8 years old when they are able to follow instructions and have been exposed to other learning environments such as swimming lessons, music lessons and participating in social events such as birthday parties so that they understand how to behave in different social contexts. If your child is having difficulty in social environments then partner dancing classes can be a great way to improve their interactions.

Partner dancing styles teach children how to communicate effectively with one another. It is impossible for dancers to move together as one if they are doing their own thing and not dancing smoothly together, co-coordinating their moves perfectly. In ballroom dancing traditionally the male leads and the female follows. It is important to work on creating a strong, healthy and reliable dance partnership. It is impossible to progress if one partner is more committed than the other so sometimes it can take a while to find the right person. Remember, they are only kids so don't get too involved, let them dance and have fun!! They will learn the basics of social etiquette along with enjoying making new friends in a fun environment and will learn skills that will be beneficial for a lifetime.

It is not necessary for your son/daughter to compete in ballroom dancing, they can just learn it socially. If they do want to go down that path there are many competitive ballroom dance schools. Make sure you investigate which school is best suited for your child as some will only teach group classes and others will insist on only private lessons. This of course is a great way to fast track their learning but also involves greater expense.

There are many films that feature ballroom dancing, including: Dirty Dancing, Strictly Ballroom, Dance With Me, Shall We Dance, Take The Lead and Mad Hot Ballroom which features a documentary about teaching 5th graders to dance.

GLOSSARY

Ballroom dancing encompasses many styles of dance, here is a glossary to help you distinguish between the ten international Ballroom and Ballroom Latin dances:

Waltz
The waltz is characterised by an undulating rise and fall technique with shoulder sways that gives the dance a floating/gliding quality. It is danced in 3/4 time with a strong accent on the first beat and has only closed figures; that is, the couple never breaks the embrace. Most of the basic figures have 1 step per 1 beat whilst advanced figures may have 4-6 steps per bar. The variations in steps per bar along with turns and elegant poses makes the dance very dynamic despite the relatively slow tempo. Rainbow Connection" by Kermit the Frog is a typical waltz beat.

Foxtrot
The foxtrot is similar to the waltz although it is much more linear and is danced traveling straight around the room, rather than in a circular fashion and has less of the of the characteristic "Rise and Fall" of Waltz. There are two versions of the Foxtrot, slow and quick. The most popular rhythms are slow-slow-quick-quick and slow-quick-quick. Each slow step counts for 2 beats while each quick step counts for one. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers are usually associated with this dance style.

Tango
Ballroom Tango is very different from Argentine Tango. The Argentine style is usually danced in a close embrace with extremely intricate footwork patterns and leg actions and very little travel across the floor whereas the ballroom style is characterised by long pauses and stylized body positions and travels around the ballroom following the line of dance. The tango is danced to music usually in 4/4 time with 5 steps taking up a total of 8 counts. It can be counted "Slow, Slow, Quick Quick Slow," with each slow taking two counts each.

Viennese waltz
The Viennese waltz is absolutely beautiful to watch and dance. It is characterised by its turning steps where the dancers are constantly turning either toward their right (natural) or toward their left (reverse). The turning steps are broken up by non-rotating change steps to switch between the direction of rotation. A true Viennese waltz consists only of turns and change steps.

Quickstep
The quickstep is a very elegant dance style and should be danced very smoothly. The dancers should appear to be extremely light on their feet with the dance seeming effortless even though it is energetic and dynamic. The style is characterised by quicksteps across the dance floor which involve a lot of momentum and rotation. The tempo, as suggested by the name, is very fast-paced when compared to the other ballroom dance styles.

Ballroom Latin styles include:

Samba
The Samba is a very rhythmical dance from Brazil and is characterised by the "Samba Bounce". The music is in 2/4 time however, there are three steps to every bar, making the Samba feel like a 3/4 timed dance. The footwork timing can be described/called out as: and-a-one, and-a-two, then back to one. Unlike the other Latin dances that are stationary, it has a traveling action around the floor with lots of spins and controlled bounces.

Cha Cha
Cha Cha is a dance style in it's own right but is believed to have started as a step in Mambo. Cha-Cha music is composed in 4/4 time. The rhythm is danced 2-3-4 & 1 or "rock step Cha Cha Cha". Cuban motion is an essential element of the dance. Cuban motion, especially the hip action, comes mainly from the alternate bending and straightening of the knees, in other words the hip action should be a natural result from correct foot and leg action.

Jive
Jive is a lively dance style that originated in the Untied States from African Americans in the early 1940's and is danced to 4/4 time. The six count basic is characterised by a 'chassis' from side to side and a back replace, called out as: side step, side step, back replace. This style accentuates the pumping action of the knees, as dancers shift their weight in the chassis. This dance style is typically the last danced performed in a competition and is considered an extremely hard dance to perform.

Paso Doble
Paso Doble, like Samba, is a progressive International Latin dance. It is a very choreographed competition dance and is almost never danced socially. It imitates bullfighting in that the leader (male partner) imitates the bullfighter whereas the follower (female partner) is the cape. The Paso Doble music is the music usually played in bullfights during the bullfighters' entrance to the ring or during the passes just before the kill. It is a very difficult style to master and usually one of the last ones to learn in the list of Latin styles.

Rumba
The rumba is a very romantic dance and is characterised by its Slow Quick Quick timing. This style is danced on the spot, in other words, it does not travel around the room like other ballroom styles of dance. Rumba music is written in 4/4 time but only three steps are taken to the four beats of music. The steps are taken on beats 2, 3, and 4 of each bar of music with no step taken on count 1 (instead it is replaced with a hip movement and spiral turning actions on that count). Learning to count the music correctly is the first big hurdle for beginners.

Author :
Deb Cantoni - Owner of The Space