Dance costume can be just as important as the dance itself. The purpose of a costume in dance isn't just to dress up and look fancy but it is intended to accentuate the dancer's body to illuminate the intricate movements. Dance costume isn't just clothing to a dancer. It's also viewed as art and if selected appropriately, it can communicate the unspoken intentions of the dance and the dancers alike.
The modern world has become far more aware of the costumes for ballroom dancing with each new season of that popular dance reality television show. From what I can find though, there are no hard and fast rules for proper costume for each dance. Costumes should harmonize well with the music and the dance being performed and as long as they don't interfere with or restrict the movements of the dance, it's really up to the dancers themselves to define their costumes.
Soft and flowing waltz ball gown
Of course, the more romantic dances like the waltz and the foxtrot are typically displayed with the man in tails or a modern tuxedo while the lady is wearing a long flowing gown. This style of dress originates from back in the 18th century when ballroom dancing was only done by wealthy high society types who wore layers upon layers of formal garments while dancing. Thankfully it has evolved over time and become far more comfortable but is still intended to communicate affluence.
Dark and seductive tango dress
The Latin dances like the cha-cha, tango, mambo, rumba, samba, etc. are typically enhanced with skimpy sequined ensembles that show every spare inch of the physique possible. This is typically because the movements required are not easily accomplished under the excess fabric of a full length gown. Typically, the Latin dances are more sensual in nature too so of course the costume should reflect the mood and character of the dance. Short, flashy, and sexy should do the trick for the ladies.
This latin costume is on sale, can you believe it?
Shoes should be leather soled for ease of foot steps on the dance floor. Rubber soles should be avoided as they tend to stick to the dance floor and may not only interrupt the flow of the dance but they can also cause injury if you should trip or roll your ankle.
The theme in dance class this week seems to have been swing. Hubby and I went to our private lesson at Arthur Murray and our very friendly teacher informed us that she was going to teach us 3 more dances: Hustle, Tango, Swing. Exciting right? Well, yes if all you want to learn is to move your feet in the right places without taking music, rhythm, turns, or any other topic around what makes dancing fun into consideration. In 30 mins, she spent 10 mins on each basic foot pattern. For example.
Tango
In the tango, the basic foot pattern is so simple that I hope you can understand what a waste of 10mins it was. The lead or the man will take 3 forward steps starting with his left followed by a step together. Left, right, left, step together. And the leader or the woman will simply follow so she takes 3 steps back starting with her right foot then step together. Simple. Ridiculously simple. Yet she spent 10 mins on it when she could have easily taught us a simple turn or something else in that time.
Because I don't trust that you understand just how simple it was with my description....here's a video to demonstrate exactly what we did for 10 mins.
That's it! That's it! Seriously! That was IT! I ran out of patience after the first minute.
Hustle
I really don't even feel it necessary to discuss the hustle because the steps she taught us for that are exactly the same as the simplest version of the single time east coast swing. For the man, it's sway left, sway right, rock step with the left foot. For the woman, it's exactly the same but opposite sides since we're facing one another. I don't know about you but I've seen Saturday Night Fever and what they did doesn't look anything like the east coast swing basic.
This is the hustle:
This is what we learned for the hustle lesson:
West Coast Swing
Then she taught us the West Coast Swing basic. This she actually got relatively correct but with a small variation to the video below. Instead of the triple step demonstrated below, our brilliant instructor at Arthur Murray told us to tap a toe behind us. I'm sure it's not horrifically incorrect or anything but just different.
Now that our private lessons at Arthur Murray are over, I have to say that I'm glad. We still have the one group class we can attend from our introductory offer. I'm sure we will take that group class sometime in the near future though I'm not confident that it will change my opinion of the dance center or their methods. Overall, I wouldn't recommend Arthur Murray unless you have a lot of money to blow and don't really care about learning to do any real dancing anytime soon. At the end of our second private lesson, we were quoted $144 per 40min private lesson with an 8 lesson commitment that can be used at our discretion. Personally, I didn't feel that the two 30mins lessons we got were worth the $60 we paid, but that's just me. Two thumbs down for sure.
Washington Dance Club
Last night, we attended our last group class at Washington Dance Club and all we had was hope after the Arthur Murray disappointment. Well, we were not disappointed again. Our teacher at WA Dance Club, Christa Quackenbush (who is also the owner btw) did a little review of our previous lesson with the waltz. She reviewed all the fun stuff we learned last time which was great because we actually now have enough knowledge to enjoy a real social dance if a waltz song comes on or if we attend a wedding or something like that. Hubby was dancing me all over that ballroom and it was wonderful and fun and I loved every second of it.
Then our fabulous teacher decided to do a bit of swing dancing too. She focused on east coast swing to get us started. More specifically, she focused on single time east coast swing which is the video I displayed above as the lesson we got for the hustle from the other stupid school. But instead of just doing the simple sway right, sway left, rock step and nothing else, she started there but then progressed into actual turns so we can use it to build upon to do real dancing in the real world. And as if that wasn't enough, she also showed us the triple time east coast swing too. See below for all the fun.
This shows the single time and triple time basics in closed position.
This shows the turns and changing places in triple time.
Our group classes at Washington Dance Club are also now over, however, because of the snow last week, we have a coupon to attend a Friday or Sunday night workshop and social dance to make up for the lost class. It is sad that our dance month was interrupted by the snow because we were going to learn the cha-cha last week and didn't get a chance to do that. But! We fully intend to continue going to Washington Dance Club for their Friday night workshops and dances and maybe even sign up for other lessons so we can learn more than we did this month. I love how they focus their classes. Each class is dedicated to one particular dance so you have the time and attention to learn more than just the basic footwork and can actually practice and apply what you learned at the dances. Brilliant! We haven't seen the last of this dance school even though there are others out there that can be considered as well.
If you have taken a dance lesson or two and decided it wasn't for you, I would highly recommend you give it another try at a different school or with a different teacher because not all classes, teachers, schools are created equal. I would have given up after the Arthur Murray experience too if I hadn't already had positive experiences before going there to know that learning to ballroom dance can be and is extremely fun, especially after you make it past the uneventful basic footwork. I really am grateful that I signed us up for the Washington Dance Club too because I would have been severely disappointed if I relied on the one negative experience.
Well, it appears as if Seattle and the Puget Sound area where I live and work and dance has been hit with the great winter storm of 2012 or so the news people are calling it. Much of the surrounding Seattle area has received 6-8 inches of snow in the past couple days so the world as I know it has come to a grinding halt. Roads are icy and covered in slush, trees are down from the weight of the freezing rain and snow, power is out all over. It's complete chaos. Not really but we're not used to this type of weather up here in the rainy northwest so when we get any trace of snow, we freak out.
You know what the interesting thing about this week is?
It's that just last week I was feeling a bit overwhelmed and afraid that I had yet again over-committed myself to activities or obligations after firmly resolving to abstain from doing that to myself any more. I was thinking that perhaps my schedule of happy, healthy, wonderful, fun things was a bit more than it needed to be. Then blamo!, we get the great winter storm of 2012 which covered all appointments and obligations in a layer of icy snow.
All dance classes have been cancelled this week either because most of the students have communicated their unwillingness or inability to attend due to the conditions or the school has closed to keep the staff and students from braving the icy roads. Either way, there is no ballroom dancing this week.
My 3 personal trainer appointments every week? Cancelled.
My physical therapy appointment for the stupid chronic back pain? Cancelled.
Arthur Murray dance classes? Cancelled
Washington Dance Club class? Cancelled
French class? Cancelled
Guitar lesson? Cancelled
Every work meeting on my calendar? Cancelled
Perhaps the universe decided that I may have had the right idea about having too much to do and decided to help me out with it, A.
So you know what I've been doing instead of all those things? I've spent the week working from home in the comfort of my jammies and fuzzy slippers. And since I've had so much time on my hands (after I'm done with all my work of course) this week, I decided to put my hands to a different kind of work. I've been knitting. Yes, that's right, I knit. My grandmother taught me just a couple months ago. Since then, I've made a dish cloth that is less than attractive, 3 fuzzy scarves, and now I've decided to try to make a slouchy beret hat by knitting in the round. After starting and pulling it out 5 times, I think I finally figured it out on the 6th try.
And for my activity? I've been walking in the snow. One of my favorite things to do is to take walks in the rain and even better in the snow. I wait until the sun goes down, then I bundle up and head outside for a nice long walk. It's best when it's dark outside because you get that perpetual dusk feeling with all the street lights and the moonlight reflecting off the snow so it's very comforting on the eyes. Plus, after the sun has gone down, people are typically home and settled in so there is no hustle nor bustle out and about. Perfect calm. Also, the snow deadens the white noise of the world so you get a sweet silence that you can't really get any other way.
Last night, hubby and I ventured out for a long walk. 2 hours later we returned home chilled and happy. We changed clothes and warmed ourselves on a nice hot cup of tea by the fire. I can't think of a better way to spend the evening after a snow day.
Well here we are, in the second week of the month dedicated to ballroom dancing. I'm loving it!
Unfortunately, the week started a little slow. I wasn't feeling well on Tuesday or Wednesday so not only did I have to miss my first day back to French class, but I also had to reschedule our dance lesson at Arthur Murray. Sad.
I was feeling better yesterday though so Hubby and I joined the sea of steel coffins inching down the road toward our soon to be new neighborhood to attend our second of four group dance classes at Washington Dance Club. Traffic was horrendous but we eventually made it even if ridiculously late.
Our tardiness didn't seem to be much of a bother though because they spent the first few minutes reviewing what we had learned in class last week. We got there just in time to practice a bit of it before we started our new lesson of the week.
The Waltz
I love the waltz. It's just so romantic. If you want a dance to make you feel like a princess, the waltz is sure to deliver. Even after nearly drowning in the stress and tension of the day and still in my work clothes, I felt whisked away in the arms of my true love. Sort of like Beauty and the Beast, only Hubby is nothing like the Beast. Much less hair.
The waltz is a simple box step set to an 3 even counts. 1, 2, 3, slow, slow, slow.
Step forward on the left foot, step right with the right foot, pull left foot to meet the right, step back with the right foot, step left with the left foot, pull right foot to met the left. Rinse and repeat. See? Simple. All pictures represent the leader's foot steps. The follower gets to just follow them so when the leader steps forward with his left foot, the follower steps back with their right foot, etc
We also learned to do 1/4 turns to the left (leader's left, follower's right). This picture of the quarter turn is for the leader's steps.
We also learned to travel the waltz so we learned to move it forward and back again. Step forward with the left, right with the right, pull the left foot into the right to step together. Then instead of back with the right foot like we did in the basic box step, we step forward again using the right foot, left with the left foot, and pull the right foot into the left to step together. This moves the dance forward (leader's forward, follower's backward). In order to move it back, you just do the same thing but the leader takes their first step back instead.
Ok then. Got it? No? Personally, I never really understood how people learned to dance by following the graphed foot steps so....how's about a video or two to demonstrate.
The best videos I could find to demonstrate what I learned do not allow me to embed so...you can simply click on each link to be redirected to view them.
Next week, I get to look forward to our next private lesson with Arthur Murray, a group lesson with Arthur Murray, and another group lesson at Washington Dance Club. Fun stuff.
Last night was my first group dance class at the Washington Dance Club in Seattle. There is definitely a difference between what we did on Wednesday and what we did in Seattle last night.
Wednesday night at Arthur Murray, we had a 30min private lesson where we had one instructor's undivided attention to walk us through the basics of 5 dances. Last night was a 45min group class where one instructor walked 5 couples through the basics of one dance, the foxtrot.
The instructor began by teaching us to walk heel-toe and to sort of drag our feet between steps. She also went through other basic fundamentals of dancing with a partner.
Always keep your feet in line with your knees, in line with your hips, in line with your shoulders
The leader should always keep their frame (their arm structure) slightly to the right of their body to avoid stepping on each other's toes or bumping knees
The follower should always keep a "toned" frame so they can feel where the lead wants them to go
The leader should always lead off on their left foot
This video is slightly long and dull but it contains all the fundamentals we learned last night.
After the instructor had us practice the basic walk, she then introduced the first foot pattern for the foxtrot basic. I provided a video in yesterday's post that I think covered this information well. In fact, I felt far more confident in my understanding about the foxtrot basic after watching that video then even more so after last night's class. Perhaps I simply misunderstood the guidance from our first instructor at Arthur Murray. We shall see next week when we see her again.
We practiced the foxtrot basic while in ballroom position (meaning in the arms of your partner) a dozen times. Walk, walk, step together. Walk, walk, step together. Slow, slow, quick, quick. Slow, slow, quick, quick. The problem with only knowing the forward basic though is that you simply end up moving further and further into the opposite corner of the room and that can't work. Hubby and I ended up in the little kitchen area several times. Then it came time to learn to take that back the other direction. Simple. Instead of the leader walking forward, he just walks backward and the follower follows. Back, back, step together. Back, back, step together.
That means it must be time to learn another pattern that can get us out of the corner. Next we learned the rock step and the 1/4 turn.
Ok, now that we got a few basics down....it was time to practice. Cool right? Well, yes and no. Practice is always a good thing but in my opinion it's not fun when I have to practice with someone I don't know, never met, and who can't figure out which foot is his left and which one is his right. Yup. You guessed it. She had us switch partners a couple times so every woman got a chance to dance with every man in class, except for the couple that refused to switch partners. I'm thinking they had the right idea.
Pros of switching partners:
You get a chance to experience what it's like with someone who you can't predict their movements
If you're a follower, it's a good thing to learn how to just let go and trust what the leader is doing and that's easier to do with your own husband or boyfriend or whatever
If you're a leader, it's a good thing to learn to lead all the time and not let the follower lead you which happens more times than not in a committed relationship
"Dancing" with 4 other men last night made me appreciate how fantastic my husband is at leading and how much I really do love dancing with him
Cons of switching partners:
One of the primary reasons I like ballroom dancing with my husband is that it really makes me feel closer to him and if I'm dancing with someone else then I completely miss out on that
I don't ever dance with other men so there is no need to learn to do it
I don't feel like I can improve if I'm constantly having to adjust to my new partner's abilities (which last night and in my past experience were significantly retarded - their abilities that is)
I have a nice roomy personal bubble and for strangers, it's considerably larger so asking me to allow them to touch me let alone come within arms length of me is asking me to compromise my boundaries...no thanks
Was it a great workout? Not at all. But it was just the basics. Perhaps when we get into more actual dancing, it'll be better exercise but for now, it was barely active. Fun and interesting for sure but a good workout it was not.
One class down, and Hubby and I learned 5 dances. Amazed? So was I when the dance instructor informed us of this little factoid. Here's how it went.
Last night was our first ballroom dance lesson at Arthur Murray. They had us fill out a little paperwork to tell them why we want to learn to dance and what benefits we're interested in deriving from it. They also give you a list of dances they teach and ask you which ones you're interested in learning. We signed our life away and off we went with the instructor.
She asked us about our experience with ballroom dancing. Since we had taken a few classes with the Boeing Dance Club years ago, we had some basic experience, none of which either of us could remember. That dance club was awesome too, until we got kicked out. Neither of us work for Boeing so they decided to close it to anyone not employed at Boeing. That was a sad day.
Waltz
Once she got us on one of the 3 dance floors they have in the building, she started with the Waltz basic. In my opinion, the waltz is the most beautiful dance. I get the below image in my head when I think of the waltz. Deborah Kerr in The King and I. It wasn't the waltz they danced while she wore this dress though, I think it was the polka they danced. The polka is not pretty at all but I'm sure it would be fun and tiring.
Anyhoo, the waltz basic is just a simple box step. Here's a video to show you how the basic goes for a man. The woman does the same step but while the man steps forward, the woman steps back and vise versa so both people are moving together.
No matter how clumsy you may be, I think it's impossible to feel anything less than beautiful when you are doing this movement. How do I know? Well, last night I had to rush to class right after a session with my personal trainer. I was still sweating all through the dance lesson. Can't get much less beautiful feeling than that and I still felt pretty even doing just the basic in my husband's arms.
Rumba
The next basic she taught us was for the rumba. The rumba is known as the slow and sensual latin dance. The rumba basic goes like this:
I like Robbie and his red shoes. Our teacher didn't teach us all the body movement that he emphasizes in the video though. She just taught us the basic foot movements while dancing together. I feel robbed now after seeing how fabulous he is in the video. She did tell us something interesting that he didn't though. The rumba basic is very similar to the foxtrot basic. One difference between the two is that the rumba and most latin dances are intended to stay in one place on the dance floor while the foxtrot moves beautifully across the floor.
Foxtrot
The foxtrot was the next basic we learned. It's similar to the rumba in the quick-quick-slow, quick-quick-slow part of it. But as I mentioned above, the foxtrot can easily move across the floor. It is also faster and a tad more bouncy than the slow sensual rumba. Watch.
Hmmmm....now I'm thinking our teacher might have taught us something incorrectly because that basic was nothing like the rumba. Good thing I have another class at a different dance school tonight where I can ask questions of someone new.
I think I'll wrap this post up here and save the swing and the hustle for tomorrow.
Every year I make resolutions and every year I review them to see that I haven't really accomplished any of them as I had previously defined. Then I take a moment to throw a mini pity party for myself before I realize just how much I accomplished through the year that may not have been on my new years resolution list.
Example #1- One of my resolutions for 2011 was to finally get this extra weight off. Here I am at the end of the year and I'm 9lbs heavier than I was on January 1st. Total failure? Not exactly. I have been doing pretty rigorous weight training and I'm told that I have built a substantial amount of muscle which could explain some of the gain. Plus, health isn't just all about the scale either. I have maintained a consistent exercise regimen throughout the year even with the sky falling all around me.
Example #2 - Another goal for 2011 was to have a significant amount of money in savings but I'm no where near that balance. Again, failure? No way! I was still able to save more than I had in previous years and take a dream vacation to France and I enjoyed going out with friends and fun activities with my nephews. Success!
Example #3 - I had a goal of getting my dog into agility training in 2011. I did NOT do any agility training with her though. That seems pretty cut and dry as a failure. But knowing the dog she was at the beginning of the year and how she is now shows me that I have successfully helped her through her psycho fears so she can be a normal dog. So what if I didn't pursue the agility course for her. She's no longer deathly afraid of everything and she can be a happy dog. That's success in my book.
I've weighed in on the new years resolution debate before (Resolutions, Goal Setting) and little came of it so I'm not concocting any master plans this year. Instead, I'm just going to give a simple list of what I've been thinking of putting on my new years resolutions list. Of course the following items don't meet the requirements of appropriate goal setting and they're mostly vague but I don't care this year. I'm just writing down what makes me happy and I'll go from there.
Clean house (organize, label, sort, toss)
Move
Lose 50lbs
Guitar
Spread joy
Write
Relax
Speak French
Donate
Blog
Save
Do it NOW
Be nice
I'll elaborate on them and will also likely revise the list as time goes by but at least it's an idea and it's in writing. Actually, I'll elaborate on one of them right now.
BLOG
I've totally slacked on the blogging in the past few months, for very good reason. Regardless, I've decided to reinstate the monthly activity list and maybe even the voting feature if I can figure out this new stupid Blogger interface. When I started blogging back in 2009, I did so because I love to write, I wanted to start "journaling", and I wanted the accountability and support network that comes from blogging as I figured out how to remove the couch fabric from my ass. It was a brilliant plan and it worked well for a long time. And....it was fun. Very important! So I'm doing it again. Blogging regularly and choosing a different activity to dedicate myself to each month.
January. January is going to be dedicated to.....ballroom dancing. Woohoo! Stay tuned for more info. I'll have my activity calendar posted and I'll let you all know my plan so you can watch, point, and laugh at me as I stumble my way through the month.
