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Different dances, different challenges


Years ago I took my first zydeco lesson at the now defunct Candelight Ballroom. It was a basic, drop in lesson and very easy, so I picked it up pretty much instantly. One of the owners of the ballroom said to me “I can’t believe you just learned that. You look like you’ve been dancing it for years.” “Well it was pretty basic stuff,” I explained. “It was very easy.” She shook her head ruefully and said, “You have no idea. You just have no idea.” I was struck by her comment because she was an award winning competition ballroom dancer. I couldn’t have learned her style of dancing in half an hour, but she was awed by my ability to pick up a simple dance quickly. Why was that? Competition Ballroom dance is judged on styling and alignment. It’s not judged on grace, fluidity, or musicality. It’s athletic, very stiff and formal and disassociated from the music. Street dances like Zydeco are “get down” kinds of dances. They are music driven, relaxed and natural. Feeling the music creates the style. They are so different they barely qualify as the same category of activity. In fact, I consider competitive ballroom dance to be more of a sport than a dance. Extremely challenging to be sure, but to me dance is about the music. It’s about making an instrument of your body and jamming with the band. I have a friend with whom I enjoy dancing who does competitive ballroom. I remember inviting him to an event with the caveat “The music sucks, but the crowd is great.” He looked at me blankly and said, ”Oh, I guess the music is important to some people, but to me dance is it’s own art form that has nothing to do with the music.” That statement in a nutshell defines the difference between my kind of dance, which includes social ballroom, and the world of competitive ballroom.