Feels three times better than it looks.
8th of 20 reasons why dancing is great for your well-being. Here's the full list.
As a social dancer I do want to dance well, but it is not a competition. I vividly remember the very first time I danced a whisk and weave in the waltz. Taking those nine open steps for the first time, was such a step up from the basic 1,2 3 or forward, side, together and it felt amazingly good. I am sure the steps did not look anything spectacular to anyone who was watching, but as my dancing was not a performance this did not matter. Non-dancers in New Zealand possibly thought that Rodney Hide was not being honest when he said he really enjoyed the dancing. Real dancers would know that he was being completely honest. It not only felt 3-4 times better (who's counting) than it looked but he had another reason why his dancing was good for his well-being. Look at how much weight he lost!
A very good article by Kenneth Howard comparing performance, competition and social dancing is a bit heavy at first but worth reading in full, particularly if you are a social dancer.
A quote from a compilation of Tom Parsons, used with permission http://www.dancer.com/tom-parsons/quotes.html
I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to dance better than myself.
--Mihkail Baryshnikov
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Chris Mitchell
www.dancetours.co.nz
