Dance around the world

10th of 20 reasons why dancing is great for your well-being.  Here's the full list.

We're at the end of the year already and half way through the list of 20 reasons...   Although the boundaries between emotional, physical, mental and spiritual categories are very porous, we're now focusing on the physical benefits.

Good posture.distinguishes between very good dancers and those who 'get around the floor'.  Standing tall and holding ones posture needs to be practiced.  I do need to consciously think about my posture when I am practicising and dancing.  There is a natural flow on benefit.  When I am walking and only able to 'dance in my head' the previous dance practice makes it easier for me to be more aware of my posture and ensure that I do hold a better posture rather than walk with a slouch. 

This very interesting site of Greg Holiday promotes the benefits of the Alexander Technique. His article Good dancers make it look easy promotes  Proprioception. Greg and the Alexander Technique go well beyond improving posture and his article makes very interesting reading. There are lots of other links between dance and posture, but Greg's article goes that much further.

A quote from a compilation of Tom Parsons, used with permission http://www.dancer.com/tom-parsons/quotes.html

Hence it is from the representation of things spoken by means of posture and gesture that the whole of the art of dance has been elaborated.
             --Plato

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Chris Mitchell
www.dancetours.co.nz

9th of 20 reasons why dancing is great for your well-being.  Here's the full list.

What other activity enables me to have a beautiful** woman I have just met accept my open arms and allow me to hold her in that dance frame for 3 - 5mins at a time?  Right from the beginning my partner is in full control.  She determines how closely we hold.   The mutual respect and trust ensures that the contact is both appropriate and welcomed. 

Greeting friends and even mere acquaintances with an embrace can be acceptable and welcomed, but it lasts nano seconds in comparison with the 3-5 minutes of a dance.  Far from a slap across the face, there is a strong likelihood that she accepts the invitation to do it again.  How good does that make a guy feel?

** I have already defined 'beautiful' in the last paragraph of an earlier blog entry here.  Every dance partner is beautiful, regardless of age, size or skill level.  I genuinely enjoy dancing with women who are as old as my mother, as well as those who are a lot younger.  When it's all about the dance, age doesn't matter and some of the older women who danced in their youth have still not lost it. 

Beauty and good looks are not synonymous. The beauty of a physically attractive woman who cannot dance is only skin deep.   Size can also be deceptive.  A petite woman is not necessarily a dancer.  I have danced with some larger framed women who have much more grace and style than some slimmer woman.  Many dance images focus on slimmer dancers.  That is not necessarily an accurate reflection of reality.  This picture of Beatrice Faumuina, NZ's much loved Olympian who almost won Dancing with the Stars in 2006 reminds us that beauty is not directly related to size. 

Similarly, skill level is not necessarily a pre-requisite for a 'beautiful' dancer.  If my partner can feel the rhythm that I feel and go with the dance rather than resist or be oblivious to my lead, she is also a beautiful woman.  

There are plenty of links with a comment on the physical closeness of dance.  This one relates to Tango and this one to Lindy Hop.  Look at 'The Lindy and Society" for an historical perspective.

A quote from a compilation of Tom Parsons, used with permission http://www.dancer.com/tom-parsons/quotes.html

I was a ballerina. I had to quit after I injured a groin muscle. It wasn't mine.
             --Rita Rudner

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Chris Mitchell
www.dancetours.co.nz

As a postscript, I have eventually found how to insert photos in this blog, It's so easy when you know how!  - A bit like dancing!  Beatrice and Brian are the first image and there will now be more in 2007! 

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

7th of 20 reasons why dancing is great for your well-being.  Here's the full list.

It is a buzz and feel-good experience to dance for the first time with someone who says that they do not know how to dance.  My favorite dance with a novice is the merengue, You can see a good demonstration of it here on Youtube. The basic 1,2 step is simple and with a good lead, a novice can dance and look elegant and confident.  The puzzled looks, wondering what is coming next, are soon replaced by a smile as she is led through elegant moves without missing a beat.  

Similarly with other dances such as cha cha cha and foxtrot, I enjoy starting with very basic steps with a novice and once it is clear that we are in sync, extending out into a couple of simple moves that extend my novice partner a little bit further than they thought they could go.  One memorable experience was asking someone to cha cha cha.  She had been sitting out dances all evening and she jumped at the opportunity to dance.  She had NO idea of the cha cha steps. How could I turn this potential disaster into a pleasant experience for us both?  We stopped and then danced at half pace, stepping on one: O n e,  t w o,   c h a  c h a  c h a  -v e r y   s l o w l y.  We picked up the rhythm of the music, lost it when we tried to go back to normal speed and quickly reverted to what was possible.  At the end, her smile was as genuine as if she had danced a stunning sequence.  That dance, and overcoming the challenge of what could have been a disaster, is more memorable than many other more technically elegant cha cha chas I have danced since.  As Forrest Gump (almost) said:  'Social dancing is a box of chocolates.  You never know what you are going to get.'

Of course I love dancing with good dancers, but dancing with novices has its own reward.  It adds to one's emotional well-being.

This quote is an extract from Aria's dance etiquette.

A great way to increase one's circle of dance acquaintances is to ask beginners to dance. I still fondly remember the advanced dancers who with some degree of regularity asked me to dance when I was a novice. Dancing with beginners is not only an excellent way to develop your lead/follow, but also is a great human investment that will pay off handsomely, because novice dancers don't remain that way for long. Don't think of dancing with a novice as charity, you are doing yourself a favor.

A quote from a compilation of Tom Parsons, used with permission http://www.dancer.com/tom-parsons/quotes.html

1. Beginning dancer. Knows nothing.
2. Intermediate dancer. Knows everything. Too good to dance with beginners.
3. Hotshot dancer. Too good to dance with anyone.
4. Advanced dancer. Dances everything. Especially with beginners.
             --Attributed to Dick Crum(?), a folk dance teacher

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Chris Mitchell
www.dancetours.co.nz

6th of 20 reasons why dancing is great for your well-being.  Here's the full list.

I am asked for a dance less frequently than I would like, but when it does it is a buzz.  Salsa dancers seem to ask more often than ballroom dancers.  As generally more women than men dance both ballroom and salsa, if a woman doesn't ask for a dance, she may run the risk of missing out.  As salsa is a bit more 'in your face' maybe the women who dance salsa are less inhibited about asking to dance.  When we go ballroom dancing within a group, it is great when a woman makes the first move to ask if we should dance.  I haven't declined any invite yet.

There is a great website here on dancing etiquette.  This particular link focusses on how to get asked for a dance.

A quote from a compilation of Tom Parsons, used with permission http://www.dancer.com/tom-parsons/quotes.html

Football isn't a contact sport; it's a collision sport. Dancing is a contact sport.
             --Vince Lombardi

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Chris Mitchell
www.dancetours.co.nz

5th of 20 reasons why dancing is great for your wellbeing.  Here's the full list.

In an earlier blog I stated that dancing isn't everything, it's just well ahead of whatever is in second place. 

Dancing in your head has also been touched on in a different blog entry

Whether driving in the car or working at home, I find that the radio station Coast 105.4FM Auckland provides great music to dance to in my head.   http://www.thecoast.net.nz/ListenLive/  The timeless music they play is almost exclusively ballroom and Latin rather than salsa, but that's ok.  While I am driving, some of those waltzs just sweep my imaginary partner and me around the floor in a perfect partnership.  Ok it's all in the head while driving, but almost just as real. 

When I saw Burn the Floor in Auckland earlier this year, there were a significant number of older people, possibly former dancers, who needed physical help to get into the show.  I am sure that although they are now forced to only dance in their head and heart, the experience is a storngly positive one. 

Here are a couple of people who I have just discovered share my passion for dance and know what it is like to dance in your head and heart:

http://www.thrivingnow.com/for/Health/get-up-and-dance/

http://www.thrivingnow.com/for/Health/dance-for-your-health/

A quote from a compilation of Tom Parsons, used with permission http://www.dancer.com/tom-parsons/quotes.html

You can dance anywhere, even if only in your heart.
             --Source unknown

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Chris Mitchell
www.dancetours.co.nz

Seven for '07

This blog carnival gives you the opportunity to list your dance goals for 2007. If it is powerful to write down your goals for your own benefit, how much more powerful to put your goals out there in public.  So here goes with my seven goals for '07

If the list was to be longer, it would include learning more new vogue, ceroc, swing, line-dancing beyond Achy Breaky Heart....  so many dances, so little time!

So seven for ’07. I guess that is putting it out there.  Depending on your predilection you can either hold me accountable or help me achieve them.  Let's dance into and through 2007.

Chris Mitchell

http://www.dancetours.co.nz/

4th of 20 reasons why dancing is great for your well-being.  Here's the full list.

We have an emotional response to music.  We all know what impact certain songs have on our emotional memory.  As soon as a particularly meaningful song is played we are right back into that emotional experience.  Am I alone in finding that the emotional experiences that songs trigger are usually positive ones, even if sometimes somewhat melancholic?  Is this another paradox?  With distance, even a sad event, say music played at a funeral, can evoke pleasant memories of the person who has died and the music helps keep us connected to them in a tangible way.  As a social dancer,  as soon as I hear tango or rhumba music or any other style that I can dance to, I feel the emotional connection and recall a wonderful occasion when I danced to that rhythm.  Alternatively I dance in my head to that song in the moment.  (See reason #5 coming up soon).

Just one day ago I was asked by a non-dancer what the difference is between salsa and tango.  Just hear the tune and the dancer knows the rhythm and responds.  It feels great!

DJ Toti (Jorge Perez-Yanez) translated by Michael Hoechsmann captures the emotional dimension in his comments here:
http://www.equalitytoday.org/edition8/salsa.html

A quote from a compilation of Tom Parsons, used with permission http://www.dancer.com/tom-parsons/quotes.html

Everything in the universe has rhythm. Everything dances.
             --Maya Angelou

Chris Mitchell
www.dancetours.co.nz

Since Talia's encouragement led me to become more active with my blog, more people from outside of New Zealand have been reading both this blog and the Dance Tours website.  If you would love to join some Kiwis (not the fruit) on a dance holiday you are most welcome.  You will know that Kiwis love to travel (you find us everywhere) and love to have fun.  Now you can travel and have fun DANCING on holiday.  Why not Buenos Aires in April?  There's even time to get the early bird special before the end of the year.

But wait there is more....  How would you like to dance through New Zealand?  That is our plan for 2007/2008 but you can start thinking about it now. You will see the beauty of the country as Maria and Jonathan Hey did in the summer of 2004/2005 here  You can also enjoy the experience that your friends have already told you about.  The most common opening comment I get from people when I travel overseas is:  "Oh you are from New Zealand?  I have ALWAYS wanted to go there."

Now is your chance to dance through the country while also enjoying all that NZ has to offer. Whether its the hot salsa in the best dancespots or a waltz under the stars in Queenstown,  you'll get the best we can offer.

As an interruption to this interrruption, I don't know if Maria and Jono Hey are dancers but check out the Robot dance  Jono found on Youtube.

That's enough of a commercial break for now.  Back to the dancing and the 4th of 20 reasons why dancing is great for your well-being.

To return to the latest blog entry click here

Chris Mitchell
www.dancetours.co.nz

3rd of 20 reasons why dancing is great for your well-being.  Here's the full list.

Respect and tenderness towards your partner is its own reward.  It's another paradox that it is very modern to display what were once considered old fashioned manners.  Opening car doors or walking on the outside of the footpath were dismissed and abandoned as being anti-feminist a few decades ago.  We seem to have matured through that now and without exception I now find those little symbols of respect are received with appreciation.

There is a very good article on dancing etiquette by Aria Nosratinia here:

 A quote from a compilation of Tom Parsons, used with permission http://www.dancer.com/tom-parsons/quotes.html 
The waltz is a dance of quite too loose a character, and unmarried ladies should refrain from it...very young married ladies may be allowed to waltz if it is very seldom....
             --From "The Gentleman and Lady's Book of Politeness," 2nd American edition, Boston: Allen and Ticknor and Carter, Hendee & Co., 1833.

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Chris Mitchell
www.dancetours.co.nz