Timothy C.

Del Mar

PE 3 - C

Ø distinction in a different audience.

The 3 ballroom dances have very distinct audiences. The Social

ballroom dance, you are dancing for your partner. In Competitive ballroom,
you want to impress the judges since its for contest. In Exhibition Ballroom,
its for the audience that wants to be entertained.

Ø difficulty of technique

From the 3 kinds of ballroom dances , Competitive Ballroom

automatically becomes the hardest and most difficult of all as intent of the
dance is to impress the judges. The more complex and difficult the
performance is, the more likely you are going to impress the judges. Social
Ballroom would be the easiest. The dance is meant for partner interaction
and more meant of a social activity rather than trying to impress someone.
Exhibition Ballroom would be at a gray area as it is not intentionally hard or
easy as its main purpose as a dance is for entertainment to an audience. Of
course a harder dance would impress an audience but it is not asked for you
to pull off very difficult moves. Audiences will more or less be satisfied with
the performance regardless of difficulty as long as the dance is executed
well.

Ø repertoire of dances

There were 10 International Styles for Competitive Ballroom:

Slow Waltz Jive Cha-Cha

Viennese Waltz Paso Doble Rumba

Slow Foxtrot Tango

Quickstep Samba

Half of these styles have mostly disappeared by now.

There are also many Non Competitive styles

Lindy Hop

West Coast Swing Country Waltz Merengue

East Coast Swing Viennese Waltz Kizomba

Hustle Polka Social Tango

Nightclub Two-Step Salsa Tango Argentino

Cross-Step Waltz Cha Cha Blues

Rotary Waltz Bachata Fusion

There are still more than just the ones listed. There are other other social
dances that arent ballroom. Some of these are hip-hop, breaking, square
dancing and many more.

Ø the brief history of the three forms

19th Century - Age of Waltz and Polka. Era of noncompetitive social ballroom
dance. Ballroom dance meant literally, - dancing in a ballroom.

20th Century - Ballroom Dances eventually evolved into Exhibition Ballroom

Dances. Dances were now performed not only as a social activity but for an
audience and on stage.

Competitive Ballroom came last.

Dancers would begin to memorize sequences or choreographed

waltzes. Standardization came into play later on mainly controlled by several
organizations, most notably the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing to
have dances and sequences have a default standard choreograph. Later on
in 1922, The first judged competition of ballroom dances was held.

Ø the reasons why it is important to know the differences

One of the reasons is for you to recognize what form of ballroom dance is
best suited for you. A person maybe more inclined to have social ballroom
than competitive or maybe someone else might have that drive and desire
for competition.
Another is to avoid making mistakes in applying rules and attitudes towards
others. You probably don’t want to correct or scold your partner in a social
ballroom dance just because he/she did something wrong. In a social
ballroom setting, you should be relaxed and just enjoy the social interaction
and have fun.

Lastly is to spot deceptive marketing practices.

Some dance studios advertise themselves as places to learn social dances
but reality once you enter their course, you are pushed and encouraged to
perform difficult techniques and more advance dance move. They put you into
this DanceSport lifestyle into wanting to get better at dancing and eventually
have that desire of competition.