Whether you be an experienced ballroom competitor, total novice or occasional dabbler in the partnered dance, what dances would you want to see taught for the 2010 Black & White Ball?
And in my creaky aged mind I posted this in the wrong forum, but I can't seem to find a delete button...
For beginners:
Waltz
Tango
Rumba
Chacha
For intermediate dancers:
West Coast Swing
NC2S
Hustle
Salsa
That might be a little ambitious, though. But at the very least, WCS should be in there, since we seem to have an All-Star WCS dancer lurking around. It'd be a shame not to take advantage of that. :)
I wanna learn the Waltz! Btw its my first time at fanime, does everyone dress up in black in white formal attire? and what day and time is it?
Milkychu
The Black and White Ball is a semi formal event but your attire does not have to be black and white. It is just a suggestion. But the bare minimum dress for males are button up long sleeve shirt and slacks and dress shoes (no sneakers). For women, it is a blouse and skirts below the knees and dress shoes as a minimum. There will be more details on this as Fanime gets near. The BWBall is taking place on Sunday May 30, 2010, the times will be in the evening but that is not set yet. I hope that helps.
- Jim
BWBall Head 2010
lol, I would help with the classes no matter what they taught. But yeah, it would be nice to take advantage of the body of work I've accumulated for a long time :). Besides, I spent a solid week accumulating appropriate Asian language WCS songs. Pity to waste that...
Salsa would definately have to be intermediate, teaching one person to dance alone salsa is COMPLETELY different than partner salsa ;)
Waltzing would be fun or the fox trott...Merengue would be easy to teach as well and is up beat
I didn't go to the black and white ball last year so I am not sure if you are only referring to "couple" dances...but a "boy band" dance lesson would be interesting and very funny to watch..LOL :o
The difficulty would be finding Asian salsa songs...that aren't in Spanish. :P.
Quote from: Okach on November 20, 2009, 12:06:44 AM
The difficulty would be finding Asian salsa songs...that aren't in Spanish. :P.
LOL...that is true...but Koreans really like salsa for some reason...LOL you can do a remix version... mark anthony mixed with L' arc~en~ciel LMAO
Nah, I'm having too much fun looking for J/K-pop songs to play for WCS. ;)
Quote from: Okach on November 18, 2009, 05:35:08 PM
lol, I would help with the classes no matter what they taught. But yeah, it would be nice to take advantage of the body of work I've accumulated for a long time :). Besides, I spent a solid week accumulating appropriate Asian language WCS songs. Pity to waste that...
Ooh, share info! It'd be a big help to those of us stuck in a rut of blues/contemporary. (Bread and butter, sure, but I need some variety.)
Also, I gave it some more thought. ECS (beginner)/Lindy Hop (intermediate) might be fun, too. But then there's the question of who'd teach it all...
Ha, it's basically K/J-pop that sounds like contemporary music right now. It's been hard to find decent slow songs (Shell from Witch Hunter Robin is like the only decent one I've found that doesn't make me want to gnaw my arm off). But speaking from an overall perspective, the cool thing about WCS is that you can dance to '60s music on. I just finished a convention where I heard AC/DC, the Temptations, Dion and the Belmonts, Michael Jackson and Peaches & Herb playing.
I would like to see more Vienna Waltz around for beginners. IMO its easier than Modern Waltz and I've seen many people learned V Waltz easily at Dickens Fair including myself and this coming from a guy who's taking Intermediate Ballroom Dance at CCSF.
And if all else fails, spinning around the floor is real fun :).
Viennese Waltz (at least the one I am thinking of, danced to really fast music) is, in my experience...really hard ._. The music is almost stupidly fast and it is very easy to get offsync with your partner.
Last year I tried teaching the reverse turn (left) and it was a disaster because I didn't want to introduce the Viennese cross. Next year, if I get the chance again, I'll be sure to teach the natural turn (right), which doesn't have the cross and at least will travel in the right direction even when not done perfectly.
As for other dances, I agree that Merengue is something that is easy and fun. Lindy is fun too, but the Lindy whip can be difficult to understand. One dance I want to introduce is Samba, at least to those who are willing. The rhythm might be hard for some people and it is not an easy dance, but I am hoping at least some might be interested.
Viennese reverse turns are ridiculously hard to control - I remember careening off the floor one time and luckily encountering some soft yielding objects (i.e. other people). Samba basics aren't hard. Lindy is a fun dance, though the swingout is notorious for being more complicated in feel than looks.
Well, it's why I'd recommend slow waltz instead, for raw beginners. The tempo and footwork gives 'em more time to think.
I'd teach single-time East Coast swing for beginners - not lindy. Lindy should be for the intermediate dancers. The nice thing is, the swingout and a whip are basically the same with some minor variations in footwork (as I'm sure okach knows!), so if there were also WCS classes for the intermediate dancers, the patterns could more or less transfer between the two dances.
Also, I second the vote for merengue. It would be great for super raw beginners who are afraid to do anything too crazy off the bat :)
Well, not quite...:). You can make a swingout look more like a whip and vice versa if you alter footwork, but it feels way different.
Agreed on the ECS and Merengue comments. My personal take is to go for something like six dances since the ball is only about 4 hours long :P. So, I would go with
ECS
Merengue
Waltz
Cha-Cha
WCS (Well, what do you expect?)
Salsa
Quote from: Okach on December 14, 2009, 05:05:16 PM
Well, not quite...:). You can make a swingout look more like a whip and vice versa if you alter footwork, but it feels way different.
True, but I think at the "I just learned this" level, it's pretty similar. Enough so that a WCSer can sorta fake lindy (without tripping the lead, at least). Heh. Once you add technique, that's when they start to diverge, for sure.
Yeah, we just need to bend the knees more and bounce :P. Lindy to WCS leaders are noted for their bent more than normal knees and balls of feet steps (except for Ben Morris, but you can still see a little bit). But connection's the main difference.
What variation of waltz would you teach?
I would love more lindy-hoppers. With good music, it is quite fun.
My opinion - standard waltz (int or smooth). Just a lot easier to jump start and less likely to cause accidents if out of control :P.
Love lindy hop, but I'm pushing WCS :).
I am not a big fan of WCS, I believe it should only be for intermmediate lessons since it can be a pain to remember all the correct steps besides adding turns.
I like ECS, Tango, and Cha-Cha.
Let's define it this way then:
Beginner (i.e. walked off the street)
ECS
Merengue
Waltz
Salsa
Intermediate (i.e. knows at least one social dance)
WCS
Cha-Cha (hey, I had issues doing the chas)
What throws most people off in WCS, I've found, is getting fixated on the footwork to the cost of the connection. Truthfully, you can replace the triple steps with step step and it would work.
I like the tango, it can be both beginning and intermediate.
Ok, wait. So I've never attended the Black & White Ball. It's strictly ballroom type dances?
I've met few people at the PEERS event and Dickens Fair that are interested in wanting to teach ballroom for the attandees. I think they are responsible for teaching people how to V Waltz at the event. I'm sure they know some other type of dance that can help.
Quote from: jchan707 on January 19, 2010, 02:11:36 PM
Ok, wait. So I've never attended the Black & White Ball. It's strictly ballroom type dances?
Sort of but not everyone can ballroom dance. That's why we have dance lessons.
JChan707 - The Black and White Ball is an event where people can dress up and go dancing. It is more of a formal setting where most dances will be ballroom dances (Waltz, Tango, Cha Cha, Swing, etc.) Dance lessons will be held on Friday, Saturday and Sunday leading up to the event Sunday evening. There is a dress code for the even that I will be posting sometime in February. Overall it is a fun event and we had many attendees last year. The music played there includes a mix of anime, videogame, jpop, and ballroom music. I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.
- Jim
BWBall Head 2010
Quote from: tkdteo on January 20, 2010, 09:46:14 AM
JChan707 - The Black and White Ball is an event where people can dress up and go dancing. It is more of a formal setting where most dances will be ballroom dances (Waltz, Tango, Cha Cha, Swing, etc.) Dance lessons will be held on Friday, Saturday and Sunday leading up to the event Sunday evening. There is a dress code for the even that I will be posting sometime in February. Overall it is a fun event and we had many attendees last year. The music played there includes a mix of anime, videogame, jpop, and ballroom music. I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.
- Jim
BWBall Head 2010
Thanks, it does help. And to think I suggested Lady Gaga for the music LMFAO >_<
Sorry if I confuse the type of V Waltz I would like to help people learn at the Dance lesson. The V Waltz I was taught thanx to the people who was at the fanime meeting, was Vintage style V Waltz and I heard that style is the most simple version one that was taught when I was at Dickens Fair and the PEERS event.
Hi not sure if I'm posting in the right section. If you require additional help for teaching.. most of those dances I have some experience with them and would be willing to help out. Though unfortunately I won't be attending the B&W Ball.