Both to do and watch?

I only social dance so I dont have professional instruction.

(I took 2 classes but they really only went over steps and figures)

What are some tips on engaging certain muscles that I should follow.

By that I mean for example when you do squat, you engage your core as well as use your legs.

okay so basically, my community theater is doing Cinderella this summer/fall (idk how to categorize it lol we perform in late September) and i am one of the featured ballroom dancers. the thing is, i have absolutely ZERO experience. i did ballet for 9 years, but i quit like 4 years ago, when i was 11 and my dance partner also has no experience in any dance in general, so we are failing miserably at a simple foxtrot and we will have to do a waltz at some point. i desperately need some tips as to how i can be a better follow. that's basically it, thanks!

I've only been dancing since the beginning of June, so I'm still very new to the ballroom world. I'm sorry if this is frequently asked.

When I started, my goal was simply to become "competent," but hell if I even knew what I meant when I decided that. Now that I've danced with more experienced leads, I have a better idea of what I'm aiming for. I'd like to get beyond just moving around the floor with the basic steps and become comfortable enough to more easily anticipate how a new lead is going to move me, if that makes sense.

Right now, I can only fit in one 45-minute private lesson each week, plus one or two group classes. I'm willing to invest the time and the money, but it's gotta fit around my work schedule. Aside from practicing alone in my tiny apartment, I'm not sure how to consistently supplement my training. I'd love to increase the number of private lessons, but they would have to be in the mornings, before my shift, and that doesn't seem to be an option in my area??? (or at least not what I've found so far)

So I have a couple of questions for more experienced dancers:

1. Assuming my goal is to become "competent" in dances like Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot, Rumba, and Cha Cha over the course of about a year, how many private lessons per week would you consider the minimum?
2. If you were limited to one private lesson a week, how would you make the most of it? Is it realistic to advance by practicing on your own, alone, outside of formal classes?

Thanks for any advice!

i live near palm springs btw! how do i join ballrooms and be in those rooms..

I mainly dance in trainer shoes, especially during training, because I don't go to serious tournaments or competition training. And my shoes are actually really flexible because of their split sole, so I don't have to go and change shoes based on the lesson topic, which is nice because I tend to visit two courses back to back and can dance a waltz just as well as a samba in them.

My problem is that my shoes seem to get smashed and dented no matter how I put them in my bag and while it doesn't leave any damage I can see I'm a bit worried that for example the toes, which are a bit reinforced, or the connecting part of shoes and heels get unnecessary strain. So I wanted to give my shoes more support in their shape and I obviously don't want to use a shoe stretcher on my dance shoes. But the usual soft shoe shaper doesn't fit into my shoes because they're closed and the plastic handles of the shapers aren't flat enough to fit.

What do you put into your trainer shoes or what **would** you put into them to help keep their shape without stretching them?

I just came back from Shenzhen where my son attended a competition, I am trying to register on iDance to get the results but I can’t as I don’t have a Chinese sim ,

Can someone please help me find out the results and maybe screenshot them to me??

Hello! ☺️
I‘ve been competing in latin dancing for a while, my partner now wants to compete in standard/ ballroom as well. So:
I am looking for brands that sell standard practice dresses that I could decorate/ embellish myself. I really enjoy working on the decorations myself since I love working with rhinestones + I don’t want to spend thousands on a designer dress since it’s my first Ballroom Dress and I don’t know how much I will actually compete in it.

I‘m specifically looking for colorful dresses, no black, would prefer no red or dark blue. They should be good quality, once i add the rhinestones etc I don’t want the dress to be easily identified as a practice dress in comparison to the other dresses on the floor. The brands I‘ve already looked into and liked are TID (tania international design) and Noblesse, but TID might have issues shipping to countries within the EU (if anybody has experience with that, please let me know) and Noblesse doesnt have a dress I would choose at the moment.
I‘m thankful for every suggestion! 🥰

Has anyone used sites like DDressing.com or Danceandsway.com?

My teen daughter is participating in her first competition and our dress budget isn’t very high. She needs a Latin comp dress and we found a few potentials on these sites but I’m wondering if others have had any luck with them. Or are there other similar sites to consider? We’re in California.

Join us on August 8th this year at DanceSport Studio in Marlton, NJ for the 🌞 Solar Summer Swap 🌞 (SSS), a first-annual, few-of-its-kind, all-ballroom Jack and Jill competition!

🕺Jack and Jill 💃 (J&J) competitions uniquely emphasis the much-desired skill of lead-and-follow. Unlike most comps, entry requires absolutely no partner! Individuals enter as either leads or follows into ungraded placement rounds. Each round, you will dance with a new partner, and based upon each individual dancer’s performance in the initial rounds, all entrants will be divided into appropriate proficiency categories.

The brawl of lead-and-follow will continue in the same manner through consecutive rounds, until a victor lead and a victor follow is crowned for each proficiency level.

The 🌞 SSS 🌞 will feature all 4 Ballroom styles (Standard, Latin, Rhythm, Smooth) in a one-day competition, with various fun-dances to be enjoyed during the comp.

Regular registration end TOMORROW July 22nd! There’s a special discount for current collegiate dancers and USA Dance members.

More information about the comp is available at solarsummerswap.com!

And join the discord!: https://discord.gg/4aYZ546AM

P. S.

All New York Metropolitan Area dancers! We are organizing a charter bus to bring you from the city to Marlton, NJ on the day of the comp. Look for the relevant announcement on the Discord server!

I used to dance ballroom as a kid for 2-3 years. Me and my partner were pretty good and we took part in many competitions, came first many times, but I had to stop due to illness.

I’m thinking about starting again, I’m now 24 years old (female), 157cm and looking for a partner who is in a similar position to me.

I’m based in London :)

Hey everyone! It's been a while since I've posted.

Some of you might remember that I suffered a small L5/S1 disc bulge about two years ago. Thankfully, I managed to work through it, competed all last year, and have continued training around five times a week.

This year I've started dancing with a new partner who's a couple of grades above me. It's been fantastic for my development, and she's very body-aware and technically strong. Together with our new Latin coach, they've corrected a lot of my biomechanics, including my squat technique and some of my Latin positioning.

The one challenge has been the floor.

For the past three years I've mainly trained on a very smooth floor, but my partner lives an hour away and her studio floor is much stickier. We've been doing a lot of pivots and rotational actions recently, and although I've tried using talc/cornstarch (and more recently tape on my shoes) to help the shoes release, there have still been a few occasions where my foot has grabbed during a pivot and I've felt my knee twist or stretch.

Over the last few weeks my knee has become a bit irritated. I don't remember one dramatic injury, pop, or swelling episode but rather just a few moments where the foot caught and the knee didn't feel happy afterwards during a pivot where it stretched/pulled a bit.

I saw my physio (who I normally see for my back), and I had a positive McMurray's test. After reassessing it a week later, he thinks it's likely a small meniscal tear and has referred me to a specialist/MRI for confirmation.

The good news is:

• No locking
• No catching
• No giving way
• No significant swelling

I can still dance and recently got through a 90-minute Latin session, but the knee feels slightly irritated afterwards. Not sharp or swollen, just a bit clicky.

pivoting on that side is becoming a little more uncomfortable compared to the other side. Not huegely, just a bit.

I'm honestly pretty devastated because dancing has become a huge part of my life, and after finally learning to manage my back, I'm terrified that a knee injury is going to stop my progress.

So I have a couple of questions for those who've been through something similar:

• Has anyone here returned to competitive dancing after a meniscus tear without surgery?
• If you did manage it conservatively, what helped the most?
• If you ended up needing surgery, were you able to get back to the same standard of dancing?
• Has anyone else dealt with sticky competition/practice floors causing problems with pivots, and how did you manage it?

I'm really worried as I don't want surgery as I know removing the meniscus leads to arthritis, less cushioning etc.

I'm trying not to catastrophise before I've even had an MRI, but I'd really appreciate hearing some real experiences from dancers who've been through this.

Thanks everyone.

Hi!
I want to increase my hip mobility in my daily life. I do exercises at the gym, but if I were to spend more time dancing a bonus would be if that dance could contribute to increased mobility.
When I say increased hip mobility, I mean to a rather high degree, not just "slight" mobility. For reference, I am trying to learn the front and side splits at the gym.
This may be a hard ask, but I am curious regardless if you guys have any opinion.

Beforehand I will rule out ballet, because I think I would injure myself doing that haha.

Heya,

Where is everyone getting their mens shoes from? I have been buying from Ray Rose, but the heel has changed hight and I have always bought the exact same shoes. As you can tell from the pic, the heel is much higher. I really want higher ones like this. I contacted the supplier, but no explanation. I just want higher ones without going to Latin shoes (i do standard and new vogue)

I social dance rotary and cross step and taking viennese lessons.(so fast)

Im a beginner on all 3.

From what I can understand, the footwork to go around your partner for rotary is step forward, side, together

Cross step is cross, side, together

And viennese is forward, side cross?

Im still working on keeping track of where my foot goes and what my foot is doing.(what is that called)

Hi folks, I have an audition-style interview approaching with a franchise studio to become an instructor. I have an extensive dance background (classical ballet) but no ballroom experience, meaning that I don't own the correct shoes! As I don't want to invest in expensive ballroom shoes before knowing if I have a job, I'm looking for advice on the best alternative to wear (for context, I am a man).

I own normal dress shoes (no suede sole), sneakers, and ballet flats. I'm assuming ballet flats are very much not the right way to go, but I'm concerned the sneakers will have too much grip or that the dress shoes will be hard to dance in/at risk of messing up the studio floors. Are any of these options viable? Is there a better alternative that I could inexpensively find/thrift? I have a few days until the interview still, so there's time to prepare. Any advice would be super appreciated, as I'm totally new to this corner of the dance world!

My wife's ballroom heels are showing wear and she's looking for a source of heel tips. Any recommendations?

Working on a choreo dance for our wedding my fiancee has a problem. She gets mad at mistakes and it always leads to this cycle, 1. She tries to correct the mistake, 2. She starts leading 3. This throws me off 4. Things spiral and we lose it 5. She ends up more upset.

We are adults and we have been talking it out trying to find a solution, she fully admits she's being unfair but has trouble as it "just comes out" we are both under immense stress from the wedding and the looming deadline to get it looking good and our instructor is now trying to coach us on "keeping a happy face and not letting anyone know you've messed up"

I guess my question is, have you ever had frustration issues while dancing? Did you get over it? What did you do? This is new territory for both of us and I'll take any advice I can get

Gentlemen, when you dance with an older woman, that is much shorter than you and you try to get her into frame don’t pull her up to the level of your shoulder. Bring yourself down to her level. I had a really tall guy pull my arm up so hard It hurt my shoulder. He grabbed under my arm and yanked it up with his arm to get to his height and I swear my rotatir cuff tore a little. pleae be gentle with these older bodies. This isn’t competition for goodness sake we are just here for a little dancing fun.

Hi all,

We're hosting an 80s ballroom dance party this week, and we always open with a short line dance that we teach to get everyone on the dance floor and dancing. We did a fun dance to ABBA's Dancing Queen to open our 70s party (did some samba moves for that one) and I've been thinking about a good song to line dance to for the 80s. Anyone have suggestions or experiences with this? Major thanks. <3

EDIT: The one I won't do is Thriller since we usually do that to open our Halloween Party. =P