How Has Ballroom Changed Your Life?
How Did You Get Into Ballroom?
John's Story -
My initial entrance into dancing began in a galaxy far, far away…
My sister and I were taught to square dance when we were about seven or eight years old. We became quite adept at it, and earned a number of trophies during our stay in Montana.
The years went by and square dancing became passé . . . then came all the varieties of “dance” we came to know and love . . . you know all of the dances that make it almost impossible to touch each other. The twist, locomotion, surf, watusi, etc. . . . Although I was very good at square dancing in my time, these dances never quite ‘came together’ for me.
Then, during my first semester at a southwestern college, a ballroom dance class was required for graduation! Although only a semester long, it whetted my appetite for some of the more classical dances, the waltz, Tango, cha – cha, Rumba, etc. But following this class, it was almost impossible to find a partner that was interested in ballroom dancing.
Upon graduation from USAF flight school, we had a formal dance – and it was ballroom dancing! Not many were very good at it (I learned later.) I had several more formal occasions where a dance or two was ballroom, but not many.
We wanted to dance at our wedding -
The occasion of my second marriage, we decided to relearn the waltz and tango for our wedding ceremony. We had a military style wedding with the Arch of Sabers, followed by the traditional reception. We broke with tradition in that we took the first and second dance before we relinquished the floor.
Since we had practiced both the waltz and the tango, we did the traditional waltz first, followed by a pause and then immediately began the tango. We had a grand time!
We have just found a ballroom dance instructor within a mile or two of our residence, and have begun weekly lessons. Who knows, maybe we will become competitors!