As long as there have been movies, there have been dance movies. Far too often, in an effort to contrast the mundane quality of everyday life with the exuberance of dance, the audience is left with a remarkably unimpressive story. Some dance movies are downright depressing.

SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN is considered by those who are connoisseurs of great film to be the best dance movie ever made and even the summit of the Hollywood musical. Consistently ranked among the 50 best films, it’s light, frothy, unpretentious, and genuinely funny. The songs are fresh, the dances outstanding, and the performances invigorating.

The film was produced in 1952 for MGM by Arthur Freed (no relation to the famous maker of British Dance shoes). Freed also wrote the lyrics to the songs, and they are truly delightful, especially the title number.

Hollywood is at its best when it makes fun of itself, and this movie is no exception. It’s a satire on show business in general and of Hollywood; an exposé of the ruthless ambition of idolized stars, showing the comic possibilities of the problems faced by actors and studios making the challenging transition from silent films to talkies. It’s a great premise for a musical, and Singin’ in the Rain makes the most of the possibilities. Jean Hagan plays a sex goddess of the silent film era who cannot sing, cannot even speak, without her ridiculously grating voice causing hysteria in the audience. An unscrupulous and ambitious actress, we find Hagan thoroughly despicable. But she’s in love with Kelly and he’s in love with the delightfully modest Debbie Reynolds, whose pure heart seems untouched by the corruption of Hollywood. As the story unfolds and we see Debbie Reynolds’ talent usurped as she stands in as the voice of Hagan, building Hagan’s popularity to cult-like status, our dislike towards Hagan increases. This sets up the completely predictable yet fully enjoyable scenario where the deception is eventually revealed and the entire house of cards comes crashing down.

The Hollywood depicted in the film is shown as a lovable, light-hearted and fun-filled place full of hope and happiness, which keeps the film from becoming dark or ugly. This is part of the genius of Freed’s vision and the chemistry between Kelly and Stanley Donen, who co-directed the film. Take the same premise in any modern movie and I doubt any of today’s directors would be able to marry that story to the kind of lightness we find here that leaves you feeling happy when it’s all over. Gene Kelly does an excellent job of playing the Hollywood star who seems unaware of the phony world he lives in, yet we see under the surface a sense that he just may be smarter than he looks.

The production numbers take you through a delightful musical journey of the history of modern dance. The primary numbers are distinctly different, yet all of them have notable qualities that, combined, give us a rich look at the value of dance in our culture.

The title number, the one all dancers know and love, is an emotionally Garlandesque solo by Gene Kelly. “And You Were Meant for Me,” in which Kelly and Reynolds sing and dance a love duet on an empty soundstage, is very much in the Astaire-Rogers tradition. And “Broadway Ballet,” the big production number, is a surrealistic Busby Berkeley type extravaganza filled with unexpected transitions, a huge cast, and wonderful balletic dancing by Kelly and Cyd Charisse. There are other numbers that enrich the movie, heighten the fun of the story, and make the picture such a beautiful anthology of dance styles and techniques.

Singin’ in the Rain plays tonight on the big screen in a limited showing at Cineplex Odeon theaters. Make a point of seeing it.

The Interview

Renata: In your opinion is competitive ballroom dancing an art or a sport?

George: To me, competitive ballroom dancing is an athletic art form, not a sport. The way I define a sport is an athletic activity where the winner is not a subjective decision, but objective so it’s very clear that a ball went into a net or a puck went into a net or somebody ran across a line first — it’s very easy to determine who the winner is. That is what I consider the definition of a sport.

Ballroom dancing is subjective. You have all the judges standing around the floor. They are judging everybody as fairly as they can, but they each have their own idea of what’s important. So how can that possibly be a sport? One judge is looking at posture, one feels very passionate about musicality, one is feeling very passionate about the connection between the couple — you got these subjective issues that come out in the results.

And they are only looking at each couple for 10 seconds or so because they have so many couples on the floor. So, you see in the results one couple marked 7th and the same one marked first by different judges. You can’t really have a sport based on that.

I know the argument for making it a sport. Germany officially made ballroom dancing a sport decades ago. As a result it gets government money just like all of the other sports. If you open a newspaper in Germany and go to the sport section, ballroom dance competitions are listed there just like we have hockey. If you go to the television sports channels in Germany, there are ballroom dancing competitions. This benefits the dance community in a lot of ways in Germany, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it is right worldwide. But that is the argument being used: ‘it’s working in Germany, so let’s make it worldwide.’

This need for worldwide consistency starts to impact many things related to the artform, and take away from that. Costume regulations are just one example. They are already doing it with the kids, where they have to wear almost identical costumes; they can’t have any patterns and it has to be a certain type of fabric, it has to be cut a certain way.

Renata: Not only with kids but with adults to with pre-bronze, bronze too.

George: There was a competition where a young girl was wearing pretty much a regulation skirt but it had a slight wave at the bottom of the skirt, a very slight wave and the costume officials didn’t want to let her dance! They said “No, it is against the rules.” I was like, “come on!” You’re going to deny some girl who has worked hard to be here and travelled to be here the right to dance because of a wave in the bottom of her skirt? That’s just ridiculous!

Wendy: And 8 years old.

George: Yeah you know that is just unfair. And finally, the choreography suffers. Just look at skating: Everyone is trying to push the sport side: more speed, everyone is trying to be faster, everyone is trying to do more spins. Skaters can’t just go out there and be great artists. If they don’t do a quad they don’t stand a chance!

In ballroom dancing you’ll get the same thing. Whoever can do the most spins sets a standard that everyone else has to “beat.” In Quickstep many couples just want to show off that they can run around the floor more times than anyone else before the song ends. All of a sudden choreography loses its creativity because of these “sports” conditions forced on you that makes everything the more the more the same. Then where is the art? It is gone. That is my view.

Renata: How about for you Wendy?

Wendy: Well I agree calling it athletic instead of a sport. Art is beauty, and in a sport when you are playing hockey or football or running it doesn’t matter how you look. You throw on a uniform or some sweats and a t-shirt. With ballroom dancing not only do you have perform well but you have to look beautiful too: nice look on the dancer’s faces, the hair, the makeup, the dresses, the tail suits. That’s the artistic, that’s the art and beauty of it. I don’t really see a lot of beauty in sports.

Renata: I know there is that side, but when competing for yourselves, is it more of an art form or a sport, or do you still feel it is an athletic art form?

Wendy: There is a lot of athletic to it. You have to be in good shape to go out there and do 10 dances in a row or how many rounds you have to do. You must have a good cardio. We couldn’t even dream of dancing at this level without going to the gym. We do weight training to build up the shoulders for holding the frame, and other muscle groups.

Renata: Would you still say it is an art form?

George: Yes.

Wendy: It is a real mix of the two.

George: As Wendy said, it is very athletic. Freiburg University in Germany did a study in the 1980’s and they connected these athletes to all of this equipment to measure their VO2 Max, heart rate, the wattage the muscles are putting out and so on. They compared championship ballroom dancers to other sports and found that the champ ballroom dancers during the Quickstep and the Jive in a minute 40 seconds were equivalent in their athletic energy output to an 800-meter Olympic runner.

But let me point out that the Olympic runner probably does a warm up and then the actual run, and that’s probably it for the whole day. But that ballroom dancer has to do that minute and 40 seconds for each of five dances in the first round, and then the second round, and then they have to do a quarter final, semi final and then the final, and they have to do it with the same energy five times for each event for all of those different events all in one day. So the actual athletic output is probably many times higher then the Olympic athletes do in their sports. That study kind of started that whole discussion around is it a sport or is it an art. So I understand where they are coming from but I still don’t think it is a sport.

Standard vs. Latin

Renata: You both do Ten Dance, do you feel that Latin is different from Standard, with the artistic form and athletic sport aspect? Or would you say there are equal in their sport and art content?

Wendy: I think Standard is more athletic because you have to do everything up against each other and do it at the same time.

George: How does it make it more athletic?

Wendy: It makes it harder.

George: It makes it harder but not not necessarily more athletic. I believe they are the same and I actually put a heart rate monitor on myself while we did practice, Latin and Standard because I wanted to see the outcome. It was pretty similar for Standard and Latin.

Renata: Would you say one has more artistic form involved within the steps and expression?

George: It is the same. One of the things that we’ve seen as a negative in Standard because of all of this emphasis on sport is in Quickstep, all that running around the floor. Where is the art in that? Where is the character of the dance? It’s just boring.

Wendy: That’s sport!

George: That’s sport yeah, yeah. There is so much art in Standard! Even though you are connected, there is so much art and beauty in how the bodies flow and the rise and fall and rotation and that beautiful swing. So even though it is different from Latin, where Latin is more apart, more creative in that sense, both are very artistic.

Renata: And for yourself Wendy?

Wendy: Well it’s funny because what we have noticed is you can kind of tell a Standard couple that does Latin because they are used to being more expressive and being out there, working with the audience, working with each other so they tend to have a more artistic awareness. With strictly Standard dancers you don’t always see the same level of emotion and everything.

What makes dance artistic?

Renata: For you both, what would you say is the artistic part of competitive ballroom dancing? What makes it artistic?

Wendy: Showing how we are feeling, showing the character of the dances and enjoying each other.

George: Showing character, showing emotion. I have this gorgeous lady in my arms, dancing, moving to music and we are moving together. We are really trying to maximize all of the emotional power. That is what people want to see, they want to see a story of the character of this dance expressed through music with the couple moving as one person together, it’s like your hearts are exactly the same when you are dancing.

Wendy: And not just focusing on each other but trying to get the audience involved, like interacting with the audience as we dance and having them to be part of the whole experience. After all, they are paying money to see this.

Renata: You are dancing with the audience — you have to engage the audience, that is what makes it artistic?

Wendy: Yeah, yeah.

Renata: Would you consider any other aspects like perhaps the way you move or the choreography or anything else?

George: Absolutely, it is so important to have choreography that is artistic, that shows these qualities. Even though I don’t know what song is going to be played for each dance, it is a mystery, and even though sometimes I’m not happy with the song, but whatever music is being played I am trying to use that music because each song is different.

Like even in tango you think its boom, boom, boom-boom it has those staccato beats but some tangos have a beautiful underlying softness to them. When I get one like that, I try and soften my movements. Or when the song gets rid of the beats for a few seconds it’s a beautiful time to change how I actually dance my step and make it more musical so there is that, it is like constantly responding to the music, interpreting it and that is part of the art of competition dancing.

Wendy: I was just going to say we are describing art right now instead of sport. The way you were talking it was describing art.

George: Any particular choreography is just technical, here is the step with an emphasis on performing it perfectly. You wouldn’t want to watch that, it would be so boring. No emotional power. So we add the artistic component to make it emotionally meaningful.

Skill levels and time

Renata: Would you say that perhaps at different ages it can be more of a sport then art form?

Wendy: I think that art gets into more of the championship level.

George: You’re right.

Wendy: There is more freedom at the championship level to understand and explore the artistic side.

George: You’re right, absolutely. But the danger is if we don’t put that emphasis on art in the syllabus levels, how are they ever going to learn the art? It’s a process. If you think about it we weren’t focused on the art for the first four or five years of dancing. We were still focused on how we do these steps, how do I hold myself up straight, how do I move my body from one foot to the other without distorting, so I wasn’t really think about the art. The art came later but if nobody had ever talked about it I would have never gone there. It has to be part of understanding of the whole culture perhaps.

Renata: Would you say then at the beginning when you started in those four or five years, where you dancing a sport?

George: There were times when I though of it more of a sport. There was times when I bought into that philosophy until I knew more about it. My thinking has matured on this issue.

Wendy: I think we tend to look at it as a sport in the way our bodies have to be ready to dance. I don’t think of it as sport, but I have to be in good shape like a sports athlete to do what we have to do.

George: Yeah that’s a good point. We have to do all the same kind of training that an athlete would do in a sport.

Wendy: We just get to look prettier! (Laughing)

Picking a number

Renata: So trying to put a number to this in a way, for you both in championship level, say if you have a competition in a few weeks where do you see yourselves? On a scale one to ten, one being a sport and ten being an art form where would you place yourselves when competing?

George: I would never be all the way to number ten, I would be mainly a seven.

Wendy: Yeah, well it is a mix, you have to be ready to do it but you have to make sure that the art is just as strong. I think I would say I am about a six.

Renata: It is close to the half way point but not really.

Wendy: Yeah, more on the artistic side then the sport side.

The question of age

Renata: Would you say there is a difference with championship level for youth or under-21 age groups as compared to your age group? Would you say there is a different kind of mind set or way of dancing?

George: Maybe a little, but the qualities are still the same. Quickness is not a function of power in the body; it’s a function of dancing on a standing leg which is a technical detail. If you are on the standing leg, a 35 year old can be nearly as quick as a 20 year old because of that principle of where it comes from and how you press your body and muscles to create that pulse of movement. Being on balance and being able to spin quickly I don’t think it is an age thing either. But having said that, I do agree with you that older couples are more mature in their understanding of the art side and the musicality. Young people often don’t hear music in the same way, they just hear beats. They don’t hear the tones underneath that give the piece that extra quality.

Wendy: Everything seems to look a little flashier when seeing a under 21 couple because they can do more things. And you’ve got to be careful about being age appropriate. So you will see the flashier stuff, they can do more things that way to like the guys can do five spins on a spot in a second so its different comparing the ages.

George: When you watch the world champions dance, they are not focusing on speed. They are focusing on the beauty. Everybody including young people are thrilled with the result. They go “Wow, I’ve just never seen something like that before.” So it’s universal, there is a universal appeal when you make dancing artistic.

Renata: Would you say that it is a different group expressing their art at a different age level?

George: Yeah

Wendy: Yeah

Renata: How about kids, would you say it is the same thing? I am talking about kids in syllabus all the way up to championship level. Would you say that there is a different kind of mind set between art and sport or how they dance it during competitions? Is it more of an art for them or more of a sport? Because the way how you explained it for yourselves of how it is an art is really how you both express it together and with music, but do the kids have the same kind of art perspective or is it seen in a different way?

George: It depends on each kid and they way that they interpret it. The danger for me is if they lose that. We had Colin James here a couple weeks ago and he did a workshop that we were in with a whole a lot of little kids. I loved how he was teaching musicality because that is the beauty of the dance. He was teaching don’t use the beats just because the beat value is there. Some of them were really young and that’s great because they have to start understanding it at that age.

What about beginners?

Renata: How about for beginners then would you say that it is just a sport or is there art there?

Wendy: I have seen a lot of art in beginners, newcomer category, some of them are awesome, some of them are having a great time out there.

George: I think that they are all art at the beginner level, unless they have that perspective of sports when they go in. You’ll have some parents that say “I want my son or daughter in a sport because I think that they have the potential for them to be an Olympic champion.” They are going to have the Olympic sport kind of attitude.

Wendy: It is a mind set.

George: But most beginners come in here and they only want to learn to dance together, that is art.

Renata: And is that the same with competing, where there is just as much of an art form in Newcomers, pre-Bronze, Bronze all the way through till pre-Championship and Championship?

Wendy: I think so, dancing is everywhere first on the artistic aspect then the sport. The athleticism has to be there but it is still an art.

Preparation and training

Renata: Preparing for a competition would you say it is more of a sport?

Wendy: I would call my sport working at the gym getting ready to dance. To be artistic you have to prepare the sport side.

Renata: How about drilling technique to music, would that be an art or a sport?

George: For me it would be exactly the same as it would for the dancing itself, 7/10 art even when practicing because I am developing musicality or beauty.

Renata: The couples competing from beginners to Championship are considered 7/10 artistic, or in Wendy’s case 6/10 artistic. Would you say there is a huge difference between those categories versus Professionals?

Wendy: You mean with the artistic and sport aspect?

Renata: Yes.

George: What I appreciate about professionals is that when I watch them dance, I see them take everything that I have just said and demonstrate it at such a degree of excellence that I’m always fascinated by it. When you watch the professionals, you watch the national or world champions in amateur and then you watch the top professionals, there is such a difference. With the professionals, the music is exactly the same speed but it looks like they slowed down the music for them because they are using it so much better. They are taking the musicality and they are just living it out to such a high level that it looks like they have more time.

Wendy: So do you see it as more artistic or a sport?

George: Yes that is artistic because they understand those aspects so much better then the amateurs and they are demonstrating how artistic it really is.

Renata: How about you Wendy?

Wendy: I would say more artistic then sport as well from beginner all the way up to professional. I see it.

Renata: Do you see it going from beginners to professional as a gradual increase in the art form or is it just the same?

Wendy: I think that it is something that develops in a dancer and how much they are or how they are looking at it. If they see it more of a sport, then they work that way, the more artistic they move in that direction.

George: You are right on.

Renata: So, in your view, at the end of the day competitive ballroom dancing is an art or a sport really depending on how as a couple — because you can never say one person, but as a couple — how they see it.

Wendy: Yeah

George: There is a lot to do with that, I don’t think that changes the definition but it is still subjective.

Wendy: Because there are still some couples doing the running around during Quickstep for example. Where we are looking at it artistically, they are looking at it from the sport side.

Is art consistent across all levels?

Renata: To summarize all of this, what would you say is the artistic part of competitive ballroom for all levels, and from kids all the way up till senior? Unless you see a difference in the ages or levels — you can say that too.

George: It is all the same in all levels. It is about interpreting the music to present something beautiful where a man and a woman are dancing together in this expression of the story told through the dance, of the character of the dance. That is the art. If you are emotionally involved, you are seeing that and it is something that is touching your heart — that is the art. As Martha Graham famously said, “It takes an athlete to be a dancer, but it takes an artist to dance.”

Wendy: I would agree. That is how I would see it too. He just said it more artistic too (laughing)

Renata: In your blog articles you keep talking about dance being a sport, that for athletes this is what we do and you keep emphasizing the sport side. Now hearing you talk about it you keep emphasizing how much of an art it is. Can you explain that?

George: I’m glad that you pointed it out. A lot of the posts were written five or six years ago and my understanding of the art side has matured since then. So that is part of it.

Also, we do have to think like athletes when training, so my emphasis has been on helping the dancers to recognize they they must think like athletes they have to train like athletes. I don’t think of it is a sport but dancers have to think like athletes, they have to train like athletes. So they have to watch their diet, they have to make sure that they are hydrated, they have to make sure they do cross training, they have to make sure they work out in the gym, that they are as fit as athletes or else they wont be able to do it well.

Wendy: So the sport side is the preparation to do the artistic.

Renata: So would you say it’s becoming an athlete within this art form. But within the sports would you say that training is a sport and then dancing competitively is the art form?

Wendy: Yeah

Renata: Or would you say as well you are an athlete but that doesn’t mean it is a sport.

George: For me it is still seven out of ten so it is part sport. I do like the term DanceSport personally. I like that term because I think that it helps people understand that it is a sport component to it, but I also think that it hurts it in a sense that nobody knows what “dance sport” is, even after all these years. If I say ballroom dancing then they go “oh” and get it right away. Even after all of these decades they still don’t get it! Maybe it is time to drop it.

Is competition different from training?

Renata: For yourself what would you say with the training for the competition versus dancing in the competition, would that scale six, seven out of ten would change or stay the same?

Wendy: Yeah, this is making me think about it now. So dancing in the competition you mean?

Renata: Yeah, in the training before going into the competition and dancing in the competition.

Wendy: I think that the dancing competitively is the art. The sport is the background where you are preparing, getting ready, getting yourself in shape for it. So I guess the sport or athletic side is behind the scenes and the artistic of the dancing competing is what is out there what is the main thing.

Wendy: I think the whole thing is to do any kind of dancing you have to train hard in the gym or do a sport side to be able to do your dancing well. But it is still art and there is a difference.

Renata: Would you say it is equivalent to a painter where you learn the technique of how to paint, what kind of colors go with this, different types of paint, different techniques of brushstrokes and different kinds of brushes. But at the end of the day when you have that completed master piece that is the art form. Would you say that is equivalent to ballroom where the training process of learning the technique is a sport in a sense but it is all creating that art form?

George: It is like preparing you to interpret your view on a canvas; it is the same as our training in ballroom dancing is preparing us to interpret the music on the competition floor.

Multiple couples and floorcraft

Renata: In ballroom dancing you have multiple couples on the floor competing against each other. Do you think that is how it becomes or it can be portrayed as a sport, or is it more of an art form because of that aspect?

George: I think that is where more of the sport comes in as my view. But again I don’t think it changes the percentage. Here is a good example: floorcraft.

When you watch a football game and you see a receiver catching the ball after a big pass, he catches the ball and he is running down the field and nobody can tackle him. And everyone is going “YEAH, YEAH, YEAH! GO, GO!” because that one person is doing something incredible that puts him in the spotlight. That’s a lot like what floorcraft is on a ballroom dance floor. You got these couples and they are bunching up because they are thinking about their choreography. Then you have one couple that saw it coming, changed their routine and still are dancing to the music and interpreting the music but are off in the opposite corner all by themselves. That to me is equivalent. So you got that same feeling of “YEAH, GO, GO!”

I want to show off my lady, and I want to enjoy dancing with my lady without all those people in the way.

In a way it is like the sport side because it is part of competition — being able to move around, being able to think on your feet and for her immediate response and yet that is so artistic because that’s part of the art of dancing together. So it doesn’t change that percentage all of that much. It does apply to the art side and sport side.

Renata: Thinking on your feet and trying to get around all of these obstacles is the sport side?

George: Maybe but…

Renata: But how you end up is still an art because you have to make it look artistic.

George: The reason why you do it in the first place is because of the art part of it.

The audience

George: I would sum up the artistic experience by talking about the audience. When the audience is watching, they have their favorites. People will say things like, “Wow you were my favorite couple on the floor.” They are not thinking that because they thought we were the fastest to go around the floor, or because we did the fastest spins. It was because we were connecting with them…

Wendy: So the artistic side.

George: Yes. The way we were enjoying each other while we were on the floor. The way we integrate musical interpretation. That is what touched them emotionally. And they said “I don’t care what these other couples are doing, I love that couple because of how they make me feel.” So I don’t see any sport in that.

In Canada, “amateur” dancers (those who do not make their living as dance instructors) are not permitted to do Pro/Am. This is a primary source of income for professionals, and reserved for them to ensure that there is enough market opportunity. Canada restricts amateur teachers to those who have reached the top echelon of the Canadian national Championships, and the permission to teach comes with a number of conditions and limitations such as the Pro/Am restriction.

As such, my recent involvement in Dancing With the Richmond Stars was an awesome opportunity to experience Pro/Am. Because this was a not-for-profit event with the teachers’ time donated, the governing bodies allowed amateur teachers like myself to be involved.

My student was Michelle Hopkins, a reporter for the Richmond News. She was a terrific partner. Hard working, well matched physically, keen to put in the effort and a fast learner, she also brought a warm and friendly personality that made her a joy to teach. As I mentioned in my previous post, I was quite nervous about the choreography, because I wasn’t sure how to choreograph an open routine for a raw beginner, but as things progressed it became easier and in the end it was a great routine for Michelle. She had never danced before, but tackled the difficult steps with determination. I was especially proud of the way she was able to express herself and dance without looking like she was thinking.

Life happens

As the event drew near, we were both very excited about the opportunity to showcase Michelle’s expressive personality and her considerable skills. Then tragedy struck. A very close friend of hers passed away suddenly just days before the event. As it turned out, the funeral was to take place on the same day as the DWTRS competition. Even worse, it was to take place at close to the same time as our event, and in a distant city. Michelle was devastated. We had worked so hard for such a long time and now there would be no opportunity to showcase that work.

Life can happen this way. You never know when a curve ball will be thrown. Michelle did the right thing by choosing to go to the funeral. Friendships are for life. Michelle had been writing about her experiences in the newspaper, creating a following of people who wanted to see the outcome in print. But the decisions we make in times of crisis are the ones that define our character, and Michelle decided to stand by her friend in this time of need. It was fitting, given that Dancing With the Richmond Stars was a fund-raiser for the Richmond Hospice Association, which provides support for people going through grief and struggling with the issues around the loss of loved ones.

On the day of the DWTRS event, my lovely wife Wendy performed Michelle’s part as a show routine so the audience could see what they missed.

Wendy and I performed Michelle’s choreography at the Dancing With the Richmond Stars event, as a showcase performance following the competition. I believe Michelle would have done very well, probably placing right behind champion Laura Van Sprang, who danced a Paso Doble with great flair with her professional partner Andy Wong.

On to UBC Gala Ball

We were then invited to perform our dance at the UBC Gala Ball Showdance Competition which was taking place only two weeks later. Michelle was somewhat reluctant because this was a much higher-level event with highly skilled competitors, as compared to the beginners competing in the DWTRS program. But she readily agreed to do it.

The evening of UBC Gala Ball, Michelle was watching the championship events leading up to the showdance competition and getting increasingly nervous because of the obvious quality being demonstrated. “I have to dance after that?!,” she exclaimed following the Adult Championship Latin event. But she bravely got ready and performed her routine with all the character and quality I knew she was capable of. She was expressive, musical, followed the leads beautifully and danced with a maturity rarely seen in a beginner. I was really proud of her.

Naturally, the showdance competition included highly experienced couples and it would have been impossible to beat any of them. But what mattered was the boldness, courage and excellence that Michelle displayed in tackling the challenge before her. It was a distinct pleasure for me to be part of the event, and to have such an amazing student. Michelle, I will dance with you anytime!

View a video of the dress rehearsal

Michelle Hopkins’ first article about her DWTRS effort. Click to view larger version.

Dancing With the Stars, as you are no doubt aware, pairs up a teacher with someone who has no dance background at all. The stars work with the pro for a few weeks, then the pressure mounts as they begin to choreograph routines and work to make them polished enough for a live presentation in just days.

I was approached last fall by Andy Wong of the Grand Ballroom, where we do most of our teaching, asking if I’d be interested in volunteering my time for a fund raiser called “Dancing With the Richmond Stars.” Based on the same premise as the popular TV show, the event would require me to train a non-dancer and have her ready for a live performance in just a couple of months. I thought it was not only a great cause, but an exciting challenge. After getting approval from DanceSport BC and the Canadian DanceSport Federation, I waited to meet my celebrity partner.

Shortly before Christmas I met with my “star” for the first time. Michelle Hopkins is a reporter for the Richmond News. I learned that she would be chronicling her adventures in the newspaper (read her first article). Learning more about her interest in the event, we talked about dancing and looked at photos and videos. I asked whether she would prefer to do a Standard ballroom dance or a Latin dance. “Cha Cha,” she exclaimed without a moment’s hesitation.

We began working on Cha Cha basics, and I was impressed with how fast she catches on. But learning so much in such a short time frame is not easy. There’s a big challenge ahead of us that will require hard work and dedication.

Michelle wrote an article about her adventure after the second lesson. I didn’t get a chance to see what she was writing ahead of time. It’s a great article and demonstrates her skill as a prolific writer. But it highlights that I need to learn more about what people really hear when you teach. For example, I instructed Michelle not to add artificial extra hip movement — hips will move automatically with the right leg action. Hip movement is something most beginners think they have to do, so they thrust their hips this way and that creating unattractive distortions. In the article that became a command to “hardly move the hips.” Close, but not exactly the message I intended to get across. The article also talks about being told to “shuffle” the feet, and I’m confident I never used that word at any time. These are great lessons for me that what people hear isn’t always what you said, so as teachers we need to be careful with all our words.

I began to think about the choreography and gained a new appreciation for what the television professionals have to do every week. I would find it quite easy to choreograph a competition routine for Newcomer, Bronze or Silver level dancers, where we have a syllabus rulebook to act as a guide. I would even be able to choreograph an open routine for an accomplished couple. But having to choreograph an open-style routine for someone who has never learned the basic steps is much harder than I had ever imagined.

I’m glad to report that Michelle is doing very well and I’m confident that she’ll look awesome by the time the event happens on March 3. The Cha Cha routine will begin with some dramatic open-level moves that are basic steps but dressed up with timing changes and other details to look a little more fancy than they really are. This will start the routine off with an exciting kick. Then we’ll switch to closed hold where Michelle can enjoy the security of being physically connected to her dance partner. We’ll end with more open steps to give a dramatic finish. I believe this will show off her skills, give her a little freedom to dance on her own, and push the look of the routine higher all at the same time. We’ll see if my intuition was right in a few weeks, but we can always modify things as we work on them.

At this time, we’re still pondering the song we’ll use. It’s a good start and a very exciting challenge. Wendy, of course, is helping to train Michelle to live up to the challenge ahead. We’ll be watching DWTS with even greater interest from now on, and with a new appreciation of how much work and pressure that really is. Stay tuned for more.

Subjective vs. Objective rules

As I’ve said before, sport should be defined as any physical activity where the winner can be easily measured using a set of objective rules. Those rules might define which team has put the most balls into a net, which runner has crossed the line first, which athlete has jumped the highest, thrown the furthest, or lifted the most weights. There are many activities which fall under a clearly measurable set of results.

In sharp contrast, there are very few sports measured in a subjective way. Skating is the most obvious example. In my opinion, skating should never have been defined as an Olympic sport. Diving is somewhat questionable, although there are some clear criteria to define an accurate entry into the water. A few of the gymnastic styles, such as Rhythmic Gymnastics where athletes prance around with a ribbon, are also highly subjective and should never have been allowed into the Olympics.

But for better or for worse, these sports are now in the Olympic family and so we’re stuck with them. That doesn’t mean ballroom dancing should be added. I’m pleased that the IOC has not simply taken the political bait and added dancing. In fact, ballroom dancing — which was on the short list of sports being considered — has been removed from that list.

Athletes vs. Athleticism

As Martha Graham famously said, “It takes an athlete to be a dancer, but it takes an artist to dance.” Dance is an exceptionally athletic art. In my view, it is the most athletic art on the face of the earth. But an art form it is, and not a sport.

Everything about ballroom dancing reflects its artistic nature. Beauty is an integral part of what the athletes try to achieve. The judging is measured in significant part on the athletes’ physical look and visual elegance, even in the high-energy Latin dances. Musicality is a key component. Look back to the roots of ballroom dancing and you see how it began as an elite social activity.

In the interview, we were asked if we could put a percentage to each side of the equation. That was an interesting premise. Could we define how much of ballroom dancing was sport and how much was art? I came up with 70% art vs. 30% sport as an arbitrary figure. I’m not really comfortable with defining it in such a way, but when forced to give it a ratio that one made the most sense to me.

Even though the activity itself must be recognized as an art form, to perform it well requires us to be at the highest level of athletic ability. You need a strong core, incredible stamina, and you must be in terrific physical shape to dance at a high level of performance quality.

What about practice?

We were then asked if that same ratio would hold up in practice. Again, an interesting question. I realized that even in practice nothing changes. Even as we prepare to learn the technique, it is still rooted in art and not sport. Leg action needs to be done a certain way to create beauty. If you throw that out, you may gain speed but lose the beauty that makes dancing so special. Too often today we see dancers simply running around the floor in Quickstep as if the goal was to see who could make the most circuits around the dance floor in the allotted time. When we practice we work on many things that still define art and not sport. Connection to the dance partner. Musicality. Focus of energy. Foot placement. Posture. In both Latin and Standard, all these things are related to art and not sport.

Is floorcraft more sport, or still art?

Even floorcraft, an essential component of dancing in which the man both protects his lady and allows her to be seen by avoiding crowds and collisions, is more art than sport, although I compare it in many ways to the excitement of a breakaway in cycling, a two-on-one in hockey, or a long pass to a wide receiver in football that allows him to make an unstoppable run for the end zone.

Floorcraft is still art and not sport because the goal is not to be first across the finish line, but to be consistent in demonstrating two people presenting beautiful movement together that is matched to the music. That’s the whole objective of ballroom dancing and why we love watching it as much as we love performing it.

The danger zone ahead

If you look at how skating deteriorated after it was made an Olympic sport, it becomes easy to see how the same elements would destroy ballroom dancing over time. You can even see some of those things at work today.

Take, for example, the silly rules about costumes. They make a certain amount of sense when applied to young people. There is a need to protect juveniles from the inevitable parental pressures of trying to use fancy costumes to overcome shortcomings in quality. But for seniors? Come on! The main reason anyone over 35 wants to compete is to get dressed up in those beautiful ballgowns and tailsuits. Why in the world do the governing bodies force them to meet a rigid dress code where they can’t even wear a necklace? No wonder there is a rapidly decreasing interest in competition. We are denying couples the most basic reason why they would want to compete in the first place! Then we wonder why they aren’t interested!

Should ballroom dancing ever be placed in the Olympics, we would see a steady decline of focus on musicality and quality in favor of speed and power. We would see competitors focusing on the wrong things, then having those things become new standards for expectations, just as in skating it is now generally regarded as essential to do a quadruple jump, even if the rest of the routine is boring.

We have enough politics and drama in the ballroom dance world. We shouldn’t be adding to it with this emphasis on sports. Let’s celebrate the art form for what it is and allow it to be restored to its proper place in the eyes of society. Is it too late? I’m not sure, but I’m pleased that a number of professionals around the world are continuing to focus on this issue.

A big thanks to Renata, the student who innocently asked for an interview, for allowing the opportunity to explore this subject in more detail. Let’s hope that more people see the big picture and get off the sports bandwagon.

Foundation of today’s issues

The problems we’re facing today have their origin in the IDSF’s goal of having DanceSport be recognized as an Olympic sport. To be sure, it was a noble goal, based not only on the athleticism of dance, but also on the idea that sports gets more national funding in most countries than the arts do. In Germany, where DanceSport was recognized by the government as a “sport” back in 1964, ballroom dancing has progressed in a spectacular way.

The IOC (International Olympic Committee) has insisted that for any sport to be taken seriously as an Olympic sport, it must be governed by one worldwide body.

With multiple governing groups, there is too much confusion. How can the public understand when there are multiple world champions? Other sports have gone through similar issues. At one time, there were so many boxing organizations that there were 9 world champions at the same time. That’s simply bad for any field.

So, the IDSF embarked on a strategy to become the worldwide authority for all ballroom dance competition.

Unfortunately, this led to a number of challenges as the IDSF began to ban couples from competing in unregistered events. Many people didn’t like to be told where they could or couldn’t compete, but in essence this strategy was a successful one, with surprisingly few issues overall. The IDSF grew substantially, organizing many top amateur competitions around the world and it became the undisputed leader in amateur DanceSport.

Amateur League

Things may have yielded a fairly stable peace had this been left alone, the IDSF representing all the world’s amateurs and the WDC representing all the professionals, but it was not to be.

As tension heated up over the bans, the WDC launched its own “Amateur League” to create an alternate environment in which dancers who didn’t want to be restricted could compete. Naturally, this challenge would not sit well with the IDSF leadership and it inflamed the tensions even more.

IDSF creates Professional division

Around this time, the IDSF created its own professional League, the IPDSC. This division would license professionals and use them to judge IDSF events, rather than using WDC members as it had in the past. The IDSF/WDSF uses a randomized computer program to choose judges to avoid the appearance of favoritism. Of course, most top WDC judges would get certified by the IDSF while retaining their WDC membership and thus were available to judge IDSF events around the world.

Eventually, the IDSF absorbed the IPDSC into the organization to create one large body instead of using separate organizations.

As top amateurs turned professional, they were pressured to stay within the IDSF “family” by joining the IDSF’s professional division rather than leaving the IDSF to join the WDC. The WDC was the world leader in professional recognition, and offered great status and opportunity for anyone turning pro, so most top dancers would join the WDC after turning pro. There were complaints that some who moved to the WDC were then ostracized by the IDSF, creating additional tensions.

Enter the USA

In early 2011, USA Dance, an amateur body governing all amateur competition in the USA, came under new pressure by the WDSF to be involved with the professional division of the WDSF within the United States. But there already was a long established professional organization in the US, the NDCA (National Dance Council of America), and this organization had been for a time a member of the IPDSC.

As a news release by the NDCA clarified on July 15, 2011, “The NDCA was a member of the IPDSC under the registered name of ‘Dance Sport America.’ In October 2009, the IDSF completely absorbed the IPDSC into its main body, thereby making it the IDSF professional division: Dance Sport America resigned immediately.”

This new directive created a confrontation between the NDCA and USA Dance. Some argue that it’s an issue between NDCA and WDSF but that’s not quite the case, because NDCA doesn’t actually have a direct relationship with the WDSF at this time. As their news release of July 15 points out, “to say that this current issue is one between NDCA and WDSF is untrue; NDCA has no relationship with WDSF. USA Dance is its member, with whom it has a relationship; its professional relationship is with WDC.”

USA Dance and NDCA had lived in pleasant harmony for decades, working well together and never stepping on each other’s toes. A long-standing written agreement between them, one that was clarified in the NDCA’s latest rule book, required USA Dance to stay out of the professional realm. The actions of USA Dance, responding to the pressure from the WDSF, flew directly in the face of this agreement.

The NDCA responded by banning USA Dance and ending IDSF events in the US. As a result, NDCA judges can’t adjudicate USA Dance events. The WDSF responded by banning NDCA judges from its events in the US, even pulling the US judges from the World Championships in Brooklyn just one week before the event was held. In addition, the WDSF banned the world’s top amateur couples from entering the WDSF/IDSF Grand Slam event in the USA.

There are not a huge number of events organized by USA Dance (the regional championships are the primary amateur-only events in the country). A number of large NDCA-organized competitions (like Embassy Ball and Ohio Star Ball) will no longer include WDSF events in their schedule as they had in the past. This may not have an immediate effect in the success of these events, but the effect will be felt. Without European couples coming to these events, the talent pool will not be sufficient to create a world-class competition environment.

USA Dance events, now having no US judges to adjudicate them, will require WDSF judges to be imported from overseas. This will significantly increase the cost for organizers, and likely means they won’t be happening. How that affects the ability of US amateur couples to qualify for the national championships remains to be seen.

What now?

We don’t really know where this will lead, of course. The WDSF has already responded by banning NDCA judges from participating in IDSF events. In the past they could hold both IPDSC and NDCA certification, but it seems that’s no longer being recognized (correct me if I’m wrong). With many of the world’s top judges now living in and representing the USA, there will no doubt be some kind of impact from this ban. In addition, top judges representing Great Britain and other countries as part of the WDC will also feel the effect of this ban as it will probably extend further.

In a recent interview published in Dance Beat World, WDSF president Carlos Frietag said that while Blackpool and UK Open were not banned by the WDSF/IDSF at this time, he hinted that such a ban was coming. Given what’s happened in the past few weeks, it will probably come sooner rather than later.

Where does Canada fit into this mess? Canada’s professionals are governed by the CDF (Canadian DanceSport Federation) which has a strong relationship with the WDSF. My understanding is that the CDF fills the WDSF pro organization requirement for Canada because the WDC runs a different, competing organization, the CDDSC, which lost much of its membership when all of this began and currently serves very little function in the Canadian DanceSport scene.

For now, Canadian athletes are permitted to enter NDCA events (which represent most of the US competitions), but how long that truce will last is anyone’s guess. Canada’s amateur body, CADA, has agreements with both USA Dance and the NDCA. It appears that eventually they will have to choose an alliance and the WDSF is likely to require that allegiance to be with USA Dance rather than NDCA. How they will respond if such a demand is made is anyone’s guess.

Even in a best case scenario, Canadian DanceSport athletes will suffer because they won’t have easy (read “affordable”) access to world-class couples to compete against. With no IDSF events in the USA, and perhaps no events on the continent that European champions can even attend, there will be little opportunity to be compared against the world’s best. Fortunately, there are some IDSF events in Canada. The travel costs are high, but these will gain more awareness and status with the challenges taking place south of the 49th Parallel.

Stay tuned.

Held in Toronto, the 2011 Canadians were the best in years. Participation was at record levels. The audience was terrific, filling the room with energy during the later events of the evening. The lighting was good. The venue was good. The floor was large. The organizers did a great job, making everything from check-in to marshaling easy and efficient.

The music selected for the entire weekend was great, with very few disappointing choices (unfortunately the very last song of the entire event was a Jive that took up some 6–8 bars of wasted space with Beethoven’s Ninth at the start of the song and brought the energy level down too much for that critical final performance). The sound system was certainly loud enough, though the speakers had too much bass and not enough midrange support, rendering everything a bit boomy and making it difficult to hear anything if you weren’t actually on the floor.

But there was one aspect of the music that every dancer found annoying and meaningless, and this marred a near-perfect Canadian Championships event.

Every song all weekend long was faded in from about 1/2 volume to full volume during the first bar or two of the song. This was tragic! It was a substantial negative in an otherwise outstanding weekend.

Dancers need to hear that critical first bar. It creates the feeling of the dance, giving the competitors the energy and character of the song. They pull from that first bar their interpretation of the piece and allow that feeling to drive their performance. So, when the song starts off so quietly you can barely hear the first bar, it robs every couple of this vital part of their performance. The dancers suffer because they can no longer give their absolute best performance. The more musical the dancers are, the more they are impacted by this styling approach. It has no place in any competition. Before the dance can even begin, a subtle aspect of every couple’s energy has been sucked away by this unfortunate musical treatment. And the audience suffers, too, because they don’t get to see the best performance that these couples can provide. Again and again, event after event, we would see the dancers just standing around on the floor, waiting for the music to get up to volume so they could begin to interpret it and start the dance. It wasted energy and it wasted performance quality.

The national championships are no place to experiment with music in this way.

These championships represent the very best dancing in the nation. It’s a stage where the best of the best try to show what they are made of. These couples have trained all year to prepare for this event. Titles are on the line. That’s what makes the CCCs so incredibly exciting. To have one bad decision on the part of a DJ interfere with that importance should never have happened. It is my hope that organizers make a distinct point of never allowing such unnecessary treatment of music during a dance competition, and especially not at an event of such magnitude.

Two versions of Hey by Julio Iglesias. One is a popular hit that we love listening to, the other is strictly for dancing.

Music recorded for listening entertainment, such as chart hits, are built for their artistic qualities. The tempo is determined by emotional factors of the artists involved, who pace the music to make the kind of artistic statement they’re trying to achieve. This means that a 4/4 song can have a huge range of “bars per minute.” A slow Latin love song may have one bar (four beats) happening 20 times per minute, and another equally emotional love song may have a faster rhythm that measures more than 40 bars per minute. Naturally that kind of range becomes a challenge for dancers! Since dances require the beat count to fit within certain parameters to work properly, not all popular music — even if it has the right kind of beat — will work for dancing. Some songs are simply too fast or too slow.

However, that is not really what the “strict tempo” references are all about, though it is part of the reason they exist.

Whatever tempo a song is created at, it will usually (though not always) stay true to that tempo from start to finish. Whether it measures 32 bars per minute or 32.5 doesn’t really matter much, even for competition purposes. The song is unlikely to vary from 32 up to 32.5 and back again. It will stay at the beat count it started with. So what’s the problem? Can’t we just pick songs that have the speed we want? The answer is a bit more complicated.

The real differences

The more thorny problem with popular music is the artistic license taken with how the beat is handled and how the instruments and vocals are paced within the beat count. A number of issues affect how “danceable” a song really is, regardless of whether the beat count falls within desired speed ranges.

Phrasing. Strict-tempo music is designed so that dancers have phrasing that they can rely on. You’ll notice, for example, that a strict-tempo Samba score will subtly rise in scale for 4 bars, then come down for the nextt 4. This means your movements can go up during the first 4 bars and downwards for the next 4, giving your choreography a much more pleasing look. Viennese Waltz is phrased to rise for 7 bars, reach a crescendo on the 8th, then come down and start again.

Song intros. Some pop hits include creative introductory sections that may run several bars. These might involve acapella vocals or sound effects. Obviously that becomes a challenge if you’re trying to get people on the dance floor and they don’t even know what kind of dance the song is for!

Unexpected pauses. Other issues might be sudden changes in the beat well into the song, anything ranging from pauses to split beat counts to wildly changing instruments. Creatively it might be a great thing that helps the artist express the meaning of the song, but for dancing such changes cause huge problems for all but the most experienced dancers.

Musical cues. A song written for the pop charts doesn’t care much about how people might dance to it. So it won’t contain musical cues especially designed to help dancers. Strict tempo music is designed especially for dancing. It holds a true beat count, keeps the tempo manageable (though some strict tempo songs still provide plenty of challenging moments), and offers subtle additional treatment that helps give the dancers cues for syncopation or opportunities for splitting the beat. If you listen carefully, you’ll begin to hear extra instruments that provide aural cues for the dancer, especially in the Latin music.

What about dance parties?

For casual parties or practice, popular chart hits rarely present a problem. Often it’s actually better to use the original hit because some people may wonder who that stranger is singing one of their favorite songs that they’ve grown to love.

Some chart hits are even used very effectively at dance competitions. However, only an experienced ear can determine whether a chart hit will be suitable for serious dancing situations. There are many issues related to how well the musical character of each song captures the essence of the dance. This site attempts to provide details to help you make an informed decision, but as a general rule you should go with the strict tempo version unless you’re really sure about what you’re doing.

Take, for example, the chart hit “Hey” by Julio Iglesias, a terrific Rumba song. Given the choice, which version would you use for a dance lesson or competition: the chart hit people have grown to love, or the strict-tempo version from Dancelife?

Strict-tempo versions of songs contain subtle differences that often make them a better choice for dancing. Minor improvements to how the instruments are used help dancers find points in the beat for things like shifting their body weight or splitting the beat. Plus, the balance of vocals to instruments is usually optimized in strict-tempo songs.

For casual parties or show dancing, you can use the original chart hit any time. In the case of the song “Hey,” the original chart hit is a little soft on the actual beats. The attention is on Julio’s incredible vocals. Because the instruments are slightly mushy the strict tempo version is more suitable for serious dance events, as it more clearly identifies the beat count for dancers, allowing them to use the music more effectively in their presentation.

Evan Lysacek

“For the past several years, the economy in America and the whole world has been bad,” he said. “There is a lot of negativity going on with wars abroad, people losing their jobs, their homes and so much of the news and TV shows are about negative things like murder, or crime, and so few things that are entertaining are positive. Dance is so incredibly positive, everyone can do it and it’s a great escape.”

He claimed that even though he doesn’t consider himself especially good at dancing, he thinks that the dance shows give people a reason to smile and get their moves on. He also praised the athleticism of the sport, saying that there is no question about the professional competitive dancers being real athletes, as accomplished as skaters.

Evan is currently touring with other Dancing With the Stars contestants as part of the “Ballroom With a Twist” show choreographed by Emmy-nominated professional Louis van Amstel.

With our coach, Young Ryu, after the win

Although we’ve been the BC Senior Latin Champions for the past five years, we only started competing in Standard three years ago, and began from a low Syllabus level, moving up through the ranks. There are many more senior-category competitors in the Standard events, and most of them have been competing for many years at the Championship level, so it has been a challenge to move through those ranks to achieve this kind of result.

We’re not expecting this to mean we’ll win all our future Standard events, but it shows that we can do it and we hope to win both categories more often in the future. Wins can happen because you had an exceptionally good day, or because other couples had an unusually bad day. DanceSport is a comparative sport, with each couple being compared to the others. So, results are dependent on the quality of the other couples in that specific event. In any case, we’re pleased that we achieved that kind of finish in both genres and will keep striving to do it again.