人生之舞台
人生譬如朝露,去日苦短，让经历过后，留下一丝还能找寻的痕迹吧。
我的Ballroom Dancing 经历（2 ）
如上篇所说，我开始 Ballroom Dancing 的原动力是想参加比赛。在涉猎了所有舞种以后，我决定选 International Standard 做为主项，有机会再加上 American Smooth 。虽然我也喜欢 Latin, 但在 floor 上与 teenagers 竟争，还是有所顾忌我这三十初头的形象。这也许是借口和多虑，因为不同的年龄段可以展示不同的风格。不过在有限的时间里，不得不有所取舍。于是我离开了Fred Astaire，从师于一位Independent Teacher。他曾是International Standard 全美职业比赛的决赛选手（前六名）。
起初，我的 American Rhythm 和 Latin 舞比 American Smooth 和 International Standard 进步快。这基本得益于我的身体素质和舞蹈运动基础。我有公认的 fast feet 和 sharp movement。但对International Standard 舞来讲，除个人素质外，还要有很多硬功夫。虽然跳过American Smooth, 其中也有Close Position 的动作，与International Standard 相同。但那时功夫并不到家。要知道，美国的 Ballroom Dancing 是从 social dance 起家，早年跳 American Smooth 的功底不深，既使是职业选手。有说法：American Smooth 就象跳 International Standard 没跳好似的。不过近年来，由于欧洲流入人材，使水平有显著提高。既使这样，American Smooth 的水准还是远在 International Standard 之下。有不少人跳 International Standard 上不去，就改跳 American Smooth 而名列前茅。如果个人素质优秀，有很好的芭蕾基础，跳 Latin 舞也许很快就会初头。但跳 International Standard 就很难如此。它需要很多特殊技术和超常身体运用的训练，这需要时间来 build into muscle memory 。许多初学者总想快进级学新花样。而高级和顶级选手却在天天练习和花时间在最基本动作的提高上。有道是：初学者用简单的技术跳复杂的 pattern ，而高层次舞者用复杂的技术跳简单的 pattern 。效果就是不一样。 Jenifer Lopez 在美国版的 Shall We Dance 中扮演曾去黑池比赛的职业选手。这看上去可真让我难受，因为一看就是个初学者 , 连架子都还没搭对。而日本版的女演员就要好得多。
在跳 International Standard 时，膝盖不能完全伸直，以保持弹性，使运动更显平滑。效果要象在冰上滑冰。这与体操，舞蹈及 Latin 舞的要求不同。我也花了不少功夫来纠正过去的习惯。还有在跳舞时，很重要的是 Leading 和 Follow 。男士练成一个好的 Leader 不容易。而女仕的 following 技术也非自然而得。这 following 对我来说也曾是相当不易。在跳 American Smooth 时，因为有许多分开动作，把比赛动作编成 Routine, 不真 follow 也还能过关。但我的 International Standard 老师在 syllabus level 不给 Routine ，要我只能 Follow 。这对我来说既意味着 more work 也是提高的机会。
对 International Standard 初学者来说，找初学者搭伴进步要花许多时间。因为两人都有许多毛病。而跳得好的又不愿受我们托累。所以我在 Bronze, Silver, 和 Gold levels 都是跟老师跳 , 参加 Pro/Am 比赛。虽然有时也参加练习舞会，与别人暂时搭伴。另外我还买了 Victor Veyrasset 和 Heather Smith 的全套教学录像带自己学习。直到一年后在香港开始跳 Open Level 时才找舞伴。这样进步确实比较快，但花钱也多。
下面是我第一次参加 International Standard 比赛时的照片 ( 背影 ) 。
I attended the workshops taught by Victor Fung, Anna Mikhed, and Glenn Weiss (Victor Fung's primary coach for very long time). It's a good opportunity for me to brush some techniques and to view them from different perspectives. The workshops can fit dancers in all levels, and there are four workshops running parallely, two for standard and two for Latin. You can go anyone you want to at any time. But personally, I like private lessons better, more efficient.
Happy July 4 holiday!
I agree -- I am not rich either. Started standard and latin when I was in graduate school. It is more fun to learn dance in poor way --- have a group people in similar interests, actually people were better connected about good lessons, fun parties, and money saving competition. It did not cause too much at all learning dance -- I guess my dancing bills were 300$ - 400$ / year. Plus, have many other funs beside dancing. hehe.
海鸥 - I was just talking about how expensive things could be. No way I could not spend that much on dance / golf. If the money / result ratio is too high, I will chicken out.
Happy July 4th!
P.S. Flamenco_Girl, if you go to independence dance camp, give us a little update once you have time. I might check it out next year.
I know what you are talking about 海鸥. This is a typical collegiate scene. Most coaches really like to work with talented young people, which brings hope and excitment for teaching. In USA, there are mainly two groups of people who are involved in ballroom dancing: 1) college students; 2) People who are established in life, and have time and money. There are not many people can dedicate to dancing during ages 30 - 45, the period of time being busy for life.
Here is a blackpool report from Dance Beat:
http://www.dancebeat.com/International.aspx
I am not a rich guy. So are most of my dancing friends, especially my collegiate teammates. So my experience was more in the poor side. As Flamenco_Girl pointed out that dancing is very expensive if you are serious about it. So what could we do? We had tried a lot of ways to learn dancing. To name a few: we practiced a lot for each lesson we took, we had the advance dancers coaching the beginners in the "guided practice", we negotiated with coaches for discounts because we were students and we were a big group (that can give them more business than they could imagine :), we had team subsidies (to exchange for our service to the team), we fixed our dancing shoes and dresses, we raised money in dance parties, etc. Of course, many coaches liked to work with us more than many other dancers (averagely) because we were more serious about dancing. ;) They also tried to help us in many ways. For example, for some of the really poor students, our beloved main coach even gave them some free lessons and let them stay in his apartment for a whole summer for free...
All the good memories... Sigh!
没错，both Ballromm and Golf can be very expensive. 而且，两种都可作为高级修闲方式。我在香港确实见到阔太太们是怎样花钱在跳舞上的。同样，在这儿也见到阔佬们是怎样花钱在高尔夫上的。不过，我想他/她们与技能竟争一族有所不同，比此一搬也是不以对方为伍的。
I'm glad you like it. Also, I'd be glad to see you dance someday.
Tied up with work and person stuff. I knew I should leave the discussion board too long. Haha, you guys did more talks than I thought in the past 4 days.
Sorry, 海鸥. I was under wrong impression. Since you got permissions. You probably can spend more time on dance floor than I do. However, if two kids, the balance of life have to tip over for those two :-) To me, it will be more important to be a good father than a good dancer. Also, being a happy father means that I should do things that I enjoy as well. Maybe you can send them to grandma or grandpa for vacation while you are preparing for dancing comp? hehe
To Flamenco_Girl - about the cost of golf per year. I means around 1k for average golf, not 10K. Consider there are 2-3 million golfers in US. Golfing is billion dollar business in here. The 1k is for regular middle class guys /gals who have to balance their golfing budget with house, car, food, spouse , kids ....etc using coupons for expensive course, not major equipment upgrades and play conservatively on weekend and weekday (1-2 times). If you want to play CEO style, the big will be unlimited. e.g. private club membership (10-50K / year if you can join, sometimes there is long waiting list for good club). Get a new set of top line club (1500$ - 3000$), Private instructor (PGA pros) twice a week - 100$/ per hour, and sneak out office going to exotic destination for golf -- around 200 per round which can be go 100K.
If you are professional golfer, just like profession dancer --- 7 days a week, 5-10 hours a day playing and practicing; Taking private lesson twice a week 100- 200 $per hour; Expense travel to different tournaments; Registration fee for each tournament (not sure, I guess) 1k-5k -10K? I guess that is the reason that many of golfer has sponsors taking cares of that... but about 50% of golfers will miss the cut and will win 0$, top 30% will win more $$$ than expense, rest of them will just break even ( I think). Winning is very difficult unless you are tiger wood. :-) It is not a good professional to raise family unless you are top 100 among those PROs.
Ballroom can be equally expensive, I saw a news two years ago -- an HSBC executive, she spend 8 million dollars to hire one top Ballroom couple in the world to teach her dance.... somehow, top couple was sued because they said something offensive to 'encourage' her on competition.
Damn, what is the point that I tried to make here? Well, here is one. Both can be very expensive / time consuming, if you are serious, prepare to spending $$$ and work like madman/woman for this. That will take away most of fun for me.
man, it is too late for me. Thinking like drunk man now.
Hi 海鸥, you sounds like a protective brother to menhaoran1 :-)
Most time, it's a balance of time .vs. money. You can pay more money to get ahead faster. But, for social or not too serious about progress rate, one don't have to spend that much. It's good just to enjoy dancing itself, after enough basic training.
Are you going to scare him away from dancing? :)
Acturally, as I observed, most people don't spend a lot of money in dancing before they get really serious in competitive dancing.
"can build a good , strong and balanced body which will help your golf games."
Haha! That shows something deep down in your mind... :)
"if you can get your wife dancing, then things will be much easier for you."
You are the 1000001st person who said this to me -- just exaggererating! ;)
Well, as you can imagine, I did try, and I tried really hard -- in vain. She said, if I did just social dancing, she would have considered going with me. But she absolutely can not afford the time and money and all the troubles in competitive dancing. So she dicided to stay away from it. She enjoys watching it and criticizing me though. :)
To be fair, my wife didn't stop me going dancing. It's the fact that we have two kids to take care of that's consuming my time, energy and money. I took a short break from dancing when my first child was born and went back to the floor gradually about two months later (of course, with less practice time than before). At that time, most of my dancing time was my baby's sleeping time (except for a few comp's each year which would take 1-2 days each) so it did not affect the family life much.
But this time, with two kids, I can't even find the time to go practice! :-(
"Regular american golfer will spend around 1000$ every year "
Do you mean $10K instead of $1K? In ballroom, a 45min private lesson can cost $75 - $125, and a typical serious dancer will take two lessons per week (cost shared between partners). The serious competitive dancers may take more. For competitive dancers, travel, costume, and registration fees are also big expense. Ballroom can be very expensive if you are serious about it. But, none has to go that far.
Thanks for your reply, 海鸥飞处! You are very good points on dark period and dancer's mind. Wish we can go to party together next time. Actually, I think dancing is more enjoyable than golfing.
Dancing: can meet more people, more beautiful people; never worried about weather - too hot, too cold, rain, alergy; mosquitoes, bugs; can build more confidence to do things under general public (including bad things); can build a good , strong and balanced body which will help your golf games.
As you said, partner is a major headache and family member's disapproval can be show stopper... hehe. Actually, dancing will be much cheaper than golfing. Regular american golfer will spend around 1000$ every year by going to driving range, play one or two games every week. I do not think I would spend that much on dancing.
Things that golf is attractive to me are: has objective goal like many sports -- the goal is simple and obvious; challenge your mind more than your body; I might have better shot in golf than dance.. hehehe
Both of these are very time consuming hobbies --- can not have them both.
I would say in your case - if you can get your wife dancing, then things will be much easier for you. ;-)
Thank for Flamenco_Girl providing her good blog space and interesting article. Please forgive your rude guests talking about dull and unrelated subject on your message board like outlaws.
We will share more dance stuff later. Hope you find ways to dance soon. Keep it up!
I go to gym too for working alone. I feel it's very helpful. Most good dancers spend lots time work alone on different body elements. The set of instruction DVDs by Luca and Loraine Baricchi is good. They have developed some theories for their dancing.
Have fun working on dancing!
Thanks for sharing your story. I used to have a roommate who was addicted to golfing. We had tried hard to influence each other with our own hobbies but both failed. :)
As I heard,in many places that male dancers (especially the good ones) are indeed hot commodities. One major trouble for male dancers is that there are a lot of things they need to learn before becoming good dancers (especially for standard dancers). For many new male dancers in many studios, they not only need to learn all those things, but also need to pass a what I call "dark period". This is the time when male dancers are typically in their bronze/silver levels. If they don't have regular partners, they usually have to go to the dance parties to practice their skills if they are serious about learning dancing. And they find that, for many times, the good female dancers don't like to dance with them because their awkward leading whereas the less skilled female dancers don't do them much good because both of them are struggling to move. As I observed, many male dancers drop out in this "dark period' because they find the situation very discouraging. When a really serious male dancer fights through all the hardships and finally floats out of the surface of the water (becoming an at least decent dancer), he finds that he becomes a hot commodity because not many good male dancers around. Ladies now should regret that when they didn't want to dance with the awkward bronze/silver male dancers, they contribute partially to the huge drop-out rate of the them. :-)
However, even for those male dancers who have regular partners and have many chances to compete regularly (such the collegiate dancers), their drop-out rate is still high -- greater then 50% as I observed. Now they can not blame the ladies and have to find the causes from themselves. :)
BTW, I met a girl on the dance floor a few years ago who was very good in Latin and OK in standard. She used to be Dan Callaway's student too. What a small world. :-)
The problem is, I am the kind that's addicted to dancing. :-) So it's really hard to be in the "not dancing" situation.
Some friends also recommend the option of hiring a nanny/baby sitter. But we simply can't afford that (two extra expenses -- dancing and nanny). Also, as you pointed out, my wife wasn't very interested in that idea.
It seems that I should find a gym to work out.
http://www.independencedayball.com/schedule.php
Thanks 林贝卡 for compliment. It sparks illusion, isn't it?
never feel that way. Actually, I would say girl are hot commodities ;-)
have a good weekend!
You are right that competitive ballroom has much more fun to do, and is easier to get addicted if you are serious about it.
The first year I think I was horrible -- learning all those 10 dances left me wondering which was which. changed one dance into another in the middle of song ... especially quick steps, foxtrot.... could not dance one dance right in 3 minutes music. However, I think I learned these -- dance supposed to be fun, good pasture, good frame, good basics, on time, listen music, differences in each dances, how to compete... He gave us routine on paper and seemed never emphasis those routine in classes... which was not good for slackers like me, who almost never pratice hard enough. After two years, I think I am still in silver bronze level -- this part sounds depressing.
In the end, I realized that knew those routines on surface would never make us good dancers... only upon those good basic fundamentals, you can do the difficult routine right. Now, I have not danced about two years.(except last Saturday) knowing that dances need time, good partner and devotion... First two are probably two most difficult things to have for most of us.
so I am golfing now -- bring down the intangible elements to one - time. If the time is right, got time, permission and partner, I would like to go back to dance. :_) Dance is much more fun, enjoyable than playing 18 holes under the sun -- 晒得像煤球. haha
Could not answer "there is a will, there is a way" question either.
Ballroom dancing is something you either give up or addict to it. I have seen so many addictive actions around, though I've never been in that level.
It seems you are playing very well in your father's role now. I can see your dedication from your blog, quite interesting to read. Maybe you have to skip dancing at this stage of life, but can still do some individual exercise to keep yourself in shape for future coming back. There are so many things one can do to improve his/her physical capabilities. Another option may be hiring a baby sitter sometimes (I guess your wife may not be happy for that).
我也想有个 way 能让我回到 dance floor 上。但现在我和太太晚上的时间就是一人照顾一个孩子－－我是负责小的。等她入睡后，时间已经晚了，大多数的 studios 都关门了（我以前的主教练的关得比较晚，所以我那时可以去上课和练习－－不过那时也只有一个孩子）。没有时间练习和上课，也就没有 partner 可言了。。。 ：－（
God,where's the way?!
Thanks Fei-Fei for coming. Ballroom dancing is full of illusion, in a nice way though. Maybe you should give a try as well, instead of watching :-)
Hi 海鸥, I'm glad that you like it. Yes, the Bronze and Silver syllabus levels for American Smooth are mostly in close position, which are considerd as basic and foundation. More open figures are involved in gold level. For open level, people are free to chose how many open and closed figures they like to have. Some people nowadays may only have 10% or so in closed position. I remembered that I was so eager to dance open figures which seem more fun and beautiful.
Hope you can come back to dancing again someday. I just began to warm up again now.
自从离开 Arthur Murray,我就没怎么认真学 American Smooth and Rhyth．后来比赛 American styles 时多是拿 International style 来 goofed 的，哈！有一次跟我的 new comer partner 还混了个 American Tango 第四名（silver) 和第二名 (team match)．其实我们跳的98%都是 international style! :)
BTW,那张照片很美,光打的很好.
谢谢静观自得来访。
International Standard has to keep closed position all the time. For that, the pair has to synchronize really well to reach "two become one". There are lots techniques involved to achieve that. You have to take lessons to learn them, and to practice hard to really make sense to you. American Smooth allows closed and open positions, and people may use only limited closed position. The open position allows freedom and less dependency to each other, so is easier, the same as for Latin.
Comparing the Waltz video in your blog, and the Waltz competion pieces in my blog (not the show dances), you can tell the difference.
Usually, the routine is created by the coach and the couple working together. Both of the couple know the routine very well, and practice over and over again to refine the movement and presentation. But, on the floor, anything can happen, you likely have to dance away from your routine from time to time. At these moments, man has to provide quick response to the situation, and woman follows. Some experienced woman can lead in this kind of situation as well in certain way. Two people have to be sensitive to each other.
Still not so sure the difference between American Smooth and International Standard. And what are the 硬功夫 for international standard?
Thanks. I know more about ballroom dancing. Very interesting.