If you missed Pasha Kovalev and Anya Garnis this weekend on WPIX, here’s the video. They talk about their own dancing, Burn the Floor, and do a fairly lengthy demo.
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If you missed Pasha Kovalev and Anya Garnis this weekend on WPIX, here’s the video. They talk about their own dancing, Burn the Floor, and do a fairly lengthy demo.
disclaimer: I don't follow ballroom dancing at all.
Every time I watch Ballroom. I see very athletic dancers who are very skilled and quite well coordinated. They interpret various dance styles, costumes and so forth. It's a dazzling show.
What I don't get is why is there so much what I call stacatto – probably the wrong word… but the extremely rapid movements. This may be like asking why is there a first position in ballet, but what's the deal with this? Is it to move the absolute quickest, with precision? I suppose it's driven by the tempo of the music? So much of ballroom seem frenetic overplayed, almost like a cartoon. Has it always been this way or is this new?
Woo woo! thanks for posting this! did you catch the top 15 SYTYCD show (Nigel's top 15)? It was a fun recap before the start of Season 6. The SYTYCDism blog has all the vids up.
sandero, I can't speak for the pros, but IMO, the International Latin dances showcase the contrast between speed and sudden immobility. That's part of what creates the drama. But you'll notice that the dancers never stop dancing, even in their still moments; they are still moving through weight changes to be able to push off to the next movement. To me, this shows off how the dancers are constantly using each other's momentum and movement to create the dynamic movement of the couple, something that can't be done alone. It may be that a lot of the pleasure viewers have comes from the recollection of having danced in a partnership themselves; ballroom viewers tend to be ballroom dancers, and we connect to the pleasure of the skilled partnership as much as to the spectacle. That's certainly a bid part of it for me.
OK, contrast is something. Frankly I am more attracted to “flow” for lack of a better word. It can be allegro or adagio but it has flow.
Having contrast for the sake of contrast makes no sense. I don't get the idea of these sudden stops which contrast with the rapid movement. I don't get it. Is it difficult? Yea it looks very hard to do. But it doesn't appeal to my eye. or maybe I just don't get it.
Woo woo! thanks for posting this! did you catch the top 15 SYTYCD show (Nigel's top 15)? It was a fun recap before the start of Season 6. The SYTYCDism blog has all the vids up.
sandero, I can't speak for the pros, but IMO, the International Latin dances showcase the contrast between speed and sudden immobility. That's part of what creates the drama. But you'll notice that the dancers never stop dancing, even in their still moments; they are still moving through weight changes to be able to push off to the next movement. To me, this shows off how the dancers are constantly using each other's momentum and movement to create the dynamic movement of the couple, something that can't be done alone. It may be that a lot of the pleasure viewers have comes from the recollection of having danced in a partnership themselves; ballroom viewers tend to be ballroom dancers, and we connect to the pleasure of the skilled partnership as much as to the spectacle. That's certainly a bid part of it for me.
OK, contrast is something. Frankly I am more attracted to “flow” for lack of a better word. It can be allegro or adagio but it has flow.
Having contrast for the sake of contrast makes no sense. I don't get the idea of these sudden stops which contrast with the rapid movement. I don't get it. Is it difficult? Yea it looks very hard to do. But it doesn't appeal to my eye. or maybe I just don't get it.