Ballroom, eh?

Most of the people don't even realize what ballroom is. Almost every time I teach a beginners class, I ask this question, "so what are the ballroom dances?" and invariably I get answers like rumba, cha-cha, salsa, bachata, merengue, and so on. I smile in my smirky way and as if I'm revealing a big secret, I would tell, "well, here's a news for you - rumba is not ballroom; cha-cha is not ballroom; salsa is not ballroom...". And then I tell them the only ballroom dances are waltz, tango, foxtrot, quickstep, and viennese waltz. Most of the other names that they said were actually latin dances. Being beginners, they are surely forgiven for this "misunderstanding", however, more than half of the non-beginners also make the same mistake. Many of them don't even do any ballroom dance and they call themselves ballroom dancers. I can't go around telling them that just because they are dancing those dances inside a ballroom doesn't make them ballroom dances. Many good studios explicitly state that they do ballroom and latin dances, whereas many others would just call themselves ballroom dancing venues while teaching and doing cha-cha and salsa (and even lindy hop and west coast swing and what not).

So what's a big deal about it? Is it just the name? I don't think so. People should realize that ballroom dancing is a whole different deal than latin and other forms of dancing. If you are doing only latin dances, then you may not even encounter the issues of actual ballroom dancing. The lessons and values learned from ballroom and latin dances differ at many points and one needs to recognize this.

The generation gap

You can call me old fashioned, though I'm in late 20s. The reason while I could allow you to call me old fashioned is that even I'm in my 20s and thus, belong to the "current young generation", I'm far from being a part of the hip-hop culture. It's not that being a part of hip-hop culture defines one to be a member of the young generation, but its my resistance to this culture and advocacy of some "old values" that put me at a distance from this young generation. Later I may put things more politically correct way, but for now, let me bluntly say that I just don't see the point of those degrading-to-women lyrics, sexually provoking dances, oversized shirts, falling down jeans, and many such related things. In short, I clearly don't belong to the hip-hop generation.