Courtney Earl Research Paper #2 Cathy Black I have been dancing and competing in dance since I was very

young. I have competed in all kinds of dance competitions. I have been to jazz/contemporary competitions where most of the routines are group routines all performed on a stage in front of judges. I have been in drill team competitions where they are held in a big stadium with large groups performing. I have been to clogging competitions where it is half group competitions and half individual clog downs. Every competition is unique in its own way. Before this year I had never even heard of ballroom competitions. Ballroom wasnt very popular where I grew up. My first ballroom competition was very exciting for me. It was so different from every other competition experience that I previously had. After having experienced so many different kinds of dance competitions it made me wonder why competitive dancing started. Why do people feel the need to turn social events into competitions? I believe that it is simply part of human nature to be competitive, and that is the main cause for ballroom competitions. The history of ballroom dancing starts way back in the 1700s with social dancing. Dancing was a very popular form of entertainment at this time. There was a definite split between the dances of the nobleman and the common population. Most of the commoners did different types of folk dancing for the masses, while the upper class danced more stylized and formalized versions of these folk dances. One of the first main types of ballroom dance was the waltz. The waltz was created in Vienna in the 1700s and spread to England in the early 1800s. It became instantly popular. It was the first dance in which the dancers remained in closed

position for any extended amount of time. Closed position includes five different points of contact between the man and the woman. The three points of hand contact are the mans left hand holding the womans right hand, the womans left hand holding the mans right upper arm, and the mans right hand placed on the back of the left shoulder blade of the woman. The other two areas of contact are the womans left elbow on the mans right elbow and the right chest area of each partner touching the other. Back in this time, these five points of contact were very scandalous. Many churches opposed this dance because of the inappropriate contact between the man and the woman. There are still many things that we do today in the waltz that originated with these social ballroom dances. Men used to wear swords on the left side of their hip at all times. This is why our closed position always remained the same. The women had to be on the mens right side at all times in order to keep from tripping over the swords. The men would also take the inside of the rotation with the women on the outside in order to avoid hitting the audience with their swords. This is why progressions in ballroom dancing still go in a counterclockwise pattern today. Since women have always been naturally shorter than men, you would think that the womans left arm would be placed underneath the mans. The reason that the womans arm is placed on top is because women were socially restrained from making advances to a man. The men would offer their arm and the women would accept by placing hers on top of his. All of these techniques have been handed down from this time and are still practiced today even though our social customs have changed so drastically. By the early 20th century, the waltz an as art form was exhausted. Maurice Ravel, a French composer, wrote an orchestral piece The Waltz that celebrated the waltz traditions and mourned its passing out of fashion. In America, around the time of World War I, most of the populations attention was fixed on other nations. Dances like the tango and the maxixe from

South America became very popular. Originally, the tango was inspired by the flamenco dance from Spain. Since the Spanish conquered most of South America, this tango, along with other Spanish dances emigrated along with the settlers from Spain. The Maxixe was originally known as the Brazilian tango. It originated in the Brazilian city of Rio De Janeiro in 1868. It was an afro-Brazilian dance developed by the black slaves. It was developed about the same time as the tango and came to America with the settlers. Vernon and Irene Castle swept the social dance scene with new styles of dance inspired by the Europeans. Their initial fame began in Paris where they introduced American ragtime dances such as the turkey trot and the grizzly bear. When they returned to the US their success was even more far spread. They standardized social dancing so that is was more organized and had codified steps. They tamed the tango, and it became so popular that everybody did the tango at most social gatherings. They also are accredited with creating new dances like the castle walk, the bunny hug, and the hesitation waltz. As the 20th century evolved, African and Caribbean influences continued to shape social dance. The swing, the jitterbug, the twist, boogie, and disco all share a free and improvised movement style that can be traced back to primitive sources. Ballroom competitions gained popularity in the 1920s. In 1924, the Ballroom Branch of the Imperial Society of Dance Teachers was formed. It was their job to standardize the music, steps, and technique of ballroom dancing. Competitive ballroom dancing is known today as DanceSport. This was started by the United States Ballroom Dance Association that was formed in 1965. They tried to lobby for the acceptance of ballroom dance as an Olympic sport. The International DanceSport Federation (ISDF) was formed in 1987. The ISDF was granted official recognition by the International Olympic Committee in 1997 as the official worldwide governing body for DanceSport. Even though the Olympic committee never rejected the ballroom dance

application, given the trend toward the reduction of Olympic events, it seems unlikely that it will ever be considered an Olympic sport. In competitive ballroom, dancers are judged according to many different sets of criteria. They are judged based off of their connection, frame, posture, speed, timing, proper body alignment, proper usage of weight/ankles/feet, and appearance. The dance proficiency levels are determined by USA Dance. For syllabus dancers the levels go up from Bronze, Silver, to Gold. For open competitors, the levels go up from Novice, Prechampionship, to Amateur. These levels correspond to similar levels all across the world (Marion 2008). Ballroom competitions are different from other competitions in the fact that all of the competitors compete out on the floor at the same time. They all perform their different routines on the same floor surrounded by judges who are looking for the best couple. It is difficult because there isnt a lot of space on the competition floor and since you are performing different routines, people tend to run into each other. The ability to watch your surroundings and move efficiently out of other couples way while still executing your routine is called Floorcraft. It is important to have good floorcraft in order to advance in the competition. The judges narrow down the competition and call back fewer and fewer couples with each round until a winner is given the title. Competitive ballroom is also difficult because you have to make sure that the judges get a chance to see what you can do. It is possible for a couple to do their entire routine without ever being seen by any of the judges because they just didnt happen to catch their eye. This is why costuming and appearance is so important. Women that have bright colored dresses with lots of rhinestones and sparkly jewels on them tend to get noticed before other women. This is why competitive ballroom dresses continue to get fancier and more expensive with every passing year.

Ballroom dancing experienced major changes in between the time of the Castles when it was just done for fun at social gatherings to the DanceSport competitions that we see today. I believe that it was because social dancing was so codified that it was not longer as free and improvisational as it was in the past. Since everybody knew the same steps, it was easier to pick out who was better than whom. Once people realized this, competitive ballroom dancing became very popular. Thomas Hobbes, and English philosopher, said that humans are born equal. One person sometimes becomes stronger in body or in mind than another. When one person becomes stronger in the body, they can claim that they are better than another is. People around them become jealous and threatened by the stronger person. People are a lot more equal when it comes to wisdom of the mind. Almost everybody thinks that they have more wisdom than the common people do. "They will hardly believe there be many so wise as themselves (Hobbes 1982). Because of these two philosophies, humans tend to be very competitive. They feel the need to be better than those around them because they dont want to be jealous or threatened by others (Shermer 2007). After knowing this, it makes a lot more sense why competitive ballroom dancing became so popular while social ballroom dancing died out. Once everybody knew the same steps, their human nature kicked in and told them that they had to be better than everybody else in order to be secure. The history of ballroom dance is very hard to pin down because of so many different influences. Almost every nation had their chance to influence part of what we call ballroom dancing today. This is why I think so many people are still drawn to competitive ballroom dancing today. It is so universal that you can go compete in a completely different country and the technique and criteria for competition would be exactly the same. People continue to turn

every style of dance into a competition, and I believe that we will see even more new forms of fusion dance being competed because it is part of our human nature.

Works Cited "The History of Ballroom Dance: From Prehistoric Ritual to Modern Competition." Historical Resources @ Suite101.com. 14 Apr. 2009 <http://historicalresources.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_history_of_ballroom_dance>. "HISTORY OF BALLROOM DANCING." Welcome. 14 Apr. 2009 <http://www.ballroom.org/history_of_ballroom_dancing.htm>. Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan. Penguin Classics, 1982. Marion, Jonathan S. Ballroom culture and costume in competitive dance. Oxford: Berg, 2008. Shermer, Michael. The Mind of the Market Compassionate Apes, Competitive Humans, and Other Tales from Evolutionary Economics. New York: Times Books, 2007.