Ballet Dancers, Why Not Try Ballroom and Latin American Dancing?

Although ballet dancing is a great foundation to work from, you should expose yourself to other dance forms to increase your knowledge and let your body feel and learn to do different things.

Today I will briefly discuss ballroom and Latin American dancing. These two dance forms are loads of fun and you are never to old to learn and enjoy them. There are many different dances to learn within these two genres and you will find amongst these a firm favorite that you will be better at than all the rest.

Ballroom dancing is broken down into Fox Trot, Waltz, Quickstep, Viennese Waltz and the ever popular Tango. Ballroom dancing tends to be slower, excepting for the Quickstep and Viennese Waltz. In ballroom you would always step forwards on a heel, keep the knees slightly relaxed and travel well at all times. The upper body is usually held in contact with your partner with a well extended back and elongated neck, to give an elegant look to your dancing. Ballroom is more difficult as it is so slow and controlled.

The Swing, Rumba, Mambo and Samba are the main Latin American dances. There are also many other variations of these dances like West Coast Swing, Salsa, Dirty Dancing, Rock n Roll and many others. Latin dances tend to be faster, excepting for the rumba. There is a lot of hip action, and in the latin dances the dancer never steps on a heel. The toe always leads the way. The Latin dances are easier to master than the ballroom dances, as you are not dancing as closely with your partner.

If you go for social dancing lessons, you will generally learn a mixture of all of the above dances. If you would like to specialize in either ballroom or Latin American, the best thing to do is take yourself off to a studio that specializes in entering competitions. If you do go onto the competitive scene, be warned that the dancers practice for about six hours a day to get their movements perfect and in sync with each other. If you thought pointe shoes were killing, try dancing in high heels for a day.

Learning social dancing is fun and it is something you can do with your partner. Of course you can do it for exercise or fun and don't have to progress to the competitive levels that some couples do.