<B>Shall We Dance?</B> <P>By Eetta Prince-Gibson in The Jerusalem Post<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Step by step, more and more people are discovering the thrills and frills of the ballroom. <P>It's a sign of the country's changing social climate. Last month, Arthur Murray, the venerable American-based chain of franchised dance studios, opened a second studio here, in Mevasseret Zion, just outside of Jerusalem. <P>Ballroom dancing? Near Jerusalem?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR><A HREF="http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/05/27/Features/Features.27031.html" TARGET=_blank><B>More...</B></A><BR>

<B>A Week to Trip the Light Fantastic</B> <BR> <BR>By Eric Brace in The Washington Post<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>I'M SURE I'm not telling you anything you don't already know when I say that this is National Ballroom Dance Week.<P>What? You didn't know?<P>Why yes, it's there clear as day on the United States Amateur Ballroom Dancers Association Web site, Sept. 14-23. "An annual week-long extravaganza of social dances, shows, exhibitions and lessons," it says there. And one of the few places in the area to check out this extravaganza is the Hollywood Ballroom (2126 Industrial Parkway, Silver Spring; 301/622-5494).<P>This is not some elegant hotel lobby with high ceilings and cascading staircases. This is deep in industrial Silver Spring, just off Colesville Road, a few miles north of the Beltway. It's a refurbished warehouse space, squeezed in among other warehouse spaces and loading docks, and you should definitely call ahead for directions.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><BR><A HREF="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24606-2001Sep13.html" TARGET=_blank><B>more...</B></A>

Bitter rivalry in the world of the Cotillion. <P><B>Teaching Smooth Manners and Moves</B><BR>Since 1960, Huckenpoehler Has Polished Young Dancers At the Annapolis Cotillion <BR>By Darragh Johnson for The Washington Post <P><BR>This is music made for a cruise ship ballroom -- Lawrence Welk stuff that stopped being cool 50 years ago. It wheezes through the Annapolis High School cafeteria, where a slew of scrawny sixth-graders are stepping on each other's toes.<P>Stretched in lines across the floor, all gussied up and fidgeting in their brand-new stockings and suits, the 11-year-olds desperately mimic the moves of the white-haired, 82-year-old woman in front of them.<P>"Left, right, cha-cha-cha!" Betty Huckenpoehler instructs and hobbles on her hip replacement. "Left, right. DON'T STOMP YOUR FEET!"<P>The kids do their best to keep up with a woman who once trained with Fred Astaire and kicked up her heels in Hollywood movies. For 42 years, Huckenpoehler has run the Annapolis Cotillion with the unflagging energy of a drill sergeant and -- until a rival cotillion sprang up this year -- the supreme confidence of a one-woman institution. <P><A HREF="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19551-2002Mar13.html" TARGET=_blank><B>click for more</B></A><P>

<B>Ballroom owners taking spin in south Charlotte</B><BR>By Ashley M. Gibson in The Business Journal (Charlotte)<P><BR>Partners in business, dance and life, Dana Glandon and Tony Prado are making a 12-year dream come true with the opening of Queen City Ballroom in south Charlotte. Located at 10403-I Park Road, the 5,625-square-foot competition ballroom and studio will offer lessons in tangos, salsas, foxtrots, cha-chas and more. The studio took 10 months to plan and build. It has 14-foot ceilings, mirrored walls, crystal chandeliers and professional theater lighting by Barbizon Charlotte Inc.<P>"The hardest part was finding a large enough space that didn't have poles running up and down the middle of it," says Prado, a professional theater dancer who will teach at the school. "This represents our complete wish list."<P><A HREF="http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/stories/2002/03/18/newscolumn2.html" TARGET=_blank><B>click for more</B></A><p>[This message has been edited by Stuart Sweeney (edited March 19, 2002).]

Two articles about ballroom dancing in Indonesia:<P><B>Shall we dance? Where to get put through your paces</B> <BR>The Jakarta Post - Indonesia <P><BR>Ballroom dancing is divided into two categories. Standard Ballroom a.k.a. Modern Ballroom (waltz, tango, slow foxtrot, quickstep and Viennese waltz) and Latin American (cha-cha, rumba, samba, jive and paso doble). The waltz and the cha-cha are probably the most popular. You can learn these styles at four dance schools listed below. And, you can also join the dance crowd at cafes and restaurants such as T-Box, Bug's Cafe, Arios, Mario Cafe, Stardust, Bebek Bali or Black Steer.<P>Here are some of the schools or studios that have been recommended by dance lovers and professional instructors themselves. Have fun, the choice is all yours!<P>Linny & Roeby; Jl. Pancoran Indah VI No. 13; Tel. 7996943<P>D'Rose Studio; Jl. Tebet Utara Dalam No. 34; Tel. 8309784, 8312141<P><A HREF="http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=020331000218&query=dance" TARGET=_blank><B>click for more</B></A><P>**********************************<P><B>Ballroom dancing -- a blend of art and sport</B> <BR>By Susanna Tjokro for The Jakarta Post - Indonesia <P><BR>Romance filled the air when two bodies waltzed as one silhouette to the rhythm of the music. The woman dazzled in an ocean blue feathered ball gown and the man wore an elegant black suit.<P>The magical effect of the ballroom dance has amazed me ever since I was a little girl. Dancing was the coolest profession, I thought. Twenty years later, my opinion remains the same.<P>Today, ballroom dancing is also known officially as dance sport rather than just an art form. It took the International Dancesport Federation (IDSF) about nine long years to convince the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that ballroom dancing was a sport.<P>Finally in 1997, IOC recognized ballroom dancing as a dance sport. Nevertheless, this sport has not been listed as an official sport in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. However, IDSF hopes that China will include ballroom dancing in the 2008 Games in Beijing.<P><A HREF="http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=020331000219&query=dance" TARGET=_blank><B>click for more</B></A><P>

An article about ballroom dancing in San Francisco.<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Learning to keep the beat at Metronome Ballroom<P>Octavio Roca <P>Should you lead or should you follow? Should you perhaps be flexible enough to do both? These basic questions come with their own beat in San Francisco's Metronome Ballroom, where experts of that swinging sport have been meeting this week to achieve certification in ballroom dance teaching.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><A HREF="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/04/13/DD105421.DTL&type=performance" TARGET=_blank><B>more...</B></A>

An article on The Rising Stars Dance Academy.<P>Shayna Samuels writes in the NY Times:<P><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Ms. Volynets is one of a growing number of American parents, primarily of Russian or Eastern European descent, who have dedicated their lives to turning their children into ballroom dance champions. It's an aspiration that is not unusual for parents from that part of the world, where many children learn to cha-cha as soon as they can walk. Ballroom dance in Russia and Eastern Europe is as commonplace among young people as basketball and ballet classes are in America. Both boys and girls sign up for ballroom and devote much of their time to practicing, dressing up in fancy costumes and competing.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><A HREF="http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/21/arts/dance/21SAMU.html" TARGET=_blank><B>Click for More</B></A><P><p>[This message has been edited by Misa_danseuse (edited April 21, 2002).]

<B>Brilliant ballroom</B> <BR>BY ENGLISH GAVIN in The Christchurch Press - New Zealand<P><BR>A foxtrot in Moscow is on the cards for a young Christchurch dance couple after a remarkable performance.<P>Sarah Hunter, a 14-year-old Year 10 student from Middleton Grange School, and her partner, Eamonn Mulqueen, blitzed the field at the Easter Championships held in Nelson.<P>Ballroom dancers from around the country competed at the event, but the Christchurch pair stole the show winning the Open Youth Championship and coming second in the A-grade standard competition.<P>The feat was made more impressive because the pair have only been dancing together since October.<P><A HREF="http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=020423008818&query=dance" TARGET=_blank><B>click for more</B></A><BR>

<B>On her toes</B> <BR>Louise Lewis may not drive, but she dances well enough to win admiration from her peers, awards from the judges. By HARRIET HOWARD HEITHAUS for The Naples Daily News (Florida)<P><BR>Louise Lewis' personality is color-coded into her costume today: sweet pink-blue-butterflies on her blouse, a bold crimson skirt that ruffles around her frame in two tiers. As she sallies forth on the polished oak floor, the disparate sides of her character sashay and slide, sashay and slide. <P>Eighty-eight year old Louise Lewis dances along with her instructor, Steve Brush, during a lesson on a recent Tuesday morning at Etudes Des Ballet studio in Naples in preparation for an upcoming competition. Brush has been training her in ballroom dances from the cha-cha to the fox trot for about six years. But Lewis has been dancing with partners since she was a child, and won her first contest at age 16 with her younger brother. Lisa Krantz/Staff<BR> <BR><A HREF="http://www.naplesnews.com/02/06/neapolitan/d557488a.htm" TARGET=_blank><B>click for more</B></A>

May we all do as well.....actually half as well would be quite something:

At 98, she still dances all night
By Neal Rubin / The Detroit News


Most of us will never get the chance to find out for ourselves, so I wanted to know: Does 98 years old feel any different from 95 or 92?

Doris Eaton Travis had to think for a moment. "Not very much," she decided. "I might take a nap now after lunch. But not a very long one."

She's too busy for excess sleep. There's a ranch to run and a book to edit and a master's degree to finish. And most every afternoon at 4:45, she dances.

For 30 years, Travis owned every Arthur Murray Dance Studio in Michigan, which at one point meant 19 of them. She and her late husband left Rochester in 1970 to raise horses in Oklahoma, and when they built a house on their 880 acres, they designed a foyer that doubles as a dance floor.

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Ballet has a great deal to offer Ballroom dance. I had some experience with ballroom dance students. But my friend, and teacher, and member of this board, Debbie, teaches them on a regular basis.

She has special classes for them and coaches. Many of the steps and movements are very closely related to ballet - chainé turns, attitude turns, and more. Hand and arm positions, line and alignment are all things with which the ballet can help.

School Swings Ballroom, Tap & Hip Hop
By Megan Merrill for The Moscow Times

A year ago, Alexei Mindel opened a dance school in the Luzhniki Sports Complex that was no different from any of the other dance schools in town.

But that school is no more.

Today, Mindel has completely overhauled the studio, expanding it to more than double its original size and replacing the customary pay-per-class policy with a fitness-club-style membership system.

Gym-style system aside, at the new school, members wear stilettos or toe shoes instead of sneakers -- and, if Mindel gets his way, will become the kind of close-knit community hardly common to aerobics halls and weightlifting rooms.

"This new club system is the first in Russia [for a dance school]," he said.

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Dance sport tests mind, body
NEVY WILSON for The Bradenton Herald (Florida)


PALMETTO - Seconds after first-time dance competitors Nicole Kingsland and Ashley Willis whisk themselves off the dance floor their toes are still tapping.

"We were really nervous," Kingsland said.
"But it just kinda turns into excitement," Willis said.

The 12-year-old girls were two of 120 young people, ages 8 to 18, who participated in the monthly dance competition organized by Pamela Callender, a Manatee School of the Arts instructor and leader of Spats, a local dance team.

Inside the ballroom, couples waltz, swing and tango as an audience of parents, friends and relatives cheer and dote. Video cameras on tripods, and held high above mothers' heads, captured the images of children's smiling faces.

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This is a subject close to my heart. I (and my partner) won the Southeastern United States Championship in ballroom dancing way back in 1964. I think everyone should study ballroom dance, but the competitive ballroom dancing today has gone too far in the extreme of style. Sometimes I almost gag when I watch it. The beauty that was once there is replaced by jerks and movements that are not easy to watch with the eye. I am curious, am I the only one who feels this way about the competitive ballroom dance scene today? :confused:

No, you're not alone. Unfortunately, I don't know competitive ballroom dancing in any other form, since I didn't really become aware of it until recent years.

My first ballet teacher eventually got into ballroom dancing and became a ballroom dance instructor. My memories of her from ballet classes and the one performance I saw her do, Pas de Quatre, are of a very smooth, graceful dancer. I just can't imagine her dancing the way so many current competitors do.

<small>[ 11-10-2002, 17:03: Message edited by: djb ]</small>