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Re: Which syllabus does this site follow?
Posted by Administrator
3/20/2013  8:29:00 PM
[continued from previous post -- please view entire topic]

A tremendous amount of research has gone into this syllabus over the past 18 years. We've attended innumerable competitions, social dances and other types of events taking scrupulous notes on what not only the best dancers are doing, but what the general public enjoys. We have consulted leading professionals in the industry, both social and competitive, and continue to do so to this day. We've combined this information with sound pedagogic principles to bridge the gap, one step at a time, from the student's first box step through the most complex professional competitive routine. You will start to see this unfold as we add the gold level to our website next year, and the picture should be complete when gold star is finished.

So back to your original question: Will you be learning the "correct stuff"? The answer, of course, is Yes. When you study any other syllabus, be it one of the chains, ISTD, DVIDA or otherwise, you will come away with enough understanding of the material to dance that one syllabus. To transition to another would be an undertaking, and to dance with someone trained in another would be limiting. The BallroomDancers.com syllabus will give you the basic tools to understand the construction of literally any other American style syllabus. Once you have the tools, you will understand how to quickly and easily put them together in whatever combinations your particular school or teacher prefers.

Regards,
Jonathan Atkinson
www.ballroomdancers.com
Re: Which syllabus does this site follow?
Posted by obsidian743
4/3/2013  7:00:00 PM
Awesome response and thank you! I agree that a component based approach is better and I could see how following this syllabus would be much easier to transition to another as opposed to vice a versa.

One more question, is BallroomDancers.com an association of sorts and if not, why not officially publish the syllabus under an association?
Re: Which syllabus does this site follow?
Posted by pakarinen
4/6/2013  7:42:00 AM
I'm a very linear thinker, so perhaps I pay too much attention to syllabi, but thank you for the comprehensive and well-written response!

I now know why I look at my DVIDA manuals and the videos here and sometimes wonder, "What the heck?" LOL!
Re: Which syllabus does this site follow?
Posted by nloftofan1
3/4/2014  8:05:00 AM
The "component-based" syllabus makes more sense than the alternative (and is more like the International syllabus). I'm not a pro, but a local pro with many years of teaching experience has begun to teach that way. His pitch is that he's trying to teach people to dance, not to memorize patterns.

I saw an example of what can (sort of) go wrong with the choreography-based approach recently. (The names of syllabus publishers and pros are left out to protect the guilty.) I wanted to "clean up" a Silver Cha-Cha pattern I had been taught, and was able to find a YouTube video of pros teaching that very pattern (a come-on to induce people to buy the complete instructional video). In my search I also found another video, made by the same company, of different pros teaching a pattern with the identical name but some major differences--possibly a newer version of the pattern. So which is the "right" one?

The moral of the story, as I see it, is that every dance figure was made up by somebody. So why not make up your own?
Re: Which syllabus does this site follow?
Posted by nloftofan1
3/8/2014  8:40:00 AM
We are saying the same thing. Yes, you should execute the elements correctly. But how they are put together in combinations is just somebody's suggested choreography. USISTD, DVIDA, Fred Astaire, and Arthur Murray (obviously I'm talking about American Style; in International Style the syllabus mostly consists of elements--a Three Step is just that, not a combination) may all have a Tango pattern that incorporates certain elements--possibly with some variation. Those patterns are close to one another but not identical. Is one more "right" than another? Possibly yes for a competition that requires a specific syllabus, but not in social dancing.
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