I'm curious how much training it requires to perform the sort of lift where a male grips his partner by her hips or ribcage and presses her overhead with her legs extended parallel to the floor, or nearly so; and sometimes with her hands on his shoulders. She assists the move by coming toward him with a slow running leap. I don't know the official name, if there is one, but I believe I've seen it done before on SYTYCD or DWTS.

A story I'm writing has a scene in a middle school gym class where ballroom dancing is taught as an elective, and a non-dancer student who happens to be very strong is asked to fill in and help the girls with lifts like the above. The girls all weigh no more than 100 lbs, and the boy is easily capable of handling that much with a barbell press.

If he could also realistically lift a girl with just a few minutes of instruction, that would be great. However, I want the scene to be plausible, so if this sort of thing would never happen in real life, then I'll need to think of something else. Maybe the boy could just fill in as a spotter instead of doing the actual lifts with no experience. Or perhaps he could do a safer and less complicated lift.

Your thoughts would be appreciated.

It's good that you ask. Sorry a head of time if anything sounds :( I'm just trying to be real. I think it's great that you are trying to research first and I hope this will be helpful. I use to do overhead lifts, spot and sometimes lift (not overhead).

In Ballroom there are no overhead lifts unless it is a Show dance.

The female almost always has gymnastics/acro training and or very high level Ballet or Jazz along with Professional Ballroom training. She has to be able to hold her body weight centred and toned in so that the male can hold her up.She needs to know how to fall and there needs to be a matt and a spotter till they get it really good.Highly skilled females are unlikely to just do an overhead lift at a gym floor with someone who they just met without professional supervision.

In reality a lift like this at a middle school gym is unlikely. A Ballroom Dance Instructor would not to teach this kind of a lift under those conditions. Some Insurance policies don't cover over head lifts or aerials and it's best for all participants to sign a waiver. This makes everything into a headache for the Instructor , School and possibly for the female being lifted if she falls.Ballroom dance should be a dance not a stunt.

Being a Spotter can be tricky and they need to know what to look for and have accurate timing.

Ballroom itself is complicated enough....that story goes on forever....

Good luck with your story.