Hi all,
Came across a well written piece of dance history. The site in question is devoted to Walter and Marianne Kaiser. On the last page are three short video clips showing Walter and his partner dancing in 1960/61. Dancers who where not around at that time will note a difference in the style in relation to the present. But please note in the Waltz the delightful Whisk into Weave followed by a fine example of CBMP into a nat figure. In those days one of the hallmarks of a good dancer was the use of the foot and leg action. http://www.emsbs.ch/walter_marianne_kaiser_01_e.htm

Wow, this was amazing. Thanks for the link!

Tried the website but can't get through.

Awesome site, thank you.

Dear Friends,
Thank you Laura - I seem to have known you for a long time. Also to Troy. Dave, please keep trying. The beauty about this (as Don would say) I WAS THERE! God bless you, Walter and Marianne.

LLuv2Dance. Thanks for the information.
I wasn't there in 61, I was here. I go back way past that date.Its funny but with the changes in the way ballroom dancing is today it wasn't noticable. The changes didn't take place overnight. It wasn't untill I saw on our TV part of a televised program in which most of the top dancers of the day came here as some sort of tribute to a Mickey Powell in about 1957. Bob Burgess as well as Walley Laird and many others were dancing. Walley was dancing modern. Alex Moore was here too. The poise, the positioning and poise of the lady, and the way the men kept moving their head around. They all looked as though they needed a few lessons. The little bit of Latin. The less said the better. But then all sports have improved and moved on haven't they.

It was interesting and amusing to see how much the Rumba has changed. They seemed so fast and jerky on the Kaiser video.

I thought some of the leg and body lines on the ladies in Standard were lovely, though. There was a purity and cleanliness there that you don't always see today.

A great historical website, but you can see that like in icedancing the standerds of ballroom have improved conciderably.

I'm very sorry, Don, if that's all you saw. After you stopped their heads moving around (let's say 2 minutes) What would you teach in the rest of the lesson? Which from my experience would be from 2 to 4 hours!

I got my silver medal in latin in 1959 in London England,what they taught me was the same as their teaching now, so those video clips must be from the 40s.