Dancing has helped me with male-female relationships, especially with listening.

I had broken up with my ex-boyfriend of many years and was shy around other guys. My ex was very jealous and was always accusing me of looking at other guys, so I did not have the habit of good eye contact and in the years with my boyfriend ended all my male friendships.

Dancing really makes you a better listener. You really need to pay attention to the subtle, and understand physically what someone is going to do. I am no longer awkward, clumsy, and nervous around guys.

You get so used to being in close proximity with others, that I am far more comfortable now talking with men, touching their arm, shaking hands, etc. This has helped me with my male-female relationships at work.

The same is true of some of the men I dance with. One of my guy friends I dance with (yes - these are the first guy friends I have had since my breakup), told me that he had started dancing to help overcome his shyness. He told me a few other guys were at the studio for the same reason.

It absolutely helps. Especially in practice sessions when you will ask and get asked to dance by 20 or more people. You just become more comfortable.

Your imput has been great for me! Thank you so much for your comments.

If you do not mind being quoted in my paper, please also post your name so that I can credit you.

Keep the comments coming! Thanks a bunch!!

Anya. For what it is worth one of the people who helped in the development ment of ballroom dancing in those early days was Henry Jacques British Champion 1934 to 36. He judged the medals held in our studio, that was in 1953. After, he gave a little lecture in which he said that statistically to marry ones partner was a disaster. I should have paid more attention.

Hello Anya,
I was married a long time before we started ballroom dancing.
A ballroom dance partnership is like a marriage. You have to give and take to make it work. If both of you can't work out problems, then it won't work.

Ballroom dancing with my hubby has taught me patience. It has taught me to appreciate my husband more and it has taught me humility.
I started off being the better dancer than my hubby, but he caught up quickly. I had an attitude that I was still better until tapes of us dancing showed otherwise. It taught me to be more observant and more aware of my body and my movement.
I am very strong minded, and it has taught me to let go, to allow my partner to lead me, and not to jump ahead of him. (I worry that he might forget, so I tend to back lead, which is a no-no.)

But ballroom dancing has changed the way I view people, especially other competitive dancers. We have always been better dancers than most, and learned quickly. Unfortunately our progress caused a lot of other dancers (social and competitive) to become very jealous and envious of us. Our success in competitions fueled their anger and jealousy. It got to a point where we didn't know who are friends were and who weren't in the ballroom community. One week people would be talking to us, the next week they'd snub us, turn against us. I used to be so trusting of people, very friendly and open, but got burned so many times by other ballroom dancers, that now I am very, very wary until I know the person well in order to trust them. Success can be great, but then we had to learn to deal with the jealousy and backstabbing that comes with being a successful dance couple.

In a way, the jealousy of other dancers have brought my hubby and I closer together. We deal with these people together, as a team.
In fact, my hubby and I are very supportive of each other, and this was especially heightened after we started dancing. We believe we are a team, and if we have problems in our dancing or in life in general, we have to work together to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it.

Gook luck with your paper! You picked a great topic!

Hi ballroom dance enthusiasts,

Yes, my partner and I once used to be a ballroom dance enthusiasts. We've been dancing for 4 years, from latin to modern.

But, we now feel extremely tired having to deal with 'politics' in the dancing community and within our dance school. We were among the pioneer students in this dance studio, who have grown and developed both in our dancing and interpersonal skills much. In our recent international dance competition in our country, we discovered a lots of unfair treatment where the organiser secretly created a special event/category for 5 of his own favourite students, which this category was not made known to other competitors and it was not printed in the registration form. It is an obvious conspiracy to make his own students happy for winning a medal as all 5 will straight away be qualified for finalists!

What a dance world out there!

From Anya:

Thanks for all your help!! I have posted a questionnaire (under honeysweet1010) that if you guys had the time to look over, that would be great!!

Thanks!

Anya