Polished, sorry to confuse you. You got it backwards. I was suggesting that Diva's form was likely more pleasing to the eye than the people claiming themselves to be "just social dancers". I was happy to hear she understood what I was saying. Diva, I too am a TOTAL exhibitionist! That's half the fun, heh heh! It really sounds like you don't like the snobbery-side of ballroom (I TOTALLY agree with that). I am not interested in watching someone's feet at a social (though I did just see a fantastic performance by Victor Fung at a local comp.). As far as social dancing, I can have an absolute blast at a hustle party...there are some amazing hustle dancers out there, and I consider myself lucky to dance with any of them.

"I'm beginning to think there is "social ballroom dancing' and 'social dancing'....qualify as 'Social Ballroom Dancers' and can now proudly sign our names with SBD after them! "

oo, Count me in! Or at least, i am a social ballroom wannabe! LOL!

I have enjoyed every bit of this long thread. Reading the discussion was very interesting and I found it helped me to see these differences.

I love all the differences.

Not in our classes. Where I take lessons we learn the steps properly and there is a lot of opportunity to develop as a dancer however you want to improve.

There are just classes, Level I, II and III. Level one is basics and is taken as often as needed to improve. Level II is for more advanced steps building on having gotten the hang of the basics, and level III tends to be whatever the advanced students are currently working on improving.

Social is the setting for us, not the aim for learning.

To many of the people in our dance classes doing the step correctly is very important even if we know we will never compete. I want to be that good even if I never step onto the floor at a competition, and this is what I work toward.

I know that many people who work their way into the upper levels of dance classes here are just as serious about their own improvement.

My chiropractor competes and we have the same attitude toward getting things right. She drives a couple of hours to work with her pro and her partner in a nearby city. My plan is to add occasional lessons in a nearby city as well to give me a different perspective on my dancing. Unlike my chiro, I will probably never compete.

It is perhaps true that in social settings the majority of people come out to play and have no desire to be any good at dancing.

But it is not true that all social dancers are careless in learning the steps. There is a pleasure in getting things right and you can feel the difference when you dance--it is worth it for the personal satisfaction.

Whether or not a step is done wrong matters to the individual or it does not matter to the individual, but it is unfair to classify social dancers as not caring if the step is wrong, AND equally wrong as some have done, to classify competitive dancers as snobs who have no consideration for the other people on the dance floor.

yes, we discuss details such as these in some of my classes. You can't actually get things correct without this kind of detail.

If all I wanted to do was shuffle around the floor like some rube, I'd go down to the Hall of Fame and two step all night.