Hi everyone! My husband and I are beginner level dancers and I want you to know that this site has been extremely helpful to us! We've taken lessons once and we're about to begin another round of lessons. Our concentration right now is the Cha Cha and the Tango. My husband can be very graceful when he wants to be for a 6'7" man, but if anyone has any suggestions for him or me, please feel free! He has very long legs, so if anyone has any tips on how to help him to take smaller steps, please feel free! That's the only problem we're really running into on a constant basis.

Wow, he is tall. You didn't say how tall you are?

The thing is, he's so tall, there's probably only so much he can do to accomodate you. You might want to talk to your teachers about what you can do to make your own movement bigger to accomodate him. Chance are since you are a beginner that you've got a lot more potential to match him in your own body that you haven't unleashed yet.

Good luck and happy dancing!

Almost as tall as Canadian Champion Danny Quilliam (now dancing with Lynn Joliceur sister of world professional 10-dance champion Anik Joliceur):

http://www.mikiphoto.com/Event/02Blackpool/Pg43CanPro.htm

OB

I'm 5-5. I didn't even think about it that way, thank you. i will certainly talk to the teacher about what I can do on my end.

My wife and I are also newcomers to formalized ballroom training. We just took our free intro lesson at Arthur Murray and are excited about starting the Foundation course. I have already read the umpteen articles on AM and such and we're happy with our decision, but we will, of course, be wary for the sales pitch.

We have a bit of Viennese Waltz experience, but I'm really looking forward to the Samba. I looked at the media available on this site and it definitely looks like an exciting dance!

I look forward to chatting with people on our progress!

I am 6 foot and my wife is 10 inches shorter. Making us fairly similiar to you two. We can dance smooth together effectively, without me reducing my steps significantly, definitely not to the point were my technique suffers.

One of the places we go, there is young man about your husbands height and he dances smooth dances very well with young ladies of your height. One key is that your husband does not try to dance bent over, because that will do more harm than good.

Height difference also has some pluses. It is easier to get over the ladies head on turns, to have better leverage to help and lead on turns. Focus on moves were the difference does not matter or is a plus. We do that and have not found the height difference to be a problem. There are some manuvers were the height difference is a problem, but their is a huge number of manuvers were it will not prevent you from dancing them well.

The teacher I mentioned earlier has competed in tango with a guy about 6'3" and does very well dancing with him.

Your husband doesn't necessarilly need smaller steps, but they must be in the correct direction. Straight forward ,for instance, without trying to avoid your feet. He also will need to lift his chest and lead from the belt buckle or lower. Soft knees will help and so will "collecting" his weight over each step. He needs to maintain his frame so you know where his body is.
Have fun.

I have the opposite problem my wife is three inches taller in the legs I find it hard not to dance out of the floor.

Make sure your partner is not wearing 5 inch heels . All she needs to do is come down through the knees a little. It has been done successfully in the past by more than one.

My partner is much taller than me, so I need 31/2 in. heels. maybe even 4 in.