Lets see if i have got this right. I can' t change the tempo of the music. The tempo remains constant. i am the rhythm which i can constantly change.
So now what is the melody. Is it the arrangment of the beats. Nothing to do with speed, but everything to do with which note follows which note. Has anybody else noticed that even on dance disks there are sometimes a pause , stopping of the beats on which we dance through picking up the beat on the other side of the pause. Heaven help those who don't or can't count.

Not sure what you mean by "pause". Do you mean that there is a pause in the melody line (as maybe the singer stops for a short time) but the beats continue.? Or a genuine pause, where the music maybe slows right down to a stop and there aren't even any beats?
I've never heard a piece with such a complete pause (or even a significant slowing down) played for a serious competition.

It would be the antithesis of "strict tempo" for the music not to maintain its basic pulse, but quite frequently, a particular piece may have breaks in the melody line, where the beat carries on, and so does the dancing.

I have on CD in my own small collection which breaks the normal rule, and has a short pause, for musical effect, which interrupts the underlying pulse. As long as I remember it's coming, I can make something of it, but if it came in the middle of a double reverse spin, I'd be in trouble.

Such music is not really suitable for dancing, surely. By the same token, I wouldn't choose to listen to dance music, just as music: there is too much lost in the maintenance of strict tempo, compared with the best interpretations on purely musical terms, and our dance music is musically compromised, butit suits our purposes, by and large.

"Has anybody else noticed that even on dance disks there are sometimes a pause , stopping of the beats on which we dance through picking up the beat on the other side of the pause. Heaven help those who don't or can't count."

Moving through the dropouts is not a function of counting, but a function of continuing to move your body with the same feeling you were moving it before.

Counting - translating the beats in an abtract mathematically/verbal expression - has some value as a tool, but it is by no means essentially to dancing, or in the end even part of dancing. Instead, it's a possible part of learning to dance - but not part of the dancing itself, unless you let yourself become addicted to it.

Phil. if you have the Best of Ballroom 12. Amore E Musica track 2 you will see what i mean. I love the music, and the singer, and have no problem with the two bars that are missing.But then i am very aware of the music and the beats. I would hope a music presenter at a competition would listen to his music first.
To continue. With todays technoligy it would be possible to take the orchestral beats out of a disk. My point being, those who do not count and say that counting is not neccesary are stupid, and would probably be happy dancing to a disk with no beats.
I am still stuck on the word Melody. If it was taken out of a disk what would we be left with. Is it just the beats, or a meaningless jumble of sound.