All three have their place, and all three have advantages.

I assume that everyone here knows the advantages of International Ballroom when it comes to technique. If you want to look really good, or if you want to compete, this is for you.

Round Dancing, on the other hand, allows people to dance figures, (Pretty much the same figures that the top competitors use in their competition.), and routines that they might never master in Ballroom. Dances are Choreographed by some of the best dancers in the country, and shared with everyone, without charge.

Round Dancing is very inexpensive, and they use great music. The routines that last, are very good.

Then we come to Social Dancing. Social dancing is often looked down on, but it is the only dance form where leading and following is absolutely necessary. You must lead if the person you are dancing with is an unknown tallent. You have no idea what the lady knows, or how much she has been taught. If you happen to have a routine, she may never have seen it.

It is necessary to start off with very easy figures, and then experiment until you find out what she can do.

My opinion is that the very best dancers should explore all three.

I think one can benefit from using the best qualities of each dance form.

I wouldn't say Round Dancing is 'very inexpensive.' Just like any sport event if you really want to look good, you have to spend the money.

comedance,

Well, the most advanced level Round dance club I know charges $6 for three hours. 1 1/4 hours of lesson, and 1 1/4 hours of dancing. (Plus a couple of breaks.

The advanced clubs are going entirely International, and they do hundreds of figures. (Many of them not yet rated.)

If a couple wants to do the figures well, they might take private lessons at a good studio. However, if they just want to have fun, they can do that too.

Waltzero,

Someone who social dances, using International figures, fits somewhere between the two. (Depending on how much they stress fun, and how much they stress perfection.

From what I see, everyone will soon be doing International style dancing. However, if you have an, "Artist", or maybe a, "fun loving playboy", inside of you, you might not do it exactlay by their book.

Hi pivotingfool. I guess it would depend on what is being perfected. In my opinion, perfecting technique leads to fun social dancing. :)

And what are these "100s" of fig. that are not regist. ?,, and, what do you mean by not regist. ?...

I have yet to see anything " new" ,as far as a variation is concerned ( usually, "new" is a re hash , and maybe new to you)..


I have in the past ,trained round dance teachers ( in a group situation, at advanced levels )and they were lacking in basic fundamentals,primarily do to the format in which they were attempting to learn ( by the written word only,from a script in many cases ) they are, in essence, doing a form of sequence style which is in its pure form, very demanding, technically .

As to Intern.style being danced everywhere.. it ALREADY is.. and has been for some considerable time..this is the style we ( english ) have used for our social style of dance for many moons ( modified, to a great degree in some cases)... however.. the US style of social is equally established in many countries,( it is by far, the best system ) and is even growing in popularity in many of the English studios , and I was fortunate to be asked to give a brief lecture, to one of my Soc. in the Silver style W and FT, at a national congress ( I teach social Amer. style weekly in my classes ).

I'm not sure I agree with your defining three categories. Where would you classify people who social dance international ballroom? :)

waltzero,

I would say that someone who dances mostly International figures when he dances socially would fit somewhere between the two. Depending on how serious he is about doing his figures exactley as they should be done, and how much he just wants to have fun dancing those figures.

I personally dance mostly a variation of International figures. (I fixed them a little so they would be easier to lead to the average lady dancer who did not know them.)

I consider myself to be a social dancer. While I have the greatest respect for Alex Moore, (And I have learned a great deal from his book.), I do not wish to be lumped in with some of the terrible rude behavior I have seen from some International Dancers.

I do know a few really nice International Dancers. (Funny, they are usually the ones who dance the best.) However, I have seen far too many of them come to a social dance, and run right over the newer dancers. I have heard them make fun of social dancers.

I have often wondered if Alex Moore ever acted like he thought he was better than everyone else. (I doubt it. It is usually the "Want to be's", who act like they think they are wonderful.)

Pivoting fool

PS--- Talking about Alex Moore's book---While I have disagreed with much of what I have seen most International Instructors teach, I must admit that everything I ever studied from Moore's book was right on the money.

In the UK

Terrence, his reference was to "unrated figures" not "regist" figures. Round dancers rate figures on a difficulty scale (1 to 6). The reason he said many are unrated is because round dancers make up steps, whatever they want. Since these are new steps and not standard steps, they may not yet be rated. And yes there are hundreds of steps in round dance. Many of the made-up steps would not work in ballroom since many violate basic rules of dance, but round dance is oriented more toward executing step patterns without the other techniques that normally go with a ballroom step, so this doesn't seem to be a problem for them.

I also disagree with pivotingfools comment that advanced round dance clubs are going strictly International. Round dance uses steps they have picked up from International, American, Country and Western, plus their own made up steps. Even many of the standard International steps (still using the same name) have been modified for round dance purposes.

Guess I mis understood his meaning.. however.. the very last coaching session i did with Round dance teachers, was at a Gold plus level in Intern. style .I was invited to teach them ,for the specific purpose of demonstrating the figures they had recd ( in letter form ) and applying them to their format.