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You’re on a national tour with the theme -- We Should Be Dancing! What’s this about? (Denise) We want to get the “stuffiness” out of dance … so everyone can see how much fun dancing is … and realize what a joyous experience dancing is. (Sam) Dancing is easy … when you know how. The idea that dance is “for the few and the elite” is a myth and a lie. We are here to spread the truth – dancing is easy … dancing is for everyone … dancing is good for life, for living … and for a lifetime! (Denise) Our message is – “Dancing to live … living to dance … is as good as it gets!” We want everyone to get it. As more people get it, the world will be a nicer place. Dance is the perfect sport …a true life-time fitness regimen … the ideal recreational activity … for every boy and girl, for every man and woman … a sport the sexes can enjoy together … while contributing to physical fitness. Dancing is the one contact sport where you can get the recommended daily allowance of 10,000 steps for fitness … and feel like coming back for more … instead of being ready to throw in the towel. We have a national epidemic of obesity and diabetes …to help reverse that situation: “We Should Be Dancing.” (Sam) We are creating the organizational framework … a template … so partner dance can be a part of everyday life … and can be the sport-of-choice for the majority … from the time we learn to walk …until we lay down and die. A relative few play football or hockey or basketball or baseball. Anyone and everyone can dance … without giving up a knee or their front teeth. (Denise) Dancing is easy, when you know how. We’re on a mission to help everyone get that know-how … and to make it easier to learn how. You are chairing the U.S. National Dance Championships coming up in October. How does that fit in with your goals? (Sam) The U.S. National Dance Championships … near Washington DC … will be a fantastic spectator event. It’s the first-ever dance event where spectators are expected … are invited … are encouraged to come. We’ll have three days of non-stop social dancing, workshops and competitions for more than a thousand dancers from across North America and some from Europe. (Denise) Our ultimate goal is to make the U.S. National Dance Championships event the super-bowl of dancing. This year it is also a Town Meeting for the dance community. Leaders from across North America are coming together to share ideas – about how we use the event template we’ve created to make dance available every week in every community for anyone interested … beginner or experienced … – about how we respond to that interest with local workshops where America’s best dance coaches come to your home town so you can learn from the Masters – about how we coordinate the local competitions with the county-wide, with the state and regional events … and finally, with the U.S. National Dance Championships. (Sam) In our dance-world, the organizational pyramid is upside down. Our motto is: “More dancing, less rules.” The dance leadership exists to support the individual man or woman who is interested in dance … to support the social dancer who yearns for someplace other than a smoky bar to enjoy the sport … and to support the dance enthusiast who wants competition that is judged fairly and expertly.
(Denise) Dance events are successful … and dance event leaders look
good … because of the scores of passionate volunteers we get and
the tons of time they donate in support of dance activities. What kind of dance are we talking about? (Sam) Dancing is the “contact sport-of-choice.” Because it is the contact sport that the practically eveyone can participate in … and they can do it all their lives. We’re talking about partner dance …lead-and-follow dancing. There
are thirteen (13) dance styles and rhythms that comprise what we
call (Denise)
Our dance syllabus is dynamic … it’s evolving and changing all the
time … responding to people’s interests. There’s no hip-hop on your list ? (Denise) Not yet … Hip-hop, so far, is a solo dance. If or when it becomes a partner dance … a lead-and-follow dance … we may include it. Finding a partner seems to inhibit many people who would like to try dance. (Denise) Lack of a partner is an excuse … not a good reason … to miss out on dancing. The fact is … a fun part of learning to dance is … there are scores of people just waiting for you … the dancer without a partner … to show up at our dance parties, our workshops, our week-end events. (Sam) Nine out of ten dancers say the same thing – I wish I would have started dancing 10 years ago … 20 years ago …or ”before I was born!” Both singles and couples are welcome at our events … whether local, state or the U.S. Nationals. (Denise) At our workshops we rotate partners throughout the lesson … an extra man or woman, an extra leader or follower … waits only a couple of minutes to be included in the rotation. Everyone participates. Coming as a single is no handicap. (Sam) On the contrary. For the individual just learning to dance … it is an advantage … not a handicap … it is better, not to have a regular partner. Then the details of a personal relationship do not get in the way. Issues that are frequently part of a life-long relationship … or a dating relationship … can inhibit or complicate the role-adaptation that is a key factor in partner dancing … in lead-and-follow dancing. (Denise) That’s why we encourage couples to separate during dance class, to participate in the partner rotation. Couples reluctant to leave their regular partner … for fear of being out of their comfort zone should they make a mistake … or for fear their regular partner might find someone else more interesting on the dance floor … usually do not progress much, nor as rapidly, in learning to dance. (Sam) At our socials, it’s tradition that anyone can ask anyone to dance … girls don’t wait to be asked, girls ask the guys, too. The rule is – if you want to dance, just ask. Growth as a dancer is directly related to the frequency … and the amount … of floor time you get. Practice makes you a better and better dance partner … sometimes even someone’s perfect dance partner. (Denise) Sam is close enough to perfect for me! (Sam) That’s my line … that’s what I always say about you. You’ve hijacked it! (Denise) You’re my leader … just trying to keep up! (Sam) I was about to say …When you are learning dance … ask someone whose skills are ahead of yours. That’s the best, and the fastest, way to “grow” … to nourish … your dance skills. Every one of us started as a beginner … and each of us is indebted to many, many other dancers for being patient with our baby-steps … for giving us tips … for coaching us on the little details that make dance “work” in a partnership … that make dance so much fun. (Denise) There are no judges at our socials … just a whole lot of folks who may notice, in passing, that you are learning to dance … folks who think to themselves … ”that’s where I was yesterday … been there, and survived!” Each of us returns those many favors by helping the next generation of dancers. And, doing so, we add to the pool of partners, spreading the joy of dancesport. We like to think of this whole process as a way to change the world … spreading peace and harmony, better inter-personal understanding and communication, goodwill and joy! … one more dancer at a time. What about line dancing? (Sam) Line dancing is a wonderful way to get started. I suspect a majority of our partner dancers began as line dancers. In line dancing, you can sharpen your sense of rhythm in the music … many of the steps and movements in line dancing translate nicely to partner dancing …and it all contributes to the dancer’s knowledge and self-confidence. (Denise) Learning to dance is like making Baklava (the Greek pastry) which is made of dozens of alternate layers of ingredients. Each layer of Baklava must be created separately, individually, and added one layer at a time. So it is with dance, you learn one movement at a time … and each one you learn is a building block for the next. Practice and floor-time puts each movement into the muscle memory. Soon you are dancing without even thinking about what you are doing. Dancing is easy, when you know how. You’d like to see dance taught in grade school? (Sam) Dance should be a required part of phys-ed in every public and private school … every year … K – through – 12. Unlike most other contact sports, no one gets hurt dancing. Unlike most other contact sports, dancing is a skill good for a lifetime. Dance has no age or generational barrier. Dance has no equipment requirements (except comfortable shoes). (Denise) And, very importantly, dance fosters respect between the genders. That respect cannot be taught … or learned … too soon in life … respect between boys and girls … respect between and among men and women. For success in life, that mutual respect is as important as reading, writing and arithmetic! Perhaps, more so! Yes – Start teaching dance in kindergarten. Our organizational template can help school teachers. How did you end up in dance … instead of banking or politics or horticulture? (Denise)
It’s our destiny … no doubt about it in our minds. (Sam) We haven’t been apart since our first dance together. We soon found that we each had an unrealized passion for dancing. Before long we were spending all our spare time and extra money traveling up and down the East Coast to attend dance events, to get coaching by Master dance teachers. In less than four years we won the World Championship. (Denise) Immediately we became full-time dance instructors. Now we travel cross-country 45 weeks a year to teach dance and also continue a full-time schedule of workshops and private tutoring in Virginia Beach. It’s destiny … we believe it is nothing less than the purpose for our lives … to be together, to be doing this … preaching the gospel of dance. (Sam) We’re following in the Blues Brothers’ footsteps. Remember, in the movie Blues Brothers, how John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd persuaded their band-mates to get together by telling them they were on a “mission from God.” (Denise) That’s us … we’re missionaries for the dance gospel … spreading the word about the good life … the joy and the pleasure … available to anyone and to everyone. Because dancing … every time you do it … is a life-changing experience … putting a smile on your face …melting away stress … opening your soul to “… life in the joy lane.” This is not about religion … but about living. (Sam) Every single dancer that we know who has responded to the dance spirit … every single one discovers that dancing is a joyous way of living. Every one of them goes dancing as often as possible for a re-fill … for a refreshment … of that pure, unadulterated, additive-free pleasure in living. Partner dance is about achieving synchronicity. Accomplishing this athletic togetherness is mentally and spiritually transporting … a joyous experience so transcending …it is singular beyond description. (Denise) Dancing is sometimes referred to as “the three-minute romance.” But that is a trite comparison to the potential of a real dance partnership … like comparing a light-bulb to the sun. Even the dance spectator – perhaps watching Master dancers – can sense there’s something special going on in that partnership. Doing it, accomplishing that one-ness in partnership on the dance floor, is an experience like being on another plane of reality. That experience is available to anyone and everyone. This contact sport is as good as it gets! (Sam) What motivates us is the opportunity to use our God-given talents to facilitate this joy into people’s lives. Dancing connects humans to what, we believe, life is about … living a joyous life … having fun. (Denise)
“Dancing to live … living to dance … is as good as it gets!” If dancing is so great … if dancing is so much fun … how come we don’t hear more about it? Why doesn’t dance get more media attention? (Sam) A big factor is that the sports reporters and sports anchors are all ex-football, ex-basketball, ex-baseball players. They like to cover what they know. And, if any of them might be interested in learning to dance, he or she is probably too busy covering football, basketball, hockey and baseball games to go dancing. And they work nights … when they should be out dancing … having fun! (Denise) That’s one reason we’re campaigning for dance education in schools. If the next generation of sportscasters is experienced in … and enjoys… dancing, then there’s a much better chance that dancesport will be covered like football and hockey. (Sam) The fact is … every week-end of the year … hundreds of thousands of Americans … probably millions of Americans … are out dancing. And many tens of thousands would like to be dancing … if only they knew how … and if only there were more accessible places to be dancing. (Denise) We believe it is significant that ABC-TV’s “Dancing with the Stars” was the number one show on Wednesday nights this summer! Obviously, even non-dancers are watching because in large part, we believe, the dancers are having so much fun and show it in their performance! (Sam) The Ellen Degeneres’ television show, in daytime syndication, features dancing every day … to wild, enthusiastic applause! (Denise) The 2005 documentary film Mad Hot Ballroom is getting a lot of buzz. The movie is about NYC grade school students learning ballroom dance and participating in a city-wide competition … a life-altering experience for them. Recent feature films – with dance as the story line – have been popular, even without car chases, explicit sex, and non-stop explosions. Consider Shall We Dance? with Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez and Strictly Ballroom with relatively unknown actors. (Sam) We think dancing is about to come out from “under the radar” … especially in the media consciousness. We want to help nourish that trend with our U.S. National Dance Championships which will be spectator-friendly … with our campaign for dance education in the schools … with our template to make dance more accessible to everyone in every community across the country. Where can we get more information about your event in October? (Denise)
Start with our website – “ internationaldanceproductions.com
” (Sam)
And come see us at the U.S. National Dance Championships
… What’s on the schedule for the October event? (Sam)
In addition to the competitions there’ll be dance workshops every
day. (Denise) Our “Pros-on-Stage” exhibition on Saturday night will be even more exciting than the “Dancing with the Stars” finale on television. It’s a showcase rivaling any Vegas or Broadway attraction. It is the spectacle of the week-end. The professionals and masters put on a two-hour show that is THE must-see for the week-end event participants. “Pros-on-Stage” is a huge public spectator draw, too. |
