|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Special Discounts, Dance
News, Videos & more: |
|
|
| |
|
|
Floor
Etiquette |
| |
| Dance
Floor Etiquette for Any Situation |
| by: Shawn Trautman |
| |
| An
essential yet often overlooked aspect of successful social dancing
is floor etiquette. Dancing on a social dance floor is much like
driving. Often new drivers learn in an empty parking lot or some
other controlled environment. They gain confidence in their own
skills and ability to maneuver their car, only to discover the
difficult part of driving once you master the basics is not pointing
your own car in the direction you want to go and hitting the gas;
rather, it is negotiating all of the hazards along the way (otherwise
known as traffic). In the same way, a beginning dancer can be
thrown for a loop after mastering the basic steps for the two-step,
only to discover that negotiating a crowded dance floor in a country
nightclub for an upbeat two-step is much akin to merging into
traffic on the beltway around Boston, Massachusetts—traffic
is bumper to bumper, with everyone going at least fifty-five miles
per hour! The following three rules should significantly improve
your chances for success and enjoyment on the social dance floor. |
| Be
Aware of Your Surroundings |
| On a crowded dance floor your surroundings are always changing. In the interest of preventing collisions and other unhappy events, awareness of the layout of the floor and all obstacles, moving and otherwise, is necessary. This responsibility falls primarily on the leader because he is in charge of selecting the moves, and in dances that move around the circumference of the floor, the leader is usually in the forward-facing position while the follower spends most of her time moving backward around the floor. That being said, it is also important for the follower to be aware of her surroundings. There are some collisions that only the follower can see coming, so if you can see over your partner’s shoulder, followers, pay attention and alert your leader if you see anything! |
| Apologize
or Excuse Yourself |
| If
a collision occurs on the dance floor, always apologize or excuse
yourself, even if the other person ran into you. Think of it this
way—you are either apologizing for running into someone,
or you are apologizing for not seeing the other dancer’s
disastrous course and taking the high road of collision prevention.
Even if you don’t feel that the collision was your fault,
apologize in the interest of a pleasant evening. Engaging another
dancer’s ego in a contest to determine whose fault a collision
really was is rarely in anyone’s best interest. Save any
disparaging remarks for a pillow or other inanimate and non-emotive
object. |
| Know the Correct Placement for Each Dance |
| Collision prevention is even more effective in the battle against spoiled evenings of dance than collision management. The first step of collision prevention is knowledge of the dance and the correct placement of that dance on the dance floor. For instance, to dance the two-step, waltz, or tango successfully, it is vitally important to know that these dances are danced around the circumference of the dance floor with constant movement in the counterclockwise direction. |
| |
|
|
