HEALTHternatives

Strictly Ballroom
By Kiki Tan
PUBLISHED: APRIL 2009

Ballroom Dancing

"I started (ballroom) dancing only because my doctor told me I have high cholesterol, and I needed to exercise,” Ma. Emilia Z. Silva, vice president of Alsco Development Corp., a real estate company with offices in Makati City and Sta. Rosa, Laguna, recalls with laughter. She, like many in her situation, headed to the nearest gym, the usual venue approached by those wanting to lose weight. “But just after a month (of regularly visiting the gym), I got bored. A friend told me, ‘Why don’t you do dancing?’ So I did.”

The rest, as the cliché goes, is history – not only did Silva “maintain my cholesterol level,” even losing weight to be a size smaller than she was when she started, but her love for ballroom dancing eventually paved the way for the establishment of Studio 116, a ballroom dance studio that “aims to popularize ballroom dancing, not only as a competitive sport, but also as an alternative (activity) to keep yourself healthy while having fun.”

EVOLVING DANCE

While ballroom dancing has been an indispensable part of gatherings of the elite in the olden days, the early concept of dancesport – generally defined by the Dancesport Council of the Philippines as “the pairing of male and female dancers using the required technique, together with floorcraft and artistic interpretation to produce a highly disciplined dance performance” – started in 1907 in Nice, where choreographer Camille de Rhynal saw the business sense in making use of dance to attract and earn from its followers.

MAKING A GOOD
BALLROOM DANCER

Shop around to find the best studio. “Not all studios are (ergonomic),” says Studio 116 owner Ma. Emilia Z. Silva, who recalls having painful knees because of the shock her joints experienced every time she danced in her old studio. So she had her studio’s dance floor fixed, putting “some kind of foam under the wooden slats to cushion the dancers’ contact with the floor board. While seemingly trivial, it makes the dancing a fun – and safe – experience.”
Get a good teacher. “Ballroom dancing is not difficult to enter into even by people without dancing background,” says Leo Linga, Studio 116 dance instructor. “It depends on the teacher – like me, for example, my background in dancing has taught me the right techniques, the right approaches when dancing. I teach that to the students. Ang problema is kung ang teacher walang alam (The problem is if the teacher doesn’t know anything), then the student will not know anything, too.”
Talent is not everything. Ednah Ledesma, the Blackpool Senior Latin Champion 2005, was exposed to dancing at a young age (eight years old), but she is the first to admit that “while having the talent helps, just about anybody can enjoy ballroom dancing.”
Develop timing. “Kung meron ka na niyan, puwede kang i-develop by training (If you have the timing, you can be developed by training),” Linga says. “Fortunately, you (can) acquire (timing).” The secret, he adds, is in practicing. “You have to get into the character of the dance – para mainindihan mo, gawin nang gawin mo (for you to understand the dance, do it frequently).”
Have the patience to practice. Says Linga: “Kung kulang ang practice, hindi mo makukuha ‘yan (If you don’t practice, you won’t do it properly). Iba ang alam sa kayang gawin (Knowing the dance steps is different from knowing how to perform them). You can say alam mo (you know), but can you do it?”

While the early competitions could not be compared to the sport as it is now, the initial efforts led to the identification of dances to include in the competitions, and standardized the dance movements.

By 1921, dancesport already had different categories (professionals, amateurs, and mix couples), with the dances generally grouped into Standard, Latin, and Formation dances. The Standard dances include Waltz (based on the American Bostonwals), Tango (from Brazil), Viennese Waltz (from the South German Alps area), Slow Foxtrot (popular 1940’s bar dance), and Quickstep (derived from foxtrot, only slower). Latin dances include the Samba (originally African, but popularized by carnival parties in Brazil), Cha Cha Cha (developed from the Mambo), Rumba (defined as a new type of foxtrot with additional hip actions), Paso Doble (the only Latin dance not coming from the “Negro” culture, with roots in Spain), and Jive (swing dance influenced by the Rock & Roll, Boogie, and African/American swing). And then there’s the Formation dancing, where couples dance the same steps in synchronized manners.

More people, however, opt to ballroom dance not necessarily to compete, but simply to have fun.

FIRST, THE DRAWBACKS

“(Ballroom dancing) is addicting,” Silva says, “very, very addicting.”

That, alone, isn’t the problem, however.

“Once you get hooked on it, it will cost you a lot,” Silva says.

The ongoing rate for ballroom dancing lessons range from P2,500 to P3,000 for two hours, which, Silva admits, is expensive. This is also why, for Studio 116, Silva wants “others (non-competitive dancers) to come,” so they can make the rates more affordable.”

Group classes, with a module that is good for four one-hour sessions, can only cost P1,600, translating to P400 per session. For those wanting to avail of sessions only (not the whole module), the cost is P500 per session. Private lessons (one student per teacher) are usually charged from P1,000 to P1,500 per hour. The studio is also available for rental for P1,650 per hour.

In truth, the figures are still reasonable, especially when compared to the amount a ballroom dancer has to raise when competing.

According to Studio 116 Latin dances instructor Ednah Ledesma, who is the only Asian to win the Blackpool Senior Latin Champion (in 2005) in the United Kingdom, for every competition she joins, she has to raise $8,000, “which is about half a million pesos. Besides that, there are the costumes that could cost up to $600 each, the shoes that could range from $200 to $400, and a lot of practice time in the studio (for dancesport competitors, workshops range from $120 to $130 per 45 minutes),” she says. “If you really quantify everything, it will be from half a million pesos or more.”

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