Dancesport – When Dance Classes Get Serious and Competitive

Dancesport is the sports version of ballroom and latin american dancing. There is a strong international scene of dancesport but the sport is particularly strong in Europe and the US. So how do you progress from beginner dancer to dancesport competitor?

Well for me it all started with a few beginner dance classes. Wellington, my home town, has a number of competitive dance studios and I randomly chose one of them – and I was hooked. I have quit several times but the dance addiction keeps drawing me back into dancesport.

Dancesport has two main branches internationally standards (aka ballroom the five dances are waltz, tango, foxtrot, Viennese waltz and quickstep) and latin american (chacha, samba, rumba, paso doble and jve). In Australia and New Zealand we add another sixteen (yes really) New Vogue dances which range from fast waltzes (e.g. Lucille Waltz) to tangos (e.g. La Bomba) to marches (Gypsy Tap).

Competitions are divided by both age (ages range from 6 to 60+) and ability (there are five levels you win through locally). Competitors have the same partner throughout – indeed one of the keys to succeeding in competitive ballroom dance is the ability to find and keep a compatible partner. After all with practices up to five nights a week you spend an awful lot of time together.

The feature that strikes most first-timers at a Dancesport competition is the costumes and the hair an makeup. Dancepsort really believes in the more is more school of fashion. The reason is simple – there may be up to 16 of you on the floor in a heat all trying to attract the judges attention. If they don’t look they won’t even see your beautiful foot work – wearing the wrong colour dress can be as bad as forgetting the routine!

So be warned that innocent dance class can result in a full-blown dancesport addiction.