Start Here – Making Ballroom Easy

I used to be rhythmically challenged. I used to finish ballroom dance classes more confused than when I started. I used to fear the dance floor. I was a mess.

Yet, my experience, especially among men, is common. I overcame it and wrote a book, Every Man’s Survival Guide to Ballroom Dancing. (Ladies, despite the title, the book will help you too.) What follows is both an intro to the stuff covered in the book as well as a lesson plan, which you can start…now!

While you obviously need a partner to dance, there’s much to do on your own. It’s odd, but it was the time I spent by myself working things out in my head and creating muscle memory—counting sets of 8, counting major phrases, learning musical genres, tapping out rhythm patterns and shadow dancing—that elevated me to a level that I could finally make progress in class and in practice with a partner.

Ideally, what follows is material you should know before your first class. But even if you’ve been taking classes for a while and think you know how to dance, learn this stuff now—it’s the gateway to upper-level dancing.

Depending upon your natural ability (or, in my case, the lack of ability), you’ll need to practice for weeks, months or years, which you can do anytime and anywhere you hear music. I was good at this stuff after about six months but it was closer to two years before it became second nature and I could stop thinking about it. And away we go:

1) Learn to hear the beat of music.

This seems like a no-brainer but many people don’t hear the beat as well as they think (if at all). By listening for the “sets of 8” and the downbeat and upbeat, you can take your connection to the beat from intellectual (read: superficial, in your head) to intuitive (read: visceral, in your body):

• Ballroom dance classes won’t teach you how to count the sets of 8, and sets of 8 are the salvation for anyone who is rhythmically challenged, so I’ve put that chapter on the web for free. Cancel your trainer and let the dog go hungry, head directly to Chapter 2, “Counting Music: Finding the Sets of 8.” Then click on the Freebie Video tab for the free video clips that go with the book; scroll down to “Page 35 – Counting Sets of 8” and check out the two video clips for this chapter. I’ll get more videos up eventually, but this is it for now.
• The downbeat and upbeat structure in music is like an autopilot that’ll keep you on the beat. First, on the Freebie Video page, scroll down and check out the video clip, “Page 41 – Hear the Downbeat and Upbeat.” Then, if you give me your email address, I’ll give you that chapter from the book for free, Chapter 3, “Downbeat and Upbeat,” plus you’ll get new blog posts by email. Sign up in the box in the column to the right. (Chapter 3 will be pasted into the confirmation email you get back. Note: if you don’t want to receive my blog posts, don’t click on the link in the email, which activates the subscription. Also, I hate junk email so I ain’t gonna spam you or give your email to anyone. Period.)
• Go to the category page for “Hear the Beat,” which lists, on the bottom half of the page, all the blog posts I’ve done on the subject.

2) Understand the importance of weight changes.

The sequence of weight changes is the most important element to know when learning a new dance step. I don’t have much content posted on “rhythm” (that is, rhythm in dance, as opposed to rhythm in music), so here are the definitions of the terms I use in Chapter 4, “Rhythm Patterns,” which will get you going:

Note: In dance, the word “step” is synonymous with “weight change,” and a step can be done in place

verbal call – the language used to call a pattern as you dance; some common words used in verbal calls are STEP, HOLD, QUICK and SLOW; verbal calls can vary from teacher to teacher and the same pattern can have different verbal calls; for example, both of these verbal calls are for the common six-beat foxtrot pattern: STEP STEP—STEP HOLD—STEP HOLD and QUICK QUICK—SLOW—SLOW (a word in all caps is a verbal call; double-hyphens separate two beats of music); some language used in verbal calls can be confusing, for example, QUICKs and SLOWs (more below)

dance rhythm – always two beats of music (except waltz, which is three beats), it’s the number of weight changes in two beats of music; for example, single rhythm, double rhythm, triple rhythm, which are the basic dance rhythms

single rhythm – one weight change in two beats of music; common verbal calls are STEP TOUCH and STEP HOLD (another common call is SLOW, but note that SLOW does not account for the second beat of music, which has no weight change, and that might cause a problem in keeping track of the beat); looking at just the first two beats of music, the pattern count would be: 1 hold–2

double rhythm – two weight changes in two beats of music; a common verbal call is STEP STEP (another common call is QUICK QUICK; note that some people misuse QUICKs, see triple rhythm for more on that); looking at just the first two beats of music, the pattern count would be: 1 2

triple rhythm – three weight changes in two beats of music; common verbal calls are STEP-THREE-TIMES and TRI-PLE-STEP (some people call a triple QUICK-QUICK-QUICK or QUICK-QUICK-SLOW—please don’t do that, let’s reserve QUICKs and SLOWs for use in single and double rhythms); looking at just the first two beats of music, the pattern count would be: 1&2

rhythm pattern – a combination of two or more dance rhythms; for example, salsa and rumba, which share the same eight-beat rhythm pattern, is double—single—double—single

step pattern – a combination of the rhythm pattern and the direction

direction – direction of movement, which includes foot positions (feet together, feet shoulder width apart, and so on)

counting step patterns – identifying the sequence of weight changes in a step pattern by counting only the beats that have weight changes (including weight changes between the beats, like the “& count”)

pattern count – counting a step pattern creates the pattern count, which is done by counting weight changes on the beat, not by counting total weight changes; also casually referred to as “the count” for short; for example, the count for East Coast swing and West Coast swing is, 1 2—3&4—5&6 (some count swing by counting weight changes like this, 1 2—123—123, which disregards the structure of the music and makes it hard to learn the beat)

Now…the revelation that crystallized my understanding of dance and made learning any new step pattern a cakewalk…you may have to meditate on this…take a deep breathe, exhale…here goes…The secret to understanding dance is this: Almost every basic step pattern of a dance is some combination of single, double and triple rhythm.

Tip: When you learn a new step pattern, first try to identify the rhythm pattern as this will help you to remember the move and to learn it. (Note: There are over 25 different dance rhythms; single, double and triple rhythm are just the basics, the ones to learn first.)

Alert: Let me clear something up because it isn’t always clear: Counting music and counting step patterns are not the same. Counting music is what you learned in Step 1 above—it’s counting sets of 8. So when teachers count you in to start, say, a swing dance, and they count, “and a five, six, seven, eight…[you start dancing]…one, two, three-and-four, five-and-six,” they just dealt you a switcharoo: they went from counting music to counting a step pattern. When I figured that out I did one of those comedic Louis-Black-head-shakes, which he does when he hears something that blows his mind. I urge you to learn the correct way to count step patterns (Chapter 6, “Counting Step Patterns”).

3) Burn the most common rhythm patterns into your brain.

You can practice rhythm patterns by “marking” them, which is doing weight changes while standing in place. (I got creative when marking rhythms, see Chapter 5, “Marking Rhythms.”) Click on the Freebie Video tab and scroll down to “Page 64 – Marking Single Rhythm” to see how to mark single rhythm. It’s set up as an eight-beat rhythm pattern that repeats single rhythm, which looks like this: single—single—single—single (verbal call: STEP HOLD—STEP HOLD—STEP HOLD—STEP HOLD).

Behold, ‘O Humble Rugcutter: Much of what is taught today is complicated. For folks who just want to learn partner dancing to casually make their way through a variety of social dance situations, here’s an easy ballroom step that will give you the most mileage: The most versatile rhythm pattern is the double—single—double—single (verbal call: STEP STEP—STEP HOLD–STEP STEP—STEP HOLD). This eight-beat pattern fits the broadest range of musical genres and the broadest range of tempos. It’s the best rhythm pattern to use for a survival dance. I demonstrate it in the basic side step, which is a drop-dead easy step pattern and, for a beginner, a good foundation for a survival dance. Click on the Freebie Video tab and scroll down to “Page 103 – The Side Step” to see the leader’s part for marking the floor pattern of a basic side step. Followers, do the mirror opposite (a good verbal call for both leader and follower: SIDE TOGETHER—SIDE TOUCH—SIDE TOGEHER—SIDE TOUCH, no weight change on the TOUCH). (More on survival dancing in Chapter 13, “Survival Dancing.”)

Remember: As mentioned above, the other neat thing about double—single—double—single is that it’s the rhythm pattern for the basic step pattern for both salsa and rumba. Yeah, yeah, some teachers rearrange the rhythms and teach rumba single—double—single—double. Don’t freak out, they’re essentially the same dance (I explain this in the box titled, “Rhythm Patterns for Common Social Dances,” in Chapter 4.)

To repeat: Whenever you learn a new step pattern in class, figure out the rhythm pattern immediately. When you get home that evening, mark it, over and over, which starts the process of baking it into your muscle and bones. Repeat in perpetuity until you can do it without thinking. As you work on marking the rhythm pattern, you can add direction of movement (where to step) to create the floor pattern. Then, when you get to class or a social dance, you’ll be free of those distractions and can focus on more tactical issues like adjusting to your partner, the lead and follow, what move to do next and, if you’re like me, keeping your cool.

Tip for the timid: Afraid to take a dance class? Find out the rhythm pattern of the first couple of step patterns that will be taught. Burn those rhythm patterns into your brain before the first class.

What about the waltz?

Real quick…waltz is the exception to all the rules. A dance rhythm in waltz is three beats of music, which is structured: downbeat upbeat upbeat (and the feeling as you dance should be: down up up). In waltz music, two three-beat measures are naturally paired to create a set of 6 (versus a set of 8, which is the structure of all other dance music).

What next?

You need time on the dance floor. This can be lessons, practice and social dancing. It also includes shadow dancing, dancing by yourself (more on shadow dancing in Chapters 5 and 13). I recommend you take classes, which is also an easy way to find dance partners. And I suggest that you keep your expectations low—outside of social contact, there may not be a lot of instant gratification. Plan to do more than just one six-week series of lessons. Think about sticking with lessons for a year or two if you want to get comfortable on the dance floor.

Everything you should have learned in dance class, but didn’t

There are many elements that must come together to make a good dancer. There’s so much more to it than just learning an encyclopedia of step patterns. I cover many of these things in my book, stuff like lead and follow, ballroom posture and frame, movement and timing, ballroom technique, improvising choreography, partnering and etiquette. I also give you a dose of the psychology and strategy I use for approaching a social dance floor, which was learned the hard way—through frustration and embarrassment.

One more thing. There are two more free chapters posted, “Slow Dancing” and “Surviving the Wedding Dance,” but you’ll need to click on the Table of Contents for the links.

Copyright © 2011  James Joseph. All rights reserved.