Just a reminder to all you ballroom dancers, USA Dance, Honolulu Chapter, has been hosting an evening practice session at the Palladium. The Club has a half-ballroom (the stage side) every Tuesday for the month of January. A couple of Tuesday nights for February have also been scheduled. Debra & I have gone every evening, of course, and have been happy to see an increasing number of participants - dancers who just want some floor space to practice.
Some of us, who do competitions or exhibitions, can't help but to try to get some practice in during the regularly scheduled Ballroom Club events on Friday and Saturday evenings because the Palladium offers a large floor, not available in studios. But, because the regular dances are just that - social dances where people come to enjoy their dancing - we need to be mindful of other dancers, observe a certain etiquette, and not interfere with the enjoyment of other dancers. I'm sure that during crowded dance nights, if some of us blast through the floor in a quickstep run or quick sequential chasses, some will find it annoying. We often see couples off on the side, usually near the stage, practicing their groupings without interfering with the dancers on the floor.
Well, USA Dance is providing an opportunity for all of you who just want to practice on a large floor and not worry about annoying others. The format is very simple. USA Dance provides the music - a mix of Standard and Latin tunes. The music is played like background music - clearly audible, but not blaring. You are not compelled to dance the music that is playing. You can practice whatever dance you want during the entire evening, regardless of the music that is playing. So, if you really need to practice a Foxtrot amalgamation, to get it right, you can keep practicing it even through the Latin songs. Likewise, if you have a Latin grouping you want to perfect, it's ok to keep practicing your technique in the middle of the floor, disregarding whatever music might be playing. Then, when your music comes around, you can check your timing and musicality. You can even bring your own music and listen through earbuds or bluetooth headsets. I think you get the idea.
As you can see from the pictures, there is plenty of room for everyone to practice their own thing. And, that's what everyone was doing last night. Perhaps if it starts to get a little "crowded", it would be nice if you remain aware of others practicing on the floor and try to keep open "lanes" so that the standard dancers will be able to move freely down a lane without worrying about running into another couple. Perhaps if you imagine the floor as in this diagram and keep the latin and small standard grouping practice to the outside and middle sections of the floor and try to keep the shaded area "relatively" unobstructed so the standard dancers can practice their long groupings.Of course, there are no "rules". If you find a disagreement with your partner and you end up "discussing" it in the shaded area, hey that happens. Or, if you're doing a Samba and it starts in the middle of the floor and it travels, and you hit a line in the shaded area - no problem. Standard dancers need to practice their floorcraft too. Likewise, standard dancers have groupings and line figures that they take to the center of the floor, so you might see a throwaway oversway next to chicken walks. But, if we get more and more people come to practice, if we could try to keep this general concept in mind, everyone should be able to get maximum use of their practice time.
Tuesday evening practice time is from around 6:30 to 9:30. It's free for all USA Dance members, including those from the mainland. And, it's only $3 for non-members. You can't go wrong with that. (No refreshments are provided - this is just practice time. Of course, you can bring your own snacks to eat outside.)
Hope to see more of you next Tuesday night.
With Aloha,
Calvin & Debra
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