Ballroom Dance: a sport or an art?

Balanchine.

dance as a sport?
What are the athletic and artistic

aspects of ballroom dance?
How does its history help to answer these questions?

ABOUT MY PROJECT

Aims
Answer raised questions.
Learn the history of ballroom dancing and its becoming a dancesport.
Spread the knowledge of ballroom dance.

are danced in special shoes on special flooring and has

two main features which separate them from other dances:

All ballroom dances are danced in couples, which consist of a man and a woman.
Couples dance in physical contact.

that will never do any harm to the world.
©

Voltaire

was social dancing for the privileged, leaving folk dancing for

the lower classes. However, it should be noted even in times long gone, many ballroom dances were really elevated folk dances.
At that time ballroom dance was just leisure, one of the ways to spend spare time, something which is now considered to be social dancing. It was also an art, exhibition dancing, like, for example, ballet.

were unofficial and not very strict, because there weren’t specific

criteria how to evaluate dancers. That’s why in England in 1924 Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (ISTD) started to create standards in music, steps and technique of dancing.

ballroom dance competition of international significance, held in May in

the Empress Ballroom at the Winter Gardens, Blackpool, England since 1920. It is also the largest ballroom competition: in 2003, 1539 couples from 54 countries took part in the festival.

BLACKPOOL

a word.

©Mata Hari

action
Led and follow
Floor craft
Presentation (emotions)
Couple’s style (costumes, behavior on the

floor etc.)

WHAT ARE COMPETITIONS LIKE?

also the leap of an Olympic hurdler,
the balance of a

tight-rope walker
and panther-like strength and agility.
© Camilla Jessel

exhibition dancing. The name was invented to help competitive ballroom

dancing gain Olympic recognition.
On September 5, 1997 the International DanceSport Federation (IDSF) was recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the sole representative body for dancesport.

THE BIRTH OF DANCESPORT

dance demands from dancers qualities which are demanded in real

sports:

sport? Because it demands from dancers qualities, which are demanded

in real sports. But in contrast of other sports, it has special features which allow considering it not only as a sport, but as an art also.

CONCLUSION

Dancers are athletes of God.
©Albert Einstein

in time;
painting and architecture in space.
But the dance lives at

once in time and space.
© Curt Sachs

of English ballroom dancing (Richardson P.J S. 1948. London)
http://www.idsf.net/
http://www.idsf.net/documents/dancesport_a_sport.pdf
http://www.danceplaza.com/
http://www.blackpooldancefestival.com/history.htm
http://www.dancesport.ru/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballroom_dance

Quotes:

http://www.dance-quotes.net/

Photos used in presentation:
http://www.gsn.com.pl