West Coast Swing dance teacher Dancin’ David teaches you how to dance the tuck turn to hamerlock and outside turn. Special thanks to Rachel for helping me demonstrate.
We have west coast swing lessons and dances every other Tuesday near Albany, NY in Watervliet.
World class ballroom dance teachers and performers dance a Jive at Danceland in Latham, NY. Pasha and Daniella visit monthly from their studio in NYC to give Albany area residents high quality ballroom dance lessons.
They teach in New York City and travel the world competing in ballroom dancing.
This TED video by Esther Perel really helps us understand why partner dancing can be so valuable to your love life.
I’m sure you will enjoy the whole video, here are some of the highlights.
1. We adore each other from a few inches away, not as much when we are touching tightly as in sex.
2. We desire each other when we see the other person enjoying themselves and mastering what they are doing.
3. We desire each other when we are away from each other, this happens when you change partners while social dancing.
4. We desire each other when we experience other people, also when you are partner dancing.
5. The monogamous male female relationship has evolved to require a lot of our partners, dancing can help simplify these roles and provide many of them in one experience: safety and adventure, caring and creativity, touch and distance, alone time and community time.
I really feel more and more that social partner dancing is really valuable to a healthy culture. What do you think? Feel free to leave your comments below.
Here are some great photos of my Rumba dance partner Liz and I. These are part of a competitive ballroom dance routine that we do to West Side Story music. You can see our videos of the dance performance here. Thanks to Tom for taking these great photos.
West Side Story is a famous dance musical set in the big city. It is only proper that we travelled from our small city of Albany to New York City to compete and share our joy with more people.
Thanks to so many people are becoming good friends through this ballroom dancing team. We had a great time traveling, eating and competing together. You can see photos from our trip at this recent ballroom dance blog post.
In the ballroom dance video above I am on the Latin dance team. We dance the Jive, Mambo and International Rumba.
International style ballroom dancing is new for me. Two of the main differences are that the first movement of each pattern is on beat 2 of the music instead of beat 1 and your legs are straight instead of bent as you move your weight onto them.
Thanks again for visiting my ballroom dancing blog.
Dancin’ David
Set fire to the rain by Adele is a great song for many styles of social partner dancing.
In this week’s social ballroom dance video Dawn and I dance West Coast Swing, Cha Cha, Argentine Tango and Rumba.
You will probably hear this song at the next wedding or gala you attend and now you can learn how to dance to it.
Our ballroom dance formation team of 16 people from Albany traveled to the NYC dance festival this past weekend. I took several videos and photos to share with you.
Here is a video from just outside of the competition ballroom. You can get a sense of the excitement and ballroom dance vendors.
Next I chat with Paul and Louise our ballroom dance team choreographers and teachers. Paul and Louise are the best dancers in their age group in the United States and super awesome people to be around.
We are always open to new folks joining our team. Feel free to contact Louise if this looks like fun to you.
Dawn and I had a great time dancing to three live swing bands at the Dance Flurry this past weekend. We love seeing our swing dance friends from around the Northeast here in our home town.
If you are interested in a dance weekend full of new surprises and experiences you must attend the Dance Flurry.
It’s live music all weekend even during the hundreds of dance lessons. Dancers love it, musicians love it and it keep the traditions of many historical dances alive for new generations to enjoy!
Dawn and I dance Merengue, Cha Cha, Hustle and West Coast Swing to Don’t Stop the Party by Pitbull. You can dance like this by visiting our website and checking out our videos on how to ballroom dance.
In this video we dance a Merengue, 4 count Hustle because the song is pretty fast for 3 count Hustle at 127 beats per minute, Cha Cha and West Coast Swing. We start with simple dance patterns and get more advanced.
This is social partner dancing not professional show or competition dancing. We are dancing lead and follow which means she does not know the steps I am going to lead until I lead them. This the style of dancing that is mostly enjoyed by millions of Americans. Very few people do competition ballroom dancing.
There are many ballroom dances around Albany, NY every week. Most of the time there is a lesson before the dance.
These are usually drop-in lessons meaning that you pay for a single lesson and don’t have to sign up for or attend a whole series of lessons.
One of the benefits of going to these lessons is that you get to meet more people. In the dance studio lessons you are with a smaller group of people more frequently. Dance studio lessons are great for getting to know people and of course improving your ballroom dancing.
In today’s episode of Want Romance Learn To Dance I take you on tour to the monthly SOS Ballroom dance at the Polish Community Center in Albany, NY. About 45 people are learning some rumba dance steps from Eileen Spadaro a local ballroom dance teacher from Schenectady.
Enjoy!
Dancin’ David
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