Enriching Lives Through Ballroom, New Vogue and Latin American Dancing
Mayfair Quickstep – The Dance with the most Variance! Mayfair Quickstep is one of the most well-known New Vogue dances as well as one of the most popular dances at DK’s Friday night social. It is a beginner level dance, so it’s not too hard to learn, it’s fun, it’s energetic, and usually gets the […]
Spacial Awareness This is an interesting topic as it affects all dancers differently. Spacial Awareness is knowing where your body is in space in relation to objects and other people. Good spacial awareness is an ability to understand and respond to changes in position from objects in the environment. Do you find yourself unable […]
The Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve Let’s be honest. How many times have you attended a lesson with your dance teacher, learnt lots of great stuff, told yourself you will remember it all and practice hard, only to come back to your lesson the following week remembering NOTHING of what you were taught?! Don’t be embarrassed, we […]
Backleading – What is it? “Stop Backleading!” Can there be a phrase more irritating to a Lady Dancer’s ears? Backleading is a term that gets thrown around a lot in a dance studio, by teachers and partners alike. But what does the term actually mean? Actually, it is exactly as it sounds. Backwards Leading […]
Slow Foxtrot – Running over each other in Luxury Cars There is nothing quite as mesmerising as a beautiful Slow Foxtrot. That smooth, buttery, movement across the floor; an exercise in flow and grace. When danced with proficiency, Slow Foxtrot becomes almost ethereal in its demeanour. Foxtrot is often referred to as the dance […]
Latin – the Party Dances! My favourite Latin analogy is one you may have already heard; the duck swimming on the water. From above, we see only stillness and smoothness. Below the water surface, those little legs are paddling like crazy, working very hard to keep the duck moving! In the Latin dances, we […]
Latin Dances – if all steps are ball-flat, why do we talk about the toe so much? This is a FANTASTIC question that one of my students asked me a couple of weeks ago (thanks Peter!). It is true that most steps taken in Latin dances are ball-flat, not toe-flat as we may think. Paso […]
Sing your Steps – a great way to remember routines A couple of years ago I went to a social dance on the Gold Coast whilst on holiday. The venue wasn’t so much a studio as a hired hall which I believe was procured for fortnightly or monthly social dances. There was a wide range of ages […]
Viennese Waltz – The Dance of Fairy Tales Viennese Waltz, also known as Wiener Walzer or the German Waltz is the oldest of the ballroom dances and is in my opinion, also the most beautiful. Viennese is the type of dance you visualise when you think of Cinderella or Anastasia, a royal ballroom or even […]
Dancing is a Partnership DK Instructor Cassie Tucker looks at how dancing is a partnership and getting around the floor is not entirely the man’s responsibility… Can I learn a dance or become a better dancer by sending my husband to lessons alone? Maybe; if your husband is training to become a dance teacher?!… But […]
Expectations vs Reality: The Lead-Follow Relationship DK Instructor Cassie Tucker looks at how to improve your social dancing by being a better “listener” on the dance floor… Expectations vs Reality: The Lead-Follow Relationship On occasion, I have danced with ladies who are very difficult to dance with. Sometimes it is because they are unbalanced, on […]
Practicing Tango Walks DK Instructor Cassie Tucker looks at how Tango Walks differ in movement to the other dances in the Standard Ballroom family… Practicing Tango Walks Tango is the black sheep of Standard dances as it is the only style in which the feet are picked up off the ground. This means that practicing Tango […]
To Have Two Left Feet DK Instructor Cassie Tucker looks at how people new to dance often lament they have “Two left feet”. Is this true? Is this possible? Let’s delve deeper… To Have Two Left Feet “I can’t dance, I have two left feet,” or more commonly when a new couple arrives at the […]
Subtle Signals: Leading Underarm Turns Today, DK Instructor Cassie Tucker looks at how a gentleman (leader) can indicate to his lady (follower) dance partner when to execute an underarm turn… I am sure on occasion you would have heard your teacher use the phrase “Left hand up in a Stop Sign,” when instructing a Man […]
In today’s instalment, DK Ballroom Instructor Cassie Tucker looks at the origins of one of Standard Ballroom’s newer dances, the Quickstep… A Tale of Two Dances Part 2: Quickstep Quickstep has a very unique history of originally being a march. In the 1850’s Quickstep was a solo dance, common to parades and propaganda […]
In today’s instalment, DK Ballroom Instructor Cassie Tucker looks at the origins of one of Standard Ballroom’s newer (and elegantly smooth) dances, the Foxtrot… Once upon a time in the year 1912, ragtime music was all the rage and a new dancing sensation was emerging in the African America Nightclubs. A fast, fun, free-form […]
DK Instructor Cassie Tucker asks, What makes a dance Progressive? Here is an interesting fact you might not know. The term progressive can mean different things when used in conjunction with dance. For one, it simply means a dance where you keep changing partners; where one partner “progresses” to the next. Dances such […]
DK Instructor Cassie Tucker discusses New Vogue and Sequence Dancing. You would have no doubt heard the term New Vogue mentioned at DK. On occasion, you may also have heard the term “Sequence Dance” used, maybe while searching for routines on the internet, talking with people from different studios or even heard the […]
DK Ballroom Instructor Chris Bruce explains what Follows are in regards to Ballroom dancing (in Standard & Latin). Generally, when we think of follow in dancing we think of “lead and follow”. In ballroom dancing one partner (traditionally, the man) is the leader and the other (traditionally, the lady) is the follower. The […]
What’s the deal with Swivels? Swivels; one of the most common and challenging actions we face while dancing! Swivels make an appearance in so many New Vogue dances (Merrilyn, Gypsy Tap, Evening Three Step, Lucille Waltz, Excelsior Schottische, Carousel, Tango Carnaval, Barclay Blues, Charmaine, La Bomba, Parma Waltz, Tangoette, Tango Terrific, Tracie-Leigh Waltz, Twilight […]
Is there a difference between Ballroom and Latin shoes? I often get asked by beginners if there is a difference between Latin and ballroom shoes. In fact, I remember asking this very question myself when I first started ballroom dancing! The one thing all ballroom and latin shoes have in common is that they […]
The Buddy System – Practice made fun! Finding the motivation to practice alone can be tricky. Like with most things, activities done together are more enjoyable, more rewarding, and much easier to commit to when you know you have someone else relying on you. Finding a buddy to practice with can sometimes be that […]
Fear of Falling (Part 2) I think that everyone at some time has felt anxious about falling on the dance floor; whether it be fear of being injured or fear of embarrassment. Everyone has had at least one “slip” or near miss that has made us wary of falling. This fear can prevent us […]
Fear of Falling I think that everyone at some time has felt anxious about falling on the dance floor; whether it be fear of being injured or fear of embarrassment. Everyone has had at least one “slip” or near miss that has made us wary of falling. This fear can prevent us from dancing […]
To Curtsy or Point? Another question we get a lot from our ladies at DK (especially close to Award Presentation time) is, “How to finish your dance: Curtsy or Point? “. Ballroom Instructor Cassie Tucker gives some simple guidelines to help you choose… Every performance needs a clean finish; an opportunity for you to […]
Why do we dance Cha Cha and Rumba on the “2” count? DK Ballroom Instructor Cassie Tucker tackles the question we have all heard (if not asked ourselves), “Why do we dance Cha Cha and Rumba on the “2” count?” Rumba and Cha Cha are two dances that have been around for a […]
Friday Night Socials At DK, we’re all desperately missing the Friday Night Socials! With any luck we’ll be back in the Studio once more… Until then, Ballroom Instructor Cassie Tucker shares some of her fondest memories… Friday Night Socials: The highlight of the week! I love DK’s Friday night socials. I often notice […]
New Vogue Lock Steps In this instalment, DK Ballroom Instructor Cassie Tucker discusses the Lock Step in New Vogue dances (& how they differ from Standard Ballroom)… Figures in ballroom dancing are generally designed with a particular function in mind: some are designed for travel (Weave), some to change body position (Progressive Link), […]
Take the thinking out of Dancing! DK Ballroom Instructor Cassie Tucker describes why practice is so important… I am oddly fascinated by cases of memory loss. I’m not talking about a weekend bender that resulted in a blackout; I’m talking about chronic cases of long or short-term memory loss where parts of the […]