In most everything we do, it is easy to categorize just about everything into three levels. Just to facilitate the understanding of the entire enchilada. We have small, medium and large. Not difficult. We have tall, short and medium sized. We have skinny, fat and regular. The same thing happens in our dance environment. And we can slice this baloney in many different ways. How about young, old and in the middle. The young have from ages ago distinguished themselves as under 30. They have picked that division and most of us concur. The old used to be over 60 and now it is over 70.
None of us can be anywhere exact on this, it is just a guide. We have structured divisions by the disciplines - Bronze, Silver and Gold, and not many argue with that.What has happened and had been overdue was the separation by styles of dance. And the first ones to make that distinction were the Internationals. In the beginning they merely said it was "correct" according to their style, but in the 90s, the Palladium was completed. The original the qualification was omitted and the implication was clearly there. If you are not dancing it "correctly", then by default you were dancing incorrectly. The term "Junk Dancer" arose and it has been lost now 20 years later.
I had heard of some that had been advised by their teachers to refrain from dancing with those that did not adhere to their methods. "You can pick up some bad habits." We can all live with that, but then the back lash first occurred in the night clubs. They resented the superior attitudes and decided that their way, much less structured, was the only way to dance, without all these requirements to dance competitively. They accepted publicly the American Style of Dance. However, they lumped all those that were not night clubbers in one division, "Ballroom." Then when the internationals seized the name "Ballroom" for themselves, that clinched it for all those that did not consider themselves "International." The Social Dancer Division arose unannounced.
"In order that all people may be taught the truth,
it is necessary that all people should learn it to hear it."
"Social dancers think that it will make her happy to know that you’re glad
to be dancing with her and not wishing you were somewhere else!"
None of us can be anywhere exact on this, it is just a guide. We have structured divisions by the disciplines - Bronze, Silver and Gold, and not many argue with that.What has happened and had been overdue was the separation by styles of dance. And the first ones to make that distinction were the Internationals. In the beginning they merely said it was "correct" according to their style, but in the 90s, the Palladium was completed. The original the qualification was omitted and the implication was clearly there. If you are not dancing it "correctly", then by default you were dancing incorrectly. The term "Junk Dancer" arose and it has been lost now 20 years later.
I had heard of some that had been advised by their teachers to refrain from dancing with those that did not adhere to their methods. "You can pick up some bad habits." We can all live with that, but then the back lash first occurred in the night clubs. They resented the superior attitudes and decided that their way, much less structured, was the only way to dance, without all these requirements to dance competitively. They accepted publicly the American Style of Dance. However, they lumped all those that were not night clubbers in one division, "Ballroom." Then when the internationals seized the name "Ballroom" for themselves, that clinched it for all those that did not consider themselves "International." The Social Dancer Division arose unannounced.
"In order that all people may be taught the truth,
it is necessary that all people should learn it to hear it."
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