The main differences between ballroom dancing and
typical club social dancing are:
- Both members of the couple are touching most of the time,
usually in a typical dance frame.
- In the couple partnership, the Lead (usually the man)
determines the direction and what steps the couple will take
and the Follow (usually the woman) interprets the Lead's
physical cues to embellish the steps with graceful movements to
give the traveling motion grace and beauty.
- At least half of our dances travel in a counter-clockwise
circle around the room. This is called "line of dance".
When you are traveling, the lead while traveling forward keeps the center of the
circle to his left side and navigates which lane to be in based
on speed and the need to avoid bumping into other dancers.
- Smooth (or Standard) dances such as
waltz, foxtrot, quickstep, tango, and Viennese waltz
are considered traveling dances, where couples
travel along the "line of dance" which is a
counter-clockwise direction around the dance floor.
Consider the dance floor a multi-lane race track with dancers
in the outside lane traveling fast and those who want to travel
slower choosing the the inner lanes.
If you are not moving, please go to the middle or
leave the dance floor to socialize by the dining tables.
It is important (for everyone's safety) that if you are
traveling slowly or not at all that you "get out of traffic"
and move towards the center or off of the dance floor.
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