New PureDWTS Segment: Ask Courtney
This is a feature I’ve contemplated doing for awhile, and I think now might be the right time, with one season over and the rumor mill not quite started up on the next. For those of you that don’t know, I actually do have quite a bit of ballroom knowledge, as I’ve been dancing for about 9 years now and my boyfriend is actually a ballroom dance teacher. Because of that, I’m probably better able to answer some of the more “technical” dance questions than the average viewer, and many of you have seen me get a bit more in-depth in analyzing the dances, in terms of technique and what have you.
I’ve noticed that many of you seem to be getting more curious about the actual ballroom world, as well as how the rules of the actual ballroom world apply to DWTS (or, rather, how TPTB seem to TRY to apply them ;-)). So this is the place where you can finally get answers to those burning questions about ballroom technique, certain rules, dance steps, etc. – I will do my best to give you guys thorough, relevant responses, and if there’s something I don’t know the answer to, I will defer to my boyfriend, who is a true expert on the subject 🙂 So if you are curious about a certain ballroom subject, feel free to post your questions in the comment section of this post, or tweet them to me @putuincespence, or you can email them to John and he can send ’em my way. Try to keep them fairly objective – things like “Why do ladies have to wear heels in ballroom?” or “What makes the jive so hard?”, rather than “Why does Derek stink at choreographing samba?” or “Why does Mark always wear spats?” 😛 I’m not really equipped to handle subjective stuff like that, hehe. I’m going to try to answer a new question each week, at least until things start to pick up with the new season.
So to kick off this inaugural “Ask Courtney” post, I thought I’d tackle a question I’ve seen quite a few of you ask in passing this season: Why can’t you break hold in the quickstep?
For those of you that didn’t know, quickstep is the only dance on DWTS in which the couples cannot break hold in the middle of the dance. To quote Len, they can do “a little bit at the beginning, and a little bit at the end” out of traditional dance hold, but they must remain in-hold for the majority of the dance. Notorious violators of this rule? Mark & Shawn in their Aladdin quickstep, and Nicole & Derek in their sailor quickstep. So why did they get in so much trouble???
The answer to this is a bit silly to me, because it’s one of the few ways that DWTS has attempted to adhere to actual ballroom dance rules – which I often find don’t really translate well to this show. In “real world” ballroom, there are two styles: International style, which tends to be more strict and is more difficult; and American style, which is a bit more relaxed and open to interpretation. With the ballroom dances, you can either do the International Standard style (in which the couple must remain in-hold the entire time) or the American Smooth style (where the couples are able to go in and out of hold as much as they like). The International Standard dances are waltz, tango, foxtrot, quickstep, and Viennese waltz; the American Smooth dances are waltz, tango, foxtrot, and Viennese waltz. You’ll notice there is no quickstep in the American Smooth style – it is only danced in the international style, thus the couples are forced to adhere to the international style, in which hold cannot be broken. Since there is overlap in the other 4 styles, the DWTS pros can choose to dance either the American or International styles of the waltz, tango, foxtrot, and Viennese waltz – and most choose the American style, since it’s easier and allows for more creative freedom. But even though they’re trying to adhere to “real” ballroom rules by forbidding the breaking of hold in the quickstep, they’re still not being completely true to the rule, since they’re allowing open work at the beginning & end. In a real international standard quickstep (or any other international standard-style dance), the couple would only be allowed to walk a few feet towards each other to get into hold before dancing – any sort of open work at the beginning (i.e. Ricki & Derek’s tap sequence) is a huge no-no. You have to be in-hold before you do ANY dancing in real quickstep.
So what do I suggest? Eliminate the silly “no breaking hold in quickstep” rule – it’s just a pointless vestige of the show’s often feeble attempts to mirror the real world of ballroom. If you’re going to allow open work at the beginning and end of the dance (which I think is a good idea, as it’s more audience-pleasing than just getting straight into hold), you may as well allow it in the middle, just like all the other dances, because most viewers aren’t going to understand the reasoning behind forbidding it, anyway.
So what ballroom questions do you guys have? Lay ’em on me, and I’ll do my best to get you answers 🙂
What about the “no lifts” rule? This seems to be Carrie Ann’s big complaint. I’ve seen her allow them (Mark and Shawn waltz) and then count off on others. (Derek and Nicole Rumba “Lady in Red,” ending when the music had not completely stopped, but could barely hear it.)
Great idea with this post Courtney. 🙂
And I agree: drop the “no breaking hold in quickstep” rule.
It’s stupid to stick to it, when they allow the American Smooth versions for the other four ballroom dances.
For the first few seasons here in Denmark they tried to stick to the international style as much as possible, which led to some quite boring dances. At least they didn’t have the couples do an individual viennese waltz, but had the final 4 or 5 couples do it at the same time. I can just imagine what it would have been like with 4 or 5 international style viennese waltzes in one show. Zzzz…
And the slow foxtrot was pretty much the death of everybody because of the technical difficulty.
I’ve seen both Samba and Salsa referred to as a “party dance,” as well as another which I am not remembering right now…
What is the difference? And how are they similar.
I’ve been watching since season 3, but still don’t know enough about some of different styles to tell what is, without them telling me.
This is probably a silly question, but I’ve wondered for a while, so here goes…. What is a “heel lead”, and other than that Len gripes about them all the time, why should I care? And when is it “correct” to heel lead, and when is it a no-no? Sorry if this seems like a basic question, but as I said, I’ve never been able to figure it out… 😉
BTW – Courtney, this is a GREAT IDEA!!! THANKS for doing this for us! 😀
A question i thought up in week 2-
What is the difference between a lindy hop and a jitterbug? And how can a person without knowledge in the dance field tell the difference?
Lori, salsa is not a ballroom dance and I think that the only real rule is that you have to respect the music count i.e 1 2 3 4 & 5 6 7 8 &. Salsa means sauce because of its many origins. The ballroom dance closer to salsa is mambo but in the show, when salsa is requested it’s generally a mix of mambo/chachacha/samba because the pros are not salsa dancers, so they do their best with what they know.
For samba, I’ll let the experts speak as I’m no ballroom dancer.
Courtney- Why do they include the style American Smooth on Strictly Come Dancing, but not on DWTS? What is it exactly because I’ve read it can apply to many dances but they only call it “American Smooth” on SCD. You’ve sort of touched on this before, but if you were in charge, what would be the order of dances you’d have the celebrities learn so that they can really build on their technique? Who was the most technical celebrity dancer you’ve seen on the show … like is there anyone who could actually have become an amateur ballroom/latin dancer? Or were there a few in your opinion? Who is YOUR favorite choreographer on the show and why? Who teaches the best technique from your opinion? Looking forward to your response! Thanks!
Thank you for the definition of American Smooth. I have been watching Strictly Come Dancing via you tube and they do an American Smooth Waltz which I always wondered why they did it there and not here.
Also do they have different “lift” rules over in the UK version as it seems that lifts are in many of their dances and not just the Argentine Tango. Wondered why we were so strict about it over here.
Katy: I’ve watched some of SCD this season too, and their rules are a bit different. They are allowed 3 lifts in the American Smooth and the Argentine Tango. Otherwise it’s the same as DWTS – no lifts!
In our version here in Denmark “Vild med Dans” they are allowed lifts in all dances – but only in the beginning or at the end of a dance(the only exception being the Argentine Tango, where they are allowed lifts in the entire dance – just like DWTS).
I second Sally’s question re the heel leads? Len’s always going on about them! Great idea for a thread Courtney, thanks!
Sally, you’re not alone. I don’t know what a heel lead is.
I definitely second Elmari’s question about the American Smooth on Strictly Come Dancing. It is just referred to as an “American Smooth,” so what exactly is it? Thanks 🙂
I have no clue what a heel lead is either!!
I talk about this since the Jennie and Derek’s waltz!!!
Len blame him because he was doing the american style!!! (when he did that open walk/promenad walk or whatever – don’t know the name of the step, sorry… =/ )
I NEVER EVER understood the DwtS rules. Where in hell are these rules? In judges heads? Never saw a line typed.
Well, Courtney I really really would love if you could talk about the evolution and the difference of the dance styles, specially in latin.
I have a HUGE problem here with the new DwtS brazilian fans. As I said sometimes on other posts comments, our ballroom samba is very very different from this dancesport ballroom latin samba we see on DwtS and on international competitions.
I have the same problem because when I saw it for the first time (Stacy Keibler, on youtube). I thought that it was like a stylized salsa or something… (after I remembered I saw this on Dance with Me movie…)
Well, my point is: May you tell us a little bit about the differences about the ballroom Samba we do in Brazil (a.k.a. samba de gafieira, gafieira or just “samba”) and the latin samba?
You could talk about the rumba (which I think was more known as a fun cuban music and solo dance), and the tango (after all, the original one is the argentine and the ballroom tango was created after based on that one).
How these terms “samba” and “rumba” and “tango” came from style of dance on his “birth countries” and became a new one on international dancesport world.
and thank you for talk about this =]
Now I’m kind of confused, since you said that the TANGO can be danced in both International Standard and American Smooth styles (where you can break the hold), so why is breaking the hold penalized in the Tango as well as it is in the Quickstep??.. (The best example is Mario Lopez & Karina’s tango back in season 3)
I was unaware of any official rule prohibiting the breaking of hold in tango – however, I think in Mario & Karina’s case, it could be more a matter of the judges simply not liking the choreographic choice to break hold, rather than any sort of technical infraction. A matter of technical vs. artistic assessment – it may have been a well-executed tango, without any sort of rules being broken, but from an artistic standpoint, maybe Len/Carrie Ann/Bruno just didn’t really feel like it “fit” the dance to break hold. A good example I can think of is Bristol & Mark’s tango in season 11 – in that case, the break in hold to due the rock star head roll move felt rather disjointed and out of place, and interrupted the flow of the dance. It wasn’t against the rules, but it also didn’t really enhance the dance. Even if something isn’t necessarily against the rules, the judges can still object to it from a more “artistic” perspective, and cite rather vague reasons – I find Carrie Ann to be the worst culprit of it, as she will often just say “I didn’t really like this” or “I didn’t understand that” about a routine and then won’t elaborate any further. It’s an unfortunate caveat about sports like dancing, skating, and gymnatics – the artistic portion of the judging is highly subjective.
I just have to say, again, I never ever understood DwtS rules.