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.Thus, the basic of the foxtrot involved (for the man) two forwardwalking steps, executed as two  slows, and two  excuse-me steps to the left,done in quick time.The waltz involved two half boxes, done to three-quartertime.The rumba, also composed of two half boxes, was taught to a slow-quick-quick time.The triple swing involved a rock step and two triple steps.The triple steps were often the hardest to teach because they involved quick,coordinated movement, in time to a fairly fast beat, which not everyonecould do quickly.If a student was having difficulty with a triple step, thenwe were instructed to shift to a  single swing, substituting a simple weightchange for a triple step, thus preventing the peril of frustrating the student.When I attended a training seminar in Atlanta in October 2000, Iwas struck by the rhetoric employed to discuss the business and art ofteaching ballroom.One of the lecturers gave a long talk on the differencesbetween a university professor (who, in his caricature, disinterestedly wenton and on without audience contact) and a ballroom instructor (who, inhis model, was perfectly attuned to every single need his students hadboth in terms of dance and emotional and psychoanalytic terms).It be-came clear to me that the main distinction (in terms of institutionalarrangements and cultural characterizations) is that whereas universityprofessors have the  leisure of teaching required classes, and society ingeneral values education as a means to a practical end, ballroom instructorshave to cultivate a need for continuing to dance, and ballroom lessons areconsidered a luxury, rather than a necessity to being successful in one schosen professional career.Thus, the burden of proving that ballroom classesare essential and worth their price tags lies squarely upon the ballroominstructor s shoulders.Ballroom lessons within a franchised studio systemeasily cost thousands of dollars per package (though various payment schemesare allowable) and this is not counting the cost of doing competitions,with their five-star hotel accommodations, custom-made costumes, jewelryand shoes, and preparatory coaching lessons.Ballroom is the heady stuff ofdreams and fantasy, but it requires quite a financial lining to continue livingthe dream.If one were to be an effective part of the franchise, one had to learnhow to sell as many lessons as one could, and as effectively as possible.Though I greatly enjoyed the individualized coaching and group dancelessons that came with the seminar, perhaps a crucial factor that made medecide that teaching ballroom within the studio system was not for me wasTHE CONTESTED LANDSCAPE OF BALLROOM DANCE 25another short lecture on how to use touch to establish trust with one sstudents.I suddenly wondered whether my past teachers, with whom Ithought I had established friendships, had thought of me as simply anothernumber in the grand competitive push for earning the maximum numberof lessons.When I discussed this matter with a friend and fellow teacher,Hope Cantrell, she replied candidly that though one could never neglectthe business end of things, friendships, when they blossomed, were oftengenuine.Gaspar Van Der Ree, perhaps one of the gentlest human beingsI have ever met, who was also a business manager at the Tallahassee studio,shrugged resignedly and said,  It is a business.One can never forget that.When I asked ballroom instructors at the Tallahassee studio to reflect onwhat they found as the most rewarding, frustrating, and challenging aspects ofteaching ballroom within the studio system, then-twenty-five-year-old HopeCantrell, one of the veterans who had taught at the studio for three years,replied,  Very rewarding is the sense of camaraderie and belonging.Rather likea church group.Being part of a large franchised studio, like Arthur Murray, alsoaffords us the opportunity to attend workshops and conventions, and havecoaches visit.Frustrating are the rules.Any system has them, yet everyone hasat least one that they don t see a need for. 44I was curious to find out whether teachers would respond differentlyfrom students in reflecting on the implicit gendered, racial, and class dynamicsin ballroom, and was not too surprised to find a more homogenous response.Maurice Smith, a fifty-one-year-old US Coast Guard-licensed captain andthen very new instructor at the studio, replied,  Over the centuries, theroles of men and women have varied, and probably will in the future. 45Regarding race and class, he replied,  Now, race and class seem minimal. 46Tillman Kasper, then a nineteen-year-old but already a senior teacher, sawany racial or class depictions in ballroom as  subjective and no longerrelevant.47 Allison Drake, then a twenty-year-old trainee and part-timebartender, replied,  Honestly, I think it is nice; it is a bit old fashioned butit does work, and men do need one place they can be in charge. 48 Allisonhad an interesting anecdote to share regarding racial presuppositions andparticularly Latin dancing:  My boyfriend is Latin, so his response when Iask him to take lessons with me is:  I don t need to; it is in my blood.  49In slight contrast, Hope Cantrell s reply wavered in between gender neu-trality and a hint of biological and sociological determinism:  The lead/follow issue seems awfully sexist, but it doesn t bother me.Someonehad to lead and in most male/female cases, the female is better equippedto follow.I have only met a few men who could truly learn to follow.Whether it is socialization or something biological, it is something I haveobserved fairly consistently. 5026 FROM BALLROOM TO DANCESPORTJulie Taylor, in Paper Tangos, recalled some of her Argentine tangoclasses in which the  natural gender arrangement was experimentally andtemporarily loosened:We had thought we were close to something new when in a fewclasses the women had been told to lead the men.What wasinteresting was the idea of the exchange of energy.If one dancerfelt moved by the interaction or by the setting or by the musicto launch a movement, she could smoothly take her partner intothe embrace usually reserved for the man, and lead.But oncewe stopped, possibilities closed down.The instructor asked the men fortheir reactions and commented merely that now they would know the malerole better.A bit taken aback, one of the women, who had not beenasked for her opinion, inquired,  And wouldn t this also offer achoreographic possibility? No, the response came back.This hadonly served to enhance the men s lead.51It is possible that this potential fluidity is unique to the Argentinetango, in which there are perhaps two basic patterns [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]