BALLROOM REVIVAL

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32892, 15 April 1972, Page 7

BALLROOM REVIVAL

(By PATRICIA LEWIS) LONDON. Will the romantic waltz and the vigorous foxtrot be as outmoded as the gavotte by the time our young children take to the dance-floor? They might be. What appears to be a major dance revolution seems set to sweep through the world’s ballrooms, taking with it outmoded dances which belonged to more leisurely generations. “We can no longer live entirely in the past,” John Dilworth, of the International Dance Teachers’ Association, told me. “We’ve got to look ahead, and already several nations are busy doing so. The pace-setters in this are the Germans. They are introducing new dances for a young generation impatient with the samba, and who have probably never heard of the Charleston. “The technique is to take a new fashion, systematise it, and adapt it to ballroom techniques. This is proving very successful.” The latest example from America’s night club circuit is the Shine—called by dance teachers, more technically, “apart-dancing.” In its original form, it involves no contact between partners, who gyrated to a slow-tempo rhythm. “It doesn’t sound particularly promising ballroom material,” John Dillworth agreed. “But members of the

All-German Dance Teachers’ Association got together and worked out some special figuration for the Shine. “It is now respectable ballroom dancing. The number of people wanting to learn it has made the German danceteaching industry into even more of a gold mine. "And plans are being made to bring it to ballrooms throughout northern Europe, notably Scandinavia, where dancing has now some of the keenest fans on the Continent.” Germany has the resources and the market to form a giant dance-teaching industry, because dancing is on the curriculum of most ordinary schools. The All-German Dance Teachers Association is now spreading its activities to the Netherlands and Denmark—countries which are also going in for ballroom dancing in a big way. One teacher in London told me: “Competition dancing is far better organised on the Continent and far better geared to profit-making. “Britain and a number of other countries will have to realise that the dance-teach-ing scene is being transformed, and that they will have to rethink their programmes if they want to stay in business.” The growth of a big national dance organisation in Europe is leading, inevitably, to the squeezing out of many small dance schools which liked to specialise in a small number of couples, and to give individual attention. This development is, naturally enough, worrying Britain where teachers have always held out against what they regard as too much commercialism. As one put it to me: “We believe we are more than simply tradesmen.” But, like it or not. things are certainly changing on the ballroom floor. The foxtrot, to name just one familiar dance, now has a bleak future in the competition field. John Dilworth explains: “The foxtrot was dropped from preliminary ballroom tests, and is becoming a rarity in the gold medal test. In commercial teams, teaching it simply doesn’t pay—it takes too long. And, incidentally. too much space as well. Properly danced with 30 couples, you need a truly enormous ballroom.” A COMPROMISE The way things are going, Britain might eventually find itself the world’s last stronghold of traditional dance teaching. John Dilworth says: “Our teaching techniques were perfected in the 19205, but there’s still a great demand

for them today, particularly among the 30 to 40 agegroup which can’t reconcile itself to new dances like the Shine.” Britain, meanwhile, is still hopeful of a big LatinAmerican revival. There is a notable upsurge in the popularity of the Cha-cha-cha. I was told: “The boom years were the mid 19605. The dance went out of fashion, but suddenly it’s picking up again. “I think a lot of people are finding conventional ballroom dancing too sedate, while the music of the average disco can be too raucous,” said one leading London teacher. RARELY SEEN "Latin American is a reasonable compromise.” But it looks as if traditional ballroom dancing will not give in without a fight. In Britain, where the waltz and foxtrot are still obligatory at every tennis-club dance, more than half the 250,000 enthusiasts who are keen to take examinations in competitive dancing, specialise in conventional ballroom styles. Although white ties and tails are rarely seen now, except on very special occasions, the habit of “going to a dance” dies hard. Could the fact that three out of 10 girls still meet their eventual husband at a dance have something to do with it?