How much training does a Ballroom Dancer have?
I asked ChatGPT to compare professions based on how much training time one puts in to each and this is what they came up with. That basically checks out with my own experience, although in my case I started much later that 10 years of age. Everyone is on some spectrum of that training matrix for each profession, but it does illustrate how the creative fields like dance and other physically involved jobs don’t really compensate well for the effort put in. It’s sometimes hard for me to justify to myself both why I do this and why I have a business in dance. It’s not that I think I’m doing something shady, but that it’s a thankless endeavor. You can never really compensate the teachers for their labors and the population writ large doesn’t value the expertise of Ballroom Dancers. Frankly, the time spent training for a thing and gaining experience has very little to do with the economic value our society gives to each type of work. Let me know what you think.
Total Training, Practice, and Work Hours by Age 30 for Various Professions
Below we estimate the cumulative hours of training/education, practice, and work experience accumulated up to age 30 for a ballroom dance professional and compare them to several other professions. We consider hours spent in formal training (schooling, certification programs, apprenticeships), ongoing practice or skill development, and actual work experience. The results are summarized in a comparative matrix, followed by a list of sources.
Ballroom Dance Professional (Age 10–30)
Training & Practice: A highly competitive ballroom dancer often starts young and trains intensively. From age 10 through 30, they may practice and take lessons about 15–20 hours per week. Over 20 years, this alone is roughly 15,000–20,000 hours of dance practice. Top competitors frequently log even more; for example, one champion noted spending 3–4 hours a day (≈20+ hours/week) on training. This figure doesn’t yet include time spent in dance competitions, which add significant experience hours (travel, rehearsals, and performances). If a dancer competes regularly (say, ~10 competitions per year, each involving prep and performance over 2-3 days), competition activities could add on the order of a couple hundred hours per year, or a few thousand hours over the teen and young adult years.
Teaching Work: Many professional ballroom dancers begin teaching in their mid-teens. From age 15–20, assume ~10 hours per week teaching beginner students, and from age 20–30 this often increases to 20–40 hours of teaching per week (averaging around 30) as they become full-time dance instructors. At the upper end, professionals juggling competition and studio jobs might teach full-time while still training; one pro recalls teaching 8 hours a day while still doing 4 hours of personal practice daily. Over 10–15 years, teaching contributes roughly 10,000–18,000 hours of work experience (e.g. ~2,600 hours during 15–20 and ~15,000 hours during 20–30 for an average schedule).
Cross-Training: In addition to dance-specific practice, ballroom pros often do supplemental training in Pilates, Gyrokinesis, general fitness, and even study nutrition to enhance their performance and prevent injury. This cross-training might be interspersed throughout the 20 years – for example, averaging perhaps 1–2 hours per week of activities like Pilates or conditioning. Over two decades that could amount to on the order of 1,000–2,000 hours of additional training. (One professional noted doing Pilates at home to maintain core strength when possible.)
Total by 30: Summing these components, a dedicated ballroom dancer by age 30 can accumulate on the order of 30,000–40,000 hours of combined training, practice, competition, and teaching experience. This far exceeds the classic “10,000-hour” expertise benchmark. Even a less extreme scenario (lower end of practice and teaching ranges) would be on the order of ~25,000+ hours. In short, by 30 a ballroom dance pro may have invested a volume of hours comparable to or greater than most other careers – reflecting many years of daily dedication from childhood onward.
Skill-Based Professions (Personal Fitness and Wellness Fields)
Personal Trainer: Many personal trainers begin their careers in their late teens or early 20s, often after obtaining a training certification. Certification courses themselves might involve a few hundred hours of study and practical instruction. The bulk of hours comes from working with clients. Personal trainers typically work 25–40 hours per week on average training clients (not counting their own workouts). Assuming a trainer starts around age 18–22, by age 30 they would have ~8–12 years of experience. At ~30 hours/week of client sessions, that is roughly 12,000–18,000 hours of training sessions delivered by age 30 (plus perhaps a few hundred hours of initial certification and continuing education). This is comparable to many other full-time professions. (Note that trainers also spend additional time on administration, marketing, and planning, but we focus on direct training time here.)
Pilates Instructor: To become a fully certified Pilates instructor, one typically completes a comprehensive training program of around 450 hours covering mat work and apparatus work. This often takes a year or more. Many Pilates instructors have backgrounds in dance or fitness and may start teaching in their early 20s. Teaching Pilates is physically demanding, so instructors often limit their hours to avoid burnout. A full-time Pilates instructor might teach on the order of 20–30 hours of classes or private sessions per week, though some report schedules of up to 30–50 hours weekly in peak times. Assuming an average of ~25 hours/week teaching from, say, age 22 to 30 (8 years), that yields about 10,000 hours of teaching experience, in addition to the ~450 training hours and ongoing personal practice. By age 30, a dedicated Pilates teacher could have on the order of 10,000–12,000 hours total in training and teaching.
Yoga Teacher: Yoga instructors are typically required to complete a 200-hour teacher training (RYT-200) as a foundation, and many pursue an advanced 300-hour course for a total of 500 hours. Many yoga teachers begin teaching in their twenties. Teaching yoga classes, like Pilates, is often a part-time endeavor unless one works at multiple studios. A committed yoga teacher might teach ~5 to 15 classes per week (each class ~1 hour). If someone teaches 10 classes/week on average from age 22 to 30, that’s roughly 4,000 hours of teaching. Adding the training hours (200–500) and time spent on personal practice and workshop trainings, a yoga teacher by age 30 might accumulate on the order of 5,000 or more hours related to their profession. (This number will be higher for those who teach full-time or started earlier, and lower for those teaching as a side job.)
Massage Therapist: Massage therapy requires formal training and licensure in most places. Training programs typically involve 500–1,000 hours of schooling at an approved massage therapy school. Most individuals complete this in about 6 months to 2 years. After licensing (often around age 20–22), a massage therapist’s work hours are limited by the physical toll of the job. Full-time massage therapists generally see fewer clients per week than a standard 40-hour job – commonly about 15–25 massage sessions weekly is considered full-time. In fact, polls show most massage therapists consider 15–20 massages per week to be full-time, with very few doing 30 or more sessions in a week. Assuming an average of ~20 one-hour massages per week, a therapist working from age 22 to 30 would accrue about 8,000 hours of hands-on massage. Including the 500–1000 hours of initial training and some continuing education, a massage therapist by 30 might total roughly 9,000–10,000 hours in training and work. (If they started working around 20 and maintained a higher schedule of ~25 sessions/week, the total could be a few thousand hours higher. Still, physical constraints mean their actual massage hours will typically stay well under 40 hours/week.)
White-Collar Professions (Professional/Office Careers)
Stock Trader (Finance): A stock trader (or similarly, a financial analyst or broker) usually has a bachelor’s degree (4 years of college). A 4-year college education itself involves roughly 1,800 hours of class time (120 credits * ~15 hours each) plus study time. In finance, additional licensing exams may require a few hundred hours of study (e.g. FINRA Series 7, etc.). The work life of a young trader is demanding in terms of hours. While market hours are fixed, traders often work long days around market open/close and research. It’s not uncommon for traders to work 55–65 hours per week in their early careers, especially if they are in investment banking or high-pressure trading roles. For example, a rates or credit trader might be at work from ~6:30am to 5:30pm most days. If a trader begins working at 22 and works to age 30, that’s ~8 years. At ~60 hours/week for ~50 weeks a year, that comes to about 24,000 hours of work experience by age 30. Including the undergraduate education hours (~1,800) and any specialized training, the total experience would be on the order of 25,000+ hours. (Those in less intense roles or who started later will have fewer, whereas Wall Street “workaholic” schedules could push the number higher into the upper 20-thousands by 30.)
Accountant: An accountant typically completes a 4-year bachelor’s degree in accounting (~1,800 class hours), and many also complete a fifth year or master’s to meet the 150-credit requirement for CPA licensure. Studying for the CPA exam itself might add a few hundred hours. Once working (often starting by age 22–23), accountants in many sectors have moderate hours for much of the year with spikes during busy season. On average, accountants in the US work ~40–45 hours per week under normal conditions. Over 8 years (22–30) at ~42 hrs/week, that’s roughly 17,000–18,000 hours of work. However, in public accounting (audit/tax firms), busy season can involve 60–80 hour weeks, which significantly boosts the total hours. Many accountants easily put in an extra few hundred hours each year during peak times. So a public accountant by 30 might have closer to 20,000+ hours of work experience. Adding in the education hours (~2,000) yields roughly 20,000–22,000 hours in total. Those in corporate accounting or less overtime-heavy roles would be toward the lower end of this range, while a Big-4 CPA could be at the higher end due to long hours in their 20s.
Engineer: An engineer’s path often involves a 4-year engineering degree (~1,800 classroom hours; more if labs/projects are counted) and sometimes a master’s degree (optional, ~1–2 more years). Work hours for engineers tend to be closer to a standard schedule, except during project crunch times. On average, engineers work about a 40-hour work week. Many do put in occasional overtime to meet deadlines, but a full-time engineering role typically means ~40–45 hours/week. If an engineer starts working at 22 and works to age 30, that’s 8 years * ~40 hrs/week ≈ 16,000 hours of work experience. With a master’s degree, the individual might have a bit less work experience by 30 (say 6 years work ~12,000 hours, plus ~500 hours of grad coursework). In total, an engineer by age 30 will have roughly 16,000–18,000 hours between formal education and work. (This could be slightly higher if they worked overtime regularly or started work earlier; or slightly lower if they took a longer educational route. But generally, engineers will accumulate a comparable number of hours to other professionals, albeit spread between education and practice.)
Blue-Collar Professions (Skilled Trades and Transport)
Long-Haul Truck Driver: To become a commercial truck driver, one must obtain a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL), which usually involves a short training program (often a few weeks, ~160 hours or more of instruction). After that, most hours come from driving on the job. Truck drivers are subject to strict Hours-of-Service rules. Legally, a long-haul driver may drive up to 11 hours in a day after sufficient off-duty time, and at most 60 hours in 7 days (or 70 hours in 8 days) before a mandated rest reset. In practice, many long-haul drivers drive around 2,000–3,000 miles per week, which equates to roughly 50–60 hours of driving and on-duty time per week. If a driver starts around age 21 (minimum age for interstate trucking) and drives full-time to age 30, that’s ~9 years of work. At an average ~60 on-duty hours/week, they could accumulate on the order of 28,000 hours on duty. Focusing just on driving time (since not all on-duty time is driving), if they drive ~2,000 hours per year, that’s about 18,000 hours of actual driving by age 30. In total, including training and all work duties, a long-haul trucker by 30 could have roughly 18,000–28,000 hours in their profession. (The lower end reflects counting only driving; the upper end counts all working hours including waiting, loading, etc.)
Welder: A professional welder often enters the field through trade school or an apprenticeship. A typical welding apprenticeship lasts about 3–4 years and requires roughly 2,000 hours of hands-on training per year (on-the-job) plus ~144 hours of classroom instruction annually. This comes out to ~6,000–8,000 hours of training/work over ~4 years to become a journeyman welder. If someone starts at 18, they might be a fully qualified welder by 22. From the early 20s to age 30, they have perhaps 8 more years of full-time work. At ~40 hours/week, that’s ~16,000 hours. Therefore, by age 30 a welder could have on the order of 22,000–25,000 hours of combined training and work experience (e.g. ~8k during apprenticeship + ~16k subsequent work). This number can vary: some welders work substantial overtime (in construction or industrial jobs) which could increase the total, while others may not always have steady full-time work. But it’s safe to say a career welder by 30 has tens of thousands of hours of experience in their craft.
Plumber: Plumbers also train through multi-year apprenticeships. Typically it takes 4–5 years and about 8,000 hours of on-the-job training to become a licensed journeyman plumber, along with classroom coursework (often ~150 hours per year in related theory). An individual might start an apprenticeship at 18 and finish by 22–23. By age 30, they would then have an additional ~7–8 years of work as a journeyman. At ~2,000 hours/year, that’s ~14,000–16,000 hours on top of the ~8,000 from training. So a plumber by age 30 could accumulate roughly 22,000–24,000 hours total in training and work. (Much like welding, this can vary with workload and overtime. Union plumbers often have pretty standard hours once journeymen, but may still clock some overtime especially on big projects or emergency calls.)
Electrician: Electricians follow a very similar model to plumbers. A common requirement is about 8,000 hours (4 years) of apprenticeship to become a licensed electrician, plus several hundred hours of classroom instruction on electrical theory, codes, safety, etc. For instance, many states or unions require ~2,000 hours per year of OJT for 4 years. If someone starts at 18, they might be licensed by 22. Then working full-time to age 30 adds ~8 years * ~2,000 hrs = ~16,000 hours. All told, an electrician by 30 would likewise be in the range of 24,000 hours of total experience (roughly 8k training + 16k work). This could be a bit higher if they did a lot of overtime on construction projects, or slightly lower if work was not continuous, but generally it’s on par with the other skilled trades in the low-to-mid twenty-thousands of hours.
Crane Operator: Operating engineers (which include crane operators and heavy equipment operators) typically also train via apprenticeship. A crane operator apprenticeship might last around 3–4 years. For example, one program requires 6,000 hours of on-the-job training (about 3 years full-time) and additional classroom instruction (e.g. ~240 hours/year). Some regions or specific crane specializations might require up to 8,000 hours if including multiple types of equipment. If an individual starts at ~18–20, they could be a journeyman crane operator by early 20s, then work through age 30. With, say, ~7–10 years of work at ~2,000 hours/year, that’s ~14,000–20,000 hours post-training. Including the ~6,000 training hours, by age 30 a crane operator might have roughly 20,000–26,000 hours of experience. (Crane operation can also involve periods of lower activity due to the cyclical nature of construction, but many operators stay employed on various projects and accumulate considerable hours by their late 20s.)
Pilots (Commercial Airline vs. Military-Trained)
Commercial Pilot (Civilian path): Becoming a commercial airline pilot requires intensive training and flight experience. A person who goes through civilian training (e.g. flight school or an aviation university program) will typically earn their private pilot license, instrument rating, and commercial pilot license, then build flight hours to meet the hiring requirements of airlines. In the U.S., airline pilots must log at least 1,500 flight hours before they can be hired by a commercial airline as a First Officer (there are lower thresholds for some exceptions, but 1,500 is the standard). Those 1,500 hours are usually accumulated by one’s early 20s through flight instructing or other small aviation jobs. Flight training itself involves ground school courses and simulator time as well – perhaps several hundred hours of ground instruction in total – but the primary metric is flight hours.
After reaching 1,500 hours and getting an Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) certificate, a pilot might get hired around age 23–25. From that point to age 30, they will accrue additional flight hours through their job. An airline or commercial pilot’s flight hours per year can vary, but FAA regulations cap flying at 1,000 hours per year for airline pilots. Many pilots fly on the order of 700–900 hours per year in their early careers. So if a pilot starts their airline career at 23 with ~1,500 hours, by age 30 (7 years later) they might have added ~5,000–6,000 more flight hours, for a total of around 6,500–7,500 hours of flight time. If someone started flying younger (say 18) and hit 1,500 hours by 21, their total by 30 could be higher, perhaps in the 8,000+ hour range. In addition, consider formal education: many airline pilots also have a bachelor’s degree (some in aviation, some in other fields), which is ~1,800 hours of class, though not all pilots go to college. Including all facets (college, flight training, and flying the line), a commercial pilot by age 30 likely amasses around 7,000–8,000 total hours of training and work, the majority of which are actual flight hours. This is less than some other professions in absolute hours, but keep in mind each hour of flight is highly concentrated, technical experience (and does not count the time spent on pre-flight planning, simulators, etc., which also add to their expertise).
Military-Trained Pilot: Military pilots typically follow a different trajectory. Many military aviators earn a college degree (academy or ROTC or other) – so ~1,800 hours of college like other professions – then go through rigorous military flight training. Undergraduate pilot training in the Air Force or Navy is an intensive year-to-two-year program that includes classroom, simulator, and flight time. By the time a military pilot earns their wings, they might have on the order of 200–300 flight hours from training (for example, a pilot might get ~100+ hours in a primary trainer and another 100+ in advanced training). From that point, they operate in active service. Military pilots generally accumulate fewer flight hours per year than commercial pilots, due to the nature of their missions and maintenance/training cycles. For instance, an Air Force fighter pilot might average only 15–20 flight hours per month when not deployed – roughly 200–240 hours per year in a typical year. Some periods see more (e.g. during deployments or exercises, they might log heavier hours) and some periods (desk assignments or maintenance downtime) far less. Data suggests that in recent years, USAF pilots across all airframes averaged about 10 hours per month in the air, though fighter pilots in some cases were under 7 hours a month in certain years.
So, by age 30, a military pilot who began flying at around 23 (post-college) might have on the order of 1,000–1,500 flight hours if in a fighter or attack aircraft, or potentially a bit more (perhaps 2,000+ hours) if flying transports or other high-utilization aircraft. For example, one F-16 pilot accumulated just over 2,000 hours in 10 years of service. Another pilot mentioned 150–200 hours being a good year for Army helicopter pilots, with up to 300+ in a very busy year. Thus, by age 30, a range of roughly 1,000–2,000 hours of flight time is common for many military pilots. In addition, they have thousands of hours of related training: military aviation includes countless hours of simulator training, ground training, mission planning, and other military duties (leadership, etc.) that aren’t captured in flight hour logs. If those were quantifiable, the total “work hours” a military pilot invests by 30 would be much higher – likely comparable to other full-time professions (i.e. on the order of 15,000–20,000 hours of active duty service time, of which a smaller portion is actual flying). Military pilots may have lower flight hour totals by 30 than their civilian counterparts, but they have a breadth of training experiences and responsibilities in those hours.
Comparative Matrix of Total Estimated Hours (Up to Age 30)
The table above summarizes the approximate total hours of training, practice, and work experience accumulated by age 30 for each profession, based on the estimates above. These figures are rough ranges or averages for a typical individual in each field.
(Hours are rounded estimates. “Training” includes formal education and certification programs; “practice” includes practicing the craft or skill outside of paid work; “work” includes hours spent performing the job or teaching others. Ranges reflect different levels of intensity or experience within the profession by age 30.)
Sources
Dance Teacher Magazine – Haley Hilton interview with Cheyenne Murillo on time commitment for competitive ballroom dancers.
Reddit – firsthand account from professional ballroom dancer describing 24 hrs/week training + 40 hrs/week teaching at career peak.
Zippia Career Guides – average work hours for personal trainers (25–40 hours/week).
Equinox Pilates Teacher Training Curriculum – comprehensive Pilates certification is ~450 hours.
ProfitablePilates.com – survey indicating many Pilates instructors teach ~30–50 hours per week.
MiraCosta College – Yoga Instructor certificate program overview (200-hour Yoga Alliance requirement).
Healthcare Career College – overview of massage therapy school length (500–1000 hours typical training).
FindTouch Massage Blog – Sue Peterson, LMT, on full-time massage therapy workload (15–20 massages/week; few do 25–30).
Sales & Trading Prep (salesandtrading.org) – typical work hours for traders by desk (≈55–65 hours/week).
Memtime.com – analysis of accountant work hours (40–45/week on average; up to 60–80 in busy season).
Zippia Career Answers – typical work hours for engineers (~40 hours/week, with some overtime for deadlines).
U.S. FMCSA Regulations – Hours-of-Service limits for truck drivers (11-hour driving limit per day; 60/70-hour limit per 7/8 days).
WeldingCareerNow.com – info on welding apprenticeships (3–4 years, ~2,000 hours/year OJT + 144 hours classroom).
FieldEdge.com – typical plumber apprenticeship length (4–5 years, ~2,000 hours/year OJT + classes).
Indeed.com (via Zippia) – note on electrician requirements (about 8,000 hours of experience, ~4 years, for general electrician license).
IUOE Local 150 Apprenticeship – crane operator training requires ~6,000 hours OJT (≈3 years) + related classroom hours.
LeopardAviation.com – explanation of FAA “1500-hour rule” for airline pilots (must have 1,500 flight hours for commercial airlines).
Service Academy Forums – discussion citing a USAF F-16 pilot with ~2000 hours in 10 years (illustrating military pilot flight hours).
Air & Space Forces Magazine – data on declining average flight hours for USAF pilots (~10 hours/month in 2021 across all aircraft).
Back to my roots
While I love dancing, art, in general, is what truly captures my interest. I decided to take the plunge and try my hand at NFT’s. I’m a total newb in this arena, but here Is my first effort. You can check it out on Rarible.
“Leia Luck” is the first in a series of “Manekifrenchie” images.
Retirement
The Viennese Waltz of Saturday night’s Ohio Star Ball semi was our final dance as professional competitors. We decided that Ohio would be our final competition, but we wanted to get back to the floor at something close to where we were before injury and the pandemic. Especially in the last year, so many dancers have not been as fortunate as we have, to be able to continue doing what they love and to have an equally committed and talented partner with whom to share the journey.
We will both continue on in the dance world, just not as pro competitors. Michael will focus his efforts on his students, studio, examining, and judging. Viktoriya will continue her career with the Fred Astaire dance company as a trainer and as a business owner in the near future. It has been a special gift for us to be able dance and finish this portion of our careers on our own terms.
Special thanks in our partnership goes to our many teachers, coaches, and mentors. Rufus Dustin who provided his knowledge, guidance, and a steadiness when the crazy started to come out. Marianne Nicole, Gumada! who was always so straightforward and practical. Sasha Perzhu has been there with us from the beginning, but in particular this past year as we tried to get back to the floor. Eddie Simon gave us a sense of ease and Olga Foraponova showed us how much we could push. Michael Chapman deserves a huge thank you for getting us over the hump of just having a tryout.
Dawn Smart has provided unceasing support and beautiful dress after beautiful dress for Vika. We’ve never had to worry that her dress would be ready or that she would look less than amazing. While on the subject of great looks Boyko deserves great praise for always creating a unique look for Vika.
From Vika -
The huge thank you goes to my amazing , irreplaceable FADS NJ regional directors Ilya and Nadia Ifraimov !!! Thank you for taking me under your wing and help me to continue my career with you. I deeply appreciate you and forever will be grateful to gave you in my life. For very short period of time you both became more than just mentors- you became my family. Thank you for your support, guidance, knowledge and encouragement. I am a very lucky girl!!!
And of course I would like to express my gratitude to the best team i possibly could ask for - FADS Montville : Ilya Abdullin fads pro, Anastasia Jerjomina, Viktoriia Iakusheva fads pro and Oleg Iakushev fads pro. Thank you for supporting me guys!!!
We’re not going anywhere, we just won’t be dancing on the pro floor anymore. We look forward to contributing to the dance community in new ways, and continuing our teaching and development of other dancers.
On a personal note I have several acknowledgments that I would like to make for those who have made me the professional competitor I was and who made my dancing possible.
First, to all my students, you have my undying gratitude. You have supported me, cheered on my successes, and joined me in commiserating the disappointments. I always say how you all have so much more interesting lives than I do, and it’s one of the great joys as a professional that I get to learn from all of you too.
Those who remember my early years as a professional may remember a very different sort of dancer. I moved to New York in my early 20s and was quite a bit behind the curve. There were a few people who gave me an opportunity to grow as a teacher and dancer, and who inspired me with their own examples of searching for authenticity in dance. Sandra Cameron, Tony Meredith, and Melanie LaPatin gave me a dance home from which to grow, their knowledge and perspectives on dancing are truly unique. Charlotte Jorgensen took the time to give me a system for Ballroom. Edward Simon deserves the credit and blame for showing what an incredible style Smooth could be and is, and for starting me down that path.
Whenever I see a dancer looking a little odd or ungainly I think back to the generosity those people showed me in my own awkward beginnings. I’ve been fortunate to have many other teachers and mentors over the years and for whatever distance I’ve seen it is as the saying goes: I’ve stood on the shoulders of giants.
My wife, Vanda, has been my greatest support for the past ten years. Every spouse of a dancer has to deal with them being absent whether for their training, travel, or competition. Vanda has been there for me through all of it and she has been a one woman cheering section; you know it when she’s in the ballroom rooting for you. She always had unfailing energy in her support, just as she had in her own dancing. We now move on to the next phase of our careers together; not as competitors, but by bringing up new dancers and bringing dancing back to NYC.
From my earliest days teaching I have valued an educated approach to teaching. Along with developing our studio and continuing to dance Pro/Am for a few more years I will be dedicating my professional energies towards training dancers to be better teachers.
See you all on the dance floor.
Exam Prep Livestreams - General Discussion
I thought I’d put one place for everyone to take a look at all the Exam Prep livestreams I’ve been doing. So here goes…
March 26 Pamela Licht and Izabela Jaworska
March 30 Ron Montez
April 2 Diana McDonald
April 6 Esther Don
April 9 Lori Woods
April 16 Izabela Jaworksa
April 20 Pamela Licht
Line of Dance
I’ve been working on a few explainer videos for some basic dance technique concepts. There will be a quiz.
123 of a Natural
The forward swing - Natural Turn from a stand still
Step 1 - RF forward
Commence by elevating the center and turning the body against the desired direction: e.g. turning left in preparation for a Natural Turn.
Move the body weight forward across the supporting leg and commence to lower.
Allowing the body to begin unwinding in the direction of turn achieve the maximum amount of lowering as split weight is achieved on the count of 1
Continue to turn the torso moving the body weight across and beyond the supporting leg.
Step 2 - LF side
As the body passes the support of the RF, swing the left leg under the body and along the line of swing while allowing the body to continue the rotation to the right.
Achieve center weight on the count of 2
Maintaining the shoulder line along the line of swing, allow the body weight to continue moving towards the LF
Step 3 - RF closes to LF
Maintaining the shoulder line, draw RF towards LF allowing the feet and hips to continue turning towards the final alignment of backing line of dance.
Maintaining the shoulder line, take weight on to RF on the count of 3
Maintaining the shoulder line, commence to lower and allow the weight to move backwards across the RF - this is the beginning of the next step.
Below we have Man’s Feet/Hips/Shoulders, Comparison Feet Positions, Lady’s Feet/Hips/Shoulders, and an overlapped comparison of all.
Not my partner's keeper
This may sound odd but we rarely do the same actions as our partners.
One of the most difficult ideas to convey in partner dancing is that each dancer must control their own bodies and body weight. I think that sounds intuitively obvious and correct. But to show you how little we honor that idea in practice try dancing a Waltz or Rumba box for thirty measures. I'll wait...
How many measures was it before you noticed your partner using their hands to balance on you or the other way around? Unless you are an extremely well trained dancer or extremely unaware it probably wasn't more than eight measures. In fact, doing the same action over and over as in a box (even with turn) is extremely difficult. The body tires out quickly and loses its sensitivity to what it's doing within a very short time. So if you felt a rapid breakdown don't lose sleep over it. That merely means that you are merely mortal. Rather than try to maintain perfection in a repetitive way I think it’s better to continually be involved in actions that allow for individuality.
Let's say we take a Natural turn in Waltz.
I start with the premise that each dancer must have their own line of swing. Each dancer will commence with a forward movement and lower along with a leveling of sway and equalizing of rotation from the previous figure. While complementary, the amounts of each will be different. The actions of the dancers will also be different in that one is starting with a forwards step and the other backwards and the hold is offset. When I stop to list the number of actions that are different and the reasons, they pile up.
Because the joints in the leg work differently forward or backwards we have a few different things happening in the legs between 1 and 2. For the forward moving person their weight will pass in a straighter path over step one and beyond before the leg swing for 2. For the backward moving person the leg and foot will begin to turn along with the body on step 1, but then because the leg swings open to the final alignment on 2 the body doesn’t turn very much into 2 or 3. The rate of turn is different for each person but line of the swing is parallel.
I try not to overly worry that all the pressures and tone in the hold stay exactly the same. I concern myself more with the idea of having a similar musical and special concept of the figure with my partner. Making each part of the movement complementary to one another will be matter of fact if you have a similar concept of the action. Relax your brain and chill, you’ll definitely feel the other person moving.
Converging Lines
In Smooth one of the trickiest things to do is move from one open position to another, or even worse to a closed position. Often this is where there are breakdowns in a couple because one or both dancers break the consistency or fluidity of their movement to achieve a hold
There are a few main issues that crop up in moving between holds. One is the amount of time it takes to get to a desired hold. Often dancers make a poor choice in trying to regain hold too abruptly. Another is the breakdown of one or both dancers’ frames in the transition either by grabbing for the partner or dropping arms and carriage entirely. A third type of issue is the convergence of the lines of swing.
Converging lines of swing sounds fancy enough for me to devote the rest of this discussion to.
The main premise we need to accept is that most figures in Smooth are derived from closed position ballroom technique. That means that the elements of Rise and Fall, Swing, Sway, Leg Action, and Rotation are used in basically the same ways. All figures based on those principles should be danced with a frame that is continuously maintained. Here are a few definitions that will help us speak the same language for the purposes of this discussion.
Swing:
This is release of body weight across one’s supporting leg through two or more steps. We could talk about swinging certain body parts like arms or legs but for now I’m only referring to the movement of one’s center. All of the feet positions we use in the technique describe a path of movement for the body, which is why the leader and follower often have steps that are not mirror images of one another even when dancing the natural opposite.
Frame:
Each person’s frame consists of their spine, shoulders, and arms. Even when we put no thought or effort into managing their organization we have those parts. So it’s not so much a question of whether one has a frame at all times, but what one is doing with it. The spine should be elongated with the potential move through bending or rotation. The shoulders should be at rest, hanging equally through front and back, widening to the sides of the spine. The arms should expand away from body through whatever positions they move.
Let’s use the example of an Open Right Turn danced with a single hand hold (L to R) in which we must close the hold. If we danced the figure exactly as described in a closed hold we would never meet up with our partner. When the proximity expands in a given figure there must be greater contrast in the size of movement with respect to inside and outside of turn: i.e. the outside of turn must move more and the inside of turn should cover less distance because the radius of turn is larger between the two dancers. So even though positions of the feet are roughly the same when danced in closed hold and with a single hand hold the size of each dancers’ swing will be somewhat different. For any given hold the couple should maintain their proximity.
When we desire for the couple to close the hold they’ll need to get their lines of swing to move closer together rather than keeping their swings moving on completely separate paths. Rather than maintaining their lines of swing with the same proximity they would allow their swings (one or both of the partners) to move closer together. For example, if the follower took their first step commenced backing DW then the leader take step 1 between Wall and DW and follow through on that line with slightly less than 1/4 turn between 1 and 2 since some of the turn that would be made in a normal natural turn between 1 and 2 was made before 1. If that technical description is a little too byzantine let’s just say the leader is swinging closer to the point the follower is swinging on step 2.
That’s generally not enough to close all the way up to a closed hold if starting almost at arm’s length in a open position, but it should get the dancers close enough for the leader to put their right hand or wrist on the follower’s body. I would then use the next couple weight changes to further close the proximity.
The technique of allowing the lines of swing to converge is a very smooth and natural way to create harmony in partnering the transitions between holds in American Smooth, but it doesn’t lend itself well to the minute description of a dance chart because we must allow for many shades of degrees in alignment, foot position, and amount of turn. The good news is that the human brain is very good at filling in the blanks quite intuitively once it’s set on the right path. A good ballroom dancer is rather like a bowling ball; they just need to keep rolling on the path they were set.
Oddities 1
One of my coaches recommended that I go through all the figures and write down what bits of technique are peculiar to those figures. So starting with some of the later figures here goes...
Hover Corte
For the Lady she has a brush towards on step 2 as opposed to connecting the brush to the 3rd step as in a Spin Turn or Impetus. She will also have a continue to turn 1/8 on 2. The turn is split as in any outside of turn, but it is done on one weight change rather than over two steps. For the Man this is expressed as a pointing alignment on step 2 and the a multi-part amount of turn on step 2: 3/8 to left between 1 and 2 then body continues to turn on 2
The Man has an oddity on step 3 in that he has a transfer of weight rather than a step. In practice most good dancers would move their foot.
Fallaway Reverse Turn and Slip Pivot
Step 2 Man and Lady back in Fallaway side leading
Step 3 Man and Lady back in Fallaway and CBMP (Lady LF held in CBMP) This step is listed oddly because the Lady has a Pivot but has an alignment not a direction.
Step 4 Man and Lady both dance a reverse pivot which commences to center and ends either DW or LOD.
What Theater Arts Taught Me Part 1
Scale
All learning is a process of self-teachingto some degree. You can understand the instructions behind a certain technique, but to make it useful you need to figure out how much of the thing to do. There are forward steps, and there are Forward steps, and then there are FORWARD STEPS!!! Which one is enough for the situation?
Rotational movement like a Standing Spin in Ballroom can give dancers fits. How do I stay related to my partner? Where are the feet supposed to go? How do I create speed? Where’s my head supposed to be? Those are the most common questions and most good teachers have a few fixes for each. The unfortunate task I have as a teacher writing an article is that my pupil/readers don’t have the benefit of a visual for imitation to see the relationships of all the aspects of a movement. What I can give you is a process to use in learning any type of movement to find when you’ve done enough of a technique.
With lifts, the alignment of one’s own body and that of the relationship to your partner takes on a heightened importance because of the increased weight, momentum, and centrifugal/centripetal forces. In dancing a Three Point lift turning, we have all the same factors of force as in a Standing Spin. If you imagine the man’s center is the center of a circle, the lady’s center is on the outside of the circle, and there is an imaginary line between those two points that is the radius (the man’s arms are not the radius because we aren’t holding the lady’s internal organs). To start the turn, the man rotates and the lady’s body, because they are attached, travels around the circumference of the circle. That is a pretty accurate description of what happens but tells you nothing about how it feels.
As a teacher, even a teacher of one’s self, you need to become adept at designing games to experience how much of a given technique is useful. At some point, possibly as kids and for me on a daily basis, we’ve all taken an object (like a backpack) and spun around letting the force of our turn cause it to pull away from us. This is what’s happening in the lift or in a Standing Spin. The person at the center of the turn is applying centripetal force to the thing or person on the outside by pulling their center away. On the outside you experience velocity that moves tangent to the circumference, meaning you don’t actually feel that you’re moving on the circumference, you feel you’re constantly attempting to escape.
That theoretical understanding will only get you so far - farther than you’d get without it, but not far enough to execute a movement well. Where the lift work can help you develop a feel for figures on the ground is in the consequences. If you don’t find all the right alignments of bodies in a Natural Turn or that Standing Spin the worst thing that will happen is you’ll look bad, pull your partner, and probably get depressed. If you don’t manage to maintain your body properly in a lift, especially one with rotation, you get all of the above and you probably won’t be able to execute the movement without serious strain.
Because the scale of the forces is magnified in a lift it is easier to recognize them proprioceptively while in motion. The forces that pull on your spine to distort back or forward, the forces on your arms causing them to disconnect back, and the forces on your feet are all increased. I found that all of the techniques I had about posture and movement were correct but useless until I found that elusive quality...Enough.
Not everyone is in a position to practice lifts either because of experience, physical condition, or the availability of partners and training, but you still search the accuracy of your movement by applying more force. If your hold is in a weak or tenuous place then it will be very difficult to apply force in a positive way to the partnership. You can apply the same principle to any figure and to the mechanics of your own body. That’s where all the technique that we have comes in. In the case of the manuals that’s already worked out; direction, alignment, placement, CBM, etc. The thing that’s not worked out is how muchis necessary for each unique situation presented by individual dancers in the moment.
Mostly I have been writing from the man’s perspective since this is about my own path of discovery, but the same applies for women (because we’re all in this together). The poise that ladies take and position of their hold are designed to receive these forces efficiently. Those forces are a reality: momentum, centrifugal and centripetal forces, torsion, and torque. That feeling of all those forces balanced to produce the desired figure is like an AM radio station driving cross country; you scan past it in each direction a few times until you find it.
For the most part if you have the ability to go through the motions of a step you probably have enough knowledge. You just have found the right amounts of...Enough.
Continue Turning...
Why do they bother mentioning that we continue to turn?
Let's look at where we can find mention of "continue to turn"
- Natural Spin Turn for Man and Lady on 5
- Outside Spin for Man on 2
- Running Right Turn for Man (5 and 8) and Lady (5)
- Rumba Cross for Man and Lady on 3
Let's remember that this phrase "Continue to Turn" falls under the "Amount of Turn" chart heading. Generally when we talk about "Amount of Turn" we are trying to measure the degree of turn between two foot placements. For instance, in the Waltz Natural Turn we make 1/4 to the R between 1 and 2, and 1/8 the between 2 and 3. When we get to step 4 we say "Commence to Turn" rather than "Continue" because we finished our swing on step 3 and are beginning a new action. So if we use that logic these are places where we are following through on the strong rotational action of the preceding step and not starting something new.
In the case of the Natural Spin Turn and the Running Right Turn on step 5 that "continue to turn" amount of turn follows a pivot or pivoting action. The man's outside spin has a pivot on step 1 so he is following through that turn on the way to another foot placement. In the Rumba Cross we have basically the same elements but the man is not entering the third step backwards and lowers so he won't have a true pivot. In all of these instances that strong rotational step has set up a step in CBMP for the fwd moving person.
There are some other figures that use a similar phrase like the man's step 2 of the Weave from PP in Waltz, but that is a slightly different case (continue to turn L). In this case we have the "Continue to Turn" because of the turn before the figure following into a change of position (PP to closed).
For the Lady's part of the Hover Corte she will continue to turn 1/8 on 2 or over 3-5. The turn is made ON or OVER depending on the timing, but in both cases the body weight is on her right foot. Contrast this with cases where we have slight body turn like the Progressive Chasse or Four Quick Run. There the body turn is used to achieve a new position but there is no extra turn in the feet.
All them toes
There are a bunch of places in the ballroom technique where we step down on a toe or lower on a toe. This always befuddled me in years past. The normal footwork associated with a lowering would be TH on a step we lower or H on step where we are already down and don't have any lowering.
Let's look at some specific cases.
Basic Weave
Here we don't have any lowering through the middle of the figure: it's all toes through the end of the feather finish. We don't have lowering anywhere in 2-5 but any dancer worth their salt has a feeling of flexing their legs. We have to allow for bending and straightening of our knees and flection in our feet and ankles in any weight change, especially if there is sway or rotation. So basically every step will have some measure of bending and straightening of the legs.
Go ahead and try your straight-legged weave, I'll wait...
How was it?
Remember the writers of the technique were aiming to use language very specifically, not to allow for every variation of feeling. While we should have a feeling of compression through the legs and torsion in the body, the Basic Weave doesn't bob up and down in the middle so there is no need to rise and fall even though the heel may lower on 3 for a footwork of TH and a rise of up with NFR.
Bounce Fallaway with Weave Ending
What it is... Rise at the end of 1, up on 2 lower at the end of 2, down rise end of 3, up on 4 lower at the end of 4, down rise end of 5...on with a weave ending. It's the same rise and fall for man and lady. I'm just going to leave the man's footwork there, not because the ladies don't deserve equal time, but because the important information is all contained there and it would be unnecessary exposition to cover it.
Footwork for Man, 1 HT; 2 T; 3 T; 4 T; 5 T; 6 T; 7 T; 8 TH; 9 T
There's a lovely note about how the knees slightly flex and the heels lower towards and may lightly touch on 2 and 4.
the Takeaway
Contrasted with the Basic Weave, we have rise and fall on these toe steps in the Bounce Fallaway because it is a different sort of movement. The slight lilting action over 1-4 is necessary for the "bounce" in the Bounce Fallaway. It's important to remember that the technique as written assumes a certain amount of movement or lack thereof depending on the figure. If you swing with the momentum and power of most competitive dancers today then lowering the heel all the way to the floor on 2 and 4 is not an option. You will most likely go KERPLUNK on the floor. Go ahead and give it a try, I'll wait...
Multiple Alignment Figures
So...you may ask, "Why the heck do we need so many different types of whisk or double reverse spin?"
These figures are there to breakdown two things. First, they give choreographic options to link different types of figures together. Second, they gave the writers of the technique book a way to show the changes in turn, alignment, and body position with slight changes to direction. The list is not exhaustive, but I've listed most of the figures with multiple alignments below.
Waltz
Natural Spin Turn
7/8R over 456 1/2 and 3/8
5/8R ove 456 3/8 and 1/4
Whisk
man no turn, lady 1/4 R
man 1/8 and 1/8, lady no turn
man 1/8, lady 1/8 L and 1/4 R
Progressive Chasse to Right
1/4 man 1/8 1/8btl, lady 1/4btl and slight body turn
3/8 man 1/4 1/8btl, lady 3/8btl and slight body turn
1/2 man 1/4 1/8 1/8btl, lady 3/8btl body completes turn 1/8 btl
Double Reverse Spin
7/8, 3/8 and 1/2
3/4, 1/4 and 1/2, or 3/8 and 3/8
full turn, 3/8 and 5/8
Reverse Corte
man 3/8, lady 1/4 and 1/8
man 1/2, lady 3/8 and 1/8
man 5/8, lady 3/8 and 1/4
man 1/4, lady 1/8 and 1/8
Outside Spin
man 3/8 3/8 1/4, lady 5/8 1/4 1/4
3/4 overall man 3/8 3/8, lady 1/2 1/4
1/2 overall man 1/4 1/4, lady 3/8 1/8
Weave from PP
moving to center
moving to DC
Back Whisk
Man with no turn or up to 3/8 to the right
Foxtrot
Change of Direction
Reverse Wave
natural telemark
weave from PP
Quickstep
Tipple Chasse
Running Right Turn
Running Finish
Tango
Four Step
Promenade Link
Body Turn
So...I'm going through all those places with Body turn as I prep for my Examiner's assessment. These are places where the body turns on top of the supporting leg without any turn of the foot. Do you know of any others?
Body turn L
Left whisk
Natural turn in ftrot
Contra check
Closed wing (slight on 2,3)
Open telemark and wing for lady (slight on 3)
Open telemark and cross hesitation for lady (slight on 3)
Quick open reverse (slight on 3 for lady)
Progressive Chassé and PC to R
Cross Hesitation
Open impetus and cross hesitation for man: Turn body R on 3 then left on 5
Open telemark and cross hesitation for man: BTL on 3 then body completes turn on 5
Wings
Open telemark and wing on 5 man has body turn 6, 1/8 left in foot. Lady does not make that last amount of turn in feet only body
Open impetus and wing on 5 and 6?body turn
