I invited a few people to my last comp, my mom included. Every one of them asked me what time I danced. All you can tell them is what time it starts. The day before they asked again what time do you dance. Heck, I dont know, I am dancing 72 heats it starts at this time. Then comes the question, what is a heat? (sometimes I replace heat with entry, seems to be less confusing). All to familiar, I got this question as well!
A movie several years ago. I think it was "Mad about Mambo" in which a Northern Irish soccer-playing lad started taking dance lessons because a Latin American player recruited into a European team mentioned that dance steps improved his playing. Though in a Science 80 magazine article (from 1980, not surprisingly; while still in publication, the magazine would update its title for the new year ... very excellent magazine!), the issue about aerobic exercise and weight loss was examined. Turns out that if you simply diet, then the body goes into starvation mode and holds on tight to the fat cells that it has, making weight loss virtually impossible. The secret turned out to be to change your activity level so that your body's "fat thermometer" would get reset to carrying a lesser amount of fat. And it was aerobic exercise that would do that. But aerobic exercise required at least 20 minutes of what is now termed as "cardio". That article specifically mentioned dancing as not being aerobic, because the motion was not continuous for at least 20 minutes. Though I suspect that they were looking at dance performances and not social dancing. Still ... . Several years ago at a local Lindy venue, I was conversing with a younger Chinese woman whose mother had previously attended and with whom I had danced. She told me that her mother was shocked at what the dancers were doing, and kind of provided a glimpse for what dancing was "back in the day". "You crazy! You dance every dance!" Nowadays, the dance itself is why we're out there. But "back in the day", when her mother was dancing, it was a social event, not a dancing event. You would sit back and socialize and then maybe once every third or fourth dance you would go out there and dance. The emphasis then was on the socializing, whereas the emphasis now is on the dancing itself.
I remember one New Year's Eve several years ago. It was a social gathering of middle-aged singles associated with a local mega-church at the home of a member who had been instrumental in organizing dance classes for that age-group (albeit against the Baptist anti-dance sensibilities of the senior pastors). On PBS they were broadcasting a ballroom competition. They were into the Latin competition and, of course, quite naturally, I was looking at the techniques and moves that were being used. And as I watched, I noticed that more and more of the guys there were crowding around the TV. Cool!, I thought, until I finally realized that all those guys were interested in was the skimpy appearance of the ladies' Latin costumes.
This is, hands down, the number one immediate response when someone finds out I am a dancer. But a few select others: "Wow, I'll bet you're really good." "Let's see it!" (Followed by a lengthy explanation of PARTNER dancing) "Did you see DWTS last night?" "Is it expensive?" "Do you have to practice?" "What dance do you do?" "Wow, so there is more than one couple on the floor at a time?" And, my favorite: "Are you in dating your teacher?" (followed immediately, when I say no, by "Oh, so he's gay?" which is both annoying and oddly flattering...)
Silliest thing? "You are a really good dancer." It always cracks me up - I have not even finished bronze. Funniest thing? To husband & me after we finished a dance at a wedding: "You two cheated."
Great entertainment This thread is the most entertaining, especially its title "Silly things non-dancers say". Keep going - the reservoir is endless, isn't it?
"You are so lucky you get to travel all the time and see different cities!" What they don't know is that when we travel, we arrive at airport, fly, arrive at destination, go to hotel and rest, competition next day, fly out again the day after if we don't have to stay to teach. All I ever see are hotels, competition venue and airports!
That's not so awfully silly. You can be a good dancer without being a highly trained one. Of course it's all relative and the more you learn, typically the better you are, but still I've seen some good dancers that could follow really well but were only beginning students.
Seriously. People don't believe me that I haven't had a vacation in two years (about to change, yay.) But for example when I did Manhattan, I got there, got to the hotel, and didn't see the light of day for 36 hours straight. The only reason I saw any of New York besides the hotel and the train station was a friend of a friend offered to take me to lunch in Chinatown before my train!
We had someone call the studio the other day looking for swing dance lessons for her wedding. She'd been to two other studios, and they insisted on teaching her and her fiance this dorky triple step thing. She'd had ballet for years, so she already knew how to dance. She wanted to learn the fancy lifts and tricks and didn't care about all that other stuff. *facepalm*
"Vacation!" What's that? It seems like dancing competitions and dance training doesn't offer vacation time... The time you take off from dancing, someone is improving a lot more than you... I guess it's the same with any high level competition sport. However, have a great vacation, danceronice!
sometimes I catch myself doing voltas or doing hip action whenever if I take a side step work and my boss has said things like "what the hell was that?" or "you WOULD do that and actually look comfortable" (she's a little rough around the edges...)
From a friend - "I want to put some rhinestones on a shirt. Can you help me?" (I stone all my own dresses) Me - How many stones do you want? Friend - "Would 20 be too many?"
