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Ballroom Dancing in Eugene
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This paper focuses on the aspects of ballroom dancing. I chose this site because of a few reasons. The main factor is that I live on campus and I did not have a way to get to any of the other sites. Another reason that I chose to study ballroom dancing is because I got a little taste of it a few years ago. When I was in seventh grade there was a cotillion class offered. My mom singed me up for it against my will. At first I didn’t want to go to the class, but after a couple of classes I was having fun. It was a great way to get to meet some girls and get to dance with them. This is almost the only dancing that I ever did. There were a few things that were very surprising to me. First, there are many different dances that are considered to be part of ballroom dancing. I thought that ballroom dancing only included waltz and cha-cha. Later I found out that there were other dances such as tango and salsa that are also considered ballroom dancing. I believe traditionally these dances were not part of ballroom dancing, but when tango and salsa became popular dances around the world, ballroom styles of these dances were formed. Although the dances are not the same as the traditional dance performed by indigenous people of the area they still have some of the same basic steps. When these dances made it to Europe the social aspect of dancing changed the style and mood of the dances. The venue that I went to was in Gerlinger Hall on Friday nights. The dance was held in a huge room about thirty feet by sixty. There wasn’t anything in the room. There weren’t any chairs for people to sin on. The DJ was set up in the back of the room on a table. There was a table at the door were people would take the five dollars as you entered. In the lobby there were a few couches and chairs for people to sit on and rest their feet when they got tired. There was also a coat rack in the dance room. If you came early to the dance there was a class that was offered. The teacher was very nice and was very clear when giving instructions. When someone was doing something wrong she would nicely tell them how to do it better. First of all I went to the dances. I like the lesson because you learn all general facts about the dance that you are learning. When teaching the dance the teacher was forced to give a little background about the dance so we could understand the feeling of the dance. This is what I believe to be a very important resource I grew up in a small suburb of San Francisco. Dancing was never a big part of my life. As I mentioned before I took a cotillion class when I was in Jr. High. When I was in eighth grade I started to swing dance. My girlfriend did it every week and she started to drag me along with her. I admit that I had a good time but I wasn’t really good.. My school put on a lot of dances, about one dance every other month. I was never a big fan of the music that was played and I never was any good at dancing the way people do at dances and clubs. I myself am a musician. I play the cello and the bass. I love music. It is one of the only things in this world that truly makes me happy. I say that I’m not good at dancing and that I don’t like it that much but there is another truth behind that. I have just recently realized that I do dance. When I am listening to music that I get funky to, I dance. When I go to a concert I am dancing all the time, most likely for two hours straight. It was not until I began playing in my band and taking this class that I realized that I dance all the time. There is this one lick in a song that my band plays and every time it comes up I just go wild; Feet flailing in ever direction, bouncing around the room, never stopping until the lick is over. It was not until my drummer, Rick, said that I was a funky dancer that I realized I dance more than I know it. So to recap: I had many opportunities to go to dances but didn’t take most of them up. I like to dance when I’m feeling the music and the energy just starts to flow through my body, the music must be right. Being able to talk to people who are regulars at the venue helped a lot. Like before I felt very awkward dancing so I was turned off a little, but I know that I had to be unbiased so I spent a lot of time watching. I’m sure that if I was more into it I could have had a better time. The best way to gather information was to talk to the lady who taught the class.
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