If you've delved into ballroom dancing on the follow's side and feel you've developed some acuity on the art [sport?], surprise!  You've only got half the story! Why You Should Learn to Lead  Cause.  As in "cause and effect".  As a follow, we are experts in rolling with those commas, semicolons, colons, ellipses, and run-on…

If you hang around a studio long enough, you'll hear a ballroomer throw out, "Well, it was politics," to dismiss someone's good placement… or lack thereof.   And while dance politics are a thing(local and global dance organizations are generally at war, all the time), there are only a few instances it influences YOUR placement. Here's…

Awhile back, we found out the COMPLETELY TRUE AND ABSOLUTELY SCIENTIFICALLY DISCOVERED reasons why women dance and it only follows [DANCE JOKE! GET IT?!] that we will find out IN THE SAME, UNCONDITIONALLY JOURNALISTICALLY SOUND WAY about why men dance.*   A Bet 9% There's a small bunch of men that got pushed into a studio…

Ballroom dancing is a full contact sport, in the obvious "hey I'm constantly touching my partner" way, but also in the "wow, I'm really close to all these other couples" kind of way.  Bumps and nudges between other couples are bound to happen, as well as the occasional grand collision.  But when I witness three or…

Here's a few thoughts, and some vague explanations of them: Who teaches y'all to do your invite like that?   Just stand up and get there.  There's a lot of shenanigans that happen before you get into frame. Does no one read the rule book? heavy sigh No.  You are cute. Really, all of you are.…

Maybe you've recently done one of those performances where judges give written comments* on your dancing.  Maybe you need more explanation on their messily-written, much-too-brief phrases and want to understand, but are too shy or too far away to get clarification.   First of all, it is AWESOME that you got out there.  You did…

This is a post for you up-and-comers, you young pups, you youth.  Not so much for my established dancers who want to afford two more lessons a week (because let's face it, we all think we're broke and want to learn to dance better).  Although it is good advice for you too. If you want to learn to dance better, but…

My last post was received with either sighs of relief and rounds of applause or complete derision and questions of my intelligence.  No, I'm not a photographer of any kind.  In fact, I'm really horrible at taking dance pictures.  And no, I'm not a complete a-hole who only wants to see pictures of international finalists.  In…

I see a lot of ballroom dance photos on social media.  Posed photos.  Action photos.  Photos of amateurs.  Photos of professionals.  Photos taken by amateurs.  Photos taken by professional photographers.   And some of the ones you post are SO BAD.  Maybe it was caught at the wrong time.  Maybe your friend took it and…