A Letter to You

All for the Love of Dancing, it’s not only the name of my business, it’s the very reason that I dance and teach dance. So what’s to love about dancing? Well, what’s not to love about dancing? It's one of the few things in life that address your mental, your physical and your spiritual all at the same time. The benefits and rewards derived from dancing are many and varied. I’d like to talk about some of them here.

First of all there is the obvious. Fun! Whether it’s a cruising Fox trot that whirls and sweeps you and your partner around the dance floor, or a punchy, rockin’ high energy swing dance or perhaps the tight, twisting, steamy entwinement of oh so popular Latin dancing and lest we not forget the sensuous, passionate timeless romance of the Tango. This is all pure unadulterated FUN! But, let’s go beyond that to some of the perhaps not so obvious amenities.

I tell all of my students this, “There is nothing that you do in your life that dancing won’t make you better at.” The poise and confidence that one gets from mastering the dance and the dance floor, spills naturally over into all other aspects of your life. Whether you be a businessman or a farmer, accountant, housewife, athlete, truck driver or whatever you do, poise and confidence will always serve you well.

It goes without saying that dancing is great exercise. It’s almost a cliché’ expression. What calls for examination here is, why is it great exercise? Looking beyond the continuous movement of dancing we come to the manner in which we use our muscles to effect that movement. Dance posture and dance position call for a continuous use of your core muscles and the tightening and releasing of them according to the demands of the dance. A sort of dynamic tensioning. Then we have acceleration, deceleration and rapid change of directions. Not unlike that of a tennis player. Lets not forget the upper body, called our top line, with dips, over-sways and the continuous transmission and absorption of energy between partners. Now put these all together in every dance you do and you can clearly see that, yes, dancing is great exercise!

Lastly, I would like to speak about the often overlooked relational aspect of partner dancing. This is one of the truly beautiful intricacies of this type of dancing. From the moment one asks or is asked for a dance until you escort each other off the floor at its end, you are in a relationship. The sole focus of each, is on the other. The leader’s first and most important job is to present his lady, to make her look good in all that he asks her to do. The follower is a willing respondent, trusting the leaders intentions that she be shown at her best. It is never a case of demand and submit but rather, each step is an invitation offered by the man to take her to someplace wonderful, and she joyfully accepts knowing, “Why wouldn’t I want to go there because I know it is going to be great.” So for 3 to 5 minutes you are wrapped up in this beautiful, intense little world, and then the next song comes on and it starts all over again. All for the Love of Dancing.

Geno Aureli
(315) 396-3496