Kaye West, Ph.D.

The Importance of the Arts

There have been many statements which have described how important the arts are to education, yet when school budgets are tight, the arts are often the first area of the curriculum to be dropped.

In 1994 with the passage of the Goals 2000 Legislation, the arts were included for the first time as part of the rigorous curriculum all students in the United States should experience. Specifically, the arts standards stated that all students K-12 should be communicative in the four major areas of the arts (dance, music, theatre, and visual arts) and become a specialist in one. While there was never adequate funding necessary to implement the goals, they continue as a vision to which educational communities should aspire. Therefore, teachers and concerned citizens everywhere should strive to embody that vision of the arts in their own lives.

The Promise of Dance as a Part of Arts Curriculum

Dance is the area which is least taught in public schools and in which there has been a great deal of disagreement about exactly what should be taught in dance curriculum. It is my view that ballroom dance, sequence dance, partnership dance, cued ballroom, choreographed ballroom, or "round dance" (whatever one might wish to call it) provides a logical vehicle for engaging community members as well as participants of all ages in dance activity. There is a tremendous amount of specified curriculum in this activity even though different organizations vary in what they cover, how they name various rhythms or figures, and even how to dance them.

To achieve dance as a viable aspect of the curriculum, it will take a community of participants working collaboratively to bring the vision to reality. Some promising strides in recent years include the following:

Established in 2010, National Dance Day, specified as the third Saturday in September each year, is an annual celebration supporting dance as a valuable form of exercise and of artistic expression designed to "educate the public about dance and its many benefits as well as make dance accessible and inclusive to everyone."

In recent years ballroom dance has been named on the list of sports to be part of the world Olympics, with the World DanceSport Federation (WDSF) identified as the standard for describing ten dance forms to include (five "ballroom" rhythms including Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot, Viennese Waltz, and Quickstep and five "Latin" rhythms including Rumba, Samba, Cha Cha, Paso Doble, and Jive). Thus, they essentially have adopted the "international style" which is already common in many countries in the world over the "American style" of which there are two major schools (Fred Astaire and Arthur Murray). The American and International styles have also become more closely aligned over recent years.

However, ballroom dance lessons are often extremely costly, so the majority of people do not have the opportunity to participate. The International Choreographed Ballroom Dance Association (ICBDA), a dancers' organization which has grown from the grassroots, along with its parent organization, Roundalab, is a dance movement committed to promote ballroom or round dancing in a fun, noncompetitive, inexpensive alternative manner which supplements ballroom instruction. In fact, many leaders in these organizations themselves seek the expertise and guidance of ballroom professionals which they in turn share with their students.

Learning to Dance

Much basic information about learning to dance is available on this site from materials developed for the Walk In, Dance Out classes taught by Larry Caves. These materials are provided so that others may use them to further extend dancing through their teaching of friends, family, and neighbors.

Most people learn best with personalized instruction, whether one-to-one or in a group situation. To find a nearby class, go the the Roundalab site Dance: Round Out Your Life which lists locations for beginner classes.

If there are no beginning classes available, the site Choreographed/Cued Ballroom Dance presents instructor couples doing demos of dances with cues. Some have successfully studied such videos to learn them so they can either dance them personally at a dance featuring this activity or they can teach the dance to others. For those new to this activity, it is recommended they begin with the Waltz rhythm.

Click on "Practice It/Video Catalog." This takes you to a spreadsheet for a particular rhythm (other rhythms are linked at the bottom of the page). Click on a dance routine title (the color green indicates the easiest dance routines) which takes you to the dance demo on YouTube. There are ways you can bookmark parts to have them loop to replay to help master that part.

For written information to supplement the videos or class instruction there are also books available. Anyone may go to the ICBDA website on the public home page where they can download for free the book Cold Feet II: Beginning Waltz and Two-Step Basics (it is listed in the left menu).

Those who join ICBDA (the membership is extremely modest) also have access to five additional books for free. They further describe the dance activity, provide greater information about Waltz and Two-Step, and introduce figures in seven other rhythms including Foxtrot, Quickstep, Argentine Tango Cha Cha, Rumba, Mambo and Jive. These rhythms are typically introduced as "phase 3" dances. Phase 3 level of dancing has been included in our annual convention, held annually in late June/early July (see ICBDA website for details about the next convention).

ICBDA members may download these books in their entirety. On the Member home page they are available at the link at the right-hand menu entitled "Beginning Dance Manuals."

ICBDA offers many more resources on their site, including links to many of the above sites, a quarterly newsletter, information about dances currently being taught, flyers of dance festivals, clinic notes and cue sheets for dances taught at all past conventions, a directory to network with other members, and much, much more! Support the teaching of dancing and join this organization and keep your membership current!