{"id":40,"date":"2010-08-04T13:22:15","date_gmt":"2010-08-04T13:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/?p=40"},"modified":"2012-09-04T14:07:19","modified_gmt":"2012-09-04T14:07:19","slug":"ballroom-dancing-dancesport-inc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/ballroom-dancing-dancesport-inc\/","title":{"rendered":"Ballroom Dancing: DanceSport Inc."},"content":{"rendered":"

By PePe Castro<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Maria Emilia Z. Silva, vice president of Alsco Development Corp., a real estate company with offices in Makati City and Sta. Rosa, Laguna, started ballroom dancing, it was mainly because her doctor told her she had high cholesterol levels and, as such, need to exercise \u2013 while, initially, she headed to the gym to lose weight, \u201cafter just a month (of regularly visiting the gym), I got bored. A friend told me, \u2018Why don\u2019t you do dancing?\u2019 So I did.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And so with dancing, not only did Silva \u201cmaintain my cholesterol level,\u201d even losing weight to be a size smaller than she was when she started, but what came with it was a passion \u2013 enough passion, in fact, to push Silva to eventually establish Studio 116, a ballroom dance studio that \u201caims to popularize ballroom dancing, not only as a competitive sport, but also as an alternative (activity) to keep yourself healthy while having fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ballroom dancing has been around for sometime \u2013 extravagantly depicted in artworks coming from different eras. As a sport, though, called dancesport \u2013 generally defined by the Dancesport Council of the Philippines as \u201cthe pairing of male and female dancers using the required technique, together with floorcraft and artistic interpretation to produce a highly disciplined dance performance\u201d \u2013 it started in 1907 in Nice, where choreographer Camille de Rhynal saw the business sense in making use of dance to attract and earn from its followers.<\/p>\n

Subsequently, by 1921, dancesport already had different categories (professionals, amateurs, and mix couples), with the dances generally grouped into Standard, Latin, and Formation dances. The Standard dances include Waltz (based on the American Bostonwals), Tango (from Brazil), Viennese Waltz (from the South German Alps area), Slow Foxtrot (popular 1940\u2019s bar dance), and Quickstep (derived from foxtrot, only slower). Latin dances include the Samba (originally African, but popularized by carnival parties in Brazil), Cha Cha Cha (developed from the Mambo), Rumba (defined as a new type of foxtrot with additional hip actions), Paso Doble (the only Latin dance not coming from the \u201cNegro\u201d culture, with roots in Spain), and Jive (swing dance influenced by the Rock & Roll, Boogie, and African\/American swing). And then there\u2019s the Formation dancing, where couples dance the same steps in synchronized manners.<\/p>\n

For the likes of Silva, though, the appeal to ballroom dance isn\u2019t with the competing \u2013 it\u2019s just to dance itself.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Ballroom dancing) is addicting,\u201d Silva says, \u201cvery, very addicting.\u201d Worse, \u201conce you get hooked on it, it will cost you a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ongoing rate for ballroom dancing lessons range from P2,500 to P3,000 for two hours, which, Silva admits, is expensive. This is also why, for Studio 116, Silva wants \u201cothers (non-competitive dancers) to come,\u201d so they can make the rates more affordable.\u201d Group classes, with a module that is good for four one-hour sessions, can only cost P1,600, translating to P400 per session. For those wanting to avail of sessions only (not the whole module), the cost is P500 per session. Private lessons (one student per teacher) are usually charged from P1,000 to P1,500 per hour. The studio is also available for rental for P1,650 per hour.<\/p>\n

Dance competitors have to spend even more \u2013 Studio 116 Latin dance instructor Ednah Ledesma, who is the only Asian to win the Blackpool Senior Latin Champion (in 2005) in the United Kingdom, says that for every competition she joins, she has to raise $8,000, \u201cwhich is about half a million pesos. Besides that, there are the costumes that could cost up to $600 each, the shoes that could range from $200 to $400, and a lot of practice time in the studio (for dancesport competitors, workshops range from $120 to $130 per 45 minutes),\u201d she says. \u201cIf you really quantify everything, it will be from half a million pesos or more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Silva likens ballroom dancing to playing golf \u2013 expense-wise, that it. \u201cIt costs as much as playing golf,\u201d she says. \u201c(With golf) the green fee is P2,000, plus your caddie, plus your membership in a country club\u2026 But all golfers know (their sport) is expensive, yet they continue playing, they forget (the expenses). It\u2019s the same with (ballroom dancing).\u201d<\/p>\n

The pros always outweigh the cons of ballroom dancing, however \u2013 the oft-highlighted benefits include the fitness one gets from it; the socialization that builds camaraderie (it\u2019s social dancing, after all); and the fun that can be had when dancing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I started dancing, I kept stepping on a foot, so I kept saying \u2018I\u2019m sorry, I\u2019m sorry!\u2019 My dance instructor asked why I was apologizing. I said, \u2018Because I\u2019m stepping on your foot.\u2019 He said that I wasn\u2019t \u2013 I was actually stepping on my (own) foot,\u201d Silva says. \u201cI have a lot of people who come here telling me they don\u2019t have rhythm, they don\u2019t have beat, they don\u2019t have anything. You\u2019d be surprised \u2013 after (taking) two sessions, you\u2019ll see them dancing away already. I say to them: \u2018If you can walk, you can dance.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ballroom dancing may be considered as a tool to better social interactions; but what is not as known is how it can actually better health.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":41,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,35],"tags":[25,24],"class_list":["post-40","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fitness","category-wellness-2","tag-ballroom-dancing","tag-benefits-of-dancing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43,"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40\/revisions\/43"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}