Ballroom Dancing 101

The flashy, intricate and spicy movements of ballroom dancing make this romantic art form a popular hit. But not many people know the differences between the many types of ballroom dancing.

Until now.

The performers in tonight’s Vail International Dance Festival Ballroom Spectacular show will be doing much more than the traditional ballroom waltz. The dancers’ expertise ranges from seductive tango and sexy Latin styles to acrobatic showdance and upbeat swing.

---

---

“Everyone’s so caught up in ‘Dancing with the Stars’ on TV, and they will identify with the costumes and the romance and showmanship of couple-dancing,” said Colin Meiring, an Edwards resident who is a ballroom dance instructor at Vail Valley Academy of Dance, Colorado Mountain College and the Avon Recreation Center. “It’s always a lot of fun and definitely entertaining.”

Meiring gave us a primer on the different types of ballroom dance.

---

---

Tango:

Tango is one of five forms of ballroom-style dancing. The waltz, fox trot, quick step and Venice waltz complete the collection and are all done in a close embrace. The woman usually wears a long, flowing ball gown, while the man dons a tuxedo.

“(Ballroom style) is like classic Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing,” Meiring said.

Within ballroom dancing, there are two types of tango dancing: Argentine and International. The couple Natalia Hills and Ivan Terrazas will perform an Argentine tango Sunday night.

Terrazas is a new partner for Hills, and both have performed in the Broadway show “Forever Tango.”

The difference between the two forms of tango is that Argentine tango is done in a closer embrace between the two dancers.

“It’s more romantic and has a lot more history to it,” Meiring said. “It has fast footwork, and it epitomizes the masculinity and femininity in a couple. You can see the yin and the yang.”

The music of the Argentine tango also keeps the audience drawn to the dancers. At times it is really slow, but then randomly speeds up.

Not only does the excitement of the dancing and music make the Argentine tango a popular form of Latin dance, but it can be done in small spaces, such as a small club or social setting, making it a dance form that people enjoy learning, as well as watching.

Lindy Hop/Swing:

Lindy Hop is the original form of swing dancing.

“This is the true rock and roll swing dancing,” Meiring said. “It’s the first swing that was ever formed.”

Swing dance champions Annie Trudea and Max Pitruzella will dance the Lindy hop in “Ballroom Spectacular.”

The duo has received first place in the showcase division of the International Lindy Hop Championships each year from 2008 to 2010, and the two dancers have also worked as choreographers for Cirque du Soleil’s “Viva Elvis” in Las Vegas.

Lindy Hop took off during the jazz era in the 1920s and ’30s in Harlem and became a popular dance craze among young people with its fast, lively music and acrobatic tricks.

“It’s done in fast rotations; it’s really exciting to watch,” he said. “There’s a lot of comedy in it, along with jumps, flips, aerials and acrobatics.”

Lindy Hop is different from East and West Coast swing dancing, which are more recent, and slower forms of the dance.

Latin:

Latin dance differs from the traditional ballroom style of dance through its costumes, music and movements. The audience of “Ballroom Spectacular” will feel like they’re watching a live taping of “Dancing with the Stars” when Liana Churilova and Emmanuel Pierre-Antoine perform various Latin styles of dance tonight.

“Latin styles have more South American and Latin rhythms and very sexy, skimpy costumes,” Meiring said. “It’s more of what people see on ‘Dancing with the Stars.'”

The couple will use dance moves from the five types of Latin dance in their performance: The cha cha, rumba, samba, pasadobla and jive.

Just this year they have won first place at the La Classique de Quebec in Canada, the Florida Superstars DanceSport Championships, the Philadelphia Dance Festival and several Arthur Murray Dance-O-Rama competitions in Las Vegas, New Orleans and Miami.

Pierre-Antoine has also appeared on PBS’ “America’s Ballroom Challenge” and ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.”

Open/Standard:

Katia Kanevskaya and Egor Abaschin will be doing an open/standard performance, which encompasses any type of ballroom dancing the couple chooses.

The two dancers are the champions of the 2011 Open Professional International Standard competition and have been dancing together for 10 years.

In an open form of dance, the dancers choose what styles they want to perform and can blend whatever dance forms together they’d like.

“It can be a mixture of everything,” Meiring said. “Anything goes.”

Showdance:

Showdance is a cabaret style of dancing, which aims to entertain the audience through comedy, song and theater.

“There are more lifts and more of a story to it,” Meiring said. “It’s something you’d see in a modern dance company.”

This type of dance usually follows a narration or theme and includes aerials and acrobatics.

Tina Gerova and partner Plamen Danailov will exemplify this style tonight. They are both European Showdance Finalists and World Showdance Finalists, as well as the five-time undefeated Bulgarian Latin Champions and the reigning Fred Astaire National Champions.

Courtney Riley is an intern at the Vail Daily. Email comments about this story to cschnell@vaildaily.com.