This looks interesting, but, in contrast to the "monkey walk" jive/swing variation of the previous week, the lighting and dress of the rumba dancers does not show the steps very well (too dark, not distinctive enough, so we probably won't pursue it nor consider it for use in introducing friends who have an interest in dance to possibilities.

I would like go beyond the above to say a few more words that relate to encouraging friends to pursue an interest in dancing. We generally find that friends who may be interested in ballroom dancing are turned off by the championship ballroom on tv for three reasons. Women particularly are turned off by the overly thin female dancers ("I could never be like that."), by the likely cost of the costumes and of the lessons, and by the dance routines ("We could never ever do that."). If that's ballroom dancing, forget it.

What we do find is a turn on is when the dancers our friends see look reasonably similar to them, when the dancers dress with a bit of style -- women, especially, in our experience, seem to like to see dresses and heels (I know informal dress is in these days, but informal dress generally lacks style and sex appeal) yet with clothes that could be worn elsewhere and have a reasonable cost, when the steps look interesting, fun and learn-able, and when the dancers look like they are having fun (e.g., smiles and a jovial or up-beat tone of voice shows through for the counts -- let's not so serious that there is no fun in the dancing).

Insofar as the variations of the week have these characteristics, they will have potential utility beyond offering variations to the choir of ballroom dancers.

I love the 'double fan' rumba variation, where
the man leads the lady out of L fan position,
and as she is about to do the hockey stick or
alemana, the man blocks her progressive movement
and leads her to a half-spiral to L to bring her
to L fan position again and finishes the variation
with either the hockey stick or the alemana.?

Charles Smith
'The Little Lily Of Ballroom Dancing"
(cjsmith2@uiuc.edu)

Dont forget that what you see at high! class competitions is something very different like what you and your friends do on the floor, you cant compare your "social" dancing with real dancing (hover?) , its like comparing a pedestrian with a butterfly in the breeze . The problem is that two absolutely different things have the same name. The "pedestrian" style (social) is to walk over the floor and raise arms and feets randomly. The butterfly style, doesnt matter if this is latin, jazz, ballroom, ballet, is an art to express your own feelings with your body in sync with the music and your partner(s)at a wounderful way.

So my hint is dont show your friends dancing on TV, take them with you and have fun.

But I agree with you, that the outfit of a lot of so called comp dancers out there lacks style, but mostly they dont know to move their bodys, too, so count them to the "advanced pedestrian" group.

Dont forget to have fun while moving your body to the music !