Balance in Dance

It is axiomatic that balance is essential to ballroom dancing; you don’t want to stand out because you lack this most basic but difficultly attained skill. Indeed, attaining balance and thus fluidity in dance is so much more complex than initially imagined, because balance is not only necessary when standing, but also while moving. This requires not only understanding and executing elements of correct posture, but also being able to properly engage your “core”. And the more I respect the attributes of the best dancers, the more I concentrate on the delicate movements of the feet and softness of the ankles, not only as they lift their feet from the ground with each step but also with the more difficult task of returning the heal or ball of the foot gracefully back down softly and evenly. Balance in dance is easy to appreciate since so many of us lack it; those with balance are easy to spot. And I curse those humans who intelligently spent their earlier days in ballet learning life long muscle memory balance and spinning skills that can never be achieved as the body deteriorates with age for us want-to-be late in life dancers. It is really the only thing that I have concentrated on this last year beyond standing tall and keeping my head screwed on straight…..the hell with learning more steps!