I want to be a ballroom dancer, hopefully professional. I've never danced ballroom before ever. I am seventeen. I have been dancing since i was six, tap an jazz mostly. Ballet for 4 years, and hip-hop for 3 years. I know ballroom dancing is different from those...but i really want to be a dancer. I know that it is hard to live off a salary of a dancer...etc.etc... Is this dream unlikely? What kinds of things do i need to get involved in? Like...dancing studios/schools...etc etc..?
2007-03-25 18:40:40 · 4 answers · asked by marisol l 2 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Dancing
Professional competitor or professional teacher who teaches social ballroom?
Ballroom is funny in defining who is a pro and who's an amateur. Pro is someone who charges money to teach dancing. Amateur is someone who is not making a living by dancing. Note that nothing is said about quality of dancing or certifications. Keep that in mind. Hence, you will have to look carefully for a good teacher.
To become a professional competitor/performer/teacher you need to start taking lessons. Find a school that trains competitive dancers. Schools that teach International style (vs American style) tend to be more intence, technique-oriented and efficient. You can switch to American style later, but try not to waste your time at the beginning - start out with International if you can find it. Start out with group classes, just to memorize some steps and basics, and then find a professional who coaches competitive dancers. Here you will see 2 paths - Amateur (training with an Amateur partner meaning the 2 of you take lessons from a teacher, this is cheaper) or ProAm (your teacher is your partner).
If you want to become social teacher all you have to do is memorize all the steps for both lead and follow, learn the concepts of lead/follow, get some experience dancing with people, perhaps take medal tests if you want to get certified and there you go - you're a ballroom teacher.
Go to http://www.ballroomdancers.com or to http://www.accessdance.com and find a studio near you and start taking lessons. If you're 17 you can also start out by joining a collegiate team. Depending on where you are geographically and for that reason what team you can join it can speed you up along the way. MIT is really good, but even a small team can be useful to you at the beginning. College kids like to compete, having their company will help you.
It is a very likely dream. You are good age for ballroom: if you go the efficient way, it will take you like 5-7 years to get to the top, maybe even less provided that you have some dance experience. People don't retire from competitions till they are well into their 30s. Good ballroom teachers make decent money. Answer below me doesn't know what she's talking about. Many people start ballroom as adults and do well. My friend who started at 21 y.o. 6 years ago just turned pro this year. One of my coaches started in college and competed at the top National Professional level before she had to retire due to injury. Jonathan Robers (Pro on Dancing With The Stars) started at 21 years old. He and Anna were among top 6 US couples in Latin I believe before they got involved with the show.
2007-03-25 18:48:52 · answer #1 · answered by Snowflake 7 · 5⤊ 0⤋
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Nope, you are not too old to learn. Kym Johnson, a professional dancer on Dancing with the Stars, started learning ballroom and latin ballroom when she was 15 years old and look where she's at now! For advice, make sure you take lots of lessons and practice! I don't know how serious you are at becoming a latin ballroom dancer, but if you're serious about it it is incredibly helpful to take private lessons because you will progress faster. You also should start being comfortable walking around in 3" heels because that is how high the latin ballroom shoes are. Get a good pair of dance shoes and start to break them in by wearing them around the house a lot. The heels for dancing are very different from your everyday heels because the dance heels are created for support and flexibility. The dance heels also have suede on the bottoms so make sure you don't wear them outside because they will get messed up and ruined. Best of luck!
2016-04-07 22:10:52 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Just start taking classes and ask around about competitions. Find a partner who's your age and level, and start competing with him. The rest is details. That 1st answer had already gave you.
2007-03-26 10:51:41 · answer #3 · answered by Everybody's Favorite 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
mm this is a difficult one to answer, as i don't want to crush your dreams =[
it seems very unlikely that you would become a professional ballroom dancer at the age of 17 and only having prior experience of tap and jazz...if you were competing, everyone probably would of been doing ballroom since they were like 5. Also, getting a partner would be hard if you haven't had that much experience as they want to win and how could they win with someone not of danced ballroom.
my advice: dont take this dream too seriously unless you want to work seriously hard and getting up to the same level that most people have taken them years to perfect. take more than 5 classes a week and practise like crazy if you want to persue your dream!
perhaps i am being too harsh/not being harsh enough!
hope it helps! =]
2007-03-25 22:38:02 · answer #4 · answered by ? 5 · 0⤊ 8⤋
take profession classes. we all have to start somewhere. keep taking classes and go dancing for fun to build you skill
2016-03-17 02:23:58 · answer #5 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋