Product Description
Originally published in 1939.Contents Include Suggested Method of Approach By the Novice, the Compitition Dancer and Keen Amatueur, the Student The Hold The Poise, Balance and General Outline of the Walk Contrary Body Movement, Contrary Body Movement Position THE QUICK STEP The Walk Forward and Backward The Quarter Turns The Prgressive Chace' The Natural Turn The Natural Pivaot Turn etc THE WALTZ The Forward Change The Natural Turn The Reverse Turn The Hesitation Change The Natural Spin Turn etc THE FOXTROT The Walk, Forward and BackwardThe Three-Step The Feather Step etc THE TANGO The Walk Forward The Walk Backward The Progressive Side Step The Rock Turn From the Walk into Promenade etc POPULAR DANCES The Blues The Cuban Rumba Rythm Dancing The Quick Waltz BALLROOM NOVELTY DANCES AND GAMES THE PRACTICAL SIDE OF TEACHING ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

Excellent Technique Tips
This is a "how to" book, not a book to read (strictly) for pleasure.And not just A "how to" book; it's the bible (not just my opinion by a long way).I found Moore's explanation of "contrary body movement" (called "contra body movement," or sometimes simply "contra," in the United States) particularly helpful.He also points out right at the beginning that it's more important to understand why certain actions occur in dancing than it is to memorize the technical details.Another noteworthy feature of this book is that he devotes considerable attention in the first chapter to the walk.Suddenly, dance instructors are concentrating on the walk in the very first beginner class.But Moore anticipated them at least by a few years (this is the 2002 edition), and probablymore than that.These insights into technique are a lot more important than teaching steps, which are not really that hard to learn (there are only a few ways the human body can move, and forward side close back side close doesn't require weeks of study and hard work to master).If you want to learn dance figures, a syllabus volume is the way to go--though Moore's descriptions of the patterns he does include are good.And Moore's book won't replace a good dance instructor (Moore isn't there to tell you "No, not that way, this way.").But this book can help quite a bit to clarify what your instructor says.

Wonderful book
I found this book really interesting for me and the more I learn about ballroom the more I enjoy the different diagrams and descriptions in this book.I'm very glad I purchased it!

required reading
Among the many manuals and manuscripts on international standard ballroom dance, so far, this one appears to offer the greatest value.If you are a casual American standard dancer, the book is a nice reference should you wish to compare and contrast International and US standards.

There are also some fine details regarding technique, CDMP, footwork, weight changes, in various figures that you might apply to your dance.

All ballroom dance instructors should have a copy of this dance resource.This book is to the ballroom dance teacherwhat the "little brown handbook" is to the english teacher.

A definitive Guide
Alex Moore's book is the bible for international style. For those who dance American social style, you'll recognize some of patterns are quite similar. The Quickstep features lock steps, much like the Argentine Tango. Judges use this book as a guide to rate technique, because steps have to be danced correctly to avoid collisions. The slow Fox Trot and slow Waltz are similar, and fun to dance. The cover of the book shows an Argentine Tango figure, which doesn't make sense.

I teach at Crystal Ballroom Studio in San Jose, CA. This book is useful to me, and with some practice I found the material easy to grasp. Students who want to learn ballroom dancing will NOT find this book useful. They need a qualified instructor.

Exactly what we wanted!
This was a Christmas present that went over great with the person! They loved the book and it was WAY cheaper than at my local bookstore which made me happy as well! Also came before Christmas even though the order date was cutting it close! ... Read more

Product Description
Ballroom dancing is back! And now anyone can move like a pro. DVD included!

In addition to the step-by-step photos, footwork illustrations, and instruction covering all the common ballroom dances, this new edition of the bestselling Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Ballroom Dancing includes a 90-minute instructional DVD featuring award-winning dancer and dance instructor Jeff Allen. It corresponds with the text seamlessly, giving readers the next best thing to one-on-one instruction, at a fraction of the cost.
• The #1 selling ballroom dancing book
• Includes a fantastic, new instructional DVD and hundreds of illustrations and instructions
• Allen is a renowned, award-winning ballroom-dance teacher ... Read more

Customer Reviews (34)

Ballroom Dancing
A good choice for beginners who want to get started in a wide variety of dances.Only a few step patterns are given for each dance, but these are well explained. The DVD was helpful when visualizing the steps.For those interested primarily in Waltz, Fox Trot, and Tango, "Gotta Ballroom" is a better choice.

Other than the DVD...
I'm just starting lessons and thought this book, which I found in the library, would be a great reinforcement. I think I'm a bit premature, but that's not the book's fault. The problem is that there seem to be many variants of the "basic step" andthe book does not always do what my instructor did. I expect that as I get more practice this will be a non-problem. The book is very wordy, but That's because the chapters are each very complete -- I think it's not to hard to skip forwardc and then go back for the finer details.However, the library copy came with a CD, with nice music. The edition Amazon sent has a DVD which seems pretty useless. Each topic seems to be about 6 second long and they slide into each other. It's not easy to watch two people dancing for six seconds and pick upthe footwork -- especially when the segments are not labelled on the screen as they come up, andhave of them are a bit blurry, which may be to indicate speed or to give the scene a dreamy look. A better DVD would have been helpful, but the book stands on its own.

The Very Best "Dancing" Book That Exists
If you want to merely shuffle your feet and do the bunny-hop, this is not the book for you...get something else. If you want to learn how to really "dance", this is the best book there is.

Allen is true to his craft and does not compromise on his instruction. To learn, you have to read the appropriate chapter of his book, watch the appropriate section of the DVD and practice again and again.

Nobody can take something that is inherently complex and difficult and spoon feed it to you in five minutes. But everything you need is right there. Jeff Allen takes his craft seriously.

Dissapointing
I normally love the "Idiot" books. I've used them for years and love the straight forward approach. I was very dissapointed in this book. The writting is convoluted. Even with careful reading, sometimes as many as 10 times, I am not sure what he is describing or what I should do. I suspect people that are decent dancers may find useful information here. If you're learning to dance- skip this one! You don't get to any of the dance steps until almost halfway through the book, and are very poorly described. He refers constantly to the dvd that comes with it- he should have just made a video, maybe then we could have figured out what he meant.

Maybe Helpful
People can't learn to dance from watching a DVD or reading a book. Dancing is more than just learning steps. Learning as a couple is even tougher. The lady needs to be led, and unless the male understands what his partner needs, he can't possibly lead her. This book may be OK for simple box steps. Here's a test. Learn a few steps then go dancing at at wedding or a club. I bet you don't last more than 30 seconds on the floor.
You need to learn to maneuver around other couples, adapt to changes in tempo, learn to recognize the music, and still look good. It takes the average couple about 80 lessons in a good studio to learn to dance. Save your money, unless you really ARE an idiot.
... Read more

Product Description
A fully illustrated guide to social dancing, now in paperback, provides easy, step-by-step instructions for the most popular ballroom dances, including the waltz, fox-trot, tango, cha-cha, polka, and many more. More than 500 black-and-white illustrations and photos. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

You Decide � A Double Review
My name is Diane Howard. I have been a dance instructor for over 10 years in the Northeast corridor. I take great exception to the negative reviews of Mr. Allen's book Quickstart to Social Dancing, especially in comparison to another book that I own by Mr. Stephenson called The Complete Book of Ballroom Dancing.Here is why:

1. Quickstart guides the beginner and helps develop the most important basic dance skills in systematic and incremental fashion. Foundational skills like correct postural movement with a partner, rhythmic movement, and leg action both for the smooth, swing, and Latin dances are wonderfully described in Quickstart. They are either completely omitted or where included, erroneously described the so-called Complete Book!

2. Quickstart guides you through a primary development with easy to use physical instructions and analogies with a direct goal in mind. That goal is to be able to dance, WITHOUT ERROR, the most fundamental patterns in six major social dances. The Complete Book starts at stages beyond the beginner with a syllabus that assumes that a dance couple already KNOWS HOW to move together. They do not and will not simply by reading a syllabus, all competent dance instructors know this!

3. Quickstart does a terrific job in addressing these primary and necessary functions. The Complete Book leaves you to your own devices.

4. The Complete Book designed for the next stage of dancing, diversity in patterns, unfortunately is laden with serious error that the beginner would certainly not be aware of in their attempt to follow its syllabus. Quickstart does not pretend to be more than it is, simply the best guide for the beginning stages of your social dance experience.

Perhaps these are the reasons why Quickstart to Social Dancing seems to be applauded by dance professionals and others who are willing to provide their names and email addresses for correspondence. I know I recommend it to students and teachers alike.

By contrast, you cannot contact even one negative reviewer of Mr. Allen's books nor can you find any reviews by competent dance professionals on the back cover or web page of Mr. Stephenson's book. In his book, Mr. Allen provides you with his contact information for questions and further help. Mr. Stephenson's book leaves none and suggests that you go elsewhere. You decide!

Don't buy this book!
I have been taking ballroom dancing for almost two years. I started my study of ballroom dancing in Japan, and as a result of language andcultural barriers, I thought I needed a book, written in English, thatwould compliment my study of dance. So, I purchased this book. It was theworst purchase I have ever made! The pictures are not the least bit usefulfor learning steps. The description of the steps and the foot diagrams areconfusing (and in some cases wrong). The only good thing about the book isthe section on the history of ballroom dancing, but except for that thebook is extreamely limited. Don't waste your money like I did, there arealot of good ballroom dance books out there, but it is certainly not thisone!

Completely Wrong !
This book is a perfect example of what is wrong with much of the dance instruction in the USA - anyone can teach, as there is no required credentialing or licensing to do so!Teachers answer to no one - noauthority in dance or the educational system in general.If the packagingis "slick" enough, the unarmed and unaware public will by into it.Toteach dancing and not error is a difficult profession.It requires yearsof experience.Unfortunately, to just show steps as this book doesrequires none.I find no credentials for the authors and no mention of anydance society that they have been tested by and this is reflected in thegross amount of error that exists in every single step pattern.This isprobably why this book until now has not been reviewed by a competentprofessional ballroom instructor.A book as a tool for dance education isone of great value especially if it is reliable, not one like this, thatconflicts with the accepted standards of every dance society that belongsto the National Dance Council of America and good principles of movement.It is apparent that the authors have taken someone's approved listing ofdance steps called a syllabus and edited it without understanding leavinggross errors in footwork and complete omissions of how correct dancemovement is created.This book leaves the unsuspecting reader withinstructions that if followed, would produce flat-footed, awkward,unbalanced, non-musical, and non-rhythmic movement. But many so-calleddance instructors quickly find out how easy it is to fool the consumer intobelieving that if the can dance a little bit, they must also be able toteach.The funny thing about The Complete Book of Ballroom Dance Error andwhat struck me immediately is that the couple that poses for the picturesthroughout the book looks as awkward and uncomfortable as one would expectfollowing this books directions.

Here are some of the many errors intechnique found in this book that would create problems for the newcomer todancing and needless to say any other level:

Throughout the book startingwith the "Techniques," page 59, 62, 63, 64, 79, 81, 83, & on from therethe Dance Positions are show with the man's right hand too low in the smallof the lady's back against soft tissue.Two major problems can occurresulting from this improper arm & hand position.The 1st problem istoo much hand pressure would have to be exerted to lead any rotationparticularly in the rhythm or Latin dances because of the weak slouchedposition of the man's right upper arm which leaves that arm limp with lackof proper relationship to his own body's rotation. The 2nd problem isactually dangerous to the lady's health because that is the area of herkidney and the likelihood extending too much pressure over the period ofseveral dances can have the same impact as a strong kidney punch in boxing. Done properly, at least the middle finger of the man's right should beplace on at least part of the lady's shoulder blade and the elevation ofhis right elbow should be the same as his left. Good teachers stress thatthe elevation of the right hand and arm is MORE important than the left!

Another of the many glaring errors starts on the very first figure ofthis book in the Waltz section.This pattern has many errors and it,unfortunately for any reader, is the most fundamental in all of Ballroomdancing.For instance on step # 3 for the man the author writes: "Closeleft foot to right foot; transfer weight to left foot, continuing in riseposition until end of Count 3. Any musician would have told these allegeddance instructors that Waltz begins its diminishment at the half waypointof count 3 which is why many count Waltz: 1,2,3 &.Splitting the 3rdbeat between crescendo and diminishment: The good news is that Ballroomdancers do the same thing!Done Properly: they begin a controlled loweringat the end of the third beat followed by a toe lead with the right foot toprevent any lurching backwards necessitating hanging on your partner.Thenthe authors tell us on step 4 to reach back (obviously from this risenposition since they have already missed the moment of lowering) to the BALLof the right foot.This would have the impact of taking a backward stepoff a platform 2 feet from the floor (this error is repeated many times inthis book of miss-instruction)!I can just see a Bride & Groom doingthis on their 1st dance and the Groom hitting the floor with her on top ofhim!That would be one for video bloopers, in the same way this book is. If you can't get the descriptions right in the Waltz, the most fundamentaldance, there is little hope for improvement from there.It would takeanother book to correct the errors of omission and commission this bookcontains and I've run out of space!

It is just what I have been looking for.
This book is just about all you could ask for as a beginning dancer. It has the history of the various dances, dialogue with footsteps for both man and women,pictures of man and woman in progressive stages of each dance anda listing of songs for each type of dance.My book prompted a request for acopy from two friends

Good description of elementary Ballroom steps.
Although the descriptions are quite good, the pictures and illustrations are confusing and not very useful. The book is quite complete, and although not great, is the best available. ... Read more

Product Description
Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Good book
This is a good book to summarize all steps for many popular dances.My only problem is it does not have step graph for every steps.Only about half of them are illustrated.One step graph wins thousands of words.

Great For International Style
First, this book on international style will never replace a teacher. If you want to learn international style, give yourself about a year with a private teacher. If you're a couple, figure 2 years. It is impossible to learn to dance from a book. Footsteps show alignment only. Books do not teach technique, and international style is all about technique. If you want to learn to dance socially, take private ballroom dance lessons with a good studio. This book is not for you.
A piece of advice, Forget about group lessons. No one learns to dance in a group.

This book is very clear and written for someone who knows how to dance.

Last, you need to learn amalgamations, i.e., continuity. Learning one step at a time doesn't work. This book will tell you which figure precedes or follows a given figure.

A ballroom teacher's manual with pictures
I have both the Victor Silvester book and Alex Moore's ISTD ballroom manual.I personally find the ISTD manual more compact, and a lot better organized.It is a little more expensive than Silvester, and it also has no pictures, it is much more useful in my opinion.

The Victor Silvester book is a ballroom instructor's manual with pictures, and the reader's understanding of the material will be exponentially proportional to his prior experience.That is, the beginners will not find it useful at all, while the intermediate and advanced dancers will be able to learn quite a bit from it.
The pictures and figures contribute very little to explain the steps themselves.

Although the book covers all ballroom steps from beginner to gold, it didn't tell you which one is which.Even though this book claims to include both ballroom and latin, the latin syllabus are only covered upt to the bronze level. It also does not explain essential concepts such as Cuban motion and samba bounce.Unlike the other manuals, the Victor Silvester book also go over the basic steps for Viennese Waltz and (huh huh ...) disco.If the reader already finds the book useful (i.e., he can understand and carry out the steps by reading the book alone), these steps are probably not anything new or groundbreaking.

Also, a word for the prospective dancers.I have seen (and met) a lot of people who try to learn from the book directly, only to be discouraged by the less than desirable results.What a lot of these books won't tell you, or at least convey effectively, are the fundamental aspects of partnered dancing, such as posture, communication, movement, and body connections.These aspects have to be taught by a qualified instructor, because they can't simply be put in words and therefore can't be executed like computer programs.

The Rich Get Richer
MODERN BALLROOM DANCING has been valuable to me in improving my skills in those dances with which I was already familiar. The usefulness seemed to have been in direct proportion to what I knew before reading the book. It has not been very helpful in learning new dances.

The text includes several dazzling photos of competitive dancers in action.

A very good reference
This text is a very good reference for International style dancing.It is very complete and conforms fairly well to the syllabus.As stated by other reviewers, if you're a beginner its probably too much, but if you have a good teacher nearby to help explain some of the ambiguities you can learn a lot on your own from it.Definitely not a book that you can just pick up and start dancing, it requires some intellectual effort to digest, but once you've done that you'll have a clear and systematic conceptualization and schema for dancing that few teachers can impart.My only major complaint: an excess of glossy pictures from dancing competitions.This book is really most helpful for the standard dances (which is OK with me since that's my style, not latin.) ... Read more

Product Description

“I’ve been dancing steadily since that Valentine’s Day. I have taken countless lessons and classes, passed a professional certification exam, done several shows and a competition—yes, dressed in those outrageous gowns and false eyelashes—and then gone back home to the kids, the soccer, the housework, and to work the next day. It hasn’t been easy to make room in the schedule for my passion, but I have done it, because I’m certain now that it is necessary for life. This new period is rich—as rich in some ways as having my two children because it has been a kind of birth—but it has also been extraordinarily painful thanks to the self-examination that dancing has provoked in me. And so, because of dance, I can say, unequivocally and gratefully, that I am alive at last.”
– From Quick, Before the Music Stops

“There is no time for regret in dance. You have only now, this moment, for your performance, your glorious movement. Whatever you’re going to do, do it now, quick, before the music stops.” – Janet Carlson

In her twenties, Janet Carlson was a successful competitive ballroom dancer, but she abandoned dancing to raise a family and pursue a more conventional profession as an editor for a luxury lifestyle magazine. Twenty years later, she seemed to have it all: two beautiful daughters, a glamorous job, and a handsome, talented husband. Despite all of her successes, she felt a terrible void - her marriage was deeply troubled, and she was somehow withdrawn in the very midst of her own life and the lives of her children. Then, one Valentine’s Day, her husband gave her ballroom dancing lessons as a gift, and everything changed. She discovered the joy, passion, and confidence she hadn’t realized had gone missing for so long.

Over time, Janet discovers that ballroom dancing also contains the secrets to life and love: the give-and-take of dance, two bodies in rhythm and harmony, mirrors the reciprocity of human relationships. Total trust between partners is as vital on the dance floor as it is within a marriage. And yet, both partners - in dance and in life - must stand on their own two feet. The unadulterated joy Janet feels as she intuitively moves to the music speaks to the kind of absolute, whole-body happiness we were born to have. On the dance floor, she finds resolve in the waltz, self-confidence in the tango, and passion in nearly everything. Embracing dance once more allows her to let go of a marriage that was completely out of sync; put more heart and emotion into her work; find more time to truly be with her children; and ultimately rejoice in her intrinsic balance and poise.

Told with precision, grace, and painstaking honesty, Quick, Before the Music Stops is the tale of one woman’s midlife renewal through dance, and how her newfound empowerment transcends the dance floor and becomes immediate and relevant in every aspect of her life. It shows us how to recognize and celebrate both our strengths and our flaws, reignite passion for the everyday, and how to step from the periphery into the light and surrender to the music.

Customer Reviews (6)

A really great story
I am enjoying this story very much.As a woman in her 40's who has taken up ballroom dancing and loves it deeply, this woman's story resonates for me.This book is well written with vivid description and the story moves along briskly.Good read!

Couldn't put this book down!!
Janet Carlson's "Quick, Before The Music Stops" spoke to my soul more than any book has in a long time.I cannot begin to convey how much I enjoyed Carlson's story, as it unfolded through the various stages of her life as a wife, mother and dancer.As someone who entered the world of ballroom dancing just a year ago, I understood profoundly Carlson's passion for dancing.Like Carlson, ballroom dance has become my therapy, my escape from daily life in suburbia.

I appreciated the honesty and introspection by which Carlson revealed all the facets of her persona in experiencing the ups and downs of her life at that time.Carlson's account of her experiences with her instructors, their interesting personalities and how they played roles in informing her dancing as well as her self-image was extremely realistic.And I truly loved the descriptive dance passages!

Carlson's story - one that remained with me long after reading it - left me the same way each and every ballroom dance lesson leaves me:refreshed, energized and joyful.The words flowed off the page as an extremely well-written account that proved so relevant to my own life.I recommend Janet Carlson's book to anyone who wants and/or needs a spark of inspiration or passion in any facet of life.

The best personal memoir on ballroom dancing by far
There are too many books out there about how ballroom dancing changed an author's perspective on life. While I can appreciate each writer's experience and their desire to share with others, each of these books seems to read the same, with nothing of true depth and substance to really engage me. I typically finish these books out of obligation rather than interest. Despite this, I continue to read every new book on social or ballroom dance that I can find because I hold out hope that someone will offer something unique and remarkable.

Janet Carlson's book has validated that hope. Her story begins with the realization of an inner death, the result of a lifeless marriage and an endless cycle of quiet and obligation. What captured me immediately was her beautifully descriptive writing and unique voice. At first I felt Carlson was sharing a little too much detail about the inadequacy of her husband. I felt sorry that his dirty laundry was - both literally and figuratively - being left out for all to see.

However, I quickly found myself engrossed in Carlson's journey back into the world of ballroom dancing and how it changed her physical, mental, and emotional landscape. Most books that attempt self help or metaphorical parallels between dancing and life are too saccharine and simplistic. Carlson, however, touches on complex and rich life lessons without preaching or giving simplistic answers. Her strength in this book lies in her ability to put the truth out there in all its complexity, to admit undesired emotions or those we don't like to admit or talk about. This honesty and depth kept me hooked throughout the book.

Carlson explores common themes in ballroom dance: connection, musicality, leading and following, technique, control, quality of movement, artistry, and flow. However, she manages to breathe new life into these topics without the common clichés and analogies. She does this by delving into her painful struggle to find meaning in her relationships and in her life. Although in the beginning I found such honesty difficult to read, I quickly discovered it to be the very reason she is able to offer such a unique and engrossing perspective on dance and life.

This is one of only two books on dance that I was able to read in less than two days. I very much appreciate the thought and consideration that Carlson put into this book, and it is one of only a few in the dance memoir category that I wholeheartedly recommend.

A Marriage Saver
It's as if Ms. Carlson is throwing a lifeline to those of us whose marriages are in need of rescue, even though she acknowledges she learned her lessons too late to save her own.Having followed her columns in Town & Country over the years, I've found this author has always been really forthright about her own issues in order to help other women.The same compassion and surprising insights are in this book.I've already applied some of her wisdom...with good results.Not only that, for the first time, I'm beginning to understand America's fascination with Dancing With The Stars.Something that's always puzzled me!Now I'm on the lookout for dancing classes near my home...but will make sure my husband comes along!Thanks Janet!

Ballroom Dancing Love
Because my hubby and I took up, by a twist of fate, ballroom dancing about 5 years ago, my daughter and family sent me this book for my birthday.Ballroom dancing becomes a love.One could be at the studio each day.The instruction never ceases and as you move from one instructor to the other, each better than before.Building blocks are erected.I actually picked up some very valuable pointers, as one does constantly, in my own technique reading thru Janet's story.The reality of putting dance either first or second in one's life can be disturbing.It is a very expensive pursuit when one competes.And, it is more than true, as I have first hand witnessed, that marriages suffer, and break up, because one partner is so dazzled by the artistic thrill of becoming a better dancer.I somehow believe that Janet could have saved her marriage.But, I also believe she did not want to; and her husband didn't have a clue.One needs to remember, even Janet, that it is the very few who reach the stars, and it is a short time up in the clouds as one of the best.It is a female's ballroom dancing experience for sure. ... Read more

Product Description
Glide your way through the most popular ballroom dances‹the Latin Cha Cha Cha, Rumba, and Samba; as well as modern classics like the Waltz, Quickstep, and Tango‹in this accessible and entertaining dancing guide. With a partner or on your own, the Ballroom Dance Pack is all you need to master the 6 most popular dances in the privacy of your own home. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A Model Of Simplicity
THE BALLROOM DANCE PACK is a model of simplicity. Walter Laird presents basic instruction in the Waltz, Quickstep, Tango, Cha-Cha, Samba and Rumba. He starts each lesson with a demonstration of a solo exercise and pictures of the appropriate close hold. The emphasis throughout the book is on the basics.

Laird teaches the British style with the man leading with his right foot. Americans consequently will have to reverse the process. I find this requirement to be only a minor inconvenience. If you are seeking the bare fundamentals, this manual is a good place to find them.

BALLROOM DANCING MEANT TO BE READ AS A NOVEL !!
Enthusiasts keen to ballroom dance , the English way will be thrilled with their find ! The instructions , though simple coupled with the profuse figures and variations are informative and easy to follow. Covers all 3standard dances (though disappointing not to see the 'Slow Foxtrot' in thisbook)and 3 Latin dances. A good start to built fundamental knowledge of thebasic steps and rhythmn in the movements ,but not without practice.Thelearner will never be lost .

The hour-long CD alternates between'practice' and 'actual play'including the feet templates account for thebumper sized book which needs to wrapped up !

Wonder if W.Laird isplanning on an Intermediate book.

Very basic, British style, nice practice music.
Teaches the most basic moves of a few flow and latin dances.A colorful book that shows two dance couples displaying proper form for each move, but it does not get very far.While it has "templates" showing footwork for the most basic form of each dance, it lacks for more common footwork diagrams for the other dance moves.This book is British (male - right foot first), so "Natural Turns" etc. will all be backword for most American students.The practice music CD is nice to have when you are learning the basics. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
Picture yourself floating across the floor to an elegant waltz or spinning past your partner to the driving beat of a West Coast Swing. Visualize yourself maneuvering your partner around the dance floor to an upbeat Two Step or gracefully enjoying your first dance together at your wedding. If these images left you saying to yourself, Wow, that sounds great, but what does a waltz look like? or, I'll never be able to remember all of those steps!, then prepare to see yourself in a whole new light. Picture Yourself Dancing is full of easy-to-follow, visual examples for a variety of dance styles. From the upbeat steps of country dancing to the elegant moves of ballroom classics, this book will help you perfect your moves and strut your stuff on the dance floor with confidence. The accompanying DVD is full of 75 minutes of instructional video to help you easily visualize each dance that is covered in the book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Make learning how to dance easy!
I have a little dance back ground but my husband to be has 2 left feet. He's a very analytical and logical learner whereas I am a visual learner.
This book was perfect. It explained the how's, what's and why's of dancing. It teaches how to lead and follow in the simplest way.
Along with the video it was the best way for my husband and I to learn how to dance for our wedding- and we looked great on the dance floor!!
Great book for the beginner dancer!

For a very beginner, a bit disappointed
My husband and I are just beginning dance lessons at Arthur Murray and wanted a book/dvd to supplement our at home practise.Unfortunately, without step diagrams, I find it hard to look up the appropriate chapter and pick up where my lessons at Arthur Murray left off for the week.This book might be alright for a book you really wanted to read from the beginning, but to use it as a beginner's reference guide it was terribly hard for us to follow.I am looking for that book with foot diagrams, I think.As to the DVD, it might be great, but the book was designed to hold the DVD with a little glue in the back of the book, which in my book came unglued somewhere along the way before I ever even tried to watch it.As such, the DVD is missing.I'm hoping to find where it perhaps fell out, but am not holding my breath.You would think for a book this expensive they could have created a little better storage space for the DVD slot.

Feels Like I'm Dancing With The Stars!
Read this book and you will feel like you are ready to dance with the stars!These instructors teach the dances in detail with pictures and they lead practice sessions for each dance on the DVD.Their professional approach makes it easy to learn a variety of steps.I like the video included with the book so much that I am now planning to buy some of the other dance DVD's produced by these instructors.It looks to me like this book and anything from the Trautman series of dance videos will be perfect for holiday gifts this year!

Learn to dance the easy way!
Picture Yourself Dancing is a perfect partner for the Learn to Dance Series of DVD lessons offered by Shawn and Joanna Trautman.These professionals provide a logical approach to learning all of the dance steps.In this book, they include a comprehensive history of each dance, as well as step-by-step instructions for the dances.The video included with the book shows you the way each dance should look and it helps you to develop your own individual dancing style. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning the total dance "picture". The vivid action photos and suggestions for dance attire inspire you to actually imagine yourself on the dance floor.Buy this book for anyone who loves to dance or who would like to learn, and include it as a companion to the Shawn Trautman Learn to Dance Series of DVD's!

Famous Dancers?
The book was great but what I really want to know is the names of the couple shown on the front cover.Top row, third from the left.I swear I saw them at some dance competition.Do you know who they are?I gotta know! ... Read more

Product Description

Learn how to satisfy a woman on the dance floor. Part guerrilla manual and part cotillion handbook, this book teaches the basic principles common to all music and dance, enabling you to walk onto any dance floor and perform an admirable dance, with any partner, to any music, with confidence and grace.

This book is an insider's guide to ballroom dancing. It's for non-dancers, newbies and beginners. Whether you fear dance or can't dance or hate to dance; or whether you're rhythmically challenged or just new to dance; or whether you've finished dance classes more confused than when you started, this book has the tools a guy needs to know to make his partner happy. (Ladies, despite the title, this book will help you too.)

Here the beat, move your feet: * Learn a foolproof method for hearing the beat of the music * Learn to count music (they don't teach that in dance classes) * Learn the correct way to count step patterns * Learn rhythm: single, double and triple rhythm, the building blocks of all dances * Learn three simple rhythm patterns that will get you through any song * Chapters on: slow dancing, survival dancing, the wedding dance, how to fake a dance, and more * 17 easy exercises (most you can do without a partner)

Free instructional video clips at http://ihatetodance.com

JAMES JOSEPH used to hate to dance. He took his first beginners' class in 1984, and he may hold the record for the most beginners' classes ever taken. He's still taking them. Since 1996 he has trained under Skippy Blair, who is considered by many the teacher of teachers. His current aspiration in life is to become a geriatric ballroom dance gigolo on cruise ships--but he's not old enough so he kills time by writing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Every Man's Survival Guide to Ballroom Dancing
A great book for any man (or woman) who has experienced reluctance to go out on the dance floor.Not only does it provide the beginning dancer with answers to questions they didn't know they needed to ask, but it gives much needed encouragement and support. The author, tho now an experienced dancer, clearly remembers the beginnings of his dance career, and writes with empathy and understanding for those going through this stage.He provides an excellent analysis of music and movement along with practice exercises Though a person can't learn to dance from a book, this provides an adjunct to classes where a person can learn in the privacy of his/her home, avoid the self consciousness that makes us loose our concentration, and learn to gain confidence as a dancer.
In addition, the book is enjoyable to read.It is written with humor, warmth and a nonjudgmental relaxed attitude - all the qualities we need when we dance.

A choice pick for every man who wants to avoid tripping up the woman of their dreams
Class is an after thought to the modern man. "Every Man's Survival Guide to Ballroom Dancing: Ace Your Wedding Dance and Keep Cool on a Cruise, at a Formal, and in Dance Classes" is a non-dancers crash course in understanding the basics of dance so they don't look like a fool on the dance floor. Understanding rhythm, finding the beat of the music, and how to practice when you don't want to totally reveal your ineptness, "Every Man's Survival Guide to Ballroom Dancing" is a choice pick for every man who wants to avoid tripping up the woman of their dreams.

It's not my kind of book and here's why
I was asked to review Every Man's Survival Guide to Ballroom Dancing, but I'm not its target audience. First, I'm a woman; and my husband is a highly experienced dancer, so he doesn't need me to give him an introductory manual. Second, I'm not a beginner. I have over 20 years of experience in various forms of folk dance, historic dance, and vintage dance. I've been a paid teacher and a paid performer. Third, although I've had my brushes with ballroom dance, I dislike the social atmosphere that pervades it.

Here's what I think of this book. Let's start with the back cover, which is headlined, "Satisfy a Woman on the Dance Floor." This, and all the other innuendo-laden language that pervades this book, exemplifies one reason I dislike ballroom dance. Our culture does not value dance highly. Most people receive no childhood exposure to it--unless you count those square-dance classes in gym, which have turned countless people off dance forever. Anybody who gets other dance exposure is likely to be female, because our culture considers dance more appropriate for females. Ballroom dance studios want to sell long series of classes, and they need male students as well as females. So, their marketing language implies that every dance class and event is a chance to meet, and make close physical contact with, potential sexual partners. That may be fine for some single (and heterosexual) people, but married ones are repelled by the constant pickup attempts that ensue.

In reality, most benefits of dance have nothing to do with sex. Dance is fun. It builds muscle and burns calories. It can be intellectually challenging. You listen to lots of good music. You make friends of both genders, and there is no need to pick any of them up.

The introduction, "10 Tips to Fred Astairedom," begins by reassuring readers. I found beginning male students to be consistently more nervous than the females. They'd seen enough ballroom dance marketing to be convinced that in all couple dances, the male is solely responsible for success or failure. This book fosters that idea rather than otherwise. Nervousness invariably inhibits learning, and this can become a self-defeating spiral. So let me reassure you guys: The "leader/follower" rhetoric, and all the exhortations to "please your partner" are just part of the studios' outdated-gender-role-laden marketing innuendo. In reality, the female has to go to as many classes, memorize just as much, practice just as hard, and sweat just as much. She is fully fifty percent responsible for the success of what you do together on the dance floor. If you're smart you won't reject your partner's help, or deny her ability or participation. This isn't the 1930s, no matter what music you're dancing to.

Chapters 1-3 focuses on "Music" and Chapters 4-6 on "Rhythm." I've been told personally that one of this book's main purposes is to help the rhythm challenged. My sole musical training consists of a few beginning piano lessons, when I was six. My piano teacher made me clap out 3/4 time, 4/4 time, and so on and explained how they worked. I enjoyed it, but not playing the piano per se, so I quit taking lessons soon afterward. Maybe this early instruction explains why I've never been rhythm challenged; although, when I was doing Eastern European and Middle Eastern folk dance, I danced to much more unusual rhythms without having a clue how they worked mathematically.

However, were I rhythm challenged, this book would not help. It goes on for 44 pages with explanations like, "Disco often sounds more `thump thump' than `thump tap.'" I haven't the foggiest what Chapters 1-6 mean. Just explain it to me as, "There's 3/4 time, it goes ONE-two-three, with an emphasis on the first beat, and the dance done to it is the waltz." (Or the mazurka, the hambo, or a number of other dances, but this book focuses solely on ballroom dance.) That's a much simpler and shorter way to explain rhythms. I successfully taught students to understand 5/4 waltz time just by having them clap it out for awhile. You can always ask your teacher to have the class clap out a rhythm, or to call it out while you do the steps, until you understand it physically.

Which brings me to another point: Reading a book will not teach you to dance. Learning dance is largely physical--not mental--memorization. Intelligence helps; but you can have a complicated sequence down cold mentally and still be unable to carry it out physically. If you are a beginner, get to a live class ASAP. This book does not pretend to substitute for a class; it's designed to give you the confidence to start going to class, by reassuring you and by giving you a leg up on some foundation material that will be repeated in class.

Chapters 7-11 discuss "Posture and Dance Frame," "Positions," "Movement and Timing," "Lead and Follow," and "Step Patterns." Here the book conveys some solid and comprehensible material about ballroom dance, specifically. (If you can get past tacky innuendos like, "Finally, the time has come for you to touch your partner!") There's some excellent advice; for example, "The leader does not use his caveman muscles to move his partner around the floor." Aside from the fact that you can't actually "lead" a partner into a step sequence she does not already know, let me tell you about the dancer I know who had to get knee surgery because a partner "led" her into a deep tango dip this way. Chapters 7-11 are all about style. Illustrations would help--there are none--but the real problem is, most students are not willing to learn style until after they learn step patterns. If they come to class to learn the foxtrot, they want foxtrot patterns immediately. If you spend much time first explaining posture, frame, style . . . they look bored, and then they go to the restroom and never come back. So what this book really needs is to teach some specific step patterns for specific dances, which it doesn't. The step patterns are all generalities.

Another facet of social dance is, you go to class, where the floor is seldom crowded. You move around it doing the same choreography as all the other students. They are at about the same dance level as you. You have it down!

Then you get onto a packed social dance floor, where everyone is doing something different and it's like a freeway with no lanes. If this is a fast dance, such as a Victorian polka, it's not unusual for beginners to panic. All this means, however, is that you have not memorized the dance physically. Do some more physical drill and eventually, no matter how panicked you are, your body will do the right thing. You'll be able to focus more on other things such as improvisation--not to mention looking where you are going. However, I assure you it is not obligatory to "flirt with your partner," or even converse. Dance is more fun when you're not trying to do entirely different things simultaneously.

Chapter 12, however, is not about fast dancing. It's about slow dancing. And the problem with slow dancing is what this book calls the "getting in close, the sensual embrace." Here the author admits that there are people you might actually not want to be glued to (for example, your mother-in-law), and that there are some who might not want to be glued to you. There's even a box tip for females, "Do not accept a `crotch lead' from a leader if it offends you." If ballroom dance weren't hyped as largely a way to pick up females, they wouldn't have to worry about this.

Chapter 13 gets to "survival dancing," which is actually a good concept. It contains detailed sections on things like how to fake a waltz. This book hasn't told you how to do a waltz to begin with; still, information on how to fake any kind of dance is helpful. Like, when you get stage fright in the middle of a performance, you have to get through the rest somehow. Believe me, I know. But, unlike the author, I don't advise getting onto the social dance floor and pretending to "lead" a dance you don't actually know and even "sweep a lady off her feet" with it. Find a partner who does know the dance, and ask her to teach you through it on the floor. The social dance floor is not the best place to learn, but it can be done. If your ego can't bear dancing with a partner who knows more than you do, stay off the floor during that dance and learn it later in class.

Chapter 14 is all about "Surviving the Wedding Dance." The wedding dance is a form of performance, and see my earlier advice on physical drill. The information on having a manageable choreography is spot on, as is the information on scoping out the size and shape of the dance floor beforehand. In addition, practice your choreography on it if at all possible.

Chapter 15 consists of "16 Tips for Surviving a Dance." Early on it tells you to wear the right clothes. That's important, but it's even more important to wear the right shoes. If you do any form of dance in running shoes, hiking boots, high heels, or any of the other unmanageable shoes I've seen students wear, you will inevitably look slow and clumsy no matter how diligently you drill. (You may even injure yourself--soles with traction can do your knees a lot of damage.) I can't tell you how many students have exhibited a 50% improvement in style between one class and the next, just because they went to a dance store and bought real dance shoes. If you don't know which shoes are appropriate for the dance form you plan to embark on, the clerk will help you.

Another tip tells you to choose the right partner. Be aware that avoiding certain partners in class sabotages the class, and most teachers won't allow it. One purpose of a class is to enable people to improve by dancing with a variety of partners. As for social dancing--another thing I really dislike about ballroom dancing is that the studios foster competition for medals so they can, you guessed it, sell more classes. This turns most serious ballroom dancers into snobs. They go around the social dance floor asking, "Are you a silver or are you a bronze?" and walk away from every prospective partner who gives the wrong answer.

I think we've established that I personally am never going to take up ballroom dancing. As for Every Man's Survival Guide: If you really need 148 pages of reassurance and somewhat confused information without ever learning any dances, go for it. Otherwise, just go to class. Instead of a ballroom studio chain, try an adult school, a community college, or independently taught evening or weekend classes. They're just as good and they're cheaper.
... Read more

Product Description

Learn how to satisfy a woman on the dance floor. Part guerrilla manual and part cotillion handbook, this book teaches the basic principles common to all music and dance, enabling you to walk onto any dance floor and perform an admirable dance, with any partner, to any music, with confidence and grace.

This book is an insider's guide to ballroom dancing. It's for non-dancers, newbies and beginners. Whether you fear dance or can't dance or hate to dance; or whether you're rhythmically challenged or just new to dance; or whether you've finished dance classes more confused than when you started, this book has the tools a guy needs to know to make his partner happy. (Ladies, despite the title, this book will help you too.)

Here the beat, move your feet: * Learn a foolproof method for hearing the beat of the music * Learn to count music (they don't teach that in dance classes) * Learn the correct way to count step patterns * Learn rhythm: single, double and triple rhythm, the building blocks of all dances * Learn three simple rhythm patterns that will get you through any song * Chapters on: slow dancing, survival dancing, the wedding dance, how to fake a dance, and more * 17 easy exercises (most you can do without a partner)

Free instructional video clips at http://ihatetodance.com

JAMES JOSEPH used to hate to dance. He took his first beginners' class in 1984, and he may hold the record for the most beginners' classes ever taken. He's still taking them. Since 1996 he has trained under Skippy Blair, who is considered by many the teacher of teachers. His current aspiration in life is to become a geriatric ballroom dance gigolo on cruise ships--but he's not old enough so he kills time by writing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Every Man's Survival Guide to Ballroom Dancing
A great book for any man (or woman) who has experienced reluctance to go out on the dance floor.Not only does it provide the beginning dancer with answers to questions they didn't know they needed to ask, but it gives much needed encouragement and support. The author, tho now an experienced dancer, clearly remembers the beginnings of his dance career, and writes with empathy and understanding for those going through this stage.He provides an excellent analysis of music and movement along with practice exercises Though a person can't learn to dance from a book, this provides an adjunct to classes where a person can learn in the privacy of his/her home, avoid the self consciousness that makes us loose our concentration, and learn to gain confidence as a dancer.
In addition, the book is enjoyable to read.It is written with humor, warmth and a nonjudgmental relaxed attitude - all the qualities we need when we dance.

A choice pick for every man who wants to avoid tripping up the woman of their dreams
Class is an after thought to the modern man. "Every Man's Survival Guide to Ballroom Dancing: Ace Your Wedding Dance and Keep Cool on a Cruise, at a Formal, and in Dance Classes" is a non-dancers crash course in understanding the basics of dance so they don't look like a fool on the dance floor. Understanding rhythm, finding the beat of the music, and how to practice when you don't want to totally reveal your ineptness, "Every Man's Survival Guide to Ballroom Dancing" is a choice pick for every man who wants to avoid tripping up the woman of their dreams.

It's not my kind of book and here's why
I was asked to review Every Man's Survival Guide to Ballroom Dancing, but I'm not its target audience. First, I'm a woman; and my husband is a highly experienced dancer, so he doesn't need me to give him an introductory manual. Second, I'm not a beginner. I have over 20 years of experience in various forms of folk dance, historic dance, and vintage dance. I've been a paid teacher and a paid performer. Third, although I've had my brushes with ballroom dance, I dislike the social atmosphere that pervades it.

Here's what I think of this book. Let's start with the back cover, which is headlined, "Satisfy a Woman on the Dance Floor." This, and all the other innuendo-laden language that pervades this book, exemplifies one reason I dislike ballroom dance. Our culture does not value dance highly. Most people receive no childhood exposure to it--unless you count those square-dance classes in gym, which have turned countless people off dance forever. Anybody who gets other dance exposure is likely to be female, because our culture considers dance more appropriate for females. Ballroom dance studios want to sell long series of classes, and they need male students as well as females. So, their marketing language implies that every dance class and event is a chance to meet, and make close physical contact with, potential sexual partners. That may be fine for some single (and heterosexual) people, but married ones are repelled by the constant pickup attempts that ensue.

In reality, most benefits of dance have nothing to do with sex. Dance is fun. It builds muscle and burns calories. It can be intellectually challenging. You listen to lots of good music. You make friends of both genders, and there is no need to pick any of them up.

The introduction, "10 Tips to Fred Astairedom," begins by reassuring readers. I found beginning male students to be consistently more nervous than the females. They'd seen enough ballroom dance marketing to be convinced that in all couple dances, the male is solely responsible for success or failure. This book fosters that idea rather than otherwise. Nervousness invariably inhibits learning, and this can become a self-defeating spiral. So let me reassure you guys: The "leader/follower" rhetoric, and all the exhortations to "please your partner" are just part of the studios' outdated-gender-role-laden marketing innuendo. In reality, the female has to go to as many classes, memorize just as much, practice just as hard, and sweat just as much. She is fully fifty percent responsible for the success of what you do together on the dance floor. If you're smart you won't reject your partner's help, or deny her ability or participation. This isn't the 1930s, no matter what music you're dancing to.

Chapters 1-3 focuses on "Music" and Chapters 4-6 on "Rhythm." I've been told personally that one of this book's main purposes is to help the rhythm challenged. My sole musical training consists of a few beginning piano lessons, when I was six. My piano teacher made me clap out 3/4 time, 4/4 time, and so on and explained how they worked. I enjoyed it, but not playing the piano per se, so I quit taking lessons soon afterward. Maybe this early instruction explains why I've never been rhythm challenged; although, when I was doing Eastern European and Middle Eastern folk dance, I danced to much more unusual rhythms without having a clue how they worked mathematically.

However, were I rhythm challenged, this book would not help. It goes on for 44 pages with explanations like, "Disco often sounds more `thump thump' than `thump tap.'" I haven't the foggiest what Chapters 1-6 mean. Just explain it to me as, "There's 3/4 time, it goes ONE-two-three, with an emphasis on the first beat, and the dance done to it is the waltz." (Or the mazurka, the hambo, or a number of other dances, but this book focuses solely on ballroom dance.) That's a much simpler and shorter way to explain rhythms. I successfully taught students to understand 5/4 waltz time just by having them clap it out for awhile. You can always ask your teacher to have the class clap out a rhythm, or to call it out while you do the steps, until you understand it physically.

Which brings me to another point: Reading a book will not teach you to dance. Learning dance is largely physical--not mental--memorization. Intelligence helps; but you can have a complicated sequence down cold mentally and still be unable to carry it out physically. If you are a beginner, get to a live class ASAP. This book does not pretend to substitute for a class; it's designed to give you the confidence to start going to class, by reassuring you and by giving you a leg up on some foundation material that will be repeated in class.

Chapters 7-11 discuss "Posture and Dance Frame," "Positions," "Movement and Timing," "Lead and Follow," and "Step Patterns." Here the book conveys some solid and comprehensible material about ballroom dance, specifically. (If you can get past tacky innuendos like, "Finally, the time has come for you to touch your partner!") There's some excellent advice; for example, "The leader does not use his caveman muscles to move his partner around the floor." Aside from the fact that you can't actually "lead" a partner into a step sequence she does not already know, let me tell you about the dancer I know who had to get knee surgery because a partner "led" her into a deep tango dip this way. Chapters 7-11 are all about style. Illustrations would help--there are none--but the real problem is, most students are not willing to learn style until after they learn step patterns. If they come to class to learn the foxtrot, they want foxtrot patterns immediately. If you spend much time first explaining posture, frame, style . . . they look bored, and then they go to the restroom and never come back. So what this book really needs is to teach some specific step patterns for specific dances, which it doesn't. The step patterns are all generalities.

Another facet of social dance is, you go to class, where the floor is seldom crowded. You move around it doing the same choreography as all the other students. They are at about the same dance level as you. You have it down!

Then you get onto a packed social dance floor, where everyone is doing something different and it's like a freeway with no lanes. If this is a fast dance, such as a Victorian polka, it's not unusual for beginners to panic. All this means, however, is that you have not memorized the dance physically. Do some more physical drill and eventually, no matter how panicked you are, your body will do the right thing. You'll be able to focus more on other things such as improvisation--not to mention looking where you are going. However, I assure you it is not obligatory to "flirt with your partner," or even converse. Dance is more fun when you're not trying to do entirely different things simultaneously.

Chapter 12, however, is not about fast dancing. It's about slow dancing. And the problem with slow dancing is what this book calls the "getting in close, the sensual embrace." Here the author admits that there are people you might actually not want to be glued to (for example, your mother-in-law), and that there are some who might not want to be glued to you. There's even a box tip for females, "Do not accept a `crotch lead' from a leader if it offends you." If ballroom dance weren't hyped as largely a way to pick up females, they wouldn't have to worry about this.

Chapter 13 gets to "survival dancing," which is actually a good concept. It contains detailed sections on things like how to fake a waltz. This book hasn't told you how to do a waltz to begin with; still, information on how to fake any kind of dance is helpful. Like, when you get stage fright in the middle of a performance, you have to get through the rest somehow. Believe me, I know. But, unlike the author, I don't advise getting onto the social dance floor and pretending to "lead" a dance you don't actually know and even "sweep a lady off her feet" with it. Find a partner who does know the dance, and ask her to teach you through it on the floor. The social dance floor is not the best place to learn, but it can be done. If your ego can't bear dancing with a partner who knows more than you do, stay off the floor during that dance and learn it later in class.

Chapter 14 is all about "Surviving the Wedding Dance." The wedding dance is a form of performance, and see my earlier advice on physical drill. The information on having a manageable choreography is spot on, as is the information on scoping out the size and shape of the dance floor beforehand. In addition, practice your choreography on it if at all possible.

Chapter 15 consists of "16 Tips for Surviving a Dance." Early on it tells you to wear the right clothes. That's important, but it's even more important to wear the right shoes. If you do any form of dance in running shoes, hiking boots, high heels, or any of the other unmanageable shoes I've seen students wear, you will inevitably look slow and clumsy no matter how diligently you drill. (You may even injure yourself--soles with traction can do your knees a lot of damage.) I can't tell you how many students have exhibited a 50% improvement in style between one class and the next, just because they went to a dance store and bought real dance shoes. If you don't know which shoes are appropriate for the dance form you plan to embark on, the clerk will help you.

Another tip tells you to choose the right partner. Be aware that avoiding certain partners in class sabotages the class, and most teachers won't allow it. One purpose of a class is to enable people to improve by dancing with a variety of partners. As for social dancing--another thing I really dislike about ballroom dancing is that the studios foster competition for medals so they can, you guessed it, sell more classes. This turns most serious ballroom dancers into snobs. They go around the social dance floor asking, "Are you a silver or are you a bronze?" and walk away from every prospective partner who gives the wrong answer.

I think we've established that I personally am never going to take up ballroom dancing. As for Every Man's Survival Guide: If you really need 148 pages of reassurance and somewhat confused information without ever learning any dances, go for it. Otherwise, just go to class. Instead of a ballroom studio chain, try an adult school, a community college, or independently taught evening or weekend classes. They're just as good and they're cheaper.
... Read more

Product Description
Gotta Ballroom is your guide to dancing the waltz, tango, foxtrot, and Viennese waltz. Master instructors and professional dancers Christine Zona and Chris George describe and demonstrate every movement, providing you with the skills you need to glide across the dance floor like a pro.

Including a 64-minute DVD, Gotta Ballroom provides specific instruction for social success with the four most popular American style ballroom dances. This one-of-a-kind package breaks down both leader and follower roles to show basic footwork, body positioning, timing, styling, transitions.

With an interactive and structured approach, Gotta Ballroom will soon have you spontaneously moving with a partner and with the music. It provides the tools you will use every day (and night) as you immerse yourself in the experience, pleasure, and grace ofAmerican style ballroom dance. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Gotta Ballroom
I have been delighted with the coverage in this book and DVD.Starts simple, but gives a few of the more advanced figures in four najor ballroom dances.Also has important info on style, body dynamics, etc to supplement the step patterns.It is a very worthwhile investment for anyone who wants to get beyond box steps.

Your book is a dream come true!
I teach two ballroom classes at St. Cloud State University. I intend to use Gotta Ballroom as a textbook. It is reasonably priced and the video is super.

Since it is a university class, it needs to be taught differently than the way I would teach at a commercial studio. The students should be doing a significant amount of work outside the classroom. I think at a commercial studio, some students do all of their dancing at their lessons.

Your text and video will make it easier for them to work outside of the class. Without video or text in my previous classes, they would forgeteverything in between lessons.

Your book is a dream come true!

-Jeffrey Ringer
St. Cloud, MN

Gotta Get it!
This is what I know about ballroom dancing--the more you like it, the more you want to learn about it.It's addictive, and that's probably why the authors chose "Gotta Ballroom" as a title.

Whether you are a beginner, intermediate, or advanced dancer, you'll find a lot to learn and like about how ballroom dancing (Waltz, Fox Trot, Tango, and Viennese Waltz) is presented to you in this book/DVD combo package.

How do I know?I have a great collection of both ballroom dance books and ballroom dance videos that I've acquired over the years. What I like about this book/DVD is that it delivers the whole concept in a way that is logical and easy to understand.The feeling of each dance is described, as well as the footwork, body movement, alignments, and basic step patterns for both the leader and follower. You can read it, look at the photos in the book, watch the DVD, and then refine what you learned by reading that particular segment of the book again. For me, that's the best way to learn--even better than lessons.

While I like lessons, it's almost impossible to remember everything you learned via verbal instruction, and it's equally impossible to go into the depth that this book goes into. I recommend this book to beginners who really want to get themselves off to a great start, and I also recommend it to experienced dancers who want a reference and a bit of a refresher course.

If you could see my copy of the book, you could tell that I especially enjoyed the chapters on "Connecting Music and Dance," "Posture and Movement," and "Two People Dancing as One," by the amount of yellow highlighting.As I thumb through it, I'm reminded of the latest Snapple® commercial--I found some good stuff!
... Read more

Product Description

Be a star on any dance floor!

Product Description
In the wake of the blockbuster television success of "Dancing with the Stars," competitive ballroom dance has become a subject of new fascination--and renewed scrutiny. Known by its practitioners as DanceSport, ballroom is a significant dance form and a fascinating cultural phenomenon. In this first in-depth study of the sport, dancer and dance historian Juliet McMains explores the "Glamour Machine" that drives the thriving industry, delving into both the pleasures and perils of its seductions. She further explores the broader social issues invoked in American DanceSport: representation of "Latin," economics that often foster inequality, and issues of identity, including gender, race, class, and sexuality.

Putting ballroom dance in the larger contexts of culture and history, Glamour Addiction makes an important contribution to dance studies, while giving new and veteran enthusiasts a unique and unprecedented glimpse behind the scenes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

An author with a bad attitude .....
This is an extremely disappointing, and biased depiction of the exciting world of the Dancesport industry.The author clearly has an axe to grind against everyone from judges to former partners. Her comments are racist, and many are simply untrue.Your money would be better spent on dance lessons than on this book.

Sour Grapes
I am sorry, I totally disagree with the Author. I am almost 50, entered into my first dancesport competition last month, as an amateur, with an amateur partner, and I loved the entire experience. Learning to dance, acquiring a difficult skill, the hours of practice, slowly progressing, was wonderful growing experience. The competition itself was an amazing experience, competing on the floor with other dancers, it was a great, enriching journey. The dancers were of all backgrounds, White, Chinese, Japanese, African American, Filipino, everything. It was amazing.

Sure I take the point that ballroom dances originated from pure ethnic sources and are then changed as they travel through the main stream. But what part of our society is not made of of similar origins?Music, culture, literature, all started from ethnic beginnings and are adapted as they merge into the melting pot.

Isn't that a good thing? Does that not keep society fresh and ever changing? The adaptation allows us all to participate and enjoy the activity.

Dance needs to allow more to enroll, not less. And what I saw was it was doing that. It did for me. For a short time, I was something else, I was a dancer.

A Thought Provoking Book
I disagreed with some of the author's ideas, but I'm giving the book five stars anyway, because I enjoyed how thought-provoking it was.The part that I disagreed with particularly was in how much dance is an addiction.It's true, we dancers spend a lot of money and a lot of time on our hobby. In my case, if I have spare time and spare money, it's going into dance lessons and costumes.But I have a friend who is a golfer, and his spare time and money goes into golfing. Same with my bridge-playing friend, who travels to tournaments all over the world. And how about my mathematician friend who loves numbers so much that he went deeply into debt to get a PhD in mathematics?Today he loves his numbers so much that if it were a question of a hot date or an evening with his equations, I think the hot date would win out, but I can't be sure. Are these people addicted?Or is it more simply that in a capitalist economy, people have more spare time and more spare money than ever before, and they're going to spend these resources in the ways that give them the most pleasure?

Anyway, I loved the book. It was thought-provoking as well as full of new information.

Great book
This was a great very current book.It had in it current dancers from "Dancing with the Stars" that has everyone now interested in ballroom dancing.It was great to konw the history and the current goings on in ball room

Unfortunately accurate
After going to a few DanceSport competitions in Australia and watching West Coast Swing competition on DVD I came to similar conclusions as the author of this book. While dance schools in Australia are not in my experience anywhere near as cynical and manipulative as those in the USA, Dancesport itself suffers from many of the same failings. Dancesport takes itself way too seriously. From the overdone fake tans to the grotesque caricatures of emotion ("face acting") to the hugely expensive costuming to the greased back hair and the parents whose egos are invested in their child winning, it is all a bit much. WCS seems to have more of a sense of humour, the costuming is more accessible and there is greater emphasis on actual dance skills in terms of partnering and musicality. And WCS competitors actually seem to genuinely enjoy dancing. So few Dancesport competitors seem to enjoy social dancing that you have to wonder why they bother dancing at all! Having said that, Dancesport does deliver some benefits: teenager competitors have a poise, style and standard of grooming and behavior that will benefit them in other areas of their lives, for example. My one criticism of this book would be its references to cultural theory (e.g. the discussion of 'the grotesque')which to me seems to be a vacuous ideology disguising its lack of any conceptual depth with fancy words. Ironically culture theory is open to many of the same criticisms as Dancesport: all hat and no cattle, as they say in Texas! ... Read more

Product Description
Originally published in 1932, this is a wonderfully detailed guide to ballroom dancing by the then reigning world champion dancer. The book covers everything that is essential in connection with ballroom dancing, from a detailed description of the standardised figures down to the finer points which proclaim the expert dancer. It is a book that will make its appeal both to the novice and to the experienced or professional performer. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Hesperides Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork. Contents Include A Complete Syllabus for a Ballroom Examination General Knowledge Questions and Answers The Slow Foxtrot The Waltz The Quick Step The Tango Charts Giving a Complete Description of Every Standing Figure ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Review of Theory and Technique of Ballroom Dancing
I found the book informative on the most of the basic steps in ballroom dancing, but it is quite thin and a bit old. There are no illustrations and it also lacks a section on the Viennese Waltz.
... Read more

Product Description
The waltz, perhaps the most beloved social dance of the 19th and early 20th centuries, once provoked outrage from religious leaders and other self-appointed arbiters of social morality. Decrying the corrupting influence of social dancing, they failed to suppress the popularity of the waltz or other dance crazes of the period, including the Charleston, the tango, and "animal dances" such as the Turkey Trot, Grizzly Bear, and Bunny Hug. This book investigates the development of these popular dances, considering in particular how their very existence as "taboo" cultural fads ultimately provided a catalyst for lasting social reform. In addition to examining the impact of the waltz and other scandalous dances on fashion, music, leisure, and social reform, the text describes the opposition to dance and the proliferation of literature on both sides. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

scholarly yet entertaining read
"meticulously researched... This scholarly yet entertaining read is recommended for dance, history, and popular culture enthusiasts"

Library Journal, June 2009 ... Read more

Product Description
Learn to waltz, quickstep, foxtrot and tango in easy to follow photographs and diagrams ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Loads of pictures
My wife & I just completed beginning ballroom dancing, and are ready to start intermediate.I've looked at several books on dancing, and have concluded that no two of them teach the same steps the same way.

I found a copy of this at our local library.There are lots of pictures, and plenty of things to keep beginners occupied for quite some time.Many of the dances have the man leading with the right foot.Also, many of the dances proceed in a zig-zag in the line of dance, with the man proceeding backward at times.Wow!

I have picked up several new moves from this book, which supplement what we have learned in our lessons.This book is British, which may account for the difference in style.Still, it is one of the best I have seen.If you want to learn something new, from a source that is clear and concise, this is a great value.It also includes etiquette tips, and the pictures are more than worth the price. ... Read more

Product Description
This book is written for the absolute beginner, not by a dance champion, but by someone who knows what a beginning dancer feels like and wants to know. The basics of ballroom dance are covered in a logical, easy to absorb manner that a beginner can feel comfortable with and see immediate progress. All the most popular ballroom dances are covered with enough steps to enable a complete novice to dance, without overwhelming the new student with technical jargon and ballroom snobbery. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

Good to start
I would welcome more pictures of dancig pairs, not only steps, but maybe you could see them better on youTube :)

Very good for beginners
This is very good for green beginners.You will soon outgrow it, but it will keep you busy for awhile.It has footstep diagrams, which I found very helpful.When you are ready for something a bit more challenging, check out my review for "Ballroom Dancing: Step-by-Step".

My wife & I just completed beginning ballroom dancing classes, and have enrolled for intermediate.It is cheaper than marriage counseling, and more productive and enjoyable.You can't fight when you're concentrating on your dance steps!

Shall we dance?
This is a fine book for folks who haven't danced for a long time. For seniors, like myself, it quickly reviewed the steps I had forgotten. The diagrams are excellent. However, I was not able to get my teen-age granddaughters interested in the book. It does not cover their kind of dancing.

satisfied
Ordered the book 'Shall we Dance' to help me learn foot placement and other helps in ballroom dancing.It was just what I wanted.

Andre
This is a very good basic book for someone wanting to learn Ballroom dancing. ... Read more

Product Description

Twice a week, millions of viewers tune in to watch the magical transformations undergone by their favorite entertainers through the beauty of dance—and now you can bring all that excitement, sparkle, and glamour into your own home.

Customer Reviews (8)

Fine for now, but with 10 years of DWTS, show deserves better book
Dancing with the Stars is one of the most popular shows on TV.While this book is fine, not great,it is still very fun.Most of it is devoted to exercises routines and pictures of the pros Alec and Edyta, but the best part is the season by season run down of the dancers and the stars.
There should be more, more, more.The show has a devoted following of not just the dancing.There is the terrific music.The great music and dance guest stars also make it great entertainment.There should be a section about the costumes, shoes, make up.I hope that the publishers know that there needs to be more pictures, more stories of each season, interviews with the pros who are the backbone of the show, the judges etc.

Wonderful
This is a wonderful cd.It arrived in perfect condition and I am enjoying it very much.

dance
I really made a mistake on this one....I thought it was a dvd, not a book.

Dance moves?
You can not learn any dance moves from the book. However, if you like the show (which I do not watch)then you will like the pictures.

Great Buy
This is a great book if you love pictures of the stars and a list of great Ballroom Dance Music. Not a lot of content, though.
Helen ... Read more

Product Description
This early work on dancing is a fascinating read for any dance enthusiast or historian, and contains much information that is still useful and practical today. Thoroughly recommended for inclusion on the dance lover's bookshelf. Contents Include: Foreword; Preface; Introduction; Glossary of Abbreviations; Technical Terms; Description and Outline of "The Commonly Known Variations": Waltz (Associate); Waltz (Member and Fellow); Foxtrot (Associate); Foxtrot (Member and Fellow); Quickstep (Associate); Quickstep (Member and Fellow); Tango (Introduction); Tango (Associate); Tango (Member and Fellow). Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork. ... Read more