Apprentice Auditions - The Scoop

UGA's Ballroom Performance Group will host its semesterly audition on Tuesday, December 4 from 7 to 9 p.m. in the New Dance Theatre in the Dance Building on campus.

These auditions will place you in the Apprentice group, which serves as kind of prep school for BPG. While in the Apprentice group you will have lessons every Tuesday with the director of BPG, Eddie Bonnell and the option of a special lesson on Thursdays. These lessons are a part of your training as a dancer, and will become more frequent after you have graduated into BPG. This is not to scare you off, but you should be aware that there is a significant time commitment in joining these groups. You must have at least 3 semesters remaining here at UGA, to consider auditioning.

If you are interested in auditioning there is an information and practice session tomorrow, Thursday, November 29 at 7 p.m. in the Carver studio of the Dance Building.

Preparing for the audition -

• Be early - You should arrive at the New Dance Theatre at about 6:45 so that you will have time to sign in and get settled.
  
• You should dress nicely.
• Men: button up shirts with a tie and a nice pair of slacks
• Ladies: dresses or skirts and nice tops
• NO JEANS
• Keep in mind that you will be dancing so that super short skirt may not be appropriate for dips and spins
  
• Remember to smile and exude confidence - BPG is a performance group so it is important that you can look relaxed and confidant even though your partner just stepped on your foot.

What you can except in the audition

There are two parts in the audition process: social dancing and choreography

In the choreography section everyone will be taught a simple series of moves. These will not be advanced moves but merely intermediate to basic moves strung together in sequences with some flare. Everyone, in groups, will then be asked to perform those moves. They are looking for how accurately the moves are performed, how closely you stay on beat and sequence, as well as your overall performance of the move ie did it look fun, did it look sexy, ect.

In the dance portion of the audition you will dance three dances with members from BPG as your partners.
Ladies: BPG men should not/will not lead into to anything but basic and intermediate moves.
Men: You are allow to lead anything you know, or think you can pull off -

The three dances are Cha Cha, East Coast Swing and Waltz

Recommended Moves

Cha Cha

• Basic
  
• Cross over breaks
  
• Outside(right) turns aka pivot turns
  
• Cross body lead
  
• The Chase
• Men:
  

Waltz

• Rotating American Style Basic (There will not be international waltz- if you don't know what that means, no worries)
• Walk around turn (outside turn - 6 counts turns)
  
• Progressives
  
• Arch and loop turns (3 count turns)
  
• maybe Twinkles,
  

East Coast Swing

• Triple step basic
  
• Open and Closed positions
  
• Cuddle
  
• American Spins
  
• Arch and Loop turns

Other recommendation

If might be helpful to know a few other moves, just in case they came up. In East Coast Swing,: twisties and Back walks with kicks. In Waltz: right turning boxes. In Cha Cha Mens turn, and loop turns .

FAQs about UGA's Ballroom Dance Club

These are some of the most popular questions I get about our Ballroom Dance Club, so I'm posting them here as a reference.

• How do I join? We don't have a formal membership, you pay per event; there are no club dues.
  
• I never danced before, can I still come? Yes, absolutely. We start with the basics every week at the Sunday Night lesson, so it is completely ok that you've never stepped foot into a ballroom.
  
• Do I need to bring a partner? No, just bring yourself. We rotate partners during lessons so even if there are more girls than guys, everyone gets a chance to dance.
  
• What should I wear? For a regular lesson ie Sunday Night or Swing Club's Monday Night Lesson, dress causally in whatever makes you comfortable. The dress code is a little higher at Friday Night Dances. Most men wear button -up shirts, some with ties and the ladies generally wear skirts or nice slakes.
  
• Do I need special shoes? Yes and no. Its important in ballroom to be able to slide. Tennis shoes which have alot of grip were not designed for this kind of dancing. You should try wear shoes with soft soles like bowling shoes or ballet shoes or just wear socks. It is not necessary to buy ballroom shoes. For more info check out my shoe post.
• What do you teach? We teach the social ballroom dances:waltz, foxtrot, rumba, tango, cha cha, west coast swing, east coast swing, salsa. On occasion we teach other dances like samba, lindy hop and Argentine tango but this is highly defendant on if teachers are available for those dances. We teach in rotating pattern, meaning that every week we highlight a different dance .
  
• What is BPG and are they same as BDC? This is really kind of confusing and not to terribly important because all of the ballroom organizations try to work together in a unified fashion so you don't have to keep up but here is the break down:

The Ballroom Dance Club (BDC) is a non-audition, social dancing organization. We host the Sunday Night Lesson, Workshops, and the Ballroom Formal.
The Ballroom Performance Group (BPG) is an audition only, performance group. They host Friday Night Dances and Ballroom Magic.
There is also the Swing Club who host Monday Night Swing Lessons and Swung, the audition only Swing performance group.
Finally there is downtown, the bars do there own thing we just let you know whats up.

These are the most popular questions but if you have others please comment.

First Dates and Cha Cha

If Rumba is for passionate lovers and tango is for the lovers quarrel, then cha cha is for first dates. Not the awkward awful 'I can't even make conversation with him' first dates but the first dates with playful eyes, teasing giggles, and not-so-hidden winks. Cha cha is cheeky, flashy, and flirty.

This video is of Bryan Watson & Carmen Vincelj who are dancing international Cha Cha. They are professional dancers so the level of difficulty is in moves and styling in this video is very high, but you can still see some basic moves like the chase.

10 steps to being lame

Ladies, we've all met this guy around town, that guy who is fabulous at (insert amazing talent here) ... and knows it.

Its not that he is bad at what he does, after all give credit where credit is do, but we don't need a press release of your greatest and latest accomplishments. Instead I would much rather discover your ever present amazing-ness on my own, after all if your that great I should be able to tell.

To be honest I think that every dance community has one or maybe more of these types within them. I know that I've had the "pleasure" of dancing with a few here in Athens myself. Its important to note that they might not be that way about all dances, maybe its just their favorite dance. That being said it might a good tactic to know what dances make people tick and plan according, if he only dance waltz his best waltz buddies maybe you don't really want to dance waltz with him.

The Dance Primer posted a list of the "10 Steps to becoming that guy NOBODY wants to dance with" which I'm reposting here.

Ladies: this list is an all to true statement of the way those guys are, so enjoy it
Gentlemen: Take heart, we'd love to dance with you but please check the ego at the door

1. Stare at your feet. Or, if you are dancing with someone wearing a low cut blouse - simply look down…
2. Don’t apologize, or even notice, when you throw you partner directly into another moving couple.
3. Do your largest, flashiest, fanciest tricks as often as possible. If your follow doesn’t do it well, make sure everyone knows she’s the one who messed up.
4. While dancing, scan the room for girls you’d rather be dancing with.
5. Ensure your follow always does exactly what you want her to at all times. Use force when necessary. Realize it’s her fault if she gets hurt, ’cause she just not following right.
6. Teach your partners how they should be dancing. Don’t forget to be giving constant feedback.
7. Ensure everyone knows that you know you are the best dancer in the room. When sitting on the sidelines, make sure you talk about how terrible the DJ is, what a bad job the organizers are doing, and how nobody in this town is any good at dancing.
8. Be highly selective about who you’ll dance with: young hot single girls, or only the best follow in town.
9. Offer free lessons to the newest girls, to ensure some alone time with them, and then make sure they know you’re interested in more than just dancing with them.
10. Only smile if your partner is up to your high standard, which, unless she’s going out with you, nobody in this town really is.

Back to the Basics

In ballroom dance ‘The Basic’ refers to the most simple and fundamental steps of any dance. A dancer could easily go through any entire song with only the basic steps, it would however become dull very quickly. More often the basic is used as ‘home’, a place to come back to after doing special moves to regain the feel of the dance. As dancers become more advanced they return the basic less and less, filling the dance with strings of combination of moves that flow into each other.

Dressing Your Feet

Watching dancers, as in the west coast video in the post below, it is amazing to see dancers slide across the floor as they were dancing on ice. While 95% of this ability is skill, ballroom dancers do get a help from their shoes.

Unlike ordinary heels and dress shoes, ballroom shoes have a suede soles that allow for gliding. Suede is ideal because it slick but not, lose control of your limbs, fall over on your bum slick.

Dancers keep control of the smoothness of the shoes by brushing the suede after dancing. By brushing the the soles of their shoes dancers pull up the suede making it rougher and increasing the friction the suede has with the floor.

Dance shoes are also different in the way that they fit. Toes, when in dance shoes, should extend all the way to the edge of the shoe, so that the dancer has complete control over the every inch of the shoes. This connects the dancer to floor by allowing them to feel every point of contact with the floor.

Both men’s and women’s dance shoes have substantial heels. This is so that the center of balance is moved forward in the body and pressure is placed in the ball of the foot. Here the dancer has the greatest control and movement.

Although dance shoes have many benefits, they can be expensive. Most shoes run around from $80 to $130. Many beginners choose to dance in socks, ballet shoes, and bowling shoes. While others simply find dress shoes that have fairly slick soles.