Why Partner Dancing?

The Beginning

Swing dancing is what first truly hooked me. Before that time, I'd felt drawn toward dance but couldn't overcome my shyness or sense of awkwardness in front of other people. I played soccer for eleven years, so I was athletically coordinated, but that didn't help me on any dance floor. It took the firm support of a friend to get me through the first month of frustrated learning. It has been seven years since that first spring, and I've come a long way.

Foundation

First, some clarification: partner dancing depends on some level of movement foundation. It isn't a replacement for a basic sense for groundedness and coordination. I've found that the best partner dancers have also trained or practiced, whether formally or informally, in at least one other solo dance form.

This doesn't mean, though, that you can't begin with partner dancing. I actually started out with swing, and I was so enamored with the feeling of movement that I quickly branched out into other styles, sampling everything from ballet and modern to West African and jazz to Butoh. Now I realize that these styles contributed a lot to my own personal style of movement.

But wait! Don't get me wrong! I've never formally trained in a single form for a very long period of time. I like to sample many different approaches and then combine the best of those approaches. So, if you're worried about the basics, or feel that jumping into a partner dancing class would require hours of additional practice, have no fear! Most partner dancing classes (and ours especially) offer some level of foundational movement.

The Fundamentals

So, after all these years, even after I've discovered the inward meditativeness of Butoh, the pure athleticism and exuberance of West African dance, or the infectious rhythms of tap, why do I still choose to dance with a partner? My reason can be boiled down to what I feel is the essence of partner dancing, three core concepts:

• connection
• musicality
• movement

Connection, musicality, movement. Movement, connection, musicality. The order isn't as important as what these three simple words encompass.

Connection

This is my favorite element of partner dancing. To begin a dance, two people touch hand to hand or arm around waist or in some other way, and at the point of contact the movement begins. Pressure, balance, tempo, and force are all communicated physically by the entire body. For a space of several minutes, two people have the chance to talk without voice, to communicate without language, to use their bodies to connect in a way that isn't otherwise possible. It's obvious to most of us that each of us has a completely unique voice, or fingerprints repeated nowhere else in the world. We forget that our movement signatures are just as original. It's an exciting experience to learn how two people can merge their styles and move together.

Musicality

The music is actually a third partner. Its many layers provide a canvas inside which two dancers compose their dance. Rhythm and tempo are its most obvious contribution. Then there are its melodic phrases which rise and fall, quicken or slow, and in turn direct the flow of dancing. Deeper still is the emotion that a voice or an instrument can express, feeling that further sparks the flow of a three minute shared experience. When two dancers meet and dance together, they listen and respond not only to each other, but to the music as well.

Movement

Movement alone is much different from movement with another person. Solo dance takes direction from music, from the dancer's intellectual, physical, or emotional impulses, from the environment, and from a choreographer's cues. Partner dancing involves these factors as well, and then adds all the layers that a second person brings to the moment. These include that person's unique interpretation of the music, style of movement, and sense of connection. Once two people have found some basic common language, then moving together is a matter of exploration and discovery that often unlocks realms no solo dancer has ever experienced.

Putting it All Together

In the end, partner dancing involves everything that makes dance wonderful, plus more. When I dance with another person, I'm completely in the moment, aware of the music, my body, and the body of the person I'm dancing with. I'm aware of touch as well, the places where we connect and how my feet move across the floor and how the weight of my body is translated for my partner and vice versa. I also have the chance to be myself, without the clutter of words, to be expressive in a way that communicates directly to one person alone. For the space of a few minutes, I get to say whatever I want to say, express however I would like to express, connect how I would like to connect with that single person. The magic happens when the other person has this same realization, and together we create a conversation, an exploration, a bit of magic that unfolds spontaneously and authentically.

Then the song ends, the dance is complete, and I can walk away with a sense of fulfillment: I've just connected with another human being in a completely unique way. How often can we say this of our daily interactions with other people? This is what makes partner dancing so wonderful, a moment of clear, unburdened connection outside of the routines of our everyday lives.

–David, 2005/2006