We have many ideas
about the future of ballroom dancing and the role we can play in that future.
Rather than spreading ourselves too thin trying to achieve each of these goals
at once and failing to achieve any of them, we hope to focus on our dreams one
or two at a time.
We do not discriminate based on race, sexual persuasion, or age. We would
like for ballroom to be accessible to all people. This includes people with and
without disabilities, people with various cultural backgrounds, and people of
all financial means. By working with Dancing Wheels, we have reached out to the
differently-abled community. We hope to extend our work with differently-abled
individuals in the future. Although we have to first be able to pay our own
bills, we would also like to develop programs in the future to bring ballroom to
underserved populations who would normally not be able to afford ballroom
instruction.
In keeping with our goal of making ballroom accessible to everybody, we would
like to create an instructional website, on which some lessons would be offered
at no charge. We recognize that this is not the only solution to providing
accessibility, since not everybody has a computer and internet access, but it is
a start. We hope the website would also provide a lot more information about
ballroom to the public and give individuals the confidence to start ballroom
dancing.
In the past, we competed for several years, with one another and other partners.
We did enjoy our time competing, but we also observed negative and destructive
behaviors as a result of the competitive and political aspects of ballroom. As a
result of our observations, we would like to create a non-competitive
performance venue for ballroom. Not only do public ballroom performances spread
awareness of ballroom dancing, but they provide a motivation for technical
proficiency and showmanship, with a greater chance of camaraderie between the
dancers working together as a team. In addition, each dancer can feel proud and
happy about their performance: only one couple wins at a competition;
everybody's a winner when performing together. Yeah, we know it sounds cheesy,
but think about what a nice place the world could be if everybody felt happier
about themselves.
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Many group classes are taught by a single instructor. Barring illness or an
unavoidable appointment, we always teach our classes together. We feel that this
provides to our students a much better understanding of the figures and how they
work. In addition, we put a lot of emphasis on the lead-and-follow of the
figures, with the goal of having our students really learn how to dance with a
partner.
With larger groups, we've developed techniques that seem to work best for the
majority of students. For example, we teach the larger group classes together.
We verbally identify a new figure and then demonstrate it. Then Hank breaks down
the leader's footwork, and Sara does the same for the followers. Our students then
dance the steps individually, with the leaders mimicking Hank and the followers
watching Sara. We discuss important points about leading and following the
figure. Next, the students take a partner and try the figure together, slowly
and without music. We may interject important points about the figure,
especially the lead or follow or an upcoming change of direction, as we dance
through it with them. As the students demonstrate an understanding of the
figure, we dance it up to tempo with them. Last, we have the students dance the
figure to music. We observe and make corrections as needed. Most of the time,
once our students are comfortable with the figure, we will then provide an
amalgamation combining the new figure with ones they've learned in the past.
In both group classes and private lessons, we always try to tailor our lessons
to our students. Especially with smaller groups and individuals, we are able to
address the immediate concerns of our students and to provide very detailed,
specific instruction. If a student is struggling with a particular concept, we
describe or demonstrate the concept in different ways. Again, once we know a
student and begin to have an understanding of how they learn best, we can more
easily find the best way to teach a new concept. For example, some students are
very logical thinkers, so we use very precise step-by-step instructions for
them, often relating the concept to another that they've learned in the past.
For the more intuitive or artistic students, we can use imagery to describe the
way in which they should move.
Finally, although we are flexible in order to help our students meet their
individual goals, we do prepare a lesson plan before holding a lesson. By
putting in this extra time outside of the lessons, we are able to present new
information in a logical order and to design the lesson around the needs of the
group or individual.
With over 22 years of ballroom dance experience between them, Hank and
Sara have trained primarily under Suzanne Gelinas, a former Canadian National
Champion, and Esther Rehm, recipient of multiple top teacher awards. Hank and
Sara have danced and taught both International and American styles of dance.
In the past,
Hank and Sara traveled to many locations throughout the Midwest and eastern
U.S., Canada, and even to England to compete and train in ballroom dancing.
Competing extensively for a few years, Hank and Sara received many awards, both
together and with other partners. Of particular note, Hank and Sara won the
19-Dance Championship of the 1999 DC Dancesport Inferno, and Hank won the Pro/Am
Open International Latin Championship at the 1999 La Classique in Montreal with
Suzanne.
More recently, Hank trained to become a professional contemporary dancer and
performed with first Nadeen O’Connor Dance Theatre,
then Dancing Wheels. For fun, Hank and Sara have also taken classes in other
dance forms, including jazz, hip hop, and ballet.
In many ways, ballroom dancing has been a source of joy in Sara and Hank’s
lives, especially because social dancing brought them together. They teach
ballroom now in the hope that they can share their love for it with others who
might find their lives transformed by it as they have.
In addition to dancing, Hank and Sara enjoy hiking, especially near and in
waterfalls. They also like to read books, especially aloud to one another, and
play games. Hank is interested in nature and garden photography, and has been
recording their progress in making their own garden.
Hank and Sara also share a keen interest in science, medicine and technology.
Sara majored in biomedical engineering and is currently an engineer at Philips
Medical Systems (in her "other life"), while Hank is independently researching
recent discoveries made about the aging process and possible solutions to stop
or reverse it.
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The best way to get in touch with us is to email us at HankAndSaraDance@yahoo.com. You can also call us at 216-475-5719.
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Last updated 18 Jan 2008.
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Copyright © 2007 by Sara Oberrecht. All rights reserved.