Dance For Life
PUBLISHED: JUNE 2009
SOMETIME IN THE mid-2000s, in an article in Enterprise Magazine, Ma. Emilia Z. Silva, vice president of Alsco Development Corp., a real estate company with offices in Makati City and Sta. Rosa, Laguna, started ballroom dancing because, she recalls with a big laugh, "my doctor told me I have high cholesterol, and I needed to exercise.”
The first choice was actually to go to the gym - what she did, too, though eventually, almost immediately dropped, mainly because "just after a month (of regularly visiting the gym), I got bored." When a friend suggested for her to go dancing, Silva did - and never looked back since.
Obviously, ballroom dancing helped Silva maintain her cholesterol level, as she recalls "even losing weight to be a size smaller than I was when I started." With a new found love for dancing, Silva subsequently opened Studio 116, a ballroom dance studio that “aims to popularize ballroom dancing, not only as a competitive sport, but also as an alternative (activity) to keep yourself healthy while having fun.”
EVOLVING DANCE
Ballroom dancing has been an indispensable part of gatherings of the elite in the olden days, but the concept of dancesport – generally defined by the Dancesport Council of the Philippines as “the pairing of male and female dancers using the required technique, together with floorcraft and artistic interpretation to produce a highly disciplined dance performance” – started in 1907 in Nice, where choreographer Camille de Rhynal saw the business sense in making use of dance to attract and earn from its followers. By 1921, dancesport already had different categories (professionals, amateurs, and mix couples), with the dances generally grouped into Standard, Latin, and Formation dances. The Standard dances include Waltz (based on the American Bostonwals), Tango (from Brazil), Viennese Waltz (from the South German Alps area), Slow Foxtrot (popular 1940’s bar dance), and Quickstep (derived from foxtrot, only slower). Latin dances include the Samba (originally African, but popularized by carnival parties in Brazil), Cha Cha Cha (developed from the Mambo), Rumba (defined as a new type of foxtrot with additional hip actions), Paso Doble (the only Latin dance not coming from the “Negro” culture, with roots in Spain), and Jive (swing dance influenced by the Rock & Roll, Boogie, and African/American swing). And then there’s the Formation dancing, where couples dance the same steps in synchronized manners.
More people, however, opt to ballroom dance not necessarily to compete, but simply to have fun.
FIRST, THE BAD
“(Ballroom dancing) is addicting,” Silva says, “very, very addicting.” Meaning, it is not for anyone without the time or the effort to spare - and the cash, too, since "once you get hooked on it, it will cost you a lot."
The ongoing rate for ballroom dancing lessons range from P2,500 to P3,000 for two hours. But there are cheaper group classes, with a module that is good for four one-hour sessions, that only cost P1,600, translating to P400 per session. For those wanting to avail of sessions only (not the whole module), the cost is P500 per session. Private lessons (one student per teacher) are usually charged from P1,000 to P1,500 per hour. The studio is also available for rental for P1,650 per hour.
In truth, though, the amount being discussed are still reasonably affordable, especially when compared to the amount a competitive ballroom dancer has to raise when competing.
Studio 116 Latin dances instructor Ednah Ledesma, the only Asian to win the Blackpool Senior Latin Champion (in 2005) in the United Kingdom, says that for every competition she joins, she has to raise $8,000, “which is about half a million pesos. Besides that, there are the costumes that could cost up to $600 each, the shoes that could range from $200 to $400, and a lot of practice time in the studio (for dancesport competitors, workshops range from $120 to $130 per 45 minutes). If you really quantify everything, it will be from half a million pesos or more.”
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