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Interesting story, tux, but I have to ask this question about it: was the salsa contest judged by people from the ballroom dance community, or people from the British salsa community at large? In other words, were some of the judges from the "club" or "street" style of salsa, or were they all ballroom judges? If they were all ballroom judges, then might that not partly explain why a ballroom-style couple won?

Laura

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The Judges were:

Brian Torner Canada
Gary Edwards Miami
Paul Bottomer England
Ansell Chazan England
Gordon Fox Scotland.

I believe Ansell Chazan is a Salsa promoter, not absolutely sure. Paul Bottomer is fairly prominent in Argentine Tango, I believe also reasonably active in the salsa teaching area. Obviously Brian is from the more 'established' Latin competition style. Perhaps the others could be categorised by other posters?

On the topic of this thread: I have to agree with the comment from the poster in front of me. Basically, dancing is dancing, enjoy it and learn how to do it as best we can perform! Leave the snobs on both sides to their amusements and just dance!!
Cheers

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<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by <Ithink>:<BR><STRONG><P>BTW, I wanna hear some hard-core lindy dancers chime in here: don't you laugh when ballroom people invade a lindy dance and do jive? Same thing happens in salsa clubs!<P>Ithink (proud to be a ballroom girl who must look pretty darn good to ballroom people in clubs and who definitely looks good to fellow salseros!)</STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Yes, hard core lindy hoppers laugh when ballroom people invade a lindy dance. And no, there is absolutely no jealousy behind it. <P>They find ballroom dancers to be stiff and contrived. And you know what? I often agree. I think that a lot of ballroom dancers try so hard to be *precise*, that it manifests as the pole in the a$$ syndrome, as was so eloquently expressed in an earlier post.<P>I am a hard core ballroom dancer, and a hard core lindy hopper, proudly both at the same time. And it took me 2 yrs. of dancing lindy hop (I've been doing ballroom for 6 yrs) to learn how to separate the two.<P>They are different. And even competitive lindy hoppers think ballroom dancers are funny. <P>The difference is in the value. Hard core lindy hoppers value musicality, connection, and improvisation above all. Definitely no concern with lines, extension, attitude, none of it. <P>And I don't think there's any need to say that one is better than the other. I have incorporated the musicality, expression and fun that I have learned from lindy hop into my ballroom. And with that, I enjoy ballroom even more!<P>And I always get complements on my frame and my spins from lindy hoppers. You can bet that comes from ballroom training. [image]images/icons/wink.gif" border="0[/image]<P>I think dancing is dancing is dancing. And if we all open our minds and experiment with different types, we can only gain from it and improve as dancers.<P>Why can't we all just get along?! [image]images/icons/confused.gif" border="0[/image]

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The frame isn't rigid.

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