Vadim Garbuzov
Thoughts of a dancer
Dance sport compared to other dance styles
The educational system of dance sport differs from other dance styles. If one wants to become a ballet dancer or modern dancer one goes to the academy of the given dance style and gets a 3–4 years dance education which is relatively cheap and attains a degree as a professional dancer. Dance sport on the other hand is based solely on private lessons and training camps with the dancer working his way to the top with results of the competitions. At least in Europe to pay for a good dance academy is not big money because many are financed by the government. Usually, the dancer with the most chances to make it to the top starts dancing at the age 8 to 12. Gets his lessons paid by the parents until he’s 18, and then comes the difference. The parents pay for the further career or one earns the money for dance himself which is quite difficult (dance sport), attends the academy by either taking the student loan in North America or going for the government budget in Europe (ballet, modern, musicals).
Dance sport is probably not such a developed institution as ballet since the system is not sufficient to my view. How is it possible to take regular lessons that are minimum 60€ per hour, travel to other countries for competitions and have constantly new costumes that are thousands of € worth when one is 18 years old? A part time minimum wage job will surely not do if there are no sponsors and parents with money. The no so many who are in such circumstances where they can earn money with teaching are very lucky. If the country does not allow amateur teaching, it is completely illogical from my point of view and a dead end for the dancer because in Europe it is difficult to find teaching possibilities even if it is allowed because of the high-level competition and pro-am being not yet developed.
There is also a percentage of dancers who are studying somewhere for a completely different profession from dancing and dancing from their parents’ money to be able in the future to earn enough to do what they love. Isn’t that a shame? Wouldn’t it be better if they could go into some dance sport academy where they would take some student loan and learn all that is necessary for the dance sport profession until the level of being able to earn the money on their own afterwards? Because such an institution is absent many have to do things that are not contributing to their main goal and the whole system of dance sport is not benefiting because there is not a possibility for everyone to commit completely to what they are doing. This is why I think that the other dance styles have a better developed system.
Vadim Garbuzov, 24 April 2006
Dance is a reflection of one’s personality
Dance is a reflection of one’s personality, as well as parts of daily life like driving and even the way one speaks. By the way someone’s driving you can tell what kind of a person he or she is meaning that by the driving style one sees right away the way this person would drive. It is probably the extreme and wild personalities that are interesting to watch in the dance because they offer a brave and energetic performance. The quitter ones also have their advantages. For example, stability and consistency. The wild one will probably practice whenever he wants, which is not on a regular basis and inconstant. Probably one needs to constantly work with himself to improve the personality and the habits to be better at whatever he does. If one is on a high level in whatever he or she is occupied with, then the personality is probably quite strong and consistent because without these qualities it is impossible to achieve something big.
The idea is to improve your dancing through improving the personality and training out the qualities needed for a certain thing. Passive, closed and held back people are unfortunately not interesting to look at on the dance floor. I do not know a single high-level dancer, even from the top 24 of the world who would be like this. There are quiet people, but they have some kind of a consistency which is an inner strength. I think therefore the work with a personal improvement coach or a psychologist would be more helpful than expensive lessons with teachers who explain certain things about movement because if there is some kind of a block or incompleteness in the mind the dancing will improve quite slowly.
I don’t think that this is a common practice among the dancers today. Their coaches are their mentors, psychologists and movement experts at the same time. Wouldn’t a specialist in his field be more helpful? I think it has something to do with the subdevelopment of dance sport at the moment. Athletes are ahead of dancers in this sense. They have got a better system organized around them. Modern and ballet dancers have got a better system than dance sport as well to my view.
Hopefully the generation of young dancers will think instead of money making about the improvement of the whole dance sport institution. To create academies and universities for dance sport which will involve a complete program of development for individuals with of course the stress onto ballroom dance. At the moment it is very interesting for me to look at dancing from a psychological point of view. To understand how the mind of the dancer is functioning and how to work with the mind of the dancer to improve it. Unfortunately, I do not have the qualification to do so at the moment. Without a bit of craziness and extremity one cannot achieve great things. All of the great people of this world were a bit bizarre. The great dance teachers of today are also not completely normal. In a good way I mean it, otherwise they wouldn’t have achieved the things they did.
Vadim Garbuzov, 12 May, 2006
The Blackpool dance festival
The Blackpool Dance Festival has surely to offer something that other dance comps just can’t. The enormous history behind this competition can be felt inside the walls of the beautiful Blackpool Winter Gardens. It is clear that the atmosphere to dance Blackpool for dancers is just great. The orchestra which plays timeless pieces of music like Talk to the animals is providing some kind of an old school atmosphere which in combination with the high-quality dancers of today creates the impression of moving into the future without forgetting the past. It has been a pleasure dancing every round of it. For most of dancers I spoke to their performance was improving from round to round without tiredness. That is the magic of this event.
History is not only in the Architecture of the beautiful place and the music. It is in the people that are dancing it and judging it. Every judge of the competition was either a finalist or a champion of Blackpool in the past. The qualification of the adjudicators cannot be doubted, although it would be even better if Latin specialists would judge Latin and the Ballroom would judge Ballroom. This I find is a flaw of many of today’s competitions. In 2004 they added international adjudicators to Blackpool, but suspended it the year after which is also not such a good decision for the world dance community. It’s not too bad anyway because it better all English than all German, Russian or Italian. Can you imagine all of the judges being from one of these countries? It would be politically and quality wise horrendous. No other nation has so many highly qualified ballroom dancing specialists as the British. They are also as in other sports known for their fair play.
China did exceptionally well this time. Interesting that the Chinese have raised their level in the last 4–5 years from nothing to Blackpool champions. They won both of the Amateur Rising Star’s divisions with half of the attendants of the event cheering for them because they were Chinese. One of the couples made the semi-final of the big competition in the Latin which was a bit too much for them to my view.
I will talk about the champions now. In the Amateur Ballroom Domenico Soale and Gioia Cerasoli from Italy won the competition for the third time in a row. I think that that is a Blackpool record in the Amateur ballroom. Their consistency and strong physical condition got them through the years as champions. I don’t remember once this couple losing their togetherness and shoulder line, what I cannot say about all the others on a regular basis. It is very hard to keep yourself going for so many years. In the Amateur Latin Peter Stokkebroe and Kristina Juel-Stokkebroe won all the dances with a technically exceptional clear performance. I would say that they have quite a Nordic style of dancing because it is always quite cool and a bit held back. There is also a certain roughness/precision which they have in common with the other Danish couple Klaus Kongsdal and Viktoria Franova who turned Pro. I assume that this characterization comes from their teachers in Aarhus in Denmark. Peter and Kristina for me had the clearest individual style of an Amateur couple since many years. They found their own style in costumes and dance which to me would be clarity and quality of togetherness. I love watching this couple for these qualities. In the Professional Ballroom Mirko Gozzoli and Alessia Betti won the comp storming their way into the professional final three years ago after turning Pro. It is been a long time since someone shot from Amateur Champion to Professional in less than 2 years. Some never make it after many years. The Pro Latin was won for the 5th or 6th time by Bryan Watson and Carmen. They offered a very specific quality. For me they lacked the usual extreme rhythm and energy radiation, although undoubtedly winning all dances.