Vadim Garbuzov
Thoughts of a dancer
Vadim Garbuzov, before 20 July 2006, Austria
Legend
It’s a shame that one cannot become a world known legend being a ballroom dancer. We work hard our whole competitive lives, just like the other athletes and artists. A skiing champion will be known by all within the country because it’s shown on TV and talked about on radio. Top quality ballet dancers like Baryshnikov, Nureyev and Bruhl will be always known throughout the world. Their concerts were attended by thousands of people every evening and they were in the newspapers and on TV. Not so many know the world champions in sports, but the Olympic stars are surely known by a wider range of audiences; especially in their home countries. Nobody that is out of the dance world knows Donnie Burns and Gaynor Fairweather (14 times world pro Latin champions), Bill and Bobbie Irvine or Markus and Karen Hilton (9 times world pro standard champions). These achievements in dance sport are surely comparable to Baryshnikov’s and Nureyev’s in ballet. They are also comparable to Len Armstrong’s unbeaten titles in Cycling or Mike Tyson in boxing.
The question is: «Why are other sports or dance forms known to the public more than dance sport?». I think that boxing is popular because pure fighting is in the blood of any human being since the beginning of the existence of us as species. It’s somehow the force of survival, especially a million years ago. The sweat, pain, anger are all very purely sensed by the human mind when watching fighting sport like boxing. Skiing is also more widely watched than dancing. Surely as a separate discipline the various ski sports exist longer than ballroom dancing, but is it the main reason?
The phenomenon of dance exists much longer than any of today’s sports. People always expressed themselves through body motions to some beats, and always showed their relationship to the opposite sex. To my view today in dance sport the factors that are the most attractive to a large scale of people are very high-class body actions, an intimate relationship between the man and the woman, the competitive factor and beautiful attractive people and costumes. I think that competitive ballroom dancers or teachers today are intellectually on the same level as all the other types of dancers (jazz, ballet, modern) and could be on bit higher level than all of the other sports. Ballroom dancers usually have good manners, have quite a good understanding of dealing with the opposite sex and are psychologically powerful.
Vadim Garbuzov, 2 December 2006
Business note on dance sport
I wanted to touch a subject people usually do not about. The financial side in dance sport. There are many markets around the world connected to different business models. Each of them depends on the financial situation in the area as well as the cultural background. It is nice to see how ballroom dancing spread from its original source in Europe. Of course, it was brought to Europe from other sources as Africa and South America. The biggest and most attractive markets today for the average dance teacher are probably Asia and North America. Taking Vancouver, Canada, as an example, we can see that all of the high earnings in the ballroom dancing field are created by the richer than local Hong Kong and Taiwanese communities, specifically, the ladies. It can partly be explained by immigration from Hong Kong to politically stable North America to escape hands of communist China that recently took over the region.
Since all of the business ties are in Hong Kong, many husbands decide to risk it, and stay more in Hong Kong while the wives and kids are in Vancouver to have a home and obtain Canadian citizenship. Since business in Hong Kong is going well and the communists are not extreme, the kids grow up obtaining a North American education while some ladies go back. One can hardly see a Caucasian lady in Vancouver taking a private ballroom dance class on her own or competing in a pro-am category.
The middle range teacher in Vancouver costs about $60 an hour. The most popular lesson clients are single ladies and rarely couples. The most expensive in the city is $120 for 45 min. There are hardly any lady teachers in Vancouver, and if there are any, they charge less than the males of the same level. Some feel that the Hong Kong style entertainment for women, evening dance and tea dance is not profiting the profession and taking away from dancing competitions which is an income source for the organizers and teachers. For a pro-am competition the range is 10 to $300 per dance to the teacher plus about $200 to the organizer for the entry. To my estimate, a teacher would dance an average of eight dances per comp.
Hong Kong is a booming market today for dancers longing to make some quick cash. Every top dancer that I know of goes there at least once a year. The earning on the average can easily be higher than those listed above. There are quite a few European dancers who have Hong Kong as a primary residence today. Taiwan and Singapore have a similar ballroom dance scene, just a bit lower paid. Another interesting one is Japan. They love to dance as well and pay generously to the high-level people. There is a great number of professional couples there, and unlike in Hong Kong, Taiwan and North America, the teacher’s income is mostly based on couples. The Japanese follow the British rules and do not allow amateurs to teach, unlike the other Asians that do it the way they like it themselves. What I can say is that people should do more postings about their local situation in dance finance. We in the dance community need to be more open in this sense. I will continue this series in the next article with some more analysis.
Vadim Garbuzov, 7 August 2007
To V
You don’t love me anymore,
I feel it in your voice.
To you I’m nothing but ã bore because
You now have choice.
You hurt me now with what you do
With where you want to go.
All day I only think of you,
Oh, God! I feel so low.
The feeling you just cannot hide.
I cried 3 times today.
This situation from any side
Is not going my way.
You don’t love me anymore.
It’s shocking, so hard for me to take it.
My heart is already so sore.
Don’t know if I can make it.
For the first time in my life
I love a girl this much.
You cut my soul with a knife,
I don’t feel your soft touch.
About all good times that we’ve had together,
The memories remain.
A part of me you are forever,
Remembering is pain.
You don’t love me anymore.
Were hurt by my stupid behavior.
From heavy tears I start to mourn,
So often you were my savior.
You used to love me – I was free,
I flew like I had wings.
You gave just positivity,
In all of earthly things.
For quite some time your love was strong.
You showed it everywhere.
All I did was go along.
My darling you are rare.
You don’t love me anymore.
Don’t know what you will say.
I hope this poem you will store
In safety when you are away.
Vadim Garbuzov, 27 September 2008