DANCING AT THE INTERFACE OF THE SOCIAL AND THE THEATRICAL: FOCUS ON THE PARTICIPATORY PATTERNS OF CONTEMPORARY COMPETITION BALLROOM DANCERS IN BRITAIN

Abstract

This paper seeks to identify the range of people who comprise the competitive ballroom dance subculture. Sporadic articles in broadsheets and their associated weekend magazines (see for example Calkin 1992; Margolis 1993; Bracewell 1994; Harding 1997) have identified many misapprehensions and suppositions relating to the participants and the dance practice. Little critical work exploring the dance form exists, but it is encouraging that writers have begun to consider the social dance genre (Ward 1993), and there is evidence of the start of research into ballroom dancing (Thomas and Miller 1997). Used generically the term 'ballroom dancing' evokes the notion of a dance idiom characterised by an individual couple orientation. The dance form is participatory, and when performed in competition, male-female partnering is required. Ballroom dancing is often referred to by its practitioners as 'social ballroom'