Most people today upon hearing the words ballroom dancing think of popular shows and movies, such as Dancing With The Stars, Shall We Dance, and Dance With Me, in which dancing is often portrayed as a seductive prelude to romance or a flashy display of glitter and skin by the most talented and handsome faces of our day. Such impressions are not altogether unfounded. The fact is, sex and glamor sell, and the producers know this all too well. It is not surprising then that they should choose to represent the centuries-old art of ballroom dancing in such an unfortunate light.
So is ballroom dancing implicitly sexual? Should it always be associated with prideful and snobbish displays of talent? Ought we view dancing in partnership as a first step on the road to fornication? If so, surely we should keep our children from dancing at all costs!
Unfortunately, this attitude is not very realistic, especially in our day and age. The art of dance in all of its various forms is more popular today than it has been in decades, and our youth are right in the middle of its revival. We can expect that many, if not most, children will dance at some point or another, and if parents neglect to inform their kids as to what is acceptable in dance and what is not, no doubt MTV and popular movies will fill in the gaps. Now that's scary! Parents who want to shield their children from the evils of dance as seen on MTV and the like must realize (and many do) that it is not enough simply to issue their kids a long list of "Do Nots!" and expect that to do the trick. Rather, they must also encourage the "Dos!" by showing their kids what is good and acceptable. So unless dance itself is a sin, as certain Christian denominations have unfortunately made it out to be in the past, concerned parents would be advised to encourage dancing in a way that emphasizes values, that teaches kids to honor and respect their partners, and that keeps proper personal boundaries intact.
Such is our goal at I've Got Rhythm. In a day when more and more young men and women are being taught to ignore their God-given differences, we would teach them to appreciate and accentuate those very good differences in one another for all that they are. Where the world would have them center their lives around the almighty anticipation of sexual encounter, we would have them discover the substance of personal relationships with the opposite sex within appropriate boundaries. The message of the mass media is strong, and a strong counter-message is much needed. Thankfully we have found that ballroom dancing provides the perfect medium by which to communicate just such a message in a creative and entertaining way that kids will remember.
"So what's this program all about," you ask, "and why should I want my children to participate?"
Consider this reality. Kids grow up to be adults, and we hope that when they do, they will have the character and grace to treat each other with the all the dignity that is due one another, especially when it comes to the pervasive topic of interaction with the opposite sex. Yet many young men and women simply don't know how to interact with one another (even many adults are at a loss) because they were never taught, so they act according to the unrealistic fantasies of film and stereotype and follow in the footsteps of peers, who all too often are equally as clueless. The result: many painful, unfruitful, and unnecessary mistakes.
Imagine an alternative: a controlled environment where kids learn early on how to handle one another in an appropriate manner, where boys learn that real leaders lead for their partners' sakes rather than their own, and where girls learn the reward of following for the good of those who lead them. Such is the implicit design of formal ballroom, and when dancers depart from these principles, the overall look of their dancing suffers visible setbacks. Hotdog control-hungry leaders are easy to spot, and snobby malcontent followers are equally as obvious. No amount of talent can repair the damage inflicted on the look of a couple's dancing than selfishness borne out on the dance floor. But when a leader dances to show off his partner, and his partner follows his lead with a confidence that he will lead her well, the beauty of the dance begins to surface.
Now imagine what might happen if these these kids one day made the connection between their time in dance class and real life? What if young men learned to lead in their homes with their wives' best interests in mind? What if young women learned to express confidence in their husbands' leadership and did everything in their power to make them look competent? Might not the beauty seen in such a dance partnership also be found in the home and beyond?
Our kids program at I've Got Rhythm is fundamentally based on the idea that ballroom dancing is able to provide a visual, auditory, and tactual metaphor for real-life relationships that kids can actually participate in. Kids in our program do not merely hear the message, as with a sermon, or see the message, as with a popular film, but also live the message in practice within the context of a dance partnership, and of course doing is always preferrable to merely hearing or seeing for long-term retention. On the other hand, they are not just dancing either, but their ballroom instruction is accompanied by a positive message that teaches about appropriate touch and physical boundaries, about differences between the sexes and how each sex ought to respond to its counterpart in order to accentuate the goodness of those differences, and about the many rewards of dancing selflessly for one another. Of course, it is also our hope that when kids are introduced to an acceptable form of dance, they will be able to identify the lewd if not immoral forms of dance so prevalent in our culture.
If you think you and parents like you would be interested in organizing a group to take part in our kids program, please download and read through the forms below. These forms outline the essential steps in getting a group organized at the studio or instituted at your children's school and provide other important details, such as pricing information and possible setups for a class. If you have any questions, about the process or would like futher details about the programs itself, please call Bryant at (502) 895-1581. Thanks for your interest!