The Ballroom Competition

For Sunday I planned something very new for MMWP: a trip to the Edinburgh University Ballroom Dance Society’s Inter-College Dance Competition (Waltz and Cha-Cha). It was one of my more daring suggestions, for all but one of our members have eschewed the EUBDS, which adheres to the mores of the Revolution: men can be follows, women can be leads, etc. Also, after having a look at photos from past competitions, I sent a warning to all that the ladies’ dresses for the Cha-Cha would be rather short.

Thus, I was unsurprised to count only four MMWP fans (including me) at the event. I was surprised to be asked by the lovely girl taking names and £2.50 at the door if I were Karen Millar, the judge, but as I was one of the few women there with more than forty winters besieging her brow, I should not have been. (I took it as a compliment, however, as KM’s dance school is nationally famous.)

Amanda saved a row for Luis, who was competing, his beautiful dance partner Amy, Krzysztof and me.This gave me an excellent view of the waltzers and Cha-Cha dancers practising before the main event. Luis was in black tie, another young man was in white tie and (for the contest) tails, and one Cha-Cha lead wore a deep V-necked T-shirt, but otherwise the men’s sartorial choices didn’t stand out. The young women were mostly either visions of long gauzy layers with spangles or pearls or explosions of fringes and leg. (One woman, leading another, was cleverly dressed in trousers and waistcoat, à la Marlene Dietrich.)

The idea behind the costumes, I’m told, is to catch judges’ attentions. (We were encouraged to cheer and shout out favourite competitors’ numbers, perhaps for the same reason.) However, I suspect it is also fun to dress and make-up in an extremely feminine style without looking in the least like female impersonators. The waltzers wore their hair in ballet buns, and Amy’s was decorated with pearls. Really, I wanted to convert them all (if necessary/possible) to Catholicism and bring them to the next MMWP event.

All the women seemed like very fine dancers, and some of the men were impressive, too. However, it was quite obvious that there were many more women than men, especially in the Cha-Cha rounds. I wondered why this was, and why it is that this is usually how it is, and if the Revolution has anything to do with it. They should be facts universally acknowledged that most men used to learn how to dance to meet or impress women and that such men do not want to partner-dance with men. I suspect these were arguments of the losing side in a key British Dance Council debate. Naturally, there are probably also complex cultural aspects to men’s participation, too.

Between the rounds of competition, there were “general dances” in which everyone present could dance to 3/4 or 4/4 time. Luis took to the floor with Amanda, and Krzysztof escorted Amy, and I took some photos. Later I danced with Krzysztof, who kindly apologised for my errors.

The only problem with the “general dances” was that there were no sneaky tricks encouraging gentlemen to ask ladies to dance, so many ladies didn’t dance, which was a shame. However, there was a fun sequence dance lesson for which both Amanda and I were fortunate enough to have partners, so that seemed to be a step in the right direction. (No pun intended.)

After that, the winners were announced, and there was much cheering, although I reflected that we all need to learn in school to hold the microphone right up to our lips, whether that is at a dance event or while giving the Readings at the Mass of Paul VI.

It was inspiring to see waltzing done by those who practise regularly, and I thought the ladies’ waltzing attire was feminine and fun. I didn’t like the noisy shouts and cheering, although I suppose that helps put the “sport” in “Dancesport.” Naturally I prefer live music to recordings-and-sound-system, too, and I felt sad about the lack of gender parity. However, without a Counter-Revolution, I’m not sure what can be done about that.

Nota bene: As you see above, the Dancesport Waltz has a much closer hold than the Social Ballroom Waltz.