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It has been a long since the last time I did social dancing. It must sound strange since I have kept teaching social dancing, however strange it is, the truth is that since the start of teaching dancing, seldom a chance for social dancing.
Social dancing in the classroom would usually be basic figures- the term 'basic figures' here means 'syllabus figures' but not 'easy figures'. The dominant phenomenon in Hong Kong in social dancing has been the prominently outstanding number of ladies. Men are rare on the dance floor, and thus ladies always need to practice on their own. This inevitably results the nice footwork for ladies but poor following skills for them. And this gives us a problem. Social dancing, by the term itself, about spontaneous lead and follow dancing. It should not be choreographed and it would never be a set piece. It is about the music being played, your dance partner for that particular tune and the spontaneous connection between you both. Ladies without enough following skills can never enjoy the joy of social dancing- they are too busy thinking about their routines. To worsen the problem, Hong Kong ladies are not used to being invited by a stranger. The places we have for social dancing are nice restaurants, but people are too used to coming in groups, and they prefer to dancing with the people in their groups, and not the others. Every one frequents these places know the culture very well and has developed a compromization that the floor is what the groups can share but the people are not for sharing. The joint effort of all these help everyone grow with familiarity towards the foot steps but not the familiarity towards the dances.
In fact, the idea of spontaneous dancing could be quite strange for non-dancers, and even beginner dancers, as on the television dancing is almost always portrayed in other formats, such as a competition or show. Strictly Come Dancing is a classic example, where contestants on the show spend a week learning set choreography and then perform in front of a panel of judges. Social dancing is a world away from this. Social dancing is not a series of dancing pattern among a particular group of people, it should be shared by every one who wants to move; otherwise it is not 'social'.
The hardest point for ladies is that they don't have a chance to try with a lead in class, and they don't even think about to invite a stranger to lead them in social events.
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