Performance Team… What’s that?
I’ve gotten a lot of inquiries about our Performance Teams lately, so I thought I’d answer a few common questions. Hopefully I will be able to address what the difference is between a Performance Team and Formation Team, and the benefits of joining a team of dancers, as opposed to social dancing or being involved in competitive DanceSport.
What’s a Performance Team?
It’s a team of dancers whose main goal is to introduce Ballroom dancing to the general public by entertaining audiences with fun, exciting and portable show routines that can be danced in various locations and environments.
What benefits are there to joining a Performance Team?
The benefits are plenty, but of course, it depends on what your personality is like. If you’re enthusiastic about dancing and love to perform in front of people, then you will definitely enjoy yourself. Show routines are set to a specific piece of music and are often themed, requiring costuming to match that theme. For shows, we don’t have to follow any specific guidelines or steps, so we can mix dance styles and even partners. And of course, if you like being part of a team, a Performance Team definitely promotes friendship and comraderie.
Why don’t I just dance socially?
Social dancing is indeed very enjoyable, and probably quite stress-free. However, learning a specific piece of choreography to a set piece of music, gives you a slightly different challenge and therefore also a different reward. You can dance more difficult figures, since you are able to rehearse with regular partners, and you are definitely challenged more mentally, as you need to memorize your routine, so as not to mess up the entire group. Costumes and getting into a certain character, or even just the character of the dance, is always a lot of fun. If you’re ready for a challenge, want to achieve something very specific and you enjoy the thrill of performing in front of others, then the Performance Team is for you.
Why not just go into competitive dancing?
The most obvious answer to that one is… partners. It’s always difficult to find a partner that is suitable for you. Not only do they need to be at the same level of dancing and have the same goal as you, but they also need to have a similar work ethic and personality… especially if you’re going to be practicing several times a week together. In contrast, for the Performance Team, partnerships are not set in stone forever, and the team environment helps relieve pressure off the individual couples. Generally the time and energy commitment to the Performance Team is a lot less than that of a competitive partnership.
What’s the difference between Performance Team and Formation Team dancing?
A Performance Team allows the dancers a lot more freedom in choreography, costuming and music. Regulated Formation Teams, like competitive DanceSport, follow a specific set of rules. The show must be a certain length, it must cover all the dances in that dance style (i.e. Latin Formation must include all 5 dances: S,C,R,PD,J and Standard Formation must include W,T,VW,SF,QS), lifts and tricks can only be done for a certain amount of time, and formations can only be broken for a certain percentage of the time.
Hopefully the above clarifies things for you all. The bottom line is: if you enjoy performing and would like to do it with a group of enthusiastic dancers in an open and creative environment, Performance Team dancing is for you!
If you’re interested in joining either our Senior or Adult Performance Teams, please contact us directly.
