Ballet Vs. Ballroom: Compliment or Contradiction

So You Think You Can Dance is all about finding the best over-all dancer, someone that can do all styles, ballet, hip-hop, modern, ballroom – whatever is thrown their way.  It pits top dancers from each genre against each other – trying to learn, and execute, each others’ styles.

Most of the dancers have spent the majority of their young lives focused on excelling in one or two forms of dance – the form of dance they now do so well.  Then they are asked to do something totally different – or is it so different?

Ballerina Practicing

There are quite a few ballroom dancers that started in a different form of dance – ballet, modern, jazz, etc. only to fall in love with ballroom once exposed to this magical form of dance.

“There is something about moving in complete unison with another that doesn’t get explored in other forms of dance” says competitor and teacher Maren Oslac.  “People who try it either find they love it or they don’t.”

Erika Cianciaruso was born and raised in Montreal, Canada, and began ballet dancing at age 3. She discovered ballroom in Hartland, WI, as a pre-teen and knew she found her calling.  She is trained in various styles but her strengths are in Latin and Smooth.  Ballroom dancing is now one of her strongest passions and she’s started teaching to share her love of ballroom.

So is it one or the other?  Or is there room for both?

Julie Lowe was a Principal Ballerina with the Oakland Ballet Company touring extensively throughout the United States and Europe, performing many of the company’s leading roles, and working alongside luminaries of the dance world.

Ballroom Dancers Practicing

In 2000, she met Diane Jarmolow, founder of the Ballroom Dance Teachers College in San Francisco, and the bridging of the ballet and ballroom worlds began for her.

She is now a ballroom dancing instructor, and Director of the Ballet Program at the Metronome Dance Center in San Francisco.  This successful bridge of the worlds of ballet and ballroom, provides dancers the opportunity to enhance their technical and artistic skills in both dance forms.

Many of today’s top competitive and professional dance couples have worked with Julie, including Six-Time U.S. Finalists, David & Valentina Weise, 2005 U.S. Rising Star Latin Champions, Vaidas Skimelis & Jurga Pupelyte, and West Coast Swing National Finalists, Arjay Centeno & Melissa Rutz.

In the end – dance is dance, and each form compliments the other forms.  It’s obvious from watching any season of So You Think You Can Dance.  Each dancer is superb at what they know – and yet they get better over 12 weeks – by learning other forms of dance.

Whatever inspires you – pursue it, and pursue it some more – and then – maybe try something else!