{"id":2935,"date":"2016-11-28T10:00:34","date_gmt":"2016-11-28T10:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/?p=2935"},"modified":"2016-11-28T10:00:34","modified_gmt":"2016-11-28T10:00:34","slug":"ballroom-lives-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/blog\/lifestyle-self-improvement\/ballroom-lives-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Ballroom Lives On"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So many kids today are knee-deep in competitive sports \u2013 even competitive dance. I know kids who dance five or six days a week, competing, performing, folding their school work and social lives around the dance schedule.<\/p>\n

They probably won’t grow up to be professional dancers.<\/p>\n

Just like kids who play travel soccer, competitive crew, varsity baseball or football or swimming are not likely to compete in their sport in the Olympics or be drafted onto a major league team.<\/p>\n

Kids like whatever activity they get hooked on in childhood and they enjoy it. Perhaps it even guides them along the straight-and-narrow, inspiring good grades and the right kids to befriend.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s great. But the possible career paths for all of these activities are so physically demanding that most people cannot continue beyond high school, maybe college.<\/p>\n

In fact, injuries abound the more years people play, shortening physical careers even sooner.<\/p>\n

Ballroom dance is different. So different.<\/p>\n

I always tell potential teachers that if they want to learn how to ballroom dance, and they’ve been dancers, their career will be a lot longer, even though it’s a physical activity. It’s not as strenuous on your knees, your back, your joints.<\/p>\n

You can have a professional career into your late 20s and early 30s and still compete at a very high level in ballroom dancing.<\/p>\n

Our teachers make good money, even the ones who don’t have a college degree. They continue to compete for many years, professionally and with students.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Ballet is good for posture. Tap and jazz are great for movement, enjoyment and soul.<\/p>\n

But these dances won\u2019t necessarily help our kids later in life when they want to go to a wedding or dance with a partner at the office Christmas party.<\/p>\n

In fact, their history in more formal dance might actually hurt them because they would be stronger than their partner.<\/p>\n

Few sports transcend childhood. Skiing is one. Maybe rowing. Golf, certainly. I grew up as a jock, playing football, running track, diving and more. I skied for fun but never raced. I joined the high school team because I realized it was something I could do after high school and continue the rest of my life.<\/p>\n

Where and how often am I going to go out and play football or run track or dive?<\/p>\n

Dancing, that lasts a lifetime.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So many kids today are knee-deep in competitive sports \u2013 even competitive dance. I know kids who dance five or six days a week, competing, performing, folding their school work and social lives around the dance schedule. They probably won’t grow up to be professional dancers. Just like kids who play travel soccer, competitive crew, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lifestyle-self-improvement"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2935\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}