The Yin and Yang of Ballroom Dance

Elaine Smith, LMP, LMT, SK, CNHC OR Lic# 6668

Simple definition: The nature of change, balanced as two halves of a whole.

Yin and yang is a concept of duality forming a whole. No place in the world of sports and recreation is this seen more than on the ballroom dance floor. Although yin and yang appear to be opposites, they only exist by virtue of each other. Things are yin or yang only in relation to other things. Some examples include: day and night, sky and earth, water and fire, active and passive, male and female. Ancient Chinese people viewed the world as a harmonious and holistic entity. They saw that no single being or form could exist unless it was seen in relation to its surrounding environment. The same is true of the ballroom dance couple.

Look to nature and see the relationship to dancing. Watch the set patterns of animal or bird migrations. To me these resemble the sets of patterns a couple may create as they repeat them around the dance floor. The seasoned and experienced dance pair can do them almost without thinking like the animals that follow their instinctual patterns of migration. Consider day time and night time. Nothing is completely yin or yang. This is easy to see as the Yin of night slowly transforms to the Yang of day. Then the Yang of day slowly transforms into Yin of night. During that time of transition it is easy to see that we are not looking at two completely separate parts. Yin and Yang are interdependent upon each other so that the definition of one requires the definition for the other to be complete.

The same is true for the ballroom couple. To define one person of the dancing couple requires the definition of the other. Watch a West Coast Swing couple. This rhythm is known for the rubber band effect or breathing effect of coming together and pushing apart. Watch as during the Yang phase he gathers her closer and then the separation or Yin phase as pushes her away.

Watch a couple dancing a Waltz and see the easy ever flowing balance between the two partners. The partners easily show the yin and the yang as they glide around the floor as two halves of the one whole called Waltz. Change the rhythm to West Coast Swing and watch the couple come together and apart resembling waves crashing onto the beach and then retreating. Watch a Rumba, Argentine Tango, or Paso Doble and become very aware of the male and female energies of the partnership.

When people learn that I dance they are often amazed to learn I dance in the ballroom style. They know me as an independent woman, a massage therapist, Reiki Master, and intuitive healer. Why would I enjoy such an archaic dance with old fashioned male and female roles and set patterns? They imagine that I would follow a more esoteric form of dance, something that would follow a more tribal, sacred, or earthy form. I agree that those forms are amazing and help one get in touch with mother earth, or one's heart beat. But it is in ballroom that I experience the balance of life, the ebb and flow, the yin and yang. I believe if the ancient Chinese could watch modern ballroom dancing they would see a harmonious and holistic entity.

Now, those of you in one of our beginning dance classes may say, "Sure, this may be true for the experienced dancer but where is the yin and yang in the timid, perhaps clumsy steps of a new dancer?" I might smile and remind you that perhaps you are just experiencing the rougher, or yin side, on your way to the smoother, or yang side, of this entity called dance.

Elaine Smith helped her dance instructor husband, Dennis Smith, teach free style ballroom and pre-choreographed ballroom (round dancing) at RoseSprings Center for the Healing Arts.