DanceSport Talk

Had an interesting discussion yesterday about this whole issue of DanceSport as a potential Olympic sport. This particular discussion was about the judging process. IDSF president Carlos Freitag indicated in a recent interview that the IDSF will submit, sometime this month apparently, a framework proposal for how judging must change to accommodate the Olympic push. Carlos said that the model of a group of well-dressed people standing around the edge of the floor (I'm sure he meant moving around the edge of the floor) is outdated. Personally, I find it a highly effective way to judge this particular activity. But I digress.

The person I was talking to suggested that the only viable alternative to the current system is for the judges to sit together at a bench mounted above the floor and watch the event from up there. It's already done for Pro-Am solos.

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With 25 years experience producing creative advertising, I always watch for refreshing new approaches to ads. Good advertising usually takes advantage of cultural trends. So I found it kind of odd that nobody had really done anything creatively inspiring that drew on the renewed interest in dancing. But two new commercials have appeared that really push the boundaries. Both have outstanding production values and use dancing in a creative way that isn't tired or stereotyped.

One of these is for the technology company Orange. It appears to be targeted to aging boomers, and emphasizes the way technology can be part of the dance of life. A middle-aged husband and wife do an incredibly intricate series of dance moves while putting the dishes away and going for a walk. Their movements are beautifully synchronized and illustrate the idea of being in harmony, which is the theme of the ad. I enjoyed it and got it right away. Unlike many modern commercials, it respects the intelligence of its audience, not hitting them over the head with hard sell.

But the best of the two is for a car. Volkswagon produced an ad for the Golf GTI that reproduces Gene Kelly's famous scene from "Singing in the Rain." In this digitally altered new version, Kelly's original scene begins as we know it, until he closes his umbrella. Then, the music becomes funkier and he begins crumping, a kind of high-tech Hip Hop style of dance. It's hard to explain, but I find the commercial delightfully refreshing and very watchable. Good job to both companies for being bold enough to apply the theme of dancing in fresh new ways.

WRD Music has released another pair of albums in the outstanding Ultimate series. These new releases, the Ultimate Ballroom Album 10 and the Ultimate Latin Album 8 are both double albums, with 20 tracks each.

The Ultimate Ballroom Album 10 features some excellent Quickstep selections I haven't heard before, and some beautiful Slow Foxtrot numbers, including "Strangers in the Night" by Andy Williams and "Makin Whoopee" by Julie London.

The Ultimate Latin Album 8 features some good Sambas and ChaChas, including the excellent "Vostochnie Skazkie" Samba number, a Russian song about the Arabian Nights that has great energy. I suspect we might be hearing that in competitions soon. It also features "Mas Que Nada," one of my favorite Samba songs. There are also a couple of strong Rumbas, such as "Satisfy My Soul" by Paul Carrack, and "La Playa." I especially like the Elvis song "Such a Night" which is a Jive selection. The album also includes three Salsa tunes.