How's your stamina?
In the latest issue of Dance Beat (or Dance Bleat, as it was referred to by Donnie Burns recently), Maxim Chmerkovskiy made some interesting comments about the stamina levels of couples who dance. He said that he has noticed a consistent flaw in even the top couples, related to mental and physical preparation. He compares the activity level of dancing to figure skating and basketball, and doesn't understand how some couples find it challenging to dance through a five-dance semi-final, or a final round.
"How do they allow for technique/stamina to become non-existent after a minute of Cha Cha, forty five seconds of Samba and half way through Rumba?" he asks, then goes on to say, "Some couples barely 'live through' the third gipsy of Paso Doble and have zero mid-section action in Jive." He has found that even though he would have loved to mark some couples well as a judge, he couldn't, because they would finish the dance barely moving.
Maxim says he's a strong believer that great competition produces great couples and in his eyes this includes their level of stamina. I too have witnessed competitors -- sadly even the under-21 group -- coming off the floor almost collapsing from exhaustion. There's no excuse for that. We need to help motivate each other to stay fit enough to make it through several rounds of competition with energy to spare. Competitor practice is a great way to do that, since the regular effort of dancing five dances in a row multiple times for an hour and a half does a wonderful job of building stamina.
"How do they allow for technique/stamina to become non-existent after a minute of Cha Cha, forty five seconds of Samba and half way through Rumba?" he asks, then goes on to say, "Some couples barely 'live through' the third gipsy of Paso Doble and have zero mid-section action in Jive." He has found that even though he would have loved to mark some couples well as a judge, he couldn't, because they would finish the dance barely moving.
Maxim says he's a strong believer that great competition produces great couples and in his eyes this includes their level of stamina. I too have witnessed competitors -- sadly even the under-21 group -- coming off the floor almost collapsing from exhaustion. There's no excuse for that. We need to help motivate each other to stay fit enough to make it through several rounds of competition with energy to spare. Competitor practice is a great way to do that, since the regular effort of dancing five dances in a row multiple times for an hour and a half does a wonderful job of building stamina.
