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--One sign that an activity is catching on in America is that it becomes increasingly competitive. A fast-growing dance-sport community, made up of competitive ballroom dancers, is campaigning to include ballroom in the 2008 Olympics. (The International Olympic Committee recognized dance sport as a legitimate sport in 1997.) Among the many websites that serve the ballroom community, www.dancescape.TV is visited daily by tens of thousands of fans and participants. How come? There's a lot to recommend ballroom, of course--whatever age a person is. It provides good cardiovascular exercise and helps develop muscle tone, grace, poise and balance. It's affordable and can be learned in a relatively short time. But its popularity among the young is particularly welcomed by parents who, with some reason, fret about the safety of their children in the harsh and sometimes violent world in which so many grow up today. "What we are really teaching the students is respect, teamwork and transferable skills," says Dulaine. "Our students learn that the most important thing is to be able to work with another human being. And what they learn stays with them for life." Dulaine, like many other dance teachers, shows his students how to walk in a way that reveals that they respect themselves and others, as well as how to request and accept a dance--as they would any favor--and express thanks afterward. Above all, Dulaine shows them what it means to be kind. Scientist Ronnen Levinson, author of a social-dancing handbook, Much Ado About Ballroom Dancing (see website www.outdancing.com) says this is one of the aspects of ballroom that is so special: "When you are dancing socially, you are nice to your partner all the time." In some dance schools, students also learn telephone, dating and interviewing skills, as well as basic manners. There's even a charm class at M.I.T. that includes ballroom dancing, intended for students whose brilliance may not always compensate for their awkward ways once they're out in the real world.
Children might initially attend classes because their parents want them to, but they won't want to come back unless those classes have a certain coolness factor. And the media are confirming that dancing is very cool. The Broadway musical Swing and movies like Dance with Me, Swing Kids and Swingers all celebrate dancing. Ballroom-style dance routines are also turning up on MTV and in movies like What Women Want, Blast from the Past and The Mask of Zorro. Ballroom competitions are being presented more frequently on TV. Latin stars like Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez and Carlos Santana are releasing numerous ballroom songs that appeal to young audiences. Jim Anzelmo, an 18-year-old senior at Madison's Edgewood High who takes ballroom as a gym elective, was strongly influenced by a 1998 ad for the Gap featuring handsome young people doing the lindy hop. He remembers thinking, "It would be great to learn to dance like that."
Today's dance teachers understand that students who enjoy their classes are likely not only to stay but also to bring along their friends. Price Tyson, 9, and his older brother Robby Tyson, 14, attended a weeklong dance camp last summer at Gulf Coast School of Performing Arts in Biloxi, Miss. The brothers had so much fun that they decided to continue dance lessons again this summer and have persuaded "a whole lot of other guys to come to camp."