Waltzing
A Manual for Dancing and Living
by Richard Powers and Nick Enge
Peggy Recommends: Buy This Book!!!
Reviewed by Peggy Pollard, July 25, 2014
On the plus side --
”Waltzing, A Manual…” is much more interesting than my DVIDA Ballroom Dance Teacher manuals.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad I have the manuals for precise clarification when teaching Viennese Waltz the better to relate to hyper-technical engineers who populate such waltz classes. Yes, precision is important. BUT, there is more to waltzing – and life – than just angular sharpness.
Precision is helpful mind you. But in truth it has taken me about 10 years now to even be aware of exactly what my feet do during the fast waltzes, much less the precise fraction of turn on each moment, much-MUCH less in-between counts vs. on the count … its kind of a blur down there, so far below on the floor, at 190 bpm.
Sadly, most ballroom instruction books are written like engineering texts. My research shows a scant number of waltz instruction books and nearly all are straightforward “how to” technical instruction books for correct competitive dancing styles, usually written by champion dancers. Even sadder, of the few books written on how to waltz, fewer still include anything on WHY to waltz.
Except this one.
Authors Richard Powers, considered by many to be the world’s expert on history and teaching of American social dance, and co-author Nick Enge are both Stanford trained engineers (see what I mean?). Their dance lessons at Friday Night Waltz dances near Stanford are usually filled with engineers. But the dance hours there are anything but robotic and mechanical.
When I first experienced the teaching of the renowned Powers, I quickly found that, after mastering basic footwork, these dances are really about how to soar -- spinning around the room in the arms of new friends. Fridays has become a heaven on earth for me, including a band of sweaty angels.
Tellingly, the dictionary metaphors of waltz are described as: “lively,” “easily,” “successfully,” “boldly.”
Because Waltzing is a way to live.
“Waltzing, A Manual…“ is way more than dance mechanics. It’s about how to partner all our relationships in life.
But this is a rare way of teaching dance. The DVIDA Viennese and Box Waltz sections of my teacher’s manual. contain three semi-interesting paragraphs on History of Waltz, followed by 20 pages of technical info with many acronyms, angles and hyper-precise specifications for foot placement, angle of toe turnout, amount of sway, body turn in fractionsssssszz… zzzzz…
OK, back to the fun book.
But on the minus side –
This book is TOOooo fun. The problem I have with it is, when I attempt to focus on a specific topic , such as a comparison of Viennese vs. Rotary waltz -- instead of learning it definitively, I get swooped up in a metaphysical labyrinth of thought tunnels like…
And the best part of all is the humorous collection of illustrations and caricatures (which we of modern era sensibilities call “Cartoons”) of waltz dancers in various eras of dress, from corseted and bustled to miniskirts and jeans, states ranging from queasy, tremble-legged, to Midnight Madness, to the hilarious most odd-shaped dance partners who ever embraced on the ballroom floor in “Specimens of Waltzing” (pg. 130). Looks like myself with many of my dancing partners! Yet all of us have a common look on our faces -- the dizzy exhilaration of waltzing.
Sheesh… reading this book is like a typical dance at Friday Night Waltz, where some Stanford student, 30 years younger than me, grabs my hand and sweeps me into a Cross-Step with a bazillion new moves I’ve never done before. First bewildered, then exhilarated, I follow as best I can, then as the music ends, I gasp with a saucy wink "Let’s do it again!”
But perhaps this topic meandering is my own fault, from my renegade habit of opening a new book at the end first? On the other hand, with 85 short, and shorter, eclectic chapters (love Chapter 42!) this book certainly invites the reader to open it anywhere.
But enough wandering! Time to FOCUS! Pressure is mounting! I have only a week to prep for my next Sunday Social Dance, teaching precisel definitive difference between the two dances. The engineers will want to know! So, determined, I read afresh, this time from the front.
"Waltzing, A Manual..." begins with a philosophical explanation of its writing style, flows into the history and concept of waltz, clear, diagrams of basic waltz positions, then takes a deep plunge into Cross-Step Waltz, the unabashed favorite style of the authors, as well as many waltz dancers worldwide.
From there, the book leaps into the various and sundry transcendental musings. And again I am sucked into the free-association vortex chain. After many philosophical detours, I discover, that halfway through the book are Rotary and Viennese waltzes are discussed. Is this on purpose? Could it be that the way Powers and Enge are teaching waltz in the book is also a brilliant metaphor for life? Or are waltzers just hyper-metaphorically inclined?
Hmmm. Let's waltz and find out!
But the authors' lofty thoughts are firmly weighted down to reality. The book is filled with delightful quotes of waltzers whose feet have nimbly trod the wooden planks of ballroom floors of the earth for centuries past, waltzers with names like Csikszentmihalyi, Zubair Ahmed, Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother, and this from Terri Guillemets --
“Dancing faces you towards Heaven, whichever direction you turn.”
Ditto with this book.
Buy It! Waltzing A Manual for Dancing and Living by Richard Powers and Nick Enge, available on Amazon or Barnes & Noble
On the plus side --
”Waltzing, A Manual…” is much more interesting than my DVIDA Ballroom Dance Teacher manuals.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad I have the manuals for precise clarification when teaching Viennese Waltz the better to relate to hyper-technical engineers who populate such waltz classes. Yes, precision is important. BUT, there is more to waltzing – and life – than just angular sharpness.
Precision is helpful mind you. But in truth it has taken me about 10 years now to even be aware of exactly what my feet do during the fast waltzes, much less the precise fraction of turn on each moment, much-MUCH less in-between counts vs. on the count … its kind of a blur down there, so far below on the floor, at 190 bpm.
Sadly, most ballroom instruction books are written like engineering texts. My research shows a scant number of waltz instruction books and nearly all are straightforward “how to” technical instruction books for correct competitive dancing styles, usually written by champion dancers. Even sadder, of the few books written on how to waltz, fewer still include anything on WHY to waltz.
Except this one.
Authors Richard Powers, considered by many to be the world’s expert on history and teaching of American social dance, and co-author Nick Enge are both Stanford trained engineers (see what I mean?). Their dance lessons at Friday Night Waltz dances near Stanford are usually filled with engineers. But the dance hours there are anything but robotic and mechanical.
When I first experienced the teaching of the renowned Powers, I quickly found that, after mastering basic footwork, these dances are really about how to soar -- spinning around the room in the arms of new friends. Fridays has become a heaven on earth for me, including a band of sweaty angels.
Tellingly, the dictionary metaphors of waltz are described as: “lively,” “easily,” “successfully,” “boldly.”
Because Waltzing is a way to live.
“Waltzing, A Manual…“ is way more than dance mechanics. It’s about how to partner all our relationships in life.
But this is a rare way of teaching dance. The DVIDA Viennese and Box Waltz sections of my teacher’s manual. contain three semi-interesting paragraphs on History of Waltz, followed by 20 pages of technical info with many acronyms, angles and hyper-precise specifications for foot placement, angle of toe turnout, amount of sway, body turn in fractionsssssszz… zzzzz…
OK, back to the fun book.
But on the minus side –
This book is TOOooo fun. The problem I have with it is, when I attempt to focus on a specific topic , such as a comparison of Viennese vs. Rotary waltz -- instead of learning it definitively, I get swooped up in a metaphysical labyrinth of thought tunnels like…
- How to enter the Dream state, why my nocturnal adventures feature high school exams which I had no idea I was supposed to do and didn’t study for (after 40 years, enough already!)
- What constitutes a "Sketchy Partner"
- Mark Twain on why Schottische is so delightfully scandalous (warning – pretty much EVERY popular dance EVER was first condemned as scandalous)
- Albert Schweitzer on Gratitude
- Neuroplasticity and why laughter is good for our physiology as well as dance partnering
- Reasons why generosity improves our health
And the best part of all is the humorous collection of illustrations and caricatures (which we of modern era sensibilities call “Cartoons”) of waltz dancers in various eras of dress, from corseted and bustled to miniskirts and jeans, states ranging from queasy, tremble-legged, to Midnight Madness, to the hilarious most odd-shaped dance partners who ever embraced on the ballroom floor in “Specimens of Waltzing” (pg. 130). Looks like myself with many of my dancing partners! Yet all of us have a common look on our faces -- the dizzy exhilaration of waltzing.
Sheesh… reading this book is like a typical dance at Friday Night Waltz, where some Stanford student, 30 years younger than me, grabs my hand and sweeps me into a Cross-Step with a bazillion new moves I’ve never done before. First bewildered, then exhilarated, I follow as best I can, then as the music ends, I gasp with a saucy wink "Let’s do it again!”
But perhaps this topic meandering is my own fault, from my renegade habit of opening a new book at the end first? On the other hand, with 85 short, and shorter, eclectic chapters (love Chapter 42!) this book certainly invites the reader to open it anywhere.
But enough wandering! Time to FOCUS! Pressure is mounting! I have only a week to prep for my next Sunday Social Dance, teaching precisel definitive difference between the two dances. The engineers will want to know! So, determined, I read afresh, this time from the front.
"Waltzing, A Manual..." begins with a philosophical explanation of its writing style, flows into the history and concept of waltz, clear, diagrams of basic waltz positions, then takes a deep plunge into Cross-Step Waltz, the unabashed favorite style of the authors, as well as many waltz dancers worldwide.
From there, the book leaps into the various and sundry transcendental musings. And again I am sucked into the free-association vortex chain. After many philosophical detours, I discover, that halfway through the book are Rotary and Viennese waltzes are discussed. Is this on purpose? Could it be that the way Powers and Enge are teaching waltz in the book is also a brilliant metaphor for life? Or are waltzers just hyper-metaphorically inclined?
Hmmm. Let's waltz and find out!
But the authors' lofty thoughts are firmly weighted down to reality. The book is filled with delightful quotes of waltzers whose feet have nimbly trod the wooden planks of ballroom floors of the earth for centuries past, waltzers with names like Csikszentmihalyi, Zubair Ahmed, Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother, and this from Terri Guillemets --
“Dancing faces you towards Heaven, whichever direction you turn.”
Ditto with this book.
Buy It! Waltzing A Manual for Dancing and Living by Richard Powers and Nick Enge, available on Amazon or Barnes & Noble