In Norway “Sportsdans” or Latin & Ballroom is mostly known as a competition dance (hence the term “sport”), but in many other countries the dances also appear as social dances, and as means of entertainment. For instance you will find samba at the carnival in Rio de Janeiro (Brasil), tango at the milonga night clubs in Buenos Aires (Argentina), and viennese waltz at the TV transmitted New Years ball in Vienna (Austria). In Norway none of the Latin & Ballroom dances are publicly outspread, and people mostly know of them from TV-programmes such as “Skal vi danse”, “Dancing with the stars”.
With a total of ten dances, Latin & Ballroom is an inherently diverse style of couple dancing. This makes Latin & Ballroom especially appealing for those who have a many-sided dance interest, and that want a taste of not just one dance, but many different styles and dance expressions. Latin & Ballroom is also different from the other couple dances at NTNUI dance in the way that most of these other dances are fundamentally rooted in social dancing and improvisation. On the other hand, Latin & Ballroom at NTNUI dance focuses more on the technical and performative parts of the dance, which is aligned with the dances function as competition dance. This characteristic also makes the Latin & Ballroom dances appear as visually impressive dances to the viewers. In classes we focus a lot on practicing technique and choreography for the dance show which is held together with the other dances at NTNUI dance at the end of every semester. The difficulty of the show choreography is adjusted to the different levels, so that dancers with everything from zero to quite a lot experience can participate. Usually, not everyone wants, or even has the possibility to participate in the show. Therefore the classes will be arranged in a way so that everyone can benefit from them, regardless of show participation.
Due to the fact that Latin & Ballroom consists of so many dances, and that every level only has one class during the week, there will not be time to go through every dance in just one semester. The three different levels beginner, intermediate and advanced are assigned to each their main dance which they practice through the semester, and at last present on the dance show. If you want to learn even more Latin & Ballroom dances you can therefore assign yourself for different levels. Additionally there will from time to time be given shorter courses in other dances in your current class, as a variation from the main dance. Reach out to our instructors if you have a specific dance you then want to learn, and we will try to make it happen.
Latin & Ballroom is as previously mentioned known as a competition dance. For the time being we have no competing couples in our group, but it’s possible to compete through our club if you would like that. Contact us to receive more information about this.
We recommend all of our dancers and those interested to become a member of our facebook group: NTNUI Dans: Sportsdans. Here we continuously post all information concerning the semester, and the instructors can easily be contacted.
If you have questions you can also send a mail to dans-sportsdans@ntnui.no.