November 12, 2006

• I wonder if the social aspects of dancing the waltz had an effect of their quality of life ratings. Treadmills and stationary bikes are pretty solitary regimens, but waltzing allows you to talk to your partner, and you get to touch someone else, maybe even cop a feel - both those can be limited for many heart patients, especially older ones. Interesting first post, Vin Ethyl.
• "I don't have arrhythmia - I just don't have rhythm!" I took a tango class recently, and it was indeed great exercise. And the human contact was indeed a plus. Although, getting so close to so many different aftershaves didn't do wonders for my lungs.
• I've been learning ballroom and Latin dancing for the past couple of months and it's really quite good exercise. Try an hour of jive or quickstep a week and see how much you sweat.
• Yeah, but... There are many good types of exercise where sweating isn't the goal. An hour of sweaty jive might kill off a lot of these folks, not to mention trash their knee replacements. Which they began earning when they danced the beebop back in the 1940s. :)
• I have twice been subjected to ballroom dancing lessons thanks (so to speak) to my spouse. I can now tango, foxtrot, waltz, cha-cha, samba, and merengue all in a quite medicocre way. I would have much preferred to learn one dance and one dance only, and do it well. It was confusing to try and learn so many at one time, and since practice was almost nil, most every move was soon forgotten. For those who get lobbied by their significant others to take dance lessons, beware: unless you practice and actually go dancing once a month or so, you will frizzle away all you learnt. And never, ever go to a franchise dance studio. The people there dance well and sucker sell much better. Stick with the adult education night classes and the like. Unless you have (literally) thousands of dollars to spend on dance instruction.
• A good point. When I was paying for the classes, I never missed one. But I never seem to muster the energy to go to the free practicas on Thursday nights.
• I totally agree, Ralph. I would love to pick a couple of dances and get really good -- and if you go the competitive route you can do that -- but I am definitely mediocre at everything. I am more confident on my feet than I used to be, though, and so is my poor coerced spouse. And yes, you're right path -- maybe a mellow evening of foxtrot and waltz is the way to go, with those gammy hips and knees and things. I daresay I'll be doing that thirty years from now. :P
• When I was living in Victoria (BC) some years ago me old Mum and Dad came for a summer visit. We went for a stroll on the walkway around the Inner Harbour after dinner one evening and came upon an old busker playing waltzes on a small, rickety piano on wheels that he had trundled down to the walkway to entertain the tourists. Mum and Dad listened for a few moments then looked at each other, smiled, and began to dance. Seeing them dance together on that summer evening is one of my fondest memories. /sappyfilter
• awww lovely story islander! *tap dances away*
• I bet the Austrian medical community was saying to itself "How did we let the Italians beat us to the idea of medical waltzing?"
• Well, the Italians have been practicing dance-related medicine for a while now! Now Entering Derail City One of my first piano books had a really creepy-looking picture of a dancing kid with a spider bite on his leg on the page with the tarantella. It bothered me so much I never wanted to practice that one.
• Sufi whirling.
• MonkeyFilter: you get to touch someone else, maybe even cop a feel Let's dance, shall we? *suppresses sly grin
• And if you go to the policemen's ball you can not only cop a feel, but feel a cop.
• What's all this then??
• MonkeyFilter: An hour of sweaty jive might kill off a lot of these folks Mmmmmm, There's a lot of you I like to think of all sweaty and overheated.
• I don't think that extended sessions of dirty dancing are always good for the heart. But what better way to go?