Dear Poppy,
Are full, floor-length skirts, stage makeup, and up hairdos necessary or traditional in ballroom dance competition? Isn’t it time for ballroom dancing to become appropriate with the times? Are ballroom dancers living in a time warp?
Time Warp
Dear Time Warp,
Well!! Time Warp, indeed! That was pretty harsh. However, I can respect your ignorance because I have the answers. Ballroom dancers wear their hair up in competition because they would rather show the judges a good neck line, which shows the continuous line of the body, and complements the overall body lines that the judges are looking for.
As for makeup, the effect desired has to do with the distance between the dancers and the judges, just as in makeup for the stage (it has to be heavy to be seen from the back rows of an auditorium). Have you ever seen the size of a competition floor for ballroom dancing? It’s much bigger than the stage on Dancing with the Stars. Finally, Sweetie, the full skirts allow for the competitive quality ballroom leg division required in ballroom leg movements. Traditional, no; “practical” is the word that comes to my mind, Sugar.
Ms. Poppy Chiffon — the doyenne of dance, the baroness of ballroom etiquette, the sultana of Southern hospitality — is pleased to answer your dance-related questions. Here are a few queries that Poppy deigned to extract from her mailbag this week. If you have a question that you would like Poppy Chiffon to address, please e-mail her at askpoppy@dancestationusa.com. Ms. Chiffon regrets that she cannot respond individually to questions.
