Jonathan S. Marion - Ballroom: Culture and Costume in Competitive Dance

Ballroom

Dress, Body, Culture

Series Editor: Joanne B. Eicher, Regents Professor, University of Minnesota

Advisory Board:

Ruth Barnes, Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

James Hall, University of Illinois at Chicago

Ted Polhemus, Curator, Street Style Exhibition, Victoria and Albert Museum

Griselda Pollock, University of Leeds

Valerie Steele, The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology

Lou Taylor, University of Brighton

John Wright, University of Minnesota

Books in this provocative series seek to articulate the connections between culture and dress which is defined here in its broadest possible sense as any modification or supplement to the body. Interdisciplinary in approach, the series highlights the dialogue between identity and dress, cosmetics, coiffure and body alternations as manifested in practices as varied as plastic surgery, tattooing, and ritual scarification. The series aims, in particular, to analyze the meaning of dress in relation to popular culture and gender issues and will include works grounded in anthropology, sociology, history, art history, literature, and folklore.

ISSN: 1360-466X

Previously published in the Series

Linda B. Arthur, Undressing Religion: Commitment and Conversion from a Cross-CulturalPerspective

William J.F. Keenan, Dressed to Impress: Looking the Part

Joanne Entwistle and Elizabeth Wilson, Body Dressing

Leigh Summers, Bound to Please: A History of the Victorian Corset

Paul Hodkinson, Goth: Identity, Style and Subculture

Michael Carter, Fashion Classics from Carlyle to Barthes

Sandra Niessen, Ann Marie Leshkowich and Carla Jones, Re-Orienting Fashion: TheGlobalization of Asian Dress

Kim K. P. Johnson, Susan J. Torntore and Joanne B. Eicher, Fashion Foundations: EarlyWritings on Fashion and Dress

Helen Bradley Foster and Donald Clay Johnson, Wedding Dress Across Cultures

Eugenia Paulicelli, Fashion under Fascism: Beyond the Black Shirt

Charlotte Suthrell, Unzipping Gender: Sex, Cross-Dressing and Culture

Yuniya Kawamura, The Japanese Revolution in Paris Fashion

Ruth Barcan, Nudity: A Cultural Anatomy

Samantha Holland, Alternative Femininities: Body, Age and Identity

Alexandra Palmer and Hazel Clark, Old Clothes, New Looks: Second Hand Fashion

Yuniya Kawamura, Fashion-ology: An Introduction to Fashion Studies

Regina A. Root, The Latin American Fashion Reader

Linda Welters and Patricia A. Cunningham, Twentieth-Century American Fashion

Jennifer Craik, Uniforms Exposed: From Conformity to Transgression

Alison L. Goodrum, The National Fabric: Fashion, Britishness, Globalization

Annette Lynch and Mitchell D. Strauss, Changing Fashion: A Critical Introduction to TrendAnalysis and Meaning

Marybeth C. Stalp, Quilting: The Fabric of Everyday Life

Ballroom

Culture and Costume in

Competitive Dance

Jonathan S. Marion

English edition
First published in 2008 by
Berg
Editorial offices:
First Floor, Angel Court, 81 St Clements Street, Oxford OX4 1AW, UK
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA

Jonathan S. Marion 2008

All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the written permission of Berg.

Berg is the imprint of Oxford International Publishers Ltd.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Marion, Jonathan S.

Ballroom : culture and costume in competitive dance / Jonathan S. Marion.

English ed.

p. cm.(Dress, body, culture, ISSN 1360-466X)
Includes bibliographical references and index.

eISBN: 978-1-84788-749-8

1. Ballroom dancingSocial aspects. 2. Dance costume. I. Title.

GV1751.M29 2008
793.33dc22

2008007436

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Typeset by JS Typesetting Ltd, Porthcawl, Mid Glamorgan
Printed in the United Kingdom by Biddles Ltd, Kings Lynn

www.bergpublishers.com

CONTENTS

TABLES

ILLUSTRATIONS

This project would not have been possible without the support, advice, guidance and contributions of a great many people. Direct financial support for the research upon which this text is based came from the World Federation of Ballroom Dancers, the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, San Diego, in the form of an F.G. Bailey Fellowship, from Nina Seattle, and from one other party who wished to remain unnamed. Research of this type and magnitude would also not have been possible without the in-kind support of the many competitions that granted me official access to conduct my research, and I gratefully acknowledge the access I was accorded by: Blackpool Dance Festival (20022003, 2005); California Open (20022003); Can-Am Dancesport Gala (20022003); Colorado Star Ball (2001); Crystal Palace DanceSport Cup (2003); Desert Classic (20022003, 2005); Embassy Ball (20022003); Emerald Ball (20022007); Empire State Dancesport Championship (2002); Feinda - Italian Open (2003); German Open Championship (2002); Golden State Challenge (20022006); Holiday Dance Classic (2001, 2003); Intercontinental Dancesport Festival (2002); Ohio Star Ball (20012002); Pacific Dancesport (courtesy of Donald Johnson in 2002); San Diego Dancesport Championships (2004, 2007); San Francisco Open (2002); Seattle Star Ball (2004); Southern California Amateur DanceSport Championships (2003); Southwest Regional Dance Championships (20022003); Star Championships (2003); Unique Dance-O-Rama (2003); USABDA National Championships (20012002); United States DanceSport Championships (20012007); and Yankee Classic (2001, 2004 2005), and I especially want to thank competition organizers Wayne Eng, Ann Harding, Tom Hicks and Thomas Murdock for their ongoing interest, assistance, support and facilitation throughout my research.

The studios that granted me official access, deserving no less thanks, are: Arthur Murray (Boston and Paoli); Champion Ballroom (San Diego); Dance Options (Cheam); Fred Astaire (Boston); Kaisers Dance Academy (Brooklyn); Metronome Ballroom (San Francisco); Dancesport Academy of New England (Brookline); The Semley Studio (Norburry); Starlight Dance Academy (Streatham); Stopfords Dance and Fitness Center (Mitcham); Viva Dance (Thornhill); and the S dancesport club (rhus). Good friends in the dance world who have shared their feelings, experiences, homes and hotel rooms along the way include F.J. and Catherine Abaya, JT Thomas, Jim Gray and Sunnie Page, Larinda McRaven, Dawn Smart, and Felipe and Carolina Telona (as well as their parents). Likewise, my experiences within the world of competitive ballroom dancing demand thanks to my various partners Amy, Erin, Renee, Janelle, Stacey, Krista, Leslie and Andrea and coaches Yolanda Vargas, Donald Johnson and Katarzyna Kozak, as well as the ballroom photographers who allowed me to shoot alongside them: Chris Hansen, Dore and Park West.

This book would not be what it is without the input, advice and support of a great many people including: Steven Parish for overseeing the dissertation research upon which this text is based; Joel Robbins for advice on the proposal that led to this book; Becky Carpenter for her invaluable feedback on the first iteration of this manuscript; David Marion for helpful suggestions on the introductory materials; Devin Flaherty and Kristin Bronowicki students in my Spring 2007 Anthropology of Performance class at the University of California, San Diego and the anonymous reviewers of both the proposal and manuscript for this book for the critical suggestions for which this text is undoubtedly better; and Nara Cox for her assistance in indexing the final manuscript. Robert Bunnett deserves more credit than I can possibly express for his generous and unflagging support in finalizing the materials presented in this book, including numerous challenges, questions and suggestions for which this text is far the richer. Most of all I owe my ongoing gratitude to Dress, Body, Culture series editor Joanne Eicher for her initial interest in my writing such a book and her ongoing support throughout that sometimes trying process, and to Hannah Shakespeare I could not have wished for a more supportive, informative and accommodating editor.