Teach Yourself Ballroom Dancing (Teach Yourself General)

Oh dear! A classic example of a celebrity cashing in on his status. A major gripe with this book is that the author lacks any writing ability whatsoever and so makes up for it in the use of 'candy floss' gibberish. He constantly fills this book with useless and irritating waffle like a californian high school girl at a pyjama party which, for the beginner,just gets in the way of the learning experience. However, the book's death blow comes from the fact that the author has spent the bulk of his efforts concentrating upon describing the style of the dances. Aswell as dragging on a bit this excessive glamourisation is wasteful; What a beginner really needs is comprehensive faultless diagrammatical foot positioning of near mathmatical precision. Simply put he needs to know where his feet are supposed to be at any particular moment. This is certainly not what you get from this book. Far too few foot diagrams of figures (a figure being the grouping of a number of steps into a distinct pattern which bungled together with other figures in various ways forms a particular dance)and when they are there they don't seem to connect together (or the author just forgot to tell us how to do that) Guidance is also lacking on how to start the dances. What we have instead is Len (who appears to be a co-author of some sort) popping his head round the corner with extra useless stylistic tips delivered in rhyme (which only adds to the irritation.) In summary, there are far supperior books out there for beginners. Ps (don't be fooled by a flick-through which gives the book the appearance of being an idiot's guide which it most certainly is not. Pps The photographs of the couples at the start of the book were usefull in demonstrating the different holds (Even though greater use of close ups, particularly of where the hands go, could have been used.) However, The book's crammmed full of sequential photo's of couples performing various figures. One can imagine a video clip of this being useful but these sequential photo's tell the beginner absolutely nothing. As i said, style over substance.

Not what it seems (9/9 people found this helpful)

This is an attractive book at first sight. However, it does not contain enough diagrams for foot positions and has some basic steps missing e.g. Susie Q in the Cha Cha. Also, the book as supplied by Amazon DOES NOT CONTAIN the promised CD.

New to ballroom (26/28 people found this helpful)

Craig Revel Horwood starts by giving the reader a basic terminology of ballroom dancing words which are uses throught out the book. The book moves on to important 'warm up' exercise and what to wear. The book contains 8 dances to learn including the waltz and jive. Each dances has photographs for each steps and tips. Within each dance there are basic step leading to the turns and variations onces the basics have been mastered. Some of the more difficult steps have floor plans to show the reader where their feet should end up. The book also contains a C.D with timing and two songs to dance to for each dance.
I personly have discover I'm no relation to Ginger Rogers and would of benefitted greatly from having a floor plan for some of the harder dances. The photographs do little to help you see where your feet should go. The C.D is very uses full for timing but doesn't go on for long enough. if your a natural on the dance floor this book is for you however if you have two left feet I suggest a D.V.D!

Teach Yourself Ballroom Dancing (Teach Yourself General)

Craig Revel Horwood

Reader Reviews:

Style over Substance (If you could call it style) (13/13 people found this helpful)

Not what it seems (9/9 people found this helpful)

New to ballroom (26/28 people found this helpful)

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