Originally Posted by
DavidB
There is one big difference between starting a ballroom/latin track in a competition, and starting a MJ track - you know what the music will be.
In a 5 dance ballroom competition, you always start with a Waltz, followed by Tango, Viennese Waltz, Foxtrot and finishing with Quickstep. Similarly in Latin you do Cha Cha, Samba, Rumba, Paso Doble and finish with Jive. You also know that each track will be within a narrow tempo range, and won't have any unusual intros, breaks etc. You might not know the actual track, but that doesn't really matter. (Musical interpretation in ballroom is far more about dancing to the style and character of the music, rather than the structure of the individual track.) As a result you can choreograph your start with a very high probability that it will be suitable.
In MJ you can get anything from slow blues to RnB to house to latin to swing. I've seen competition tracks at 105bpm and 185 bpm. There is also a lot more emphasis placed on dancing to that particular track. If you have no idea what the music is going to be, then how can you decide in advance how you are going to dance it.
I prefer to see couples start with some sort of connection, listen to the intro, get into the mood of the track, and then start dancing.
If I see an obviously choreographed start, then I don't automatically mark that couple down. You can still do the same sequence of moves, but reflect the character of the track in the way you perform them.
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