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Why Dancing for Health?
It's not true that "YOU" have two left feet. If you can walk, you can dance. (AND in some way even people who can't walk can usually find a way to dance.) The problem is you get what you train, your brain, your muscles or your joints become more USEFUL if you use them. You need to develop any skill to use it. Skills you neglect to use slowly die.
Here is a page of videos about dancing for health.
Sequence Dance for Beginners
Demonstrations of what sequence dancing is.
Some RECENT Sequence Dancing Examples to Enjoy
This is what we want to develop, in Christchurch in the afternoon.
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Below are links to walk-through examples of well known dances.
It's more difficult to learn just from the videos than it seems.
But these videos are excellent help when you also take a class.
Patrick Walker's Tuesday Class (Christchurch)
On Tuesday evenings at 5.30pm in the Hei Hei Community Hall
12 Wycola Avenue, Hei Hei.
$10 per person - Ninety minutes.
Kathleen Morris's Wednesday, teaching class and dance
Wednesday at 7pm. In the Smallbore Rifle Club Hall, 140 Waterloo Road, Hornby. $5 admission, - Ninety Minutes
,Featured Video
Why we should all dance more:
Cheryl Glazebrook (13 minutes)
Published by: TEDxWinnipeg - July, 2025
Is dance only for professionals and extroverts? Neuroscientist and lifelong dancer Cheryl Glazebrook challenges this idea with powerful science and personal stories, revealing that dance is not just for the few — it’s for everyone. From childhood joy to brain injury recovery, Cheryl explores how dance fosters connection, builds cognitive and physical skills, and even reshapes our brains.
Through her research and lived experience, she shows how dance bridges generations, celebrates diversity, and becomes a tool for communication and healing — far beyond the stage. Whether you move with elegance, energy, or two left feet, this talk invites you to rediscover dance as a universal language of joy, learning, and inclusion. Cheryl Glazebrook, an expert in movement and neurodiversity, believes dance transcends age and ability. She will inspire you to see dance as a joyful, inclusive way to connect and grow.
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are considered basic dances in the ballroom world. They are popular and danced across New Zealand and Australia, and sometimes beyond.Modern Sequence Dancing
Beginners to Improvers
The problem with sequence dances is that each city tries to maintain too many dances. Spoilt for choice. people try to maintain them all. That doesn't help beginners. It doesn't give the people dancing the confidence to dance well. There's no satisfaction, especially for men, if success is virtually impossible.
If the above set of "Easy Dances" gets people started, over say 6-8 months, what's next? With ten dances we can have a public dance that might last two hours. I suggest we then introduce a set of about twelve or fifteen "Advanced Dances" extending the beginners learning program to the end of a second year.
Here is the link to that selection FOUR Sets, A, B, C, D. I haven't danced in the sequence dance space for more than 20 years. it's unlikely that I've selected the best dances. Your opinion would help. Each of the "Advanced Dances Sets" is equivalent, they do not become more difficult.
A program incorporating all four "Advanced Sets" might last at least five years.
An alternative is to begin with an almost blank sheet. After counting all 130 dances listed by dance style you are forced to make sets of at least 15 dances. 4 foxtrot or country, 3 modern waltzes, 1 quickstep, Cha cha cha, tango, rumba, and 2 new vogue waltzes. Jive, mambo, bossa-nova and samba hardly appear. Real Old Time Dances, with ballet style foot positions and turns don't appear at all.
Here is a page of four sets based on that ratio of dances, this is a Set Template to work with. I tried to do that with ZERO use of ballroom dances. What you get looks quite different. But I think the inclusion of some foxtrots and a ballroom modern waltz is useful. Give it a shot, and see what you come up with. (I won't contaminate your thinking by sharing what I came up with. Will do so later.)
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