Richard M. Stephenson

The Complete Book of Ballroom Dancing by Richard M. Stephenson & Joseph Iaccarino (1980)

The 'good': the ballroom dance history given in this book is a good first overview.

The 'bad': this book is not only seriously dated, but the dances that it mentions were (and still are) less than noteworthy. The Twist and the Hustle, for example, were trite fads and and deserved no more than a sentence or two in any historical presentation. But to ignore the influence of Viennese Waltz is to imply that the Slow Waltz appeared out of nowhere overnight. Then there's the lack of mention of East Coast Swing, West Coast Swing, and Salsa.

The 'ugly': the photo illustrations. I challenge anyone to study the photos of these two people miming the steps and positions of 12 different dances (using the technical terms for the various styles: 'smooth', 'rhythm', and 'disco') and tell me they didn't use the same photos over and over.

Yes, there is some benefit for absolute beginners to read some of the so-called history of Ballroom dancing contained in this book. But by looking at the bibliography in the back you can see that the authors didn't do a lot of research. Aside from such examples as ignoring the fact that modern waltz actually derives from the German landler folk dances through the Viennese waltz and the claim that Tango was created in Spain and "brought to the New World by Spanish settlers" [Wikipedia says "Tango … originated in the 1880s along the River Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay, and soon spread to the rest of the world."] their derivations seem to be anecdotal hearsay from various famous dancers' biographies.

But, ultimately, I submit that this book's great value lies in it description of dance techniques that you SHOULD NOT ever use—more for being outdated than for being ridiculous. Ballroom dance holds have evolved since this book was written and are now considered to be much more comfortable, less strenuous, and less painful for both partners. If you look at the photos, some of the positions that are no longer practiced include: the ladies left hand over the man's shoulder (instead of on his bicep); the man's right hand on the ladies waist (instead of her left scapula); the man's left hand always on top of the lady's right hand—to maintain control (instead of under her hand—to guide); the free turns always showing the hands up around their rib cages, instead of around their waist levels; and for the 'travelling dances' the two dancers are always looking at each other (there are so many reasons why this is not good for the smooth dances that I can't list them here).

If the errors I've just described aren't obvious to you talk to any modern dance instructor. If you are a beginner let me assure you that all reputable dance instructors teach the same techniques and the same dances in the U.S. and in Europe (with certain differences between American and International forms.)

However, with the emergence of dancesport in modern times, the term [Ballroom Dance]
has become narrower in scope, and traditionally refers to the five International
Standard and five International Latin style dances.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballroom_dance

So, granting that the authors were ignorant (and possibly a little lazy) I recommend that beginners should either accept the book as a gift or never pay more than a couple of dollars for it in a Thrift Shop. In either case, once read the book becomes pretty much useless. I will keep my copy just to show beginning dancers today how much they have learned in their first few dance classes than beginners 40 years ago ever learned.… (más)