The Standard Dancing Pyramid
Back when we were teenagers, our Standard dance coach at the time introduced us to the Standard Dancing Pyramid. It was a great way to understand the different styles of Standard dancing and how they relate to each other. Also, the Standard Dancing Pyramid provided us with a better understanding of different teachers’ backgrounds, which gave us the tools we needed to make sense of all the “conflicting information” out there.
Honestly, this coach did not give us a better tool than the Standard Dancing Pyramid. To this day, it remains one of the lessons we remember the most.
What is the Standard Dancing Pyramid?
Think of the pyramids in Egypt. A four-sided triangular structure jutting out the sand, whose sides are just begging to scaled. Our goal is to scale it. Most of us would start at the bottom and just keep climbing. Remember how big those pyramids are! It doesn’t make sense to spend hours or days walking around the base, gazing up at the sides… especially since we don’t really know what roadblocks we might encounter further up the pyramid.
So, we choose a side and start scaling.
Our coach used each side of the pyramid to represent a different style of Standard Dancing. At the beginning of your dancing (or scaling) journey, you must choose a side and stick with it. All sides offer possibility of scaling. But if you are so busy running around the base, looking at all the options each other side has to offer, you’re going to spend your time running in a circle instead of working your way up.
And just like with a real pyramid, the higher you go on the Standard Dancing Pyramid, the better your vantage point will be to take a look at the other sides. Because the sides get smaller higher up, you will be in a better position to switch sides and see what information another side has to offer.
But you’d better get there first.
The Standard Dancing Pyramid’s Sides
Throughout our years of dancing, we discovered that there are more than just four different styles of Standard Dancing. Oftentimes, ourselves included, very advanced dancers – those of us who have climbed pretty far up the pyramid – will adhere to a set of principles from one side but borrow principles for another in order to make certain things work better for them.
But that said, focusing on the four main sides will clarify a few things for you.
Traditional Style
In Traditional Style Standard Dancing, there is not much exchange of energy between the two partners. One could call this “Set up and go”. The position is often connected heavily at the hips and can have the result of looking “held”, or stiff. But for some dancers, this is a very successful style; particularly those dancers who are extremely tall and have a lot of limbs to coordinate! Furthermore, Traditional Style dancing is very successful in terms of consistency. Dancers using this style can depend on their principles to keep them looking clean and put together all of the time.
This is also the oldest style that is still danced today.
A famous Traditional Style couple: Arunas Bizokas and Katusha Demidova
Square Style
The next side of the Standard Dancing Pyramid is called Square Style, not be confused with Square Dancing! The basic tenets of Square Style dancing say that the upper and lower bodies must always move in the same direction, with power and energy directed toward and through your partner. Oftentimes when a couple is considered to be “powerful” or a “bull in a china closet”, they are dancing with Square Style principles. They have a long and strong connection throughout the body, but hands are used as infrequently and as little as possible.
A famous Square Style couple from the past: Bill and Bobbie Irvine.
A famous Square Style couple of the 21st Century: Giampiero Giannico and Ieva Pauksena
Posture (Round) Style
Posture Style dancing appeared on the scene at around the same time as Square Style dancing, during the late 1950s, and developed throughout the 1960s. Derivatives of Posture Style dancing are the most popular styles in use today.
In Posture Style dancing, partners approach their dancing in terms of circles and curves. As an example, setting up in basic frame is often described as a “spiral”. Partners are constantly dancing around each other, direction energy toward their partner’s elbow or armpit or hand, or simply letting their partner fly past them. Posture Style in its essence can be very confusing to learn because there is no one point of connection between the partners. Body connection is moveable, malleable, and sometimes not present at all. The lady’s hips are held off the man in order to facilitate greater swing of the leg. As a result, hands become an important connection point between the partners.
This style of dancing was developed specifically for couples with a big height difference – 6” height difference or greater. The greater the height difference, the more traditionally “posture” a couple needs to go in order to be successful.
A famous Round Style couple from the past: Peter Eggleton and Brenda Winslade
A famous Round Style couple of the 21st Century: Marat Gimaev and Alina Basiuk
Body Style
The final side to the Standard Dancing Pyramid is the Body Style. This style was developed in the late 1970’s battles with Posture Style for the most popular style today, if you count all of its derivatives.
Think of Body Style dancing as a combination of Round and Square. You separate the upper and lower bodies. In other words, the ribcage and the hips act independently of each other. The ribcage might follow a set of principles from Round Style, while the hips follow a set of principles from Square Style, or vice versa. The main principle of Body Style is that half of the body dances towards your partner, while the other half dances around your partner. Energy is visualized as a series of curves and angles.
Body connection ranges from the thighs up to the upper ribcage. However, the half of the body following Round Style principles has the freedom to disconnect or dance off their partner as needed, while the half of the body following Square Style principles continues to dance towards their partner in order to provide or accept power and energy.
A famous Body Style couple from the past: Richard and Janet Gleave
A famous Body Style couple of the 21st century: Victor Fung and Anastasia Muravyeva
How we combine styles.
It’s important to remember that these four styles do not represent all the styles danced in Standard Dancing today! In fact, not even we can really say with certainty that we adhere to only one side of the pyramid. But that is what gives today’s ballroom dancing such a wide range and diversity of styles. Even the couples I mentioned above don’t adhere to only one side. We all start out climbing up one side. Eventually some of us skate around to another side to see what it has to offer. We might stay there for awhile, or we might run quickly back to our side and just keep on scaling. Sometimes we switch sides entirely!
Just as each couple is unique in their height differences, their arm lengths, their leg lengths, their physical and mental strengths, so too is each couple unique in what they choose to apply from each side of the pyramid as they climb higher and higher.
You can also think of each side of the Standard Dancing Pyramid as its own scale. You can land smack dab in the middle of the Square Style, or you could be a Square Style dancer with varying degrees of influence from the Traditional Style… or the Body Style, on the other side of that scale.
Do all styles combine well?
The overarching wisdom when it comes to combining styles is: as long as two styles share a corner, they can be combined, either within your own dancing, or within a partnership. For instance, a Round Style dancer and a Body Style dancer can dance very successfully together. A Square Style dancer and a Traditional Style dancer can dance successfully together.
However, a Round Style dancer and a Square Style dancer will have a very difficult time making their partnership work because the principles of those two styles are diametrically opposed to each other. One partner or the other – or both! – will have to transition to either the Traditional Style or the Body Style to be most successful.
Our Pyramid Journey
We started out on the Body Side but closer to the Square corner on the Body scale. For us it was a very gradual move towards the Round side throughout our entire career. The first time we made the jump onto the Round side, we found it very odd. We trained for a couple of years with Massimo Giorgiani and Alessia Manfredini, two very Round Style dancers, and for us at that time it was just too confusing. We retreated back to our Body Style for a little while longer. However, that time spent training with Massimo and Alessia really opened our eyes to what the Round Style could do for us.
Eventually we did turn the corner onto the Round Style. We can now describe our dancing as Round, but on the Body side of the Round scale. There are still principles from the Body Style that we practice and teach every day. Even some Square Style principles that we teach, believe it or not! But because of our height difference (we have 7” between us!) making that change over into the Round Style, but maintaining our Body Style roots, really took our dancing to the next level.
What we needed was a Round Style dancer who had their roots in the Body Style as well, someone who understood where we were coming from as Body Style dancers and could explain Round Style in “Body Style” language. When we finally found that teacher, our team of teachers was complete. We had one coach who was very much Square Style that gave us the power we were looking for, a Body Style coach who broke everything down in beautiful technical terms and helped organize things for us, and a Round Style coach whose origin was in Body Style, who helped explain to us what Round Style was all about. This was our Dream Team.
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