Ballroom Dance and Glamour

This volume is like an illustrated book on baseball players: baseball fans would love it, others yawn. The similarity is apt: competitive dancing is like any sport, and dancers, starting as early as age six, practice for many hours a day and they must be fit like all competitive athletes. If you are not a fan of competitive dancing (called dancesport) you will quickly get bored with Ballroom, and with the hundreds of photos of couples in dance positions. Author J.S. Marion is an anthropology professor, ethnographic photographer, and competitive dancer. This work is partly an academic volume with footnotes, and a list of references. The photos range in size from thumbprint to two-third page, some full page. Most photos have captions giving the names of performers, and a few sentences of information. Marion starts the book with a brief review of ballroom dancing, its history, genres, costuming, and competitions. Then he divides the photos into four major groups according to competitive dancing: Rhythm, Smooth, Latin and Standard. Many of the dancing couples are in similar poses in various stages of dip and dancing steps, however, the women’s costumes are distinctive, glamorous and often spectacular (and obviously very expensive).