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Ballroom Dancing Social style

We are Dora and Garth Hamilton, and we teach American Social Style Ballroom Dancing for beginning and intermediate couples. We have been teaching since 1991.  Since 2002 we have been teaching at Niagara College on the Glendale Campus in Niagara on the Lake, and in Welland in the gym on the Woodlawn Campus in the Mackenzie gym at the Rice Road entrance to the campus in Welland. Since 2004 we have been teaching at Ballroom Etc. in Niagara Falls.

Niagara College Dance Classes:-Winter & Spring 2012

For beginning Dancers

At Niagara College the format is 6 x 1 hour classes on a single dance per course. These classes will be held in the Mackenzie gym at the Rice Road entrance to to the campus.

The Winter Session classes will be on Wednesday evenings starting on Jan 18th. at 7:15pm it will Slow Waltz (Beautiful dances such as the Waltz have always been a pleasure to watch......and a pleasure to do. Couples enjoy leisurely floating around the dance floor) (one of the original slow dances) at 8:30pm it will Swing and Jive (A fun and lively dance, this Forties blockbuster has returned with a fury to the dance floor. Couples will learn to spin their partners to the Big Band sound of Benny Goodman, Arte Shaw and more. Swing and Jive gives couples an opportunity to get up and dance to the Forties, Fifties and even today's popular swing hits.). A second set of classes will start Mar 7th. On at 7:15 it will be Slow Foxtrot (A 'must' for the Ballroom Dance crowd, this version of the Foxtrot provides an easily repeatable basic movement which first-time dancers can quickly master. It is designed to be enjoyed to a wide and varied range of music from the Blues to the Quickstep and even current chart music. Perfecting just a few simple steps will give you the basics to get you looking good on the dance floor.)and at 8:30pm it will be Salsa (Mambo/Salsa is a fast, vibrant, flamboyant, playful effervescent Latin dance with a unique sense of fun to which dancers the world over can relate to and enjoy) On Nov. 3rd at 8:30 pm it will be Foxtrot (Foxtrot provides an easily repeatable basic movement to which first-time dancers can quickly learn and enjoy dancing)

.  Please contact Niagara College Continuing Education Registrar at the Welland Campus for class times location and registration. The College offers these dances to choose from:- Foxtrot, Slow Waltz, Rumba, Cha Cha, Swing/Jive, Modern Tango and Salsa/Mambo over the course of the school year.

For advanced Dancers

Ballroom Etc Niagara Falls, Ontario -  Winter & Spring 2012

We can be reached by e-mail at the following addresses.

Garth & Dora Hamilton
To e-mail us click here

Footware Suitable for Class

Shoes for dance class:- Our classes at Niagara College are in spaces with a wooden floor, and no street shoes can be worn on these floors. You must bring another pair of shoes with clean soles and heals with you. You have two choices, running shoes, which we do not recommend, but many people use, or any shoe with a leather sole and heel that has not been worn on the street or has been cleaned prior to coming to class. There are also shoes designed for dancing which have a suede leather sole and make turning on the floor very easy. NO shoes with black heels and soles that will mark the floor are acceptable.

For men a shoe called a jazz shoe is the best for practice purposes it is very light weight and has a suede sole and heal. We have also found a Jazz shoe that looks like a running shoe to be very good also. A bowling shoe is a reasonable alternative. For ladies a pump with a medium heel, and an ankle strap, and a closed heel is recommended. A medium heel is 1.5 to 2 inches maximum in height. The ankle strap prevents the lady from walking out of the heel and the closed heel prevents the heel from slipping off the side of the shoe. There is also nothing wrong with the ladies using a jazz shoe in place of a pump for instruction.

There is another type of shoe that has recently come onto the market which looks like a running shoe but is much narrower than the standard tennis or running shoe but still has some of the same features with an air cushion heal and sole, but unlike the tennis shoe this shoe is designed for dancers so has no sole through the arch of the shoe. This is a unisex shoe and used by both men and women for practice use. It has a rubber sole but the material is harder than your normal running shoe so it will allow turns on wooden floors with little effort. You can have suede soles glued to the sole of these shoes for better turning performance.