The Importance of Body Contact in Standard/Smooth

Why is body contact so vital in the Standard and Smooth dance divisions?  There are actually three very good reasons.

First, if you are closer together, it is much easier to know where your partner's feet are.  Thus, the chances of you stepping on your partner or tripping on their legs are greatly decreased.

Second, body contact aids the lady in following the man's lead.  Consider it like this, when your hips are touching, there is an extra point of contact with which to lead or follow.  Otherwise there are only two points of contact, your left and right arms.  Not only this, but the man's hips are a much better leader than his arms.  A man's arms can lie; they can go one way, and he could move the other.  The man's hips on the other hand always go where he is going, so the lady never have to guess what the man wants if their hips are touching.

And last but not least, body contact greatly reduces the difficulty of spins and pivots.  I will liken it to this situation.  Consider you have both your hands laying on the side of your body.  When you spin like this, it is easy to turn really fast.  Now, put your arms at a parallel line to the ground then spin again.  Now it isn't quite as easy to spin, is it?  Think of your hands as two partners.  The closer they are together, the faster they spin, and the farther they are from eachother, the harder it is to spin.  Its because the bigger your circle of rotation, the farther you have to move to make your spin!  Thus it is harder to spin very quickly.

So the moral of this story is?  Body contact is important.  You should do it too!

-Aaron Mullen