Register of Good Safeguarding Practices
The World Dance Program
The World Dance Program for couple dance was developed in Germany and has proven to be a successful method of combining collective movement with music worldwide. Performing joint and coordinated movements to music in an embracing dance position demonstrably has positive effects on emotions, physical well-being and social skills. The program includes five ball room dances such as the Viennese waltz and several Latin dances as well as the disco fox and Rock ‘n’ Roll. This inclusive model program offers low-threshold dance education for any age.
Facts & figures
- Crucial date: throughout the year
- Inscription: 2018
- Domains: Social practices, rituals and festive events; forms of social self-organization; performing arts
- Where to find: throughout Germany / worldwide
Contact
Allgemeiner Deutscher Tanzlehrerverband (ADTV)
Cornelia Willius-Senzer
info@adtv.de
Website
As one of the oldest cultural activities of humanity, dancing continues to play a pivotal role. Being a nonverbal dialogue, it overcomes differences between people, improves motor, cognitive as well as emotional skills, and helps to maintain one’s psychological balance.
Couple dancing according to the World Dance Program is very common in Germany. It has beed developed in Germany actually. The program is practiced daily by thousands of people, taught in dance schools or other training facilities and maintained by dance clubs.
Regular attendance at dance schools as well as annual proms have been accompanying children on their way into the world of young adults for generations now. The program includes the five ball room dances blues, foxtrot, slow waltz, tango and Viennese waltz as well as several Latin dances like cha-cha, jive, samba, rumba, paso doble, mambo and merengue. Furthermore, disco fox and Rock ‘n’ Roll are part of the program.
Although the dance tutorials allow some textualization, learning a dance requires first and foremost the potential for creative mimetic adaptation. Neither texts nor videos replace the teachers. Essential are the own body experience and the practical knowledge of movement to the music.
The World Dance Program offers movement possibilities for a wide age range and is a low-threshold entry into ballroom dancing. It encourages couples of any constellation to participate. The demographic change has expanded the age spectrum: senior dance, rollator dance and wheelchair dance are now broadly available and in great demand.
