22 May 2012

Relating to dance

31/08/2011 8:56:00 a.m.

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An effective dance partnership is like a good relationship.

An effective dance partnership is like a good relationship.

JULIAN Pellizzaro sees a dance partnership as a relationship. Funny, then, that he dances between lots of different women. Jokes aside, the elements of any decent relationship are there: you’re strangers at the beginning and you develop an intense interaction.
“I think about whether my partner has a good sense of humour and if she’s going to get fidgety when I make mistakes,” explains Pellizzaro, who has worked up to gold level classes at Michael Harris’ studio Supreme Dance. He started rock and roll dancing aged 21 but let it go after eight months. Eight years later, the itch returned, and he started lessons at Harris’ studio. Now he knows what he’s looking for in a dance relationship.
“It’s important to keep a sense of fun and there has to be a good element of perserverance, not constant complaining,” Pellizzaro continues.
The secret of a great performance is the nature of the interaction with your partner, he says; rumba, for example, is fun to play with when you’ve got a partner who can play back with you.
“Rumba is not quite passionate but very sexy, very intimate. A lot of Latin dances are about eye contact. That makes rumba an exciting dance for me,” says Pelizzaro, “Waltz is my other favourite. It’s a ballroom dance with a lot of power about it.”
Pellizzaro will be performing a variety of dances at this weekend’s Ballroom and Latin American dance competition, but remembering them all is not a problem.
“It’s body memory. You do it so many times your body clicks with it at some point. It remembers the next step and you don’t think about it necessarily.”
Some mistakes are inevitable though, as viewers of TV show Dancing with the Stars know. Pellizzaro sometimes watches the programme for entertainment value.
“It’s a lot of fun to see people making mistakes and having fun with it publicly,” he says.
Competitors will do all the dances seen on the show will be demonstrated on Saturday and you can also catch Pellizzaro’s muscle memory in action as he carves up the dance floor.
Capital City Championships, Lower Hutt Town Hall, 4pm, September 3.
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Cover Story

Best of Wellington 2011

Briefs

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