One current morning, I opened TikTok to discover a video of a person doing a vaguely acquainted dance step—one thing that resembled the whisk, a foundational component of ballroom’s Worldwide Latin samba. The video referenced “Blue Shirt Man” as its inspiration.
Quickly, TikTok’s algorithm confirmed me the shocking supply materials: a 2021 video of the ballroom dance luminary Ruslan Aidaev carrying a blue shirt whereas educating whisk method to a bunch of younger college students, set to the music “Assumptions,” by Sam Gellaitry. The bouncy, sweeping motion with Afro-Brazilian roots was on the cusp of a whirlwind pop-culture crossover, quickly to be embraced by beginner and educated dancers alike. On social media, “the Blue Shirt Man dance” shortly grew to become inescapable.
Intrigued, I made a decision to document my very own video of the buzzy transfer—with no intention of posting it, initially. I filmed myself in my kitchen doing what I remembered of a primary samba whisk, simply to get the sensation again into my physique. (I’ve an intensive ballet background, however my ballroom coaching has been sporadic through the years.) On the spur of the second, I made a decision to put the clip on TikTok. I’d been posting on the app for just a few weeks, and my movies sometimes earned 30 to 400 views, principally from pals. However the subsequent morning, I woke as much as round 13,000 views.
My love for ballroom has been practically lifelong. Rising up, I watched it on tv and social media earlier than taking my first non-public lesson in faculty. Although I’ve but to persistently take classes for greater than six months at a time, I’ve dabbled in ballroom on and off for years, and I’ve continued to observe the artwork type. As a journalist, my first profession spotlight was an interview with Valentin Chmerkovskiy for my faculty’s arts and leisure journal, which not directly led to my former position as a managing editor at Dance Media.
Seeing the samba whisk achieve reputation past the ballroom group has been thrilling and illuminating. Within the dance group, the place perfection is the same old customary and dazzling dance movies are foreign money, it was refreshing to see individuals studying in public. On-line, pedestrians and dancers from a variety of kinds tried the step, requested for recommendation, and laughed at themselves alongside the way in which.
Regardless of my early reservations about posting my first whisk video, it has now earned over 168,000 views. Varied feedback have talked about that my slower, beginner-friendly tempo helped viewers get a really feel for the step. It’s been a reminder that dance isn’t at all times accessible within the lightning-fast, hyper-polished type that it tends to exist in on-line. Whenever you present your course of, you may assist others rise with you.
It’s additionally straightforward to take our dance information with no consideration. To educated ballroom dancers, a samba whisk could seem routine, and many individuals have seen it on reveals like “Dancing with the Stars” or “So You Suppose You Can Dance.” However one thing magical can occur when a step is seen outdoors of its authentic context, separated from the stereotypes or preconceptions we’d have a few specific dance style. Because the world retains whisking, this pattern serves as a reminder that ballroom dance is for everybody, and that motion is certainly one of humanity’s few and valuable common languages.
