But first!

The Industry’s Little Secret: Skipping Rise & Fall

There’s a nasty little secret in the ballroom world — one that’s more common than it should be:

Some studios, instructors and syllabi don’t teach Rise and Fall until dancers reach “Silver” level.

Why? Because skipping it makes early lessons:

• Easier to teach ✅
• Easier to learn ✅
• Much harder to look and feel good ❌

The result?
Doing only leg rise, completely misses the subtle elegance that foot rise and sway provide.

And the worst part?
It’s not a mistake. It’s a business strategy.

By withholding the real mechanics — things like:

• Proper foot rise
• Integrated sway
• Actual energy control through Rise & Fall ensures you’ll have to come back and pay again to “fix your technique” at the Silver (or advanced) level.

🎧 Meanwhile, the DJ wonders what his music did to deserve this.

We know dancers who’ve suffered through this — good people, with good hearts, bent knees and drained bank accounts — wondering why they don’t look right even though they’re “doing what they were taught.”

Let’s be clear:

You can’t have sway without Foot Rise and Fall since any attempt to swing the moving leg will be difficult standing on a flat foot. Foot Rise means the heel is off the floor and no longer taking weight. And you can’t have 'FULL' Rise and Fall with only bent knees.

If your dancing doesn’t yet have sway, it might not be your fault. It might just be that nobody taught you how to rise properly in the first place.

Worse still, you are also learning to take smaller steps