Contest Offers Cringe Benefits

It wasn’t just feet flying at the Embassy Ballroom Dance Championships held last weekend at the Red Lion Hotel in Costa Mesa. One had to stay clear of all the chiffon and the attitudes, too.

If anything, the three-day international event, sanctioned by the National Dance Council of America, illustrated that the competitive ballroom dance circuit is a subculture as subjectively peculiar as the best of them. While the overly theatrical performances thrilled, the costumes and personalities that carried them provided an equally entertaining show.

Ah, the drama, the dedication, the questionable taste of it all.

It’s understandable why aspiring Gingers would choose neons to catch a judge’s attention. But matching satin slippers and dragon-lady fingernails in screaming pink, orange or yellow, too? Fortunately, a few remembered the “style” in dance style.

For the classic, these ladies were fitted in elaborate gowns, mostly with pleated chiffon skirts trimmed thick with ostrich feathers that flounced way out. Bodices were encrusted with crystals, rhinestones, pearls and sequins. With so much detail, these treasures don’t run cheap: dedicated dancers shell out upward of $2,000.

Hemlines rise way, way up for the Latin dances, and the palette turns seductive: reds, black, gold. Cha-cha, tango: The dances are purely sexy, and so are the outfits. Hair is slicked into a Spanish woman’s mono --large spit curls included.

The men take less of a peacock approach to attire but go for the drama nonetheless.

From the younger ones came more attitude than a roomful of supermodels. Perhaps it was the clothes: tuxedos, tails and white tie on one end, rhinestone belts and buttons and silky Tito shirts on the other. Those in the latter category usually wear theirs unbuttoned to the navel, so they feel a need to slather their smooth chests with suntan color foundation.

Cosmetics are enthusiastically used by both men and women. Why? It’s hard to tell. The judges stand on the edge of the dance floor, as does most of the audience. Perhaps it’s part of the theater of it all that requires fake eyelashes, colorful eye shadow up to the brow and plenty of sun in a bottle to give dancers that better-than-average look.

If only most of them would let their better-than-average moves speak for them.