I'm curious if ballroom dancers ever get dizzy with so much turning?

Question:is it a talent or do they take bonamine or some medication of some sort before twirling around the dance floor?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: is it a talent or do they take bonamine or some medication of some sort before twirling around the dance floor?

No. There is a trick to fast turns that allows you to not become dizzy. It's called spotting. You pick a point at the wall and basically stare as it as long as you can until the turning of your body forces you to turn your head and then you whip your head around to stare back at that point. Spotting makes your turns crisper and avoids dizziness.

It has nothing to do with your brain being trained to get used to it because when you don't spot, your turns fall to pieces and you do get dizzy.

its like any other sport. training, and you cant eat before.

No, just like other sports, they train their brains and become used to the spinning. It takes much more for dancers to become dizzy than for the average person.

No, with practice you stop getting dizzy because your inner ear adjusts to the movement of spinning.

The same technique goes for most dance--such as ballet and jazz, which I'm currently in. The technique is called "spotting" and the goal is to focus on something and when you are turning multiple times, you should whip your head around to the same spot so that you don't get dizzy. Initially, the technique kind of threw me off when I was first taking ballet but it's getting a lot better and really helps you with the dizziness. :)

There are two ways that dancers cope with spins:

1) They "spot". That involves holding the eyes on a particular point for as long as possible, then turning the head faster than the body so that it can focus on that point again. You can see this technique clearly in ballet.

2) They just plain get used to it. When I was young, I had a minister who kept an old barber-shop chair in his parsonage, and our youth group members would recline in it and spin around and around until we were dizzy. Eventually we got to where we could stand up and walk and function normally even tho' we were dizzy. You do get used to altered states!

They learn to just look at one thing, each time they turn they look at the same thing and it is suppose to keep you from getting dizzy. That is what an teacher told our dance class. Guess I never got the hang of looking at the same thing, made me dizzy.

there's a special technique. you have to focus on one spot and turn your body and then ur head and then end up straight and looking at the same spot. it's really easy. i should know. i have been dancing for like 14 years.

I know one among many tips to do that. Like in ballet there is a trick called spotting. You can see it on tv with figure skaters and Is also used in ballroom. When you spot you pick one place to focus your attention on, let your body turn without taking your eyes off of the thing your focusing on, and when your eyes cant focus on that thing anymore wip your head as much around as possible and refocus on that thing. Showing you is easier than explaing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fkNpSIJ9... ( but the dizzy center, that is acctually in your ear, has no time to register you twirled, and you stay not dizzy)

Spotting or simple accomodation are needed occasionally, but not often. Probably the quickest turns are in Viennese Waltz, and though it looks like you're spinning like a top, you're really going forward, side, and back more than round and round, with I suppose an exception in fleckerls.

Haha, no we don't take any medication. If you do it properly, you don't get dizzy. If you're talking about spinning on one spot like in Cha Cha or Rumba then you're supposed to spot, i.e. look at one point while your body is turning and then turn your head quickly. If you're talking about Viennese Waltz you're supposed to look at the top corner of the room where the ceiling meets the walls. It only looks like you're spinning around and around in Viennese, but in reality you're taking your steps back, side or forward. You don't get dizzy this way. Also there is some degree of getting used to. Being slightly dizzy is OK as long as you don't panic. You just deal with it.