The DanceDemos Video Library is the brainchild of Paul and Jean Zimmer, enthusiastic dancers (and authors, and Zazzle designers) from Roseville, Ca, near Sacramento.

Impressed by the wealth of demonstration videos available at the higher levels, and disappointed by what was available at the lower levels, we decided to start this library of demo dances for those in the early years of their Cued Ballroom Dance* adventure.

We recruited a team of top-notch demo dancers and cuers, built a list of popular dances, and set to work.  Particular attention was paid to sound quality, as many existing publicly available videos are impossible to practice with due to poor audio.  We have dubbed in the original cued music to ensure clarity.  We also use stereo audio (music left, cues right) so that the balance can be adjusted to suit individual needs.

We put the library on YouTube so that the videos are easy to find, and easy to use.

As Youtube is a very public medium, we quickly discovered that these videos can act as ambassadors for our activity as well.  People who have never heard of what we do see a video and – now they know!  They may not run off to find an instructor right away, but the next time they see a flyer or an ad for a class, they know what it’s about.  It’s familiar, comfortable.  That’s half the battle!

As the channel grew, we also discovered that the higher-level dances that we would post from time to time were particularly popular (whether it is our dancers or the general public watching is difficult to know), so we have expanded this side of the channel accordingly.

One issue that comes up often is – money.  With stories everywhere of YouTube content creators raking in piles of cash, it’s inevitable that people wonder how much money we make from the channel.

The answer is – NONE.  Neither we nor any of the demo dancers make any money from the channel.  The only people making money are YouTube and the music copyright holders.  We, and the demo dancers, do it out of love for the Cued Ballroom community and a desire to give back to an activity that has given us so much pleasure.

As the channel has grown, we have come to see it’s mission as:

To Educate: The more easily and quickly dancers can learn a new dance, the more they love the activity and want to learn more!

To Inspire: Nothing whets your appetite to learn quite like watching a video of a rhythm or phase that’s new to you.  Need a little inspiration?  Go spend some time exploring all that this wonderful activity has to offer.

To Promote: It’s difficult to reach potential new dancers in a world of non-stop targeted advertising.  The DanceDemos YouTube channel provides a way to connect with outsiders and explain what we do in the most intuitive way possible.  So, your binge-watching is an act of selfless altruism!  It helps raise our views – which gets us more notice from YouTube’s algorithms.  It’s a virtuous cycle!

We had no idea when we started this project in 2018 what it was going to grow into (both in size and number of hours invested!), but we’re very proud of the result.  It’s everything we had hoped for, and more.  So, thank you to all our demo dancers, guest cuers, host festivals, and everyone who has contributed to the channel.  And to our viewers, of course!  Meeting people at festivals and hearing that they use the channel is music to our ears!

* We prefer the name Cued Ballroom Dance.  The original name, Round Dance, requires too much explanation. People are in a hurry, and they need a term that’s immediately descriptive. Choreographed Ballroom is better, but it sounds a little too formal, too intimidating, for something so inherently easy to learn. Besides, “choreographed” requires way too much typing! Cued Ballroom is short, descriptive, and sounds like what it is – fun.