Dancing has evolved as a result of changes in society; its development has been influenced by changes in the nature of spaces in the home and in the courts, fashion, music and etiquette. For example in the seventeenth century heels were put on shoes and costuming became much less restrictive. This changed the way people walked and hence how they danced – people started to dance with their toes turned out and parallel feet did not return until the start of the twentieth century. With the Industrial Revolution came the idea that polite society could condone the idea of a man and woman dancing together in closed hold. Influences from America and in particular ragtime music developed the dances into “walking” dances, which are recognisable today. Each dance developed its own unique characteristics. At the start of the twentieth century, dances became more popular amongst the working class and public dance assemblies became a social past-time, particularly during the first World War. In the 1920s the music, steps and technique were standardized by the Imperial Society and the nature of ballroom competition has evolved ever since. Ballroom dancing has undergone a transformation in recent decades and in 1988 the term dancesport was used by the International Dancesport Federation to describe competitive ballroom and Latin American dancing.

Closed Hold

The origins of the closed hold position can be traced back to the seventeenth century European courts, when the man would be wearing a sword on his left side and therefore the woman would naturally stand to his right; and an anti-clockwise progression round the floor was logical so that the sword was not near the audience. The man would offer his right arm to the lady and if she accepted the invitation to dance she would lay her left arm on top, he would offer the lady his left hand for balance and she would accept by holding his hand with her right hand.

The Ballroom Dances

Waltz: 30 bars per minute
Slow Foxtrot: 30 bars per minute
Tango: 33 bars per minute
Viennese Waltz: 60 bars per minute
Quickstep: 48-52 bars per minute

Waltz: This is performed to music with three beats in a bar. This may have its origins in the volta, an 16th century Italian folk dance, with the same rhythm. However the hold in the volta was very different: the woman danced on the man’s left, the man held her around the waist and the lady used her left hand to lift her skirt. Despite criticism that dancing in couples in such a manner was improper, the “Waltzen” flourished in Vienna and western European courts in the 18th and 19th century. A slower version of this dance developed in Austria where it was known as the Landler. The dance contained the turns but was danced with hands on hips and for the first time with feet parallel. The dance was brought to England and evolved into what it is today in the early 20th century, where dancers took advantage of the slower tempo to add more figures, hence this dance is known across Europe as the “English waltz”. This dance is characterized by long, flowing movements, turns, and rise & fall.

Viennese Waltz: This developed from the Waltzen as above, and came to England under the name German Waltz. It was popularised by the music of Strauss in the 19th century. It is a fast dance consisting of continuous natural and reverse turns, with a limited range of figures.

Tango: The Milonga developed as a combination of the flamenco culture of Spain which was transferred to South America, an African American dance and a Cuban folk dance. The Milonga was danced in the bars and gambling houses of Buenos Aires in the late nineteenth century by the lower classes in society and the dance was seen as a way of men taunting women for affection. The dance gained popularity among the upper classes in Argentina and a demonstration in Paris in 1910 sparked an increased interest in this dance in Western Europe. However the nature of the Milonga was changed by the Western Europeans to give the tango its characteristic staccato action. The tango hold is slightly different and the dance is characterized by sharp, dynamic lines and head flicks, and no rise and fall.

Foxtrot: This is performed to 4/4 music and is a slower version of the Victorian two-step, and again the emphasis was placed on parallel feet rather than the turn out of the Victorian era. It became popular in New York and London, coinciding with the jazz craze of the 1920s, and the smoothness of the dance was designed to counteract the exaggerated dances which developed from the native dances of the African Americans. The characteristic of this dance is the smooth gliding action and the alignments of the figures to the floor as they are danced.

Quickstep: A version of the foxtrot started taking influence from the ragtime music of the 1920s and in particular the Charleston which was danced by African American workers in the Caribbean and gained popularity when it was performed on stage in New York. Quickstep was seen as more free-flowing and attracted the younger generations who started to feel that the other forms of ballroom were too strict. This dance is characterized by couples being particularly light on their feet, with hops and runs.

The Latin Dances

Cha Cha: 30 bars per minute
Samba: 50 bars per minute
Rumba: 27 bars per minute
Paso Doble: 62 bars per minute
Jive: 44 bars per minute

The Samba, Rumba, and Cha Cha, originated in Latin America, whereas the Paso Doble originated in from Europe and the Jive developed from North America. The Latin American dances are a fusion of Indigenous, European and African American cultures and were introduced into Western-European society in the twentieth century.

Cha Cha: is a sexy and flirtatious Afro-Cuban dance that developed in the Latin dance clubs of New York City during the 1950s. It evolved from a combination of Cuban dances the Danzon and Montuno, along with a version of the Mambo (the triple version with five steps in a bar), which originated in Haiti as a religious ritual brought to the Caribbean by the African-Americans. The emphasis on the rhythm changed in the American Ballrooms from 1 2 cha cha cha to moving the cha cha cha to the 4 and 1 counts, thus emphasising the first beat. Characteristic of the dance is the strong hip movement as a result of straightening of the legs. Origins of the name are disputed and may range from the name of another Cuban dance the Guaracha which was popular in Europe in the late nineteenth century; it may derive onomatopoeically from the sound of the feet in the chasse or from the noise of an instrument called a guiro.

Rumba: The rumba is of Afro-Cuban origin deriving from the days of African-American slavery and was seen as an exotic dance emphasising sinuous movements of the hips and torso rather than movement of the feet. It evolved from the Contradanza in the nineteenth century and was introduced into the USA in the 1930s, and developed into a slower more refined version, the “son”. The American version is danced with the break step on the first beat, whereas in Britain the dance was brought back from Havanna and evolved such that the break was on beat two and after much debate in the 1940s and 1950s this became the recognised international version of the rumba. The dance is often known as the dance of love and is based on the age-old story of the woman’s attempts to attract, reject and ultimately dominate the man of her choice. The origins of the name rumba are also debated and may derive from the Spanish for route, carousel, dance band or rum.

Paso Doble: This originated from the Spanish bolero, and although initially it was a dance of the common people, portraying displaying Spanish culture, it became popular amongst the upper classes of Paris in the 1930s, with its dramatic and theatrical poses. Hence many of the steps have French names. The name "Paso Doble" in Spanish means "Two Step" and refers to the marching nature of the steps. The dance portrays a bullfight with the man as the Torero and the woman, his cape. They key to the Paso is this characterisation; often it is choreographed to a piece of music known as “the Spanish Gypsy Dance” which is typical of the characteristic march music used for procession at the beginning of a corrida (bullfight). There are three crescendos in the music; these highlights are matched in the choreography by dramatic poses.

Samba: the earliest origins of samba are in Africa, but most of its development is from Brazil. African-American slaves brought dances such as the Caterete, Embolada and Batuque to Brazil and a composite dance evolved. These dances were considered quite risqué, but members of high society in Rio modified it so it was danced in a closed potion and was known as the Zemba Queca or Mesemba and this may be where the term samba came from. The samba was introduced to Europe from South America in the late 1930s, but generally caught on after the Second World War, when it became incredibly popular due to its infectious music and lively rhythms. This dance requires the ‘samba tick’, a difficult technique to learn but essential to its characteristic look and in its international form the dance has many different rhythms.

Jive: This dance developed from the Jitterbug and Boogie Woogie in the 1940s, which were popularised by American and Canadian servicemen. These dances originated with the African-Americans in the USA who may have copied the some of the war dances of the Native Indians or vice versa. In the 1880s the Jitterbug and Boogie Woogie were seen as too exuberant for the ballroom and the dance was gradually tamed and lost the acrobatics. The name jive may have developed from the African American slang for misleading or exaggerated. Jive is characterized by flicks, kicks, and strongly emphasized leg rhythm