Waltz

Waltz is a smooth progressive dance characterized by long, flowing movements, continuous turns, sway, and rise and fall. Graceful and elegant, Waltz glides around the floor almost effortlessly. The slow, expressive quality of the music often invites very powerful and dynamic movement from dancers.

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Tango

International Standard Tango has its roots in Argentine Tango, but is deeply influenced by European culture and music. Danced in closed position, Tango is known for its drama, fast directional changes, and staccato movements. Tango is by far the most passionate of the Standard dances.

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Viennese Waltz

What is now called the Viennese Waltz is actually the original form of the Waltz. It is a truly romantic dance, most commonly thought of as the “Cinderella” Waltz. The Viennese Waltz is almost mesmerizing, as the dancers are constantly turning either toward the leader’s right or toward the leader’s left. A true Viennese Waltz consists only of turns and change steps.

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Foxtrot

Foxtrot is a dance of grace and style, which is customarily danced to Jazz, and the same Big Band music to which Swing is also danced. The Foxtrot of the Standard category is elegantly built around a slow-quick-quick rhythm. It is a smooth, progressive dance characterized by long, continuous flowing movements across the dance floor.

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Quickstep

Quickstep is fun and energetic, and is danced to the fastest tempo of all the ballroom dances. From its early beginning as a faster Foxtrot, the Quickstep gradually evolved into a very dynamic dance with a lot of movement on the dance floor, with many advanced patterns including hops, runs, quick steps with a lot of momentum, and rotation.

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Cha Cha Cha

The Cha Cha is a dance of Cuban origin, but today’s International Latin Cha Cha has a style all its own. Cha Cha is fast, flirtatious, and sexy, and can be danced to Latin, Pop, Dance, and a variety of other musical styles. Cha Cha is based on Cuban Motion of the hips, and quick, precise footwork.

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Samba

Samba is a fun, lively, rhythmical dance. It is related to the traditional Samba styles of Brazil, but differs from them considerably, as most steps are danced with a slight downward bouncing or dropping action. The constant circular hip movements in Samba set it apart from the other Latin dances, and give it a festive and exotic energy.

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Rumba

Rumba is the slowest of the five competitive International Latin dances. Rumba is a love story, it is a romantic and emotional dance. It is dynamic, with long lines and extensions, as well as Cuban Motion in the hips, and a very close connection between the dancers.

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Paso Doble

Paso Doble is a theatrical dance, and is usually quite serious and dramatic. Paso Doble is based on music played at bullfights during the bullfighters’ entrance, or during the passes just before the kill. The leader of this dance plays the part of the matador. The follower generally plays the part of the matador’s cape, the shadow of the matador, the bull, or even a flamenco dancer.

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Jive

Jive is a dance style that originated in the United States with African-American social dances in the early 1930′s. Jive is a lively and uninhibited variation of the Jitterbug, a form of Swing dance. Many of its basic patterns are similar to those of East Coast Swing, with a faster rhythm, higher kicks, and far more complex footwork. The high energy and fun of Jive make it infectious and exciting.

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Salsa

Salsa is a fast Latin social dance, which has become hugely popular the world over. Salsa dance movements originate from the Cuban Son dancing of the 1930′s, more specifically through the beat of Son Montuno with strong influences from the dances of Danzon, Mambo, Guaguanco and other Afro-Cuban folkloric dancing. Today there are various styles of Salsa dancing, including Cali-style (from Colombia), Cuban-style (“Casino”), LA-style, New York-style, and Puerto Rican-style.

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Bachata

The earliest bachata was originally developed in the Dominican Republic around the early part of the 20th century, with mixed Cuban boleros and, which originated from Son. With African elements, combined with traditional Latin/Caribbean rhythms. During much of its history Bachata music was denigrated by Latino/Caribbean society and associated with rural backwardness and delinquency. As recently as 1988 Bachata was considered too vulgar, crude and musically rustic to enter mainstream music. In the 1990s, bachata’s instrumentation changed from acoustic guitar to electric steel string. The new electric bachata (New York Style) soon became an international phenomenon, and today bachata is as popular as salsa and merengue in some Latin American dance-halls.

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Argentine Tango

Argentine Tango is a largely improvised social dance that came to the United States straight from the nightclubs and streets of Buenos Aires. Argentine tango is danced in an embrace that can vary from very open, in which leader and follower connect at arms length, to very closed, in which the connection is chest-to-chest, or anywhere in between. Tango dance is essentially walking with a partner and the music. Dancing appropriately to the emotion and speed of the music is extremely important, as a good dancer is one who transmits a feeling of the music to the partner. Dancers generally keep their feet close to the floor as they walk, the ankles and knees brushing as one leg passes the other.

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American Smooth

Waltz

Waltz is a slow dance with measured steps that moves around the room in a controlled fashion with lots of figures. Waltz is a progressive dance, which is characterized by the pendulum swing body action, rise and fall, contra body movement and sway. The American Smooth version of Waltz allows for both open position and separation of partners.

Tango

American style Tango’s evolutionary path is derived from Argentina to the United States, when it was popularized by silent film star Rudolph Valentino in the early 1920′s. The American Tango syllabus incorporates steps with Argentine, Hollywood, and socially popular influences and techniques. International Standard and American styles share a closed dance position, but the American style allows its practitioners to separate from closed position to execute open moves, like underarm turns, alternate hand holds, dancing apart, and side-by-side choreography.

Viennese Waltz

The Viennese Waltz is a rotary dance where the dancers are constantly turning either toward the leader’s right (natural) or toward the leader’s left (reverse), interspersed with non-rotating change steps to switch between the direction of rotation. A true Viennese waltz consists only of turns and change steps. American Style Viennese Waltz has much more freedom, both in dance positions and syllabus, as compared to its International Standard counterpart.

Foxtrot

Foxtrot is a dance of grace and style, which is customarily danced to Jazz, and the same Big Band music to which Swing is also danced. From the late teens through the 1940s, the Foxtrot was certainly the most popular fast dance and the vast majority of records issued during these years were Foxtrots. Over time, the Foxtrot split into slow and quick versions, referred to as “Foxtrot” and “Quickstep” respectively. The American Smooth Foxtrot is built around a slow-quick-quick rhythm at its slowest tempo, and the social American style uses a slow-slow-quick-quick rhythm at a somewhat faster pace.

American Rhythm

Cha Cha

The Cha Cha is a dance of Cuban origin, and may be either danced to authentic Cuban music, or Latin Pop or Latin Rock. The music for the ballroom Cha-cha-cha is energetic and with a steady beat. In traditional American Rhythm style, Latin hip movement is achieved through the alternate bending and straightening action of the knees, though in modern competitive dancing, the technique is virtually identical to the International Latin style.

Rumba

American style Rumba is derived, both in music and in dance, from what the Cubans of an older generation called the bolero-son. All social dances from Cuba involve a hip-sway over the standing leg, and this is more pronounced in the slow ballroom Rumba. In general, steps are kept compact and the dance is danced generally without any rise and fall. This style is authentic, as is the use of free arms in various figures. American Rhythm Rumba is faster and more compact than International style.

East Coast Swing

East Coast Swing is a basic Swing dance which can be danced to slow or fast Swing music, including Rock and Roll and Boogie-Woogie. The dance evolved from the Lindy Hop in the 1940′s, and is typically taught with a Single or a Triple step, Rock-step pattern. This form of Swing dance is strictly based in six-count patterns that are simplified forms of the original patterns copied from Lindy Hop. In practice on the social dance floor, the six count steps of the East Coast Swing are often mixed with the eight count steps of Lindy Hop, Charleston, and less frequently, Balboa.

Bolero

Bolero is the slowest of the American Rhythm dances, and can be danced to Latin, as well as popular music. The first step is typically taken on the first beat, held during the second beat with two more steps falling on beats three and four (cued as “slow-quick-quick”). This dance is quite different from the other American Rhythm dances in that it not only requires cuban motion, but also rise and fall, and contra body movement, as is found in Waltz.

Mambo

Mambo is is a Latin dance of Cuban origin that corresponds to Mambo music. Mambo music was invented during the 1930s in Havana by Cachao and his contemporaries and made popular around the world by Perez Prado and Beny Moré. Perez Prado is often credited for coming up with the dance for Mambo music and became the first person to market his music as “Mambo”. After Havana, Prado moved to Mexico, where his music and the dance were adopted. The original Mambo dance was characterized by freedom and complicated foot work, and is often equated with “Salsa on 2″.