What Is History of Ballroom Dancing?
Probably you can clearly see a grand hall with handsome men and beautiful women dressed in flowing gowns gracefully waltzing on the dance floor. There is a variety of dance steps one can perform such as the slow Waltz right to the fast upbeat nature of the Fox Trot.
This definition by Webster of ballroom dancing - “any of various, usually social dances in which couples perform set moves†reveals that the nature of ballroom dancing encompasses a wide variety of moves. It is interesting to note that the word ball originated form the word “ballare†which means to dance in Latin. Obviously the word ballet and ballerina has the same origin.
In the late 18th and 19th century this form of dance is a craze among members of the upper class in England. This form of dance is not common among people of the working class until late 20th century. The Ballroom Dance Branch was set up by the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing with the sole purpose of standardizing the modern day ballroom dancing.
Today, one can enjoy the elegance of Waltz, the sultry Viennese Waltz, the Slow Foxtrot, passionate Tango and the Quickstep as forms of enjoyable ballroom dancing. The Latin American Ballroom dances are the Samba, Rumba, Paso Doble, Cha-Cha and the Jive. Latin American ballroom is short for Latin and American - not a reference to Latin countries.
The modern ballroom dances vary in tempo (beats per minute) and rhythm (structure), however, they all involve a couple dancing in a closed hold. The couples come close through five points of contact. Three points involve the hand, where his left hand holds her right and her left hand will be on the top of his right upper arm, and the Tango would need her hand to go hand his arm while other right hand will rest on her left shoulder blade. Other point come close as her right side of the set touches his left chest and the elbow, her left touches his right touch each other as they glide round the dance floor. This is the posture that the European Royal Court had been graced as couples float endlessly on the dance floor during grand social gatherings.
This right side-to-right side contact of the closed hold may have originated from a time when men danced while wearing their swords, which were hung on their left sides. The dance involves some counter clockwise movements, this is also attributed to the existence of the sword during a dance and this movement helps prevent the sword form hitting any of the watching audience. In American Latin dancing, posture changes from one dance to another. The Latin American version of ballroom dance has been very much standardized for the purposes of teaching.
