History of Ballroom Dance By Abdul Rahim Khurram

 

History of Ballroom Dance By Abdul Rahim Khurram

Beautiful women in flowing gowns and tall dark handsome men in tuxedos waltz around the dance floor. It's not just the Waltz. Ballroom dancing can be elegant and sophisticated (like the Waltz), or hot, sultry, and sexy (like the Tango or Paso Doble) (like the Fox Trot Jive or Quick Step).

Various, usually social dances in which couples perform set moves. The word "ball" refers to a social gathering rather than a child's toy. This is the foundation for ballroom, ballet, and ballerina (a dancer).

Aristocrats loved ballroom dancing in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Late 19th and early 20th century workers really took to it. The Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (formerly known as The Imperial Society of Dance Teachers) formed a Ballroom Branch in the early 1920s to standardize ballroom dances.

The Modern Waltz, Viennese Waltz, Slow Foxtrot, Tango, and Quickstep are the five dances of modern ballroom dancing. Samba, Rumba, Paso Doble, Cha-Cha, and Jive are Latin American ballroom dances. Latin American ballroom is an acronym for Latin and American, not Latin countries.

Modern ballroom dances vary in tempo (bpm) and rhythm (structure), but they all feature a closed hold. A couple in a closed hold has 5 points of contact. His left hand holds her right, her left hand on top of his right upper arm (for the Tango, her hand goes behind his arm), and his right hand on her back resting on her left shoulder blade. Her left elbow rests on his right elbow, and her right side of the chest touches his right side. This dance posture dates back to the European royal courts and is very elegant as the couples float around the dance floor.

The closed hold's right-to-right side contact may have originated when men danced with swords hung on their left sides. The man would've stood on the inside of the circle so he wouldn't accidentally hit any of the people watching the dancers with his sword as he danced past.

The postures in Latin American ballroom vary from dance to dance, with some using the closed hold and others only using one hand.

Like the Modern Ballroom, the Latin American Ballroom has a set vocabulary, technique, rhythm, and tempo.