History of Ballroom Dancing

The history of ballroom dancing is a mixture of myth, tradition, courtship rituals and meshing cultures. With the success of shows such as So You Think You Can Dance and the Dancing with the Stars Tour, it is not surprising that interest in where these dances come from has grown.

Before we can explore the history of ballroom dancing, however, it is necessary to define the term itself. American and International Style are two broad divisions of ballroom dance, with the former being divided into smooth and rhythm and the latter into standard and Latin. These categories contain the following dances:

Smooth/Standard

• Waltz
• Tango
• Foxtrot
• Viennese Waltz

Rhythm/Latin

• Cha Cha
• Rumba
• East Coast Swing
• Bolero
• Mambo
• Samba
• Paso Doble

Probably the oldest extant ballroom dance (not including the medieval re-enactments of court dances) still regularly performed today is the waltz. Set to ¾ time, it has the honor of being too scandalous for the French court (Louis XIII banned it from his court) due to the close embrace that it required. Like most legislated morality, however, the law failed to quell the act, and the dance survived and spread. The dance halls in Vienna sped it up giving the world the intense and whirling Viennese Waltz, and composers such as Strauss became famous for their music composed for the dance.

Meanwhile, in the Latin world, the Spanish explorers took Flamenco with them as they explored the new world, and as it melded with slave dances from Africa and Central American cultures it became known as the Tango, with a particularly sensual variant becoming popular in Argentina. Travelling back across the Atlantic to France, in 1910 it became popular through Europe and America and further.

Not all ballroom dances have such murky beginnings. The Foxtrot, for example, came quite simply from a popular performer in 1913, Harry Fox. The "trot" part of the name is a little confusing, as the dance is characterized by a very smooth, sauntering partnered basic step. In social dancing, this is also known as the "slow foxtrot," to differentiate it from the "quickstep," another variant with the same roots.

The roots of the Latin (or Rhythm) dances is a more tangled morass of traditions and popular culture. For example, the Mambo came from Cuba, and has a very clear father: Perez Prado who developed the mambo style of music in 1943. However, that style of music itself was a rumba beat with a slightly different ending, and the dance was done with an emphasis on a different beat. At the same time, as the mambo became too difficult for any but the professional ballroom dancers, it metamorphosed into the Cha Cha.

That rumba beat had its own dance of the same name, though, after trying out other names for the same dance such as son and danzon. Rumba is the name that stuck, however, and became a sensual writhing staple of ballrooms across the world.

To confuse the history of ballroom dance a little further, another popular dance, the samba, is also known as "the Brazilian Waltz." A cross-blending of African tribal dance and traditional Brazilian moves, it became the featured dance for the wild revelry of Carnivale, accompanied by the pounding beats of the bateria or drum corps.

The bolero and paso doble both are of Spanish origin, though the Paso Doble developed in France. They are highly stylized dances based on older forms of dance such as the Flamenco and the Fandango, and are more danced by professional competitors than social dance enthusiasts. Neither dance is more than a century old, and it remains to be seen if they will stand the test of time.

Even younger is the art of Swing dance, which comes in several varieties. The two primary versions are East Coast Swing and West Coast Swing, both of which started in the American heartland and spread in opposite directions during the era of World War Two. Like the waltz of centuries ago, this kind of dance was deemed immoral and evil and therefore exploded in popularity with the young hip dancers all over the world.

Today, swing along with the other ballroom dances are performed, developed, and shared all around the world, and show no sign of decline. Like any other time in history, the power of music and movement draws people together.

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