Two Step Dance

Two Step Dance, also known as the "Texas Two-Step," is one of the most popular forms of dance at country and Western theme bars, second only to line dancing. Its appeal lies in the fact that it is relatively simple to learn, easy to perform in large groups, and most important of all, it is just downright fun.

There are really two histories of what is called two step dance, because the name jumped from one type of dance that is no longer done to another (the Texas Two Step or Collegiate Foxtrot) that is done.

In 1891, famous composer John Philip Sousa composed the Washington Post March, which was a big hit of the day. At the time, dance hall patrons were doing dances like the Virginia Reel and Quadrille, but with this song came a new kind of dance based on the French "waltz in double time" (valse á deux temp). That dance consisted of several chasse steps being done in sequence, Just to make it more confusing, one chasse is also called a triple-step, but since you do two of them in the basic form, the entire dance came to be called the Two-Step.

While immensely popular in its time, the Two Step dance began to disappear as ragtime, jazz, and other forms of music became popular. However, many of the dance techniques remained in other forms of dance such as the Foxtrot (danced competitively) and the aptly named Quickstep.

There was a break of about 50 years when the two step dance was nothing more than a footnote in the dance history books, or a way to describe a certain kind of choreography. That all changed, though, in the late 1910's, when a dance called the "Collegiate Foxtrot" began to catch on. This dance moved into the square dance community in the 1940's, and because of that association with country dancing (as well as the slow-slow, quick-quick nature of the steps itself) became referred to as the "Texas Two" or the "Country Foxtrot."

Thankfully the "Texas Two Step" is the term commonly used today, as having another version of the Foxtrot would lend itself to even more confusion. Aside from the name, however, this version of the dance has nothing to do with the waltz-based dance done to Sousa's marches.

The easiest way to describe the Texas Two-Step is to say that it is danced with four steps over six beats of music. Unfortunately, that's not the easiest way to understand, so breaking it down into individual steps and beats might help. The follow mirrors the lead's steps (so that when the lead steps forward with the left foot, the follow steps back with the right foot) and the dance is done with the two in a standard ballroom dance frame:

1. Beat 1: the lead steps forward with the left foot – this is the first "quick" step.
2. Beat 2: the lead brings the right foot up past the left and forward for the second "quick" step.
3. Beat 3 & 4: the lead steps forward with the left, but holds for an extra beat (hence the "slow" step).
4. Beat 5 & 6: the right foot steps forward and holds for an extra beat, completing the basic form with the second "slow" step).

Many people learn the dance by chanting (hopefully to themselves) "quick-quick slow, slow, quick-quick slow, slow". There are also variations of the dance that start out with a slow, slow, quick-quick pattern, but that has more to do with the fact that when the dance was first taught it was done by professional ballroom dance instructors who knew the Foxtrot. Many variations done in the Texas Two-Step come from Foxtrot, in fact, as well as from the square dance world.

In spite of a varied history, the two-step remains one of the most popular dance forms out there today.

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