Ballroom Dancing's Past

Ballroom Dancing's Past 

Ballroom dancing evokes visions of elegant ladies in long dresses and towering, attractive men in tuxedos gracefully moving about the dance floor.   Waltz is not the only dance in the ballroom.  Ballroom dancing may be fiery, seductive, and sensual (like the Tango or Paso Doble), or it can be a lot of fun and lively (like the Fox Trot Jive or Quick Step). Elegant and refined dances like the Waltz are examples of this. 

"Any of various, usually social dances in which couples perform set moves" is how Webster describes ballroom dancing.  The Latin word "ballare," which means to dance, is where the word "ball" originates when referring to a social event rather than a kid's toy.  This serves as the foundation for ballet, ballerina, and ballroom—all of which are dance-related spaces. 

The upper classes of England were huge fans of ballroom dancing in the late 18th and early 19th century.  The working class didn't fully take to it until the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  The Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (previously known as The Imperial Society of Dance Teachers) established a Ballroom Branch in the early 1920s as a result of the growing popularity of competitive ballroom dancing. The branch's goal was to standardize ballroom dances.

The five dances that make up modern ballroom dancing are the Quickstep, Tango, Slow Foxtrot, Viennese Waltz, and Modern Waltz.  The Samba, Rumba, Paso Doble, Cha-Cha, and Jive are the ballroom dances of Latin America.  Latin American ballroom does not allude to Latin nations; rather, it is a contraction of Latin and American.

Modern ballroom dances differ in terms of rhythm (structure) and pace (beats per minute), but they always feature a couple dancing in a closed hold.  There are five points of touch between the couple's bodies during a closed grip.  His left hand gripping her right, her left hand on top of his right upper arm (her hand would go behind his arm for the Tango), and his right hand on her back resting on her left shoulder blade are the three hand-related areas.  Her right side of her chest contacting his and her left elbow resting on his right elbow are the other two areas of contact.

his chest's right side.  As the couples glide around the dance floor, this dance position, which dates back to ballroom dancing in European royal courts, creates a highly attractive appearance. 

It's possible that the closed hold's right-to-right side contact came from a period in which men danced while brandishing swords hung from their left sides.  This would also account for the man's counterclockwise motion around the dance floor, as he would have positioned himself inside the circle to avoid accidentally striking any onlookers with his sword as he passed by.

Latin American ballroom dances have a variety of postures, some using closed holds and others with couples holding each other with just one hand.