Ballroom dance is a set of European partner dances, which are enjoyed both socially and competitively around the world, mostly because of its performance and entertainment aspects. Ballroom dancing is also widely enjoyed on stage, film, and television.
The waltz, meaning "to roll or revolve") is a ballroom and folk dance, normally in triple, performed primarily in closed position.
The foxtrot is a smooth, progressive dance characterized by long, continuous flowing movements across the dance floor. It is danced to big band music. The dance is similar in its look to waltz, although the rhythm is in a 4
4 time signature instead of 3
4. Developed in the 1910s, the foxtrot reached its height of popularity in the 1930s and remains practiced today.
A redowa is a dance of Czech origin with turning, leaping waltz steps that was popular in European ballrooms.
Modern social round dance, or round dancing, is a choreographed and cued ballroom dance that progresses in a circular counter-clockwise pattern around the dance floor. The two major categories of ballroom dances found in round dancing are the smooth and international ballroom styles and the Latin dances. It is not to be confused with circle dancing, which is a type of folk dance in which dancers are connected in a circular chain.
This is a list of dance terms that are not names of dances or types of dances. See List of dances and List of dance style categories for those.
In ballroom dancing, directions of progressive movement, in particular directions of steps, can be indicated either in relation to the room or in relation to the body position. Directions of turns, although there are only two of them, may also be indicated in several ways.
The quickstep is a light-hearted dance of the standard ballroom dances. The movement of the dance is fast and powerfully flowing and sprinkled with syncopations. The upbeat melodies that quickstep is danced to make it suitable for both formal and informal events. Quickstep was developed in the 1920s in New York City and was first danced by Black Americans. Its origins are in combination of slow foxtrot combined with the Charleston, a dance which was one of the precursors to what today is called swing dancing.
The closed change is a Pre-Bronze, or newcomer waltz figure, performed in closed position. Changes may start of the right foot or left foot, moving forward or backward. This makes four different types of closed changes. Combining two changes results in a box step. In right changes the man starts from the right foot, while in left ones the man starts from the left foot.
Joseph Lanner was an Austrian dance music composer and dance orchestra conductor. He is best remembered as one of the earliest Viennese composers to reform the waltz from a simple peasant dance to something that even the highest society could enjoy, either as an accompaniment to the dance, or for the music's own sake. He was just as famous as his friend and musical rival Johann Strauss I, who was better known outside of Austria in their day because of his concert tours abroad, in particular, to France and England.
Sequence dancing is a form of dance in which a preset pattern of movements is followed, usually to music which is also predetermined. Sequence dancing may include dances of many different styles. The term may include ballroom dances which move round the floor as well as line, square and circle dances.
A waltz, probably deriving from German Ländler, is dance music in triple meter, often written in 3
4 time. A waltz typically sounds one chord per measure, and the accompaniment style particularly associated with the waltz is to play the root of the chord on the first beat, the upper notes on the second and third beats.
Waltz is one of the five dances in the Standard category of the International Style ballroom dances. It was previously referred to as slow waltz or English waltz.
A fleckerl is a dance step, most commonly found in the Viennese waltz. Unlike the natural and reverse turns, the fleckerl does not move forwards along the dance floor but instead rotates on the spot.
Ballroom tango is a ballroom dance that branched away from its original Argentine roots by allowing European, American, Hollywood, and competitive influences into the style and execution of the dance.
Canter time, canter timing or canter rhythm is a two-beat regular rhythmic pattern of a musical instrument or in dance steps within 3
4 time music. The term is borrowed from the canter horse gait, which sounds three hoof beats followed by a pause, i.e., 3 accents in 4
4 time.
The whisk is a ballroom dance step used in the waltz and American style Viennese waltz. It is one of several ways to get into promenade position and is used to turn dancers around corners or change their direction on the dance floor. It can be performed after a reverse turn.
A natural turn is a dance step in which the partners turn around each other clockwise. Its near-mirror counterpart is the reverse turn, which is turning to the counter-clockwise.
A wing is a ballroom dance move, in the silver syllabus of competition waltz. It is a transitional movement that repositions the follower to the leader's left side. Thus, while many dance moves can precede a wing, only a reverse movement can follow a wing, such as a reverse turn, double reverse spin, Telemark, fallaway reverse, or drag hesitation.
