Ballroom dancing is often referred to grand evenings where a swarm of beautiful women danced gracefully in the company of handsome men in formal suits. Those who prefer to start off with something slow would love the gracefulness of the Waltz and those who are adventurous may prefer to try out the Tango, a dance so passionate it can make heartbeat and temperatures rose even by merely watching them.
If we look at the definition by Webster’s dictionary, for ballroom dancing, it is “any of various, usually social dances in which couples perform set moves”, it seems that the scope is wide and varied. The term ballroom dancing has its root in the Latin word “ballare†which literally means to dance. This is the base for ballroom (a room for dancing), ballet (a dance), and ballerina (a dancer).
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries dancing was very popular among the upper classes of England. This is not a common practice of the working class until late 20th century. In the early 1920’s competitive ballroom dancing was gaining popularity so the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (formerly known as The Imperial Society of Dance Teachers) formed a Ballroom Branch whose function was to standardize the ballroom dances.
Today, one can enjoy the elegance of Waltz, the sultry Viennese Waltz, the Slow Foxtrot, passionate Tango and the Quickstep as forms of enjoyable ballroom dancing. Here are some Latin American ballroom dances if you are inclined to know Samba, Rumba, Paso Doble, Cha-Cha and the Jive. The word Latin America actually refers to Latin and America and not in reference to the Latin countries.
Modern day ballroom dances do vary considerably in tempo, and rhythm and still they all consists of couples dancing closely together. Normally, there are five points of contact. Picture this three points of contacts-his left arm hand her right hands holding, his right arm resting on her shoulder blades while her left hand resting on his right arm. The other points come in contact through elbows and chests which rests comfortably on each other as they glide through the dance floor. The member of the European Royal Court had long used this posture to dance.
The strange right to right contact comes from an era when men danced while wearing their swords which was placed on the left side. The dance involves some counter clockwise movements, this is also attributed to the existence of the sword during a dance and this movement helps prevent the sword form hitting any of the watching audience. It would be interesting to note that the posture change from one dance to another in the American Latin ballroom. Like the Modern Ballroom dancing, the Latin American Ballroom has been standardized for instruction purposes and has a set, internationally recognized vocabulary, technique, rhythm and tempo.
Leave a Reply