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DANCIN' Ballroom Dance Studio
3847 Narrow Lane Road
Montgomery, Alabama 36111
(334) 281-5310
dancinballroom.com
eMail - dancin@knology.net
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Montgomery's Home to the Champions!
Ballroom Dancing is Back in Style! Don't be left out of the fun of Couple Dancing. We're here to get you started having Fun dancing with style today.
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Dancin's Ballroom Dances Descriptions and Facts and Interesting Information:
Ballroom Dance Descriptions
Of the more Common American Style Dances
Bolero
Cha Cha
Hustle
Fox Trot
Mambo
Merengue
Night Club Two-Step
Rumba
Samba
Swing
Tango
Waltz
West Coast Swing
Viennese Waltz
Bolero
The bolero is a smooth, sophisticated, sentimental love dance. The
emphasis is on smoothness and graceful turns with much communication
between partners. The slower music to which it is performed enhances a
feeling of romance.
Cha Cha
Probably the most popular Latin dance in the U.S., the Cha Cha began as
a part of the Mambo. It was so easy and so much fun, it became the rage
of the early 1950's. It's infectious one-two, one-two-three rhythm
demands that sitters become dancers. Everybody can learn the Cha Cha,
and they should.
Hustle
The Hustle marked a return to popular dances where couples danced
touching each other. In the early 1970's a modified Lindy Hop or
Jitterbug became popular on the crowded dance floors of New York. It
was called The Hustle, it is still popular today, and is danced to modern
"disco" music based on Rhythm & Blues.
Fox Trot
In 1913 Harry Fox, a Vaudeville Comedian, introduced a trot to a
ragtime song in the 1913 Ziegfeld Follies that pushed other trots into the
background. It became America's most popular dance and remains so to
this day as the standard of social dances.
Mambo
In the 1940's Americans became fascinated by Latin American rhythms.
The Mambo combined American Jazz with the Afro-Cuban beat. For
dancers, the Mambo was an exciting challenge. Arthur Murray Studios
became famous for turning out some of the best Mambo dancers of the
era. Today, the Mambo is exciting to dance and to watch.
Merengue
There are two schools of thought as to how this captivating dance began.
One says it started as a peasant dance in the Dominican Republic by
African slaves. The dragging of one leg relieved chafing of leg irons.
Another says a returning war hero, General Maringie, danced dragging an
injured leg. Today the exciting rhythms of the Merengue inspire dancers
all over the world to move with the intoxicating beat of the Merengue.
Night Club Two-Step (Foxxy)
This dance became popular in California in the 1970's & 1980's and is
today considered the most popular of the romantic nightclub dances. With
its mixture of movements taken from the most popular ballroom dances, it
gives you a feeling of movement that is both romantic and simultaneously
rhythmic, yet is uniquely its own dance apart from ballroom.
Rumba
The Rumba was the beginning of Cuban and Latin American dance
crazes. Danced to music inspired by African rhythms and Spanish
melodies, the Americanized Rumba was the basis for the Mambo and
Cha Cha in the U.S. Music called Salsa perpetuates the popularity of the
Rumba all over the world.
Samba
The national dance of Brazil became the rage of Brazilian society in the
1930's but began as an exhibition dance in Paris in 1905. Movie star and
singer Carmen Miranda is credited with making the dance popular in the
U.S. in the early 1940's. It is extremely popular today because it is easily
adaptable to different tempos. Everybody who lands in Rio must know
how to dance the Samba .
Swing
The Lindy picked up where the Charleston left off. It had "swing-outs",
"break-aways" and "shine-steps." With the birth of "Swing" music in the
mid 1930's the Lindy climbed the social ladder. In August of 1935 at the
Polomar Ballroom, bandleader Benny Goodman played a Fletcher
Henderson arrangement of "Stompin' at the Savoy." The rest, as they say,
is history. The dance craze swept the nation; Depending on where you
lived, it was the Jitterbug, the Lindy, or the Swing.
Tango
The Tango began in the West Indies and found its way to Argentina
where it was stylized by the Guachos to its present form. It became the
romantic rage in 1921, after the silent screen star Rudolph Valentino
brought the dance to millions in "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse."
Today it is considered a "dancer's" dance and is a favorite of all who learn
to dance the Tango.
Waltz
Considered the Mother of our present dances, the Waltz began in
southern Germany in the seventeenth century. The popularity of the Waltz
grew with the music of Johann Strauss and eventually blossomed in the
20th century as the Hesitation Waltz. It is the basis for many dances and
is popular today all over the world.
West Coast Swing
The official "California State Dance" is both an invigorating and
challenging form of swing dancing that has taken California by storm. The
dance has appeal to all ages both young and old and is danced to a
variety of styles of music from rock to pop as well as jazz and today's top
forty music. Considered a slot dance, it needs only a minimum amount of
dance space which is one of the reasons it has developed into the most
popular form of swing dancing that is danced in the United States as well
as around the Dance World today.
Viennese Waltz
The splendor of Waltz is epitomized in the elegant and graceful Viennese
Waltz. The gliding, turning movements suggest that the dancer is skating.
The Viennese Waltz brings to mind chandeliers and lovely ladies in their
flowing gowns dancing to the lilting sounds of Strauss waltzes.