"Ballroom" Dance Studios specialize in partnership – or contact -- dancing, specifically adult social dancing. Within that broad category are lumped several types of social dancing, and they go by many names. For many people, “Ballroom Dancing” refers to the more formal dances of a bygone era, often seen as straight-laced and stuffy. Today, “Ballroom Dancing” has become a catchall term to mean any social partnership dance, and most studios teach 20-30 of them – so there’s bound to be a dance for everyone.
Swing
One of the most popular dances you can learn is Swing, a dance with many regional variations such as Lindy Hop, Balboa, Shag, & Beach Bop. Some studios teach those regional styles, but most teach the universally used Eastern Swing, Jitterbug, and West Coast Swing. Swing is what we call the all-American fun dance, and it's danced to all kinds of popular music, from Count Basie to Billy Idol to the B-52s. It’s a dance you’ll hear just about anywhere you go.
Latin
Latin dancing is very popular also, especially since movies like Salsa and Dance With Me. If you're going to a lot of Latin clubs, you'll need to know how to dance what we call "Club Latin" - Salsa, Merengue, and Bachata - that's mostly what they play.
But there are several other fun "Ballroom Latin" dances you’ll use at a lot of other social events and nightclubs. Rumba is a romantic dance, so it goes to just about any slow music, as well as artists like Jimmy Buffett and The Drifters. Chacha is fun and flirty, and can be used to a lot of contemporary Pop music like Jennifer Lopez and Santana. And Merengue isn’t confined just to Latin clubs. Almost any upbeat song with a good beat can be a Merengue -- or if it’s real fast, a Hustle.
Ballroom
You can also learn the traditional ballroom dances. Foxtrot, Waltz, and Tango, the dances in which couples are noted to sweep around the dance floor, are alive and well.
Foxtrot, a precursor of CountryTwostep, covers a variety of music, from early pop artists like Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra, to contemporary artists such as Harry Connick, Jr. and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. Foxtrot is often played at weddings, on cruises, and in Jazz-style clubs.
Another dance played for weddings and anniversaries is Waltz. It has a classic, elegant sound. Many people think of “Moon River” and the “Tennessee Waltz”, but did you know that The Eagles have a Waltz? So do Celine Dion and Michael Jackson.
And then there’s the dance made for drama, the one famous for the rose between the teeth. The intense passion of Tango became much more popular after movies like Scent of a Woman and True Lies.
Need More?
For most people, that’s plenty. Unless you’re spending a lot of time around advanced dancers, or just have an interest, you may not need the following, but most studios teach them as well. These are specialty dances. Students who learn these dances probably are competitors, performers, or hobby dancers. You won’t see them danced at the average social function, but they are fun to watch, and to learn: Viennese Waltz, Quickstep, Paso Doble, Jive, Bolero, Mambo, and Samba.
