History Of Ballroom Dancing Interests New Dancers
Once, the history of ballroom dancing was pretty obscure and the dancing under
the radar of most people. Except for those who pursued it as a career or maybe
those who gave or took ballroom dancing lessons, or at least had a pair or two
of ballroom dancing shoes in their own closet, no one noticed it except for a
few public TV offerings on dance competitions. Now, ballroom dancing is even
been promoted as an Olympic sport!
Studying the history of ballroom dancing can be broken into two main areas. One
is studying the basic dances that make up the modern ballroom dancing pursuit,
and the other is the more general history of why this kind of dancing became
formalized and competitive.
One interesting bit of trivia one finds in the fascinating history of ballroom
dancing is that many of the positions and the hand holds used in the set dances
to this day date from the times when gentlemen carried swords, and the
positions of the dancers and their hands were to accommodate the presence of
those swords!
These positions lingered long after swords were no longer common and can be
seen the five modern dances that are the core of ballroom dance. These dances
are the modern waltz, the Viennese waltz, the quickstep, the slow foxtrot, and
the tango, according to many dance historians. And the "ballroom" is of course
a room where society's formal balls were held, with "ball" coming from the
Latin verb ballare, meaning "to dance."
Waltzes are related to a dance called the Volta, which goes back to at least
the 1600's. The waltz is more formal but is also three beats to the measure,
smooth and lively, about 180 bpm and usually in ¾ time. The Viennese version
dates from around and is more sedate at a slower 90 beats per minute, dating
from the 1830's.
The tango has its roots in the flamenco dance of Spain, and comes to modern
ballroom dance from Argentina. The greatest dancer on stage in France,
Mistinguett, brought the tango to Paris in 1910, and American silent film star
Rudolph Valentino added to its popularity in his films.
The quickstep (200 bpm) and slow foxtrot (120 bpm) are evolved from the
original foxtrot which in turn was called the "one step" or "two step" in
Victorian times. The quickstep is related to Ragtime music and has roots in the
Shimmy and the Charleston, as well as the older faster versions of the foxtrot.
The history of ballroom dancing starts with the formal balls of high society
centuries ago and their rigid stylized figure dancing. Like the quickstep,
competitive ballroom dancing also derives from the Roaring 20's, and an
organization of ballroom dance teachers who wanted to standardize the basic
dances and give incentive to students for prowess and skill. Now ballroom dance
is prime time and very popular, with high ratings for television dance
offerings, many combining celebrities with professional ballroom dancers.