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Ballroom dancing may be associated with women and men in formal attires dancing the night away in grand halls. The sheer elegance and gracefulness of the Waltz never fails to impress anyone and the passion of Tango definitely appeals to those who are burning with adventure and passion.
Webster defines ballroom dancing as simply “Any of various, usually social dances in which couples perform set moves”. The word “ball”, when referring to a social gathering as opposed to a child’s toy, comes from the Latin “ballare” meaning to dance. This is the base for ballroom (a room for dancing), ballet (a dance), and ballerina (a dancer).
History books tells us that the people from the upper class in England used this fro of dance in social gathering backs in the late 18th and 19th century. People form the working class did not participate in such occasions and therefore were alienated from such gathering and therefore have no opportunity to partake in such lavish activities. The Ballroom Dance Branch was set up by the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing with the sole purpose of standardizing the modern day ballroom dancing.
Modern dancing revolves around five dances, the Modern Waltz, the Viennese Waltz, the Slow Foxtrot, Tango and the Quickstep. When American Latin ballroom Dance comes to mind, here are some names of famous dances Samba, Rumba, Paso Doble, Cha-Cha and the Jive. Latin America refers to Latin and America, and not in reference to any particular South American 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. Three points of contact involves the hand-his left holding her right, her left hand on the top of his right arm, and his right hand would be behind her shoulder blades. The other points come in contact through elbows and chests which rests comfortably on each other as they glide through the dance floor. This is the posture that the European Royal Court had been graced as couples float endlessly on the dance floor during grand social gatherings.
The strange right to right contact comes from an era when men danced while wearing their swords which was placed on the left side. This is also the obvious reason for the counter clockwise movement, that serves to prevent hitting any of the people watching as he dances past them. In American Latin dancing, posture changes from one dance to another. Today, the American Latin ballroom dance has been standardized for the purposes of teaching.
