Perhaps when the word ballroom dancing is mentioned, you can see some images of women in flowing gowns with handsome men dancing the night away on the dance floor. They can be elegant and classy such as Waltz or can be fast as in Fox Trot.
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 word ball does not originate from the toy “ball†but from the Latin word “ballare†which means to dance. The word ballerina and ballet has the same origins as well.
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries dancing was very popular among the upper classes of England. It is not common among people from the working class until the arrival of the 20th century. In the early 1920’s an association called the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing set up a Ballroom Branch with the purpose to standardize all forms of modern ballroom dance.
One can enjoy the elegance of Waltz, the passion of tango and the liveliness of the Quickstep, the slow Fox trot and the Viennese Waltz as forms of modern day ballroom dancing. The American Latin ballroom dance can be classified as Samba, Rumba, Paso Doble, Cha-Cha and the Jive. Latin American ballroom is short for Latin and American – not a reference to Latin countries.
The modern day version of ballroom dancing involves couples dancing closely together in specific tempo and rhythms. There are five main points where the couples come in 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 two points of contact are her left elbow resting on his right elbow and the right side of her chest touching the right side of his chest. This makes a very elegant posture that starts from the early days of the English Royal court.
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.