Styles of dance
The styles of dance that we teach are Ballroom,
Latin American, Salsa, Argentine Tango and
American Smooth.
Ballroom
Ballroom is the style of dancing that refers to the man keeping the lady in hold throughout, by convention, dancing in an anti-clockwise direction around the room.
The standard Ballroom dances are Waltz, Quickstep, Foxtrot, Tango and Viennese Waltz.
Latin American
Latin American is a collection of dances all of which have different characters.
Some move progressively around the floor like Ballroom, others stay moreorless stationary, but all have in common the ability to let go of the partner and have a verity of different ways of holding on and relative positions.
The mainstream Latin American dances are Cha Cha Cha, Rumba, Samba, Jive and Paso Doble.
Commonly the mainstream Latin American dances get lumped together with Ballroom in classes, so that 'Ballroom' classes most often also include Latin American.
Salsa
A new craze which swept to the UK at the end of the 1990's, Salsa remains a popular 'club' dance, in the Latin American stable.
Classes often include other Latin dance styles such as Bachata and Meringue.
Argentine Tango
The Tango that is danced in the Ballroom genre is very much stylised and made to fit the Ballroom pattern.
Argentine Tango is much more back to the roots of Tango, and is danced very much as it would have been in Buenes Aires in the 19th century.
Argentine Tango and Ballroom Tango do not mix with each other particularly well !
American Smooth
We are one of the few dance schools in the UK to offer American Smooth tuition.
It is loosely based upon Ballroom dancing and is a style that is applied to Waltz, (most commonly) Foxtrot, Tango and Viennese Waltz - although not Quickstep.
It sees the common trend of movement like Ballroom, but combines some Latin elements, eg letting go of your partner, turning and spinning under the arm, alternative holds and (entirely optionally) lifts and drop-lines.
Old Time and Modern Sequence
We do not presently teach Old Time or Modern Sequence dancing, which (rather disparagingly) is Ballroom danced in circles, each couple dancing the same steps - apologies if that rather glib description offends any sequence dancers !
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