What Is History of Ballroom Dancing?
Posted on Dec 07, 2008 under Entertainment |
Ballroom dancing conjures up images of beautiful women in flowing gowns and tall dark handsome men in tuxes waltzing their way around the dance floor. These forms of dances can be slow such as the Waltz or they can be fast and upbeat such as in Fox Trot.
The definition by Webster for ballroom dancing is “any of various, usually social dances in which couples perform set moves”. The term ballroom dancing has its root in the Latin word “ballare†which literally means to dance. Interestingly, this is also the base word for ballerina and ballet.
History reveals that this is a form of dance famous among the people from the upper class in England back in the late 18th and 19th century. This form of dance is not common among people of the working class until late 20th century. 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.
Today, ballroom comprise of five major moves - the 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. The word Latin America refers to the word Latin and America.
The modern day ballroom dancing consists of specific steps and tempo with couples dancing together. A closed hold involves 5 bodily points of contact between the couple. Three points involve the hand, where his left hand holds her right and her left hand will be on the top of his right upper arm, and the Tango would need her hand to go hand his arm while other right hand will rest on her left shoulder blade. 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 is the posture that the European Royal Court had been graced as couples float endlessly on the dance floor during grand social gatherings.
This right side-to-right side contact of the closed hold may have originated from a time when men danced while wearing their swords, which were hung on their left sides. 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. It would be interesting to note that the posture change from one dance to another in the American Latin ballroom. The Latin American version of ballroom dance has been very much standardized for the purposes of teaching.
