Ballroom dancing may be associated with women and men in formal attires dancing the night away in grand halls. They are composed of different forms of steps such as the slow motion waltz, the lively fox trot or the passion of Tango.

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 phrase ballroom dancing has its root from the Latin word “ballare” which literally means to dance. It is good to note that the word ballet and ballerina has the same origins as ballroom too.

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries dancing was very popular among the upper classes of England. The working class really didn’t catch fire with this form of activity until the early 20th century. In the early 1920′s competitive ballroom dancing was gaining popularity so the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (formerly known as The Imperial Society of Dance Teachers) formed a Ballroom Branch whose function was to standardize the ballroom dances.

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. 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.

The modern ballroom dances vary in tempo (beats per minute) and rhythm (structure), however, they all involve a couple dancing in a closed hold. A closed hold involves 5 bodily points of contact between the couple. 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.

many years ago, the men danced while wearing their swords and this helps to explain why the strange right to right chest contact between the man and the women. The strange counter clockwise movement is also explained this way, and it helps prevent the sword stabbing any of the people watching or the dancers as he gracefully waltzes by. The posture varies for different dances in the American Latin ballroom. Today, the American Latin ballroom dance has been standardized for the purposes of teaching.