Ballroom dancing is a form of social dancing that has also become a competitive sport. Ballroom dancing usually involves a pair of dancers.
In competitive ballroom dancing, couples compete for titles and prizes. They may compete at local, national, or international levels. Competitive ballroom dancing is also known as DanceSport. The rules for DanceSport vary from country to country. The rules also depend on the ages of the dancers. In the United States, youth and adult championship dance teams usually dance four or five dances in each of four main styles. These styles are international standard, international Latin, American smooth, and American rhythm. The teams may perform some dances, such as the waltz and tango, in more than one style. They dance with different tempos, steps, and rules. There are five required dances in the international standard style. They are the waltz, tango, Viennese waltz, slow fox trot, and quickstep. The international Latin dances are the samba, cha-cha , rumba, paso doble, and jive. The American smooth category consists of a waltz, tango, fox trot, and Viennese waltz. The American rhythm dances are the cha-cha, rumba, East Coast swing, bolero, and mambo.
The World DanceSport Federation in Lausanne, Switzerland, governs international competition. USA Dance (formerly the United States Amateur Ballroom Dancers Association) governs amateur competition in the United States. USA Dance headquarters are in Medford, Oregon.
Ballroom dancing probably originated in the late 1700’s to early 1800’s with the Viennese waltz. This dance featured fast, gliding turns. It developed from the folk dances of southern Germany and Austria. The waltz then spread to England and the United States. In the early 1900’s, a vaudeville performer named Harry Fox performed a trotting dance that developed into the fox trot. About the same time, the ballroom dancers Vernon and Irene Castle imported the tango from Argentina to the United States. A faster version of the fox trot, called the quickstep, became popular in the United Kingdom. The rumba, from Cuba, gained popularity in the United States and Europe in the 1930’s. The paso doble originated in Spain in the 1930’s. The 1930’s and 1940’s saw the popularity of swing, jive, jitterbug, and a jitterbug variation called the Lindy. During the 1950’s, several Latin dances became internationally popular. They included the mambo, cha-cha, and bolero from Cuba and the samba from Brazil.
