PE03-S/B/D * Learning Material 1 * Unit 1-1

Topics: *Definition
*Brief History
*The 10 International S/B Dances

Aims: This learning material aims to:

a. describe the historical development of social/ballroom dance;
b. present the basic features of the social/ballroom dances; and
c. introduce the old and the new social/ballroom dances;

Warm-up: Asses yourself:

Yes No
1. I can dance.
2. I can move very well in correct rhythm (of the music).
3. I can create simple movement combinations.
4. I can follow movement patterns/combinations.
5. I can memorize the order/flow of step patterns.

Introduction

➢ Ballroom Dancing is sometimes called Social Dancing or Popular Dancing. It is a dance form usually
performed by couples for their pleasure and satisfaction either in private function or in public dancing
halls. The dance steps are created from the man’s basic movements like the: walk, run, jump, hop,
skip, slide, leap, turn, and sway. A combination of these basic movements have become traditional
dance steps that are used often in stylized manner, for Folk and Ethnic Dances, Social or Ballroom
Dances, Ballet, and Modern Dances.

➢ Another way of describing ballroom dance is “a formal dancing with a partner in dances that use a set
pattern of steps”.

➢ Some of the more important features of Ballroom Dancing are:

Rhythm: The relatively fast or slow repetition and
variation of movements.
Design: The arrangement of steps to form a pattern.
Dynamics: The variation in the force and intensity of
movements.
Technique: The degree of body control and mastery of basic
steps and positions.
Gesture, especially hand movements, is also important in many dances.

➢ International contests in ballroom dancing gained favor in the 20th century. In the 1920’s in London,
dance teachers modified the basic steps of Ballroom Dances like the Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot, and
encouraged dancers to learn the steps and to practice them to professional level.

Definition and Brief History

➢ The term ballroom dancing is derived from the word ball (a ball is a large-scale formal social event at
which the main activity is dancing) which in turn originated from the Latin word ballare which means
to dance. Also, the word ballroom refers to a large room specially designed for formal dances.
 ➢ In times past, ballroom dancing was a social dance for the privileged, leaving folk dancing for the
lower classes. These boundaries have become blurred because it was noted that, even in times long
gone, many ballroom dances were really elevated folk dances.

➢ The definition of ballroom dance also depends on the era. Examples are:

Task 1:
Old Dances Simple/Brief Description
Minuet
Quadrille
Polonaise
Polka
Mazurka
Cotillion

The Renaissance Period

➢ The first authoritative knowledge of the earliest ballroom dances was recorded toward the end of the
16th century, when Jehan Tabourot, under the penname Thoinot-Arbeau, published in 1588
his Orchésographie, a study of late 16th century French Renaissance Social Dance.

Among the dances described were:

Task 2:
Old Dances Simple/Brief Description
Basse Danse
Branle
Pavane
Galliard
Mazurka

➢ In 1650, the Minuet, originally a peasant dance of Poitou, France was introduced in Paris and set to
music by Jean-Baptiste Lully and danced by King Louis XIV in public, continued to dominate
ballroom from that time until the close of the 18th century.

➢ Toward the latter half of the 17th century, King Louis XIV founded his Académie Royale de Musique
at de Danse where specific rules for the execution of every dance and the five positions of the feet
were formulated for the first time by members of the Académie.

➢ Eventually, the first definite cleavage or separation between ballet and ballroom dances came when
professional dancers appeared in the ballets, and the ballets left the court (a large open area within a
building used as area for Social Dancing) and went to the stage (a platform where dancers perform).
Ballet techniques such as the turned-out positions of the feet, however, lingered for over two centuries
and past the end of the Victorian era.

The Victorian Era

➢ The Waltz (a couple dance in triple time music) with its modern hold took root in England in about
1812.

➢ In 1819, Carl Maria von Weber wrote “Invitation to the Dance” which marked the adoption of the
waltz form into the sphere of absolute music. The dance was initially met with tremendous opposition
due to the semblance of impropriety associated with the closed hold, though the stance gradually
softened.
 ➢ In the 1840s, several new dances made their appearance in the ballroom, including the Polka (a Polish
dance of Bohemian origin), Mazurka (Polish origin), and the Schottische (a German Folk Dance of
Bohemian origin).

➢ In the meantime, a strong tendency emerged to drop all “decorative steps” such as entrechat [a quick
movement of the interchanging legs] and rond de jambe [circular movement of the legs] that had found
a place in the Quadrilles [square dance] and other dances.

The Early 20th Century

➢ The modern Ballroom Dance has its roots in the early 20 th century when several different things
happened more or less at the same time.

➢ The first event was a movement away from the sequence dances towards where the couples moved
independently. This had been pre-figured by the Waltz, which had already made this transition.

➢ The second event was a wave of popular music, such as jazz (a syncopated popular music of Afro-
American origin), much of which was based on the ideas of black musicians in the USA. Since dance
is to a large extent tied to music, this led to a burst of newly invented dances. There were many dance
craze (extremely popular during a period of time) during the 1910s to 1930s.

➢ The third event was a concerted effort to transform some of the dance crazes into dances which could
be taught to a wider dancing public in the USA and Europe. These professionals analyzed, codified,
published, and taught a number of standard dances:

Task 3:
Dance Enthusiasts Influences
Vernon and Irene Castle
(William Vernon Blyth and Irene Foote)
Josephine Bradley and Victor Silvester
Arthur Murray
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers

The Beginning of Ballroom Dance (Social Dance)

➢ Social dances are usually done to introduce people with one another during a formal social gathering
or to welcome guests to a social gathering. Many of the social dances like Polka and Mazurka started
as folk dances while some were deliberately designed for its social purpose, such as Waltz, Rigadoon
(a lively couple dance of French origin popular in the 17th and 18th centuries performed in duple or
quadruple time music), and Polonaise.

➢ Social dancing is believed to have existed since the beginning of human society in some forms. Its
original forms may have been simply a group dance for pleasure or recreation. Most group dances
were originally ceremonial rites grouped around three basic aspects of human existence: food supply,
sexual impulse, and relationship with the spirit world.

➢ While the origin of social dances may be traced back to the primitive times, couples dancing a dance
form emerged in the 15th century in Europe. Varied vigorous styles in innovative adaptations and
refinement of folk dances were developed by the dance masters of that time. These new dances, gay
and lively in character, developed first as a social diversion among the aristocracy of France and Italy,
then expanded developmentally to every royal court in other continents to become, in the later
centuries, an activity even of the emerging middle class as well.

➢ Various changes in social dance through the ages clearly demonstrated its interdependence with the
world. During the 14th century, when social dance and folk dance were virtually indistinguishable,
 popular ring dances (in circular motion) were performed in English upper-class homes as part of the
evening entertainment.

➢ Advancing technology and two world wars that restructured life in the 20th century changed social
dances almost dramatically, quickly altering its values and practices. The syncopated rhythms of
American Ragtime Music (a syncopated popular music of late 19th and early 20th centuries popularized
by pianist and composer Scott Joplin) inspired the Foxtrot and Shimmy (a popular 1920s jazz dance in
which the body is held straight and shaken rhythmically and rapidly from the shoulders down).

➢ The Charleston (a vigorous dance popular in the 1920s characterized by kicking one foot sideways
with knees kept together), as well as the Flapper (a dance similar to the Charleston), was born.

➢ The Jitterbug (a fast and energetic dance popular in the 1940s performed by couples to jazz music)
burst from the Swing (a lively dance style popular in the 1930s and 1940s performed by couples
involving syncopated steps, spins, and jumps, with one partner often swinging and lifting the other
off the ground) improvisations in the 1930s.

➢ The 10 International Ballroom Dances:

Task 4:

International Standard Dances

Slow Waltz Place of origin:
Basic counting:
Tango Place of origin:
Basic counting:
Foxtrot Place of origin:
Basic counting:
Viennese Waltz Place of origin:
Basic counting:
Quickstep Place of origin:
Basic counting:

Latin-American Dances
Cha-cha-cha Place of origin:
Basic counting:
Rumba Place of origin:
Basic counting:
Samba Place of origin:
Basic counting:
Pasodoble Place of origin:
Basic counting:
Jive Place of origin:
Basic counting:

Prepared by: Mr. JR V. Cubangbang

Teacher-in-charge