Southern Star Ballroom & Dancesport Center

dance Styles

Home

Southern Star Ballroom & Dancesport Center teaches all the most popular styles of social and competitive dancing.  The following is a brief description of a wide variety of dance styles we teach in our group classes and private lessons.

The other styles of dance that are not listed, are generally taught only in private lessons.

If you would like more information on a style or level of dance, please feel free to contact us.

AMERICAN TANGO:

A Latin style dance that originated in Argentina and was adapted for American ballroom dancing. It is characterized by it's provocative figures, catlike walking action, and staccato (sharp) head movements.

ARGENTINE TANGO:

The Argentine style of Tango which is  usually danced in a close embrace.  It is characterized by grapevines, figure eights, and other interesting and complex leg and foot movements. The Argentine style does not travel as much as the American style and thus is better suited for nightclub dancing.

BOLERO:

A slow Latin dance which originated as one of two forms of Rumba (Bolero Rumba and Son Rumba), and still shares many of the same figures. Bolero differs from Rumba in its tempo and style of music and movement.

BALLROOM WALTZ:

The most popular ballroom dance in the world. Waltz has a slow easy-to-hear 1-2-3, 1-2-3 rhythm (3/4 time) and can be danced to music found in nearly all music genres, including rock, country, pop, and classical.
CHA CHA:

An exciting, syncopated Latin dance which originated in the 1950's as a slowed-down Mambo. The Cha Cha gets its name and character from its distinct repetitive foot rhythm (cha cha cha).

COUNTRY WESTERN WALTZ:

Country Western Waltz evolved from Ballroom Waltz and is danced very smoothly and more progressively down the line of dance.

EAST COAST SWING:

A triple-step Swing derived from Lindy Hop and Jitterbug, making use of refined (American Style) ballroom technique that is typically danced to jump blues or to country swing songs.

FOXTROT:

Foxtrot is a smooth dance introduced in 1913 by Harry Fox. It is characterized by smooth, walking-style movements and can be adapted to fit a variety of musical tempi and style, or to fit onto small, crowded nightclub dance floors.

HUSTLE:

Hustle is a fast but smooth-moving dance which originated in the nightclubs during the 1970's disco era, as a modified version of swing. Hustle is the perfect dance for dance-beat, nightclub music including everything from pop to rap and hip hop.

MERENGUE:

An energetic Latin-style marching dance with Cuban hip motion that originated in the Dominican Republic. It is now a subset of the modern club-style Salsa dances.

NIGHTCLUB:

A slow, romantic social dance, similar in movement to the Bossa Nova, first introduced in the 80's and popular amongst the West Coast Swing crowd.  It is mostly danced to slow love songs and ballads.

POLKA:

This fast and lively dance is of Polish origin, but is now very popular in the Country Western clubs. It is characterized by triple steps.

RUMBA:

Rumba is a slow to medium tempo Latin American dance which is characterized by sensual, provocative movements and gestures, Cuban hip motion, and playful and flirtatious interplay between the man and lady.

SALSA:  A  popular Latin nightclub dance which evolved as a modified form of Mambo.  Salsa displays a lot of shakin', shimmying, and hip action.

SALSA SHINES:  Salsa freestyle dancing, where dancers stand apart facing each other and improvise with various footwork and styling while interpreting the music.

SAMBA:

A fun, rhythmical Brazilian dance which has been adapted for modern Ballroom dancing. Samba is noted for it's distinct style of movement, which incorporates both Latin hip motion and the signature "Samba Bounce".

SWING:

A style of Swing (also known as Jitterbug) danced in single-rhythm, to very fast big band jazz music of the thirties, forties and fifties.

TRIPLE TWO STEP:

A very popular Country Western dance that incorporates triple steps and walking steps and includes variations of Swing and Two Step into its smooth peppy movement.

(TEXAS) TWO STEP: 

The most popular style of Country Western dancing.  It is characterized by multiple underarm turns executed while swiftly traveling along the line of dance.

VIENNESE WALTZ:  This dance was born in the suburbs of Vienna and in the alpine region of Austria in the 1700’s. Like the slow waltz, it uses ¾ time music, but the tempo is much faster.  It is great for fast ballroom Waltz music or fast Country Waltz music.

WC SWING:  A cool, sexy, slotted swing dance that spotlights the lady and is characterized by its smooth and linear style.  This dance is perfect for nightclubs because it can be danced to many styles of music including pop, rap, blues, big band, disco, country and dance-beat techno.