Probably you can clearly see a grand hall with handsome men and beautiful women dressed in flowing gowns gracefully waltzing on the dance floor. Those who prefer to start off with something slow would love the gracefulness of the Waltz and those who are adventurous may prefer to try out the Tango, a dance so passionate it can make heartbeat and temperatures rose even by merely watching them.

The Webster dictionary defines ballroom dancing as “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. This is the base for ballroom (a room for dancing), ballet (a dance), and ballerina (a dancer).

This is a form of dance common to the members of the English upper class in the late 18th and 19th century. People form the working class did not participate in such occasions and therefore were alienated from such gathering and therefore have no opportunity to partake in such lavish activities. In the early 1920’s an association called the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing set up a Ballroom Branch with the purpose to standardize all forms of modern ballroom dance.

Modern dancing revolves around five dances, the Modern Waltz, the Viennese Waltz, the Slow Foxtrot, Tango and the Quickstep. The American Latin ballroom dance can be classified as Samba, Rumba, Paso Doble, Cha-Cha and the Jive. The Latin American refers to Latin and America not to countries of latin origin.

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. There exists three main points of contact during the dance-her right hand holding his left, and her left resting on top of his right arm. Other point come close as her right side of the set touches his left chest and the elbow, her left touches his right touch each other as they glide round 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.

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. The dance involves some counter clockwise movements, this is also attributed to the existence of the sword during a dance and this movement helps prevent the sword form hitting any of the watching audience. In American Latin dancing, posture changes from one dance to another. The vocabulary, technique, rhythm and tempo of the American Latin ballroom have been standardized for training purposes.