SOCIAL AND BALLROOM DANCES

INTRODUCTION

Long gone, we have been surrounded by folk dances, we learned by nature and within
its origin, also with some dances with foreign influences. At present, these folk dances have
been elevated into a form of social dances creating more complex dance routine to enjoy by
people of different ages as form of highly entertaining dance genres. Some of the historical
dances being molded as social and ballroom dances are the Mazurka, Polka, Minuet, etc. these
dances have had its evolution into the classification of the social and ballroom dances. The
meaning of ballroom dances varies from the dance genres of today.

THE THREE WORLDS OF BALLROOM DANCE

Figure No. 1 Figure No. 2 Figure No. 3

“Social” “Competitive” “Exhibition”
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All three forms are valid, each enjoyed by their adherents for good reasons. But it's
helpful to know how and why they differ from each other.
Ballroom Dance

"Ballroom dance" refers to traditional partnered dance forms that are done by a couple,
often in the embrace of closed dance position ("ballroom dance position"). These include waltz,
swing, tango, salsa and blues. "Ballroom dance" is the overall umbrella term, covering all three
forms.

Social dance forms are important. The earliest dance forms ever described (in the 15th
century) were partnered social dances. Many of today's performative dance forms, including
ballet and jazz dance, evolved from social dance forms that came first. The three worlds of
ballroom dance share the same historical roots, similar step vocabulary and music, so the three
forms are considered siblings, related by birth. Yes, siblings are known to fight, but they can
also be mutually supportive.

THE ESSENTIAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE THREE FORMS

The main distinction is that they have different audiences. Who are you dancing for, beyond
your own enjoyment?

Social Ballroom
Your partner
Your partners want to
interact with you
spontaneously, for fun, doing
steps that are also enjoyable
for them.
• Sociable, i.e., friendly and
kind.
• Flexibly adaptive. You
value and accommodate to
Competitive Ballroom
(Dance Sport)
Audience
The judges
Audience Expectations
Judges want to see that the
steps and styles are done
precisely and correctly, with
great flair.
Attitude
• Rigorously correct,
expansive.
• The many styles outside of
the official syllabus are
Exhibition Ballroom
An audience
Audiences want to be
entertained, often with a
preference for beautiful and
impressive moves.
• Performance attitude varies
widely, depending on the
dance form.
styles that are different from usually considered to be
your own. incorrect.
Attitude concerning Mistakes
• Mistakes are accepted as • Judges deduct points for
• For professional
inevitable. Social dancers every mistake, so
performances, audiences
laugh them off and move on. competitive dance culture is
expect perfection, so dance
• When a Follow does aligned against making
companies rehearse
something different from mistakes from day one.
extensively to avoid any
what the Lead intended, he • When a Follow does
mistakes onstage.
knows it's a valid alternative something different from
• For amateur performances,
interpretation of his lead. what the Lead intended, he
audiences mostly want to see
• Social dancers are happy if considers it a mistake, which
that the dancers are enjoying
things work out 80% of the is to be eliminated.
themselves, so mistakes are
time. And the other 20% is • Competitive dancers work
generally accepted.
when most learning happens. hard to achieve 100%.
Reward
• The spontaneous
• Competing. Impressing • Entertaining or impressing
enjoyment of dancing with a
others. Winning. others. Enthusiastic applause.
partner.
• The satisfaction of • The satisfaction of
• The satisfaction of
becoming proficient in a becoming proficient in a
becoming proficient in a
dance form. dance form.
dance form.
• Self-confidence. • Self-confidence.
• Self-confidence.
Standardize Steps and Techniques
No, standardization doesn't Yes, rigorously standardized, Sometimes, but in today's
function because each because competitors need to sampling culture ("been
partner is different. You know exactly what technical there, seen that") audiences
must modify your steps to details the judges expect to prefer something they've
adapt to each partner. see. never seen before.
Standardize Style
Absolutely not. You develop Yes, you are trained to copy Styles may be unique to the
your own personal style, the style of champions choreographer, thus not
different from others. Some before you, working hard to standardized. But the
social forms like swing, imitate the shape of that performing group usually
 standardized style.
tango, salsa and blues works on copying and
Individuality can be admired,
especially discourage copying mastering that one style, in
but only within strict
other's styles. unison.
parameters.
Fixed Choreography
Yes. Competitors usually
No. You make it up as you go Yes. Exhibitions are usually
perform choreographed
along, often based on what choreographed and
routines that they have
the Follow is doing at the rehearsed. Furthermore,
rehearsed.
moment, and what occurs to group routines often have
An exception is Jack and Jill
the Lead spontaneously. everyone dancing in unison.
competitions, especially in
Both Lead and Follow engage But improvised exhibitions
WCS and Lindy hop, with a
in a highly active attention to occasionally exist in swing,
partner that one has not
possibilities. tango and blues.
danced with before.
Decision Making
Usually not. Most decisions
Yes, both Lead and Follow have been made by others, Not often. Most decisions
roles are continually engaged first in the syllabus of have usually been made by
in split-second decision- acceptable steps, then in the the choreographers, and you
making. choreographed routine. You work mostly on style.
work mostly on style.
Table No. 1
“The Essential Difference Between the Three Forms”
Retrieved from: https://socialdance.stanford.edu/syllabi/ballroom.html

Difficulty of Technique

To state the obvious, competitive ballroom technique is designed for competitions. If

dance technique is easy, judges won't be able to separate the good dancers from the very best.
Therefore, competitive ballroom technique is intentionally difficult, so that only the very best
dancers can master it. It requires many years, and extreme focus, to master this technique. U.S.
Ballroom Dance Champion Stephen Hannah said, "You must want to go to the very top and be
the very best dancer. You must be able to use your time seven days a week without allowing any
other influences to interfere."
 Conversely, social ballroom technique is intentionally easy. Dance partnering is
challenging enough as it is, to coordinate one's movements with another person. And most
people want to dance with their friends as soon as possible. Therefore, social dance technique
is intentionally expedient, so that dancers can focus on the connection (connection is how
dancing feels, physically and emotionally, not how it looks) to their partners instead of intricate
footwork technique and highly specified style.

HISTORY OF SOCIAL AND BALLROOM DANCES

People are exposed to several ballroom dances as performed in social gatherings as a

sort of entertainment. These began and recorded toward the end of the 16 th century. As token
of gratitude to Jehan Tabourot with his pen name “Thoinot-Arbeau” when he first published and
studied social dance throughout the Renaissance period of the 16 th century. It was first recorded
with five basic dance steps as Shakespeare acknowledge the dance as “cing pace”.

Minuet, (from French menu, “small”), elegant couple dance that dominated aristocratic
European ballrooms, especially in France and England, in 1650, originally a peasant dance was
introduced in Paris and performed by King Louis XIV and was viewed to public. Until the close of
the 18th century, ballroom dances began to reign in England for social events. Associated with its
close hold, a basic ballroom dancer’s position, Waltz, on the other hand, held its modern hold as
well as the Polka and Mazurka wherein the couple danced freely with different dance variation
in line with the ballroom and social dances of today.

For the first century of closed-couple dancing, only the first category of ballroom dance
existed: noncompetitive social ballroom dance. This was the 19th century, the age of the waltz
and polka, when "ballroom dance" meant precisely that – dancing in a ballroom.

With roots in fifteenth-century Europe and the French royal court, ballroom dancing,
and its associated costuming, has always been linked to social class and gender roles. With
France as the leading European power at that time, the formals balls and dancing of the King
Louis XIV’s court in Versailles provided a model for Europe. The trends started at the time
eventually evolved in two different ways; into performance directed genre of ballet and socially
based genre of ballroom.

This association between dance and social etiquette has endured as part of a well-
rounded upbringing throughout Europe, with ballroom regularly offered in schools or as a
“cultured” elective alongside musical instruction, and as the foundation for cotillion
programmed in the United States. Similarly, from the first unofficial world championship in 1909
to the standardization and codification of acceptable steps starting in 1920 a model was set for
the ‘proper’ ballroom gentlemen and lady, with competitive ballroom linking such models of
social class and gender with competition, performance and spectacle.

An important part of the 19th century ballroom mindset, in both Europe and America,
was selfless generosity, with an emphasis on enhancing the pleasure of your dance partners and
the assembled company. Another important part of the original ballroom attitude was a flexible
mindset and adapting to your partner. The American dance master William DeGarmo wrote in
1875, "Gentlemen who acquire a diversified style easily accommodate themselves to different
partners. No two persons dance alike. When their movements harmonize, this individuality is
not only natural and necessary, but it pleasingly diversifies the whole."

Fred Astaire wrote, "Cultivate flexibility. Be able to adapt your style to that of your
partner. In doing so, you are not surrendering your individuality, but blending it with that of
your partner." For social dancers, this original attitude of generosity, kindness and flexibility has
never ceased, and continues to the present.

Exhibition ballroom dance came next. Performative social dance forms were
occasionally staged in cabarets and Vaudeville at the end of the 19th century, but the
performance of social dances for an audience mostly took off in the 20th century. Vernon and
Irene Castle (pictured right) were foremost among professional dancers who started to perform
social dances onstage, from 1912 to 1915. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers surpassed the
Castle's fame and influence two decades later, through the medium of film. The tradition of
performed ballroom dance continues today in many films, such as "La La Land" and Broadway
shows like "Burn the Floor."
 Competitive ballroom dance came last, growing out of the Sequence Dancing
movement in the working-class suburbs of London, where hundreds of dancers would memorize
choreographed waltzes like Arthur Morris' Veleta (1900). These expanded to include sequenced
one-steps, two-steps, tangos and foxtrots.

Different populations of dancers in London had different preferences, and by 1914 there
was a class division between those who preferred freestyle vs. choreographed dance. The
upper classes in London preferred freestyle dancing, while the working class in the outskirts
preferred sequence dancing and would hold weekly balls where dancers would gather to learn,
memorize and perform a rapidly growing number of sequence dances.

The next step was standardization. The creation and standardization of these sequence
dances was controlled by several organizations which appeared at this time, most notably the
Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing. Today's "International Style" (i.e. British style) ballroom
dancing is overseen by the Imperial Society, which was founded in London in July 1904 for "The
fraternal co-operation of properly qualified teachers of dancing in the British Empire for the
safeguarding of our mutual interests" (quoted from their Charter). The original focus of these
organizations was the standardization of steps, technique and style into only one "correct"
version. Competitions didn't arise for another two decades.

A primary motivation of the middle class is upward mobility. You can raise your position
in life through the mastery of skills. The working class embraced the mastery of sequence
dances, which led the Frolics Club in London to create the first judged competitions of ballroom
dance in 1922, as a way to elevate one's social position through perseverance and hard work.
This work ethic is still visible in competitive ballroom dance today.

Competition ballroom dance style. In the early years of competitive ballroom dance,
the preferred English style was natural and understated. To quote the 1923 London dance
manual, The Modern Ballroom Dance Instructor, "All movement is easy, unaffected, which can
be so easily ruined by exaggeration. The best dancers are the quietest; they do not flourish their
prowess." In other words, early competitions were simply exhibitions of the dance sequences,
evaluated by judges, based on the values of polite social dancing.

Then competitions introduced the format of the elimination round, where the
competition began with a fairly crowded floor, filled with all of the competitors dancing at once.
The judges thinned the crowd down to a few finalists – those to be individually evaluated. This
change in competition format resulted in a dramatic change in the look of competitive ballroom
dance. The dancers had to perform far more expansive movements, to stand out from the
crowd. Extreme, exaggerated movements and costuming were a matter of survival, either
outshining the others or being quickly eliminated.

To this day, these extremely expansive movements remains a distinctive stylistic

difference between social and competitive ballroom dance. In the 20 th century, the ballroom
modern dance became popular on the screen when dance was referred to as a competition
known as the dance sport was modulated by the World Dance Council (WDC), from beginners to
numerous professional levels namely the International standard and International Latin.

Ballroom Dance in 21st Century. An alternative form of competitive ballroom dance

thrived in Europe, North America, and South America in television shows such as Dancing with
the Stars. These elimination series focused largely on the personalities of the contestants, with
individualization earning more points than strict adherence to the rules. Once an expression of
elite society, ballroom dance has continued to expand its appeal and adapt its approach in
response to the ever-changing aesthetics of contemporary culture.
All ballroom dances are performed by only two people, usually a man and a woman. These
dances are performed in a certain position termed as the “Closed Hold”. In this position, the
couple strictly remains in contact in five different points or places. These five points consists of
three hand contacts, one elbow contact and one chest contact.

The first hand contact occurs when the man’s left hand holds the lady’s right hand.
Second is when the lady’s left hand is placed at the top of the man’s right upper arm. In the
tango, the lady’s left hand is placed behind the man’s arm, not on top of it. The third contact is
when the man’s right hand is placed under the left shoulder blade on the lady’s back. The
fourth contact is when the lady’s left elbow rests on the man’s right elbow and both arms are
kept in a horizontal line. The lady’s arms are held comfortably by the man’s and permit her to
follow the man’s lead with ease. This also gives the couple the appearance of having a bearing
of royalty. This is an important characteristic in the ballroom dances that came from Western
Europe because these dances were performed in the royal courts. The last point of contact is
where the right area of the chest of one touch the right area of his partner. This closeness
allows very little room between the partners’ faces thus contributing to the dance’s romantic
appeal.

REFERENCES
Hamilton, T. (2015). The History of Western Dance. The Britannica Guide to the Visual and
Performing Arts Series. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Pp. 66.
Marion, J. S. (2014). Ballroom Dance and Glamour. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Powers, Richard. (2019). The Three Worlds of Social and Ballroom Dance. Retrieved on April 04,
2019 from: https://socialdance.stanford.edu/syllabi/ballroom.html
Stratyner, B. (2018). Ballroom Dance. Retrieved on April 03, 2019 from:
https://www.britannica.com/art/ballroom-dance