swing dance classes - learn to swing

Samba
The Samba, which is native to Brazil, started out as a festival dance during the street festivals and celebrations. Its first introduction in the U.S. was through a Broadway play called "Street Carnival" in the late twenties. The festive style and energetic mood of the dance have kept it alive and popular to this day. Samba is a fun dance that fits most of today's popular music.

Waltz
The Waltz is an elegant dance which was born in the suburbs of Vienna and in the Alpine region of Austria. Waltzes were played in the ballrooms of the Hapsburg court as early as the seventeenth century and continue to be played around the world with the same elegance and grace.
Many of the familiar waltz tunes can be traced back to simple peasant yodeling melodies. The Weller-or turning dances- were danced by Austrian and Bavarian peasants even earlier than the seventeenth century.

Rumba
The Rumba is the spirit and soul of Latin American music and dance. The fascinating rhythms and bodily expressions make the Rumba one of the most popular and most energetic ballroom dances.

Foxtrot
The Foxtrot is considered to be the most significant development in all of ballroom dancing. The combination of quick and slow steps permits more flexibility and gives much greater dancing pleasure than the one-step and two-step more traditional ballroom dances.

Mambo
The wild exciting music and rhythmical body movements make the earthy Mambo irresistible. In the 1940's Americans became fascinated by Latin American rhythms. The original Mambo music, El Guardia Con El Toleto, had its beginning in 1944 as a Rumba with riff improvisation. The Mambo combined American Jazz with the Afro-Cuban beat, which resulted in a highly pleasurable and energetic dance style.

Tango
The Tango began in the West Indies and later found its way to Argentina where it was stylized by the Gauchos. It became the rage in 1921 after the silent screen star Rudolph Valentino brought this romantic dance to millions in "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse". More recently, it has been danced in movies such as True Lies and Scent of a Woman. Today, The Tango is considered to be the "dancer's dance" and becomes a favorite of all who learn it.

Viennese Waltz
From Strauss Waltz and Tchaikovsky ballet to music by contemporary artists, Viennese Waltz music has inspired people to dance for generations. The Waltz developed in central Europe from the Austrian dance known as the Landler.

Swing
Swing is perhaps the most uniquely American of all dances, bringing forth a buoyant carefree movement. With its fun, fast-paced nature it's one of the dances that easily become contagious. The Lindy (Swing) picked up where the Charleston left off. Throughout its development, it had "swing-outs", "breakaways" and "shine-steps". With the birth of "Swing" music in the mid 1930's the Lindy climbed the social ladder. The dance craze swept the nation, and depending on where you lived, it was the Jitterbug, the Lindy hop or the Swing.

Merengue
The Merengue is the national dance of the Dominican Republic, and also to some extent, of Haiti, the neighbor sharing the island. Ideally suited to the small, crowded dance floors, it is a dance that is easy to learn and essentially a "fun" dance.

Cha Cha
Originally known as the Cha-Cha-Cha, the Cha Cha is an offshoot of the Mambo which became popular around 1954. In the slow Mambo tempo, there was a distinct sound in the music that people began dancing to, calling the step the "Triple" Mambo. Eventually it evolved into a separate dance, known today as the Cha Cha.

Bolero
The romantic Bolero is the slowest of the Latin dances. It combines controlled movement with dramatic expression of the music. The Bolero has the same Afro-Cuban roots as the Rumba and is thought to have originated from Cuban or Spanish folk dances such as Danzon and Beguine.

Hustle
The Hustle gives us the fusion of Swing and Discotheques (Disco). With high quality sound systems and flashing lights, it became a popular form of entertainment in Europe and America in the late 1960's and throughout the 70's. In the early 1970's a new dance craze became popular on the crowded dance floors of New York.

Argentine Tango
The Argentinean Tango originated in Argentina in the 19th century. It was danced in the backstreets of Buenos Aires, until it was prohibited by the church as it was proved to be a very romantic dance. It is one of the most beautiful and delicate of dances.