Modern Ballroom
The elegance and style of the 1900's is remembered by this style of dance, with memories of the habituees of the smarter West End establishments.
One of the leading ladies of the time, Josephine Bradley, and a young American; GK Anderson, formed the partnership that provided the foundation for the English Style, for which the I.S.T.D is still world-renowned.
Please visit the I.S.T.D Website for additional information.
The five dances:
The first record of a dance to a 3/4 rhythm was danced to a piece of folk music, the 'Volta', in 1559 by peasants in the 'Provence' area of France. The music 'Volta' is also claimed to be Italian, which seems highly likely since in the Italian language the word 'Volta' means the turn.
The 'Volta' required the lady and man to dance in a closed position due to the gyratory nature of the dance. The man held the lady round the waist, and the lady right arm on the man's shoulder and held her skirt with her left hand. This was necessary to stop it flying up, since the dance involved the man lifting her using his left thigh under the lady's right thigh.
The 'Volta' although originally danced with three beats per bar (3 time), it evolved into 5 time with 5 beats per bar of music and therefore 5 steps. In 1754 the first music for the 'Waltzen' appeared in Germany, any connection between the 'Volta' and the 'Waltzen' remains obscure, except that the word Waltzen in German also means "to revolve".
In the early 1800's the dance became very popular in Vienna, and in 1812 the dance was introduced to England as the German Waltz. Throughout the 19th Century the dance stabilized, and was further popularised by the music of Josef and Johann Strauss, and this was the dawn of the Viennese Waltz as we know it.
In the early 19th Century, the 'Waltzen' had become very popular, (as described above), throughout Germany and Austria, with various local variants evolving and being named after the area in which it evolved, one of which was the 'Lander'.
A more sedate version of the 'Viennese Waltz' evolved in American in the 1870's under the name of the 'Boston'.
The present Waltz evolved in England around 1910. It was described as being a variant of the 'Boston' and the 'Lander' although the tempo had been reduced from 180 beats per minute (bpm) to 90 bpm.
This dance originated as the 'Castle Walk' and introduced into the Nightclub performances of 'Vernon' and 'Irene Castle', and latter popularised by 'Harry Fox' in the stage show "Ziegfield Follies" in New York in 1913. Fox's involvement has been taken as the origin of the name " Foxtrot", although there are other possibilities.
An alternative possible origin could be from a breed of horse, the 'Missouri Fox Trotter' which has a very smooth action which is characteristic of this dance, the 'Slow Foxtrot'. There is also the possibility that the Fox itself could be involved since this has an unusual gait among animals, in that it has the ability to walk with its feet under its body. i.e. with both the left and right foot falling in a single line.
The 'Foxtrot' was originally danced in this manner, that is until the revised technique was introduced in the 1950's and the feet no-longer tracked in a single line but moved to their own separate tracks.
The origins of the 'Modern Tango' can be assigned to one of two roots;
- Originally the 'Tango' was and still is a light spirited Spanish Flamenco style dance. With the Spanish conquest of South America, this Tango along with several other folk dances migrated to the new lands.
- The 'Tangano', an African dance that was imported in to South America with the Negro slaves.
Over the years one or maybe both of these dances merged with other dances in the New World, in particular Argentina to create another new dance the 'Milonga'.
Although originally popular with lower classes of Argentina, by the turn of the 20th Century it had gained acceptance by the upper classes in both Argentina and Western Europe. Interest rapidly exploded initially in Paris, then London and New York.
The character was dramatically changed during the 1930's,in Paris, where the dance was combined with the proud torso of the other ballroom dances, and given a staccato action which remains today.
As ragtime music evolved into Swing through the 1920's, new dances such as the 'Charleston' and the 'Black Bottom' became popular.
The 'Charleston' is thought to originate from the Cape Verde Islands, where Negro dock workers in Port Charleston danced a vigourous round dance which was first performed on stage in New York in 1922 in a black review by George White. It only became popular with white society after it's inclusion in the show "Running Wild", performed by the Ziegfield Follies whilst touring the U.S.A.
It was popularised in Europe, by a young lady by the name of Josephine Baker during the 1920's in Paris. It was danced with wild swinging arms and side kicks to music at between 200 and 240 beats per minute. The dance subsequently became popular worldwide, but the wild nature of the dance caused several of the more sedate ballrooms to either totally ban the dance, or display notices simply saying "PCQ", (Please Charleston Quietly).
At a similar time in the U.S.A. another dance the 'Black Bottom' was becoming popular in the suburbs of Detroit with the same name. This dance involved swaying torso, bending the knees and short kicks. It was danced to music at between 140 and 160 bats per minute. This dance very popular after it's inclusion in the George White's stage show "Scandals" of 1926.
The merging of these two dances, along with a few others (the Shimmy etc.) were to form a faster version of the 'Foxtrot' after the visit to the U.K. of the Paul Whiteman's band in 1923. This quick Foxtrot then became known as the 'Quickstep', and is danced at approximately 200 beats per minute. The 'Quickstep' has retained the walks, runs, turns and chasses of the original dances, but several others have been added such as locks, hops and skips.
Within Phillips Dancing we keenly promote all five "Modern Ballroom" dances to all age groups, since it encourages deportment and control whilst dancing as a partnership.
