Ballroom dancing is one of the most popular leisure activities in the world. It has universal appeal, for dancing is both tremendously enjoyable and a great social asset. Ballroom dancing is fun, easy activity suited for all ages. Beginners’ steps can be learned quickly, and if taken seriously, it is a challenging competitive sport. Few people are “natural” dancers, but with a little instruction everyone can dance well enough to dance in any ballroom and derive pleasure from every moment.

It’s also a great way of being together with your partner and away from the television and telephone. And mentally, dancing is a wonderful stress reliever. A busy day of pressure melts into the background when the evening brings you dancing in the arms of another.

During the past few years there has been an explosive growth in the interest in ballroom dancing. All age groups and the social levels are involved. As well, the image of ballroom dancers has changed. Instead of couples, formally dressed in white tie, tails and gowns, dancing in fancy ballrooms, we now see hundreds of informally dressed couples having fun in studios, community centres and similar locations.

The desire to dance is one of the primitive instincts of mankind. It has been said the “dancing is older than anything except eating, drinking, and love, and that “ rhythm is life”… and rhythm is the basis of dancing.

It is a fact that emotion stimulates the body into movement. Civilization and conditioning have taught people to suppress this natural response, but the primitive desire is there all the same.

In the days when speech had hardy been born, primitive man expressed his emotions by movements. He danced a kind of mime – and acting out of his deepest wishes and desires. As time went on language was developed and the immediate need for mime and gesture no longer existed. However the expressive movements of early man continued. They were adapted as part of the customs of the tribe and, although their origins were not forgotten, they lived on and became the foundation of folk dances.

Couples dance, as a dance form, emerged in the 15th century Europe as an adaptation of folk dancing and was refined by the dancing masters of the time. These new dances, gay and lively in character, developed first as a social diversion among the aristocracy of France and Italy, the expanded to every royal court on the continent – the Minuet, the most stately of all court dances, originally came from the peasants of Poitou; the Gavotte from the people of Provence, both in France, the Waltz from the Landler of folk songs from Southern Germany and the Polka from Bohemia.

Steppin’ Out
An Insider’s Guide To Ballroom Dancing
2002-2003 Edition