Around the time of the Second World War, these dances moved into Mexico City and New York. It was there that the term “salsa” was first used to describe danceable Latin music.

The dance and music continued to evolve, and the first true “salsa” music was created by the Cal Tjader Quintet. His music was particularly popular in the dance clubs of San Francisco, but it quickly spread throughout the east coast of the United States.

The genre really exploded in 1976, when Billboard magazine dedicated 24 pages to it. This introduced salsa music and dancing to the anglo market, and the rest is history.

While there is a certain inherent technique, not everything that is the essence of dance can be taught. Everyone knows, whether they choose to acknowledge it or not, that the real secret of dancing comes from within.

Dancing is the ultimate form of self-expression and it is the organic and fluid manifestation of our inner being. It’s the body animated by rhythm and put on display for the world to see. The type of dancing you do defines you as a person and what you’re really like.

All you need to do is find the beat in a song and be brave enough to follow what your body tells you to do next. When you see people awkwardly gyrating to a song with no real confidence in their motion, that’s when someone has fought half the battle.

The other half is having the confidence to be yourself and follow through with the dance. It takes a lot of mental preparation and confidence to be able to do this like it’s second nature.

For the first step the leader will step forward with his left foot and then slide his right foot up to meet his left without transferring his weight. Then for the second step, the leader will take the right foot and step to the right. The third step is to slide the left foot to the right foot and close. Steps four, five and six are the same thing only in reverse. The right foot goes back and then the left foot comes towards the right foot. Then the left foot goes to the left and the right foot closes. This puts you right back to where you started before you did the box step.

The Waltz got its name from the German word ‘waltzen’, meaning ‘to turn’. The dance is made up of many flowing turns, living up to its name.

The Viennese Waltz came to Vienna in the early 1800′s. Gaining popularity in France and then England shortly afterwards. It is said that the waltz was first danced in the United States in 1834, in Boston.

In its very early stages, the waltz was considered to be a forbidden dance due to the closeness of the dance partners. Somewhere between 1814 and 1819, the dance gained public acceptance and has grown to be the dance it is today.

There are 2 accepted forms of the waltz, the Modern Waltz (also known as the Slow Waltz), and the Two-Step Waltz (known as the Viennese or Old Waltz). Both are danced in time with the strongest accent on the first beat.

The one thing that hasn’t changed, is that the waltz is incredibly romantic and captivating.

The East Coast Swing
It is widely recognized as the Triple Step, the east coast swing is danced to a count of six. The practice is not limited to any particular pattern, nevertheless, is more of a spherical movement, fundamentally on the same spot. To some extent quicker paced than the west coast swing. The east coast swing can be adapted to any type of music, particularly the old Rock and Roll melodies. Tunnels, pushes and turns are all part of this type of swing dance.

The West Coast Swing
This is highly complicated of the east coast swing that could be more suitable to ballroom dancing. It contains elegant movements incorporated with pushes and twirls that could be unrehearsed to suit any type of music. In comparison to the east coast swing, this one is a slower dance. It embraces a straight pattern, where the partners travel to their right direction or left direction in counts of six, eight and ten. There are a range of steps including underarm turns, swivels, pushes, whips, as well as tucks.

1. The late George Balanchine lived his entire life during the 20th century. He is responsible for bringing ballet to America by starting a company that is now the New York City Ballet and is considered the most prominent contemporary choreographer of ballet.The whole story can be found at http://www.kansascity.com/2012/05/05/3594754/seasons-final-kansas-city-ballet.html

2. Mostly active during the 20th century, Paul Taylor’s modern-style choreography consisted of gestures and everyday movement, not dance moves. He is considered one of the greatest choreographers living today.

3. Bob Fosse developed a jazzy dance style that is evident in movies such as “Chicago” and is still practiced in dance studios everywhere.

4. Alvin Ailey helped to popularize modern dance and created almost 80 different ballets.

5. Katherine Dunham was a go-getter from the beginning, evident in the private dance school she started when she was 15. In later years she moved to the West Indies to study dance styles, from which she developed her own technique that, when combined with ballet and modern dance, became its own distinct style.

Out of all these, the Cha-Cha is probably the most popular dance for beginners. People like the Cha-Cha because it has a lot of footwork, and even if you just know the basic steps, you can still dance the cha-cha and have it look decent. The cha-cha is also a unique dance because both partners will do all of their movements simultaneously. This makes it a lot easier to learn and also makes it easier to follow.

The next most popular dance is the Foxtrot. The Foxtrot is easy to learn and the perfect dance for beginners. A lot of times people can start dancing the Foxtrot after their first lesson. The most important thing for you to know when you are dancing is to maintain a slow-slow-quick-quick-slow pattern as you move with your partner across the dance floor.

Waltz is the third most popular ballroom dancing people learn. False is a little bit more tricky than Foxtrot or Cha-Cha simply because you’d only have to count by trees, but you also have to change your elevation as you are moving across the dance floor. Of course after you have learned how to do the cha-cha and the foxtrot, learning the basic steps of the waltz are not that difficult.

The fourth most popular dance step is swing. There are several variations including West Coast Swing, Lindy hop, and Jive. The advantage of dancing Swing is it is a fast type of dance that can be very fun to do with a partner. What’s 1 more click? Your boss isn’t watching… I could give Bruno a run for his money.