Orange County's Top Ballroom Dance Studio

The modern style of dancing the cha-cha-chá derives from studies made by dance teacher Pierre Zurcher-Margolle ('Monsieur Pierre'), who partnered Doris Lavelle. Pierre, then from London, visited Cuba in 1952 to find out how and what Cubans were dancing at the time. He noted that this new dance had a split 4th beat, and to dance it one started on the second beat, not the first. He brought this dance idea to England and eventually created what is known now as ballroom cha-cha-cha.

The validity of his analysis is well established for that time, and some forms of evidence exist today. First, there is in existence film of Orquesta Jorrin playing to a cha-cha-cha dance contest in Cuba; second, the rhythm of the Benny More classic Santa Isabel de las Lajas written and recorded at about the same time is quite clearly syncopated on the fourth beat. Also, note that the slower bolero-son ("rumba") was always danced on the second beat.

Foxtrot Temp Image

It is often said that foxtrot took its name from its inventor, the vaudeville actor Harry Fox; however the exact origins are unclear.[1] The dance was premiered in 1914, quickly catching the eye of the talented husband and wife duo Vernon and Irene Castle, who lent the dance its signature grace and style.

W.C. Handy ("Father of the Blues") notes in his autobiography that Noble Sissle told a story that Handy's Memphis Blues was the inspiration for the Fox Trot. Jim Europe, the Castle's music director, would play slowly the Memphis Blues during breaks from the fast paced Castle Walk and One-step. The Castles were intrigued by the rhythm and Jim asked why they didn't create a slow dance to go with it. The Castles introduced the "Bunny Hug" in a magazine article. They went abroad and in mid-ocean sent a wireless to the magazine to change the "Bunny Hug" to the "Foxtrot."[2] It was later standardized by Arthur Murray, in whose version it began to imitate the positions of Tango.

At its inception, the Foxtrot was originally danced to ragtime. Today, the dance is customarily accompanied by the same big band music to which swing is also danced.

The modern style of dancing the rumba derives from studies made by dance teacher Monsieur Pierre (Pierre Zurcher-Margolle), who partnered Doris Lavelle. Pierre, then from London, visited Cuba in 1947, 1951 and 1953 to find out how and what Cubans were dancing at the time.

The international ballroom rumba is a slower dance of about 120 beats per minute which corresponds, both in music and in dance to what the Cubans of an older generation called the bolero-son. It is easy to see why, for ease of reference and for marketing, rumba is a better name, however inaccurate; it is the same kind of reason that led later on to the use of salsa as an overall term for popular music of Cuban origin.

All social dances in Cuba involve a hip-sway over the standing leg and, though this is scarcely noticeable in fast salsa, it is more pronounced in the slow ballroom rumba. In general, steps are kept compact and the dance is danced generally without any rise and fall. This style is authentic, as is the use of free arms in various figures. The basic figures derive from dance moves observed in Havana in the pre-revolutionary period, and have developed their own life since then.

Salsa dance history represents a blend of Latin American and Afro-Caribbean dances. Salsa is most closely related to another Latin dance, the Mambo. They are similar in terms of steps and the beats, but Mambo tends to have more front-to-back motions, with salsa going side-to-side.

Swing dance history begins in the 1920s, during the Harlem Renaissance in New York City. Swing dancing became popular among African Americans and was mostly danced to jazz music.

With a dance floor nearly as long as a city block, the Savoy Ballroom became the place to go for swing dancing when it opened in 1927. New York City's best dancers would gather every weekend to show off their moves, and the craze quickly caught the attention of local newspapers. The Lindy Hop was the first dance to spread from the Savoy to nightclubs across America. Entertainer Cab Calloway helped make swing dancing a national favorite when he created a six-beat version of the Lindy Hop that he named The Jitterbug.

Swing dancing was actually considered to be a mocking form of Europe’s waltzes, with movements from dances such as tap, the Charleston and some free-form dancing mixed in. While some basic steps derive from African dance forms, the concept of partner dancing was firmly lifted from Europe.