About The Dances - Ballroom Dancing Lessons

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About The Dances

Dance classes are conducted in Latin, Standard and New Vogue, the syllabus and techniques are taught in accordance with the international style of dance.

All routines taught can be danced either in the social or competition environment.

The dances include but are not limited to;
Latin
This style of dance includes the rhythms of –Samba, Cha Cha Cha, Rhumba, Jive, Paso Doble.

Standard
This style includes the Modern waltz, Foxtrot, Quickstep, Tango, Viennese Waltz.

New Vogue
This style includes Canadian Barn Dance, Canadian 3 Step, Merrilyn, Tangoette, Australian Barn Dance, Gypsy Tap, Swing Waltz, Charmaine, LaBomba, Tango Terrific, Twilight Waltz, Carousel, and more.

The Latin and Standard styles are made up of individual named variations which amalgamated to form dance routines.

Typically dancers will start with a small number of basic steps and build a routine or amalgamation of variation. The technique required to execute these steps is also explained in the class.

New Vouge is a sequence dance in which all couples perform the same sequence of steps to the music. These may be in March, Foxtrot, Tango, Quickstep, Viennese or Waltz rhythms.

New Vogue is typically Australian and originated in the 1930s and '40s, when some Australian dancers rebelled against the formal balletic foot work of the English Old Time Dances and started to choreograph sequence dances based on the Modern Ballroom technique.

Len Hourigan of Brisbane coined the term "New Vogue" for these dances. They have many open positions, which makes them attractive to watch, like the English Old Time, and unlike Standard Ballroom dancing in which observers see only the backs of the couples.

The dances also have only the footwork, alignments and basic holds prescribed, leaving scope for the dancers to add their own shaping and styling, which makes them very expressive to dance and to watch.

New Vogue Dancing is now very popular in Australia, being danced at social dances in clubs and public halls around the country.

In the Dance sport competitions and championships held around the country, there are usually more entries in the New Vogue events than in either the Standard Modern Ballroom or the Latin events, this makes Australian competitions somewhat different from those overseas, such as those of North America or Europe.

The Australian New Vogue dances are sequence dances for couples, each couple consisting usually of a man and a woman. In sequence dances, every couple on the dance floor performs the same steps at the same time, and at the end of the sequence, the steps are started again. This makes New Vogue dances relatively easy to learn, as a beginner can easily copy the movements of adjacent dancers on the floor. They typically have 8, 16 or 32 bar sequences, and so need music with a similar musical phrasing.

New Vogue dances have been choreographed to all the dance rhythms. Over the years, many hundreds of New Vogue dances have been choreographed and are presented at regular competitions, although, only a limited number have actually gained wide popularity.

Many of the simpler New Vogue dances are sequences of regular Standard Modern Ballroom or Latin & American 'Steps'.


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