How To Learn Ballroom Dancing

Ballroom dancing is not only a great way to relieve stress. It's also a good way to get exercise for the young and old alike. Thanks to TV shows like Dancing With The Stars and So You Think You Can Dance, ballroom dancing's mainstream popularity has definitely received a strong boost.

Just like any skill, dancing is best learned by practice. Your best bet is to enroll yourself in a dance school or simply walk into one of the dance halls that cater to the ballroom dancing market. These dance halls usually have an ample number of dance instructors that could ease you in on the habit. This makes it possible to learn the dances even if you go alone.

Another good way to learn is if you can have access to online dancing resources. A quick entry on any search engine would reveal tons of results. These may be in the form of texts, step diagrams (lots of these dances feel like you're dancing by numbers) and of course, videos. Most would also come with the suitable music for each particular dance.

Let's run down the list of popular types of ballroom dance to get you started.

* The Waltz. The waltz is probably one of the most well-known forms of dance. Knowing it can come in handy when you're at a party since it's almost always the dance of choice when the music plays slowly. The whole idea behind the movement is to be fluid, graceful and elegant. There is an emphasis on the illusion of floating and gliding across the dance floor when doing this dance. There are also a considerable amount of turns and falls that complement the more intense part of the music. For the most part though, the music is slow.
* The Tango. There are few dances more dramatic than the tango. The dance puts emphasis on grandiose movements coupled with almost theatric flair. This dance also evokes a lot of changes in direction, neck movements and facial expressions that suggest sexual attraction. The dips of course are the main highlight of the dance.
* The Chacha. The steps are fairly simple. Most chacha dances follow a R-L-L-R or L-R-R-L sequence. The trick really is to put feeling into how you transfer weight from the front part of your foot to the heel. If you can do this, you can make the dance movement look a lot more fluid. There's also a lot of emphasis put on the exaggerated hip movements. There's a lot of hip popping action as well as turns with this dance.
* The Jive. The jive is one of the fastest dances in the ballroom dance family. Set to fast music, the choreography would require tons of energy, coordination and gusto from the performers. If you've ever seen someone dance jive, you would have noticed that you'll need a good sense of balance and leg strength to balance and hop on one leg while kicking out with the other.

Learning ballroom is quite easy if you already have dance experience. Why don't you head down to your local dance hall to get yourself started?