Click a category of dance above and learn more about the styles that fall into the categories! Looking for a specific style? Click below:
Foxtrot | Tango | Waltz | Salsa | Bachata | Cha-Cha | Mambo | Rumba | Merengue | East Coast Swing | Latin Hustle | West Coast Swing
Ballroom
Foxtrot
The smoothest of the smooth! This light, lively, infatuating rhythm has been vocalized and harmonized by the best pipes that ever put their lips to a microphone! The music is timeless and will remain so, as long as lovers can drift through a park on a Sunday or swoon and spoon at the local watering hole on Saturday night. The lyrics used in Foxtrot rhythms make it a popular choice for wedding couples. You must learn Foxtrot for attendance at Weddings, Fundraisers, general social functions, and dinner and dancing.
This video is a depiction of the first 5 -7 patterns of what you’ll be learning in your 1st 6 hour package.
Tango
As a social dance, Tango is a means of recreation, creativity, and enjoyment for a lifetime. There are no sociological, chronological, or economic boundaries in Tango. Passion, excitement, love, anger, romance, and every other sensation between a couple, are portrayed in this wonderful dance – the Tango. One of my favorite quotations regarding the ease with which a Tango can be danced is Al Pacino speaking to Gabrielle Anwar in the movie “Scent Of A Woman.” “Tango is not like life, my dear. There are no mistakes in Tango. If you get tangled up, you just tango on.”
This video is a depiction of the first 5 -7 patterns of what you’ll be learning in your 1st 6 hour package.
Waltz
The Waltz is considered by many to be the most foundational experience of ballroom dancing. The type of figures that we use, the dance positions, the line of travel around the dance floor, and the choreography have changed very little in the last 100 years. No other dance can provide the dreamy Cinderella feelings of pure romance in the way that a couple can experience while Waltzing. That is one of the reasons that many couples select a Waltz for the First Dance on their wedding day. In my opinion there is no dance that better portrays the beginning of married life on the wedding day than in dance that began at all!
This video is a depiction of the first 5 -7 patterns of what you’ll be learning in your 1st 6 hour package.
Latin
Salsa
We’ll teach you today’s most popular social Latin dance: Salsa. Here is a video clip of Jeff & Robin doing Salsa “On 1” At this point we teach Salsa “On 2” the world’s most popular & versatile version of Salsa at the very beginner level. We can take you all the way up to the professional, performance, or competitive levels of Salsa.
This video is a depiction of the first 5 -7 patterns of what you’ll be learning in your 1st 6 hour package.
Bachata
Bachata is the latest rage in Latin American dancing
(much easier than Salsa) from the Dominican Republic. This dance has become the most popular of all the social Latin dances!! The moves are relatively easy and the music is easy to hear and therefore easy to learn! We’ll teach you all the moves necessary to get this hot little sexy dance out on the dance floor by the end of a few private lessons. You’ll even learn to top your Bachata off with a surprise “DIP”.
A video is being produced now.
Cha-Cha
Cha-cha is one of the most dominant “Pop” rhythms of the last 30 – 40 years. Its closest rivals for rhythm supremacy would be the Swing and Slow Rhythm Ballads. Some of the largest selling hits of all time have used this scintillating rhythm. Cha-cha lends itself to every dance nuance that finds itself in vogue! Steps like Little Eva’s Locomotion, Jackson’s Moonwalk, Roger Rabbit, or Madonna’s Vogue are added to Cha-cha’s jazz-like dance versatility. Movements of ribcage and shoulder isolations along with lots of cut rhythm steps work right into this playful, sexy, Latin rhythm!
This video is a depiction of the first 5 -7 patterns of what you’ll be learning in your 1st 6 hour package.
Mambo
Passionate participants and observers of Latin American music and dance have enjoyed a long love affair with the Mambo. It is truly the Latin dancer’s Latin dance. Mambo is the national dance of Cuba, and has been personified by Hollywood, Television, and Madison Avenue virtually since its introduction to the United States. In dance competitions at the professional level, the audience may swoon while watching the slower, romantic, and more difficult version of Rumba known as Bolero. But when Mambo is announced, the ‘heat’ in the room sky rockets as the audience prepares to participate vicariously in the sensual sassiness of the Mambo.
This video is a depiction of the first 5 -7 patterns of what you’ll be learning in your 1st 6 hour package.
Rumba
The Rumba is undeniably the music of love. The sound is a treat to our senses, and its alluring rhythm transports us to a tropical locale, if only for a moment. We can feel the power of the surf and the hot wind in our face, while the breeze plays melodies with the palms. We are seduced by this titillating music and virtually driven to dance. Rumba is a very popular dance rhythm many more songs are written in the this tempo than people realize, however, once you know this rhythm you’ll be amazed its popularity. Yet another very popular choice for the wedding 1st dance and general occasion dancing.
This video is a depiction of the first 5 -7 patterns of what you’ll be learning in your 1st 6 hour package.
Merengue
It is quite possible that at any given moment on a Friday or Saturday evening there are more people dancing Merengue in any Latin American country or community throughout the World than any other dance! The Dominicans like their Merengue hot and fast. Their neighbors in Haiti like their Merengue much slower reflecting the Haitian Reggae sound in their music. Both tempi are extremely popular in North America. If you plan to travel by cruise ship or visit a tropical paradise in the Caribbean you need to learn Merengue! Many refer to the Merengue as “the cruise dance” because on a ship it is taught by day and danced by night. The Merengue is the easiest of the Latin American dances with very simple patterns.
This video is a depiction of the first 5 -7 patterns of what you’ll be learning in your 1st 6 hour package.
Rhythm
East Coast Swing
Swing dancing is by far the most versatile dance in the World. The rhythm is infectious and as natural to us as our heartbeat! Swing has many forms and varieties that are enjoyed everywhere there is music. This form of Swing, called the East Coast or Triple Swing, provides the best foundation from which the dancer can ‘grow’ into Swing’s numerous varieties. In my book “Quickstart to Swing,” I present four Swing rhythms with over a hundred interchangeable figures. East Coast is just one of the rhythms presented there, but I feel it is the most important.
This video is a depiction of the first 5 -7 patterns of what you’ll be learning in your 1st 6 hour package.
Latin Hustle
Latin Hustle 2020 is the fastest growing dance in America, and is the only faced paced dance you’ll need! The dance romanticized in the hugely popular motion picture “Saturday Night Fever,” and that kept TV audiences mesmerized once every week on the hit show “Dance Fever,” is making a huge comeback! With its roots in New York City, this dance is as easy as walking tall and marching in place to a consistent cadence. If dance history repeats itself, and it will, then the resurgence in Swing and Lindy Hop, the Tango and Latin, will sow the seeds for the growth of the Hustle communities! In 1960 the Twist nearly destroyed ballroom dancing. No more ‘touching’ resulted in a generation that gave up on the notion of having to “learn how to dance.” Clearly, it was the Hustle in the ‘70s that not only saved what was known as ballroom dancing, but also added huge numbers to its corps after the initial fad died down. The Hustle brought us back “together again” and now, as ballroom dancing is enthusiastically embraced on campuses throughout our nation, the interest in this great dance has been rekindled.
This video is a depiction of the first 5 -7 patterns of what you’ll be learning in your 1st 6 hour package.
West Coast Swing
The West Coast Swing is a smooth (no bounce) dance. The dance allows room for syncopated footwork and improvisation, and is danced primarily in 6 and 8 count patterns. Followers have more freedom than any other dance, performing their syncopated footwork at will while the leader provides the basic rhythm while anchoring the follower. West Coast Swing can be danced to a wide range of music including Rhythm and Blues, Country Western, Funk, Disco, Rock and Pop. This dance is definitely one of my favorites because of it’s diversity and I LOVE teaching it!
Video presentation of beginner steps coming very soon.