What is international ballroom dance?

Answer 1

There are two main styles of ballroom dancing -- American and International. American style is danced primarily in, you guessed it, America. :) It's also not as standardized as International style, which is danced just about everywhere else in the world (and in the US, too). Here in the US where I am, American style tends to be used more often for social dancing while International style tends to be used primarily in competitions. This doesn't mean that you can't compete in American style or dance International style socially. Personally, I prefer International style and dance it socially all the time. :) People will dance either American or International style socially, as they choose, and competitions normally include both styles as well, so it's good to know both styles (at least in the US). As for the dances themselves, they are grouped into two categories for each style. In American style, the categories are called Smooth and Rhythm and in International style they are called Standard and Latin. For the most part, the Standard and Smooth categories contain the same dances and the Latin and Rhythm categories contain basically the same dances. Here's the breakdown of the dances (at least the ones used in competitions) by style and category followed by the usual abbreviations used for each. There are placed in the order that they are danced in competitions. * American Style (the ISTD's syllabus) ** Smooth -- Waltz (W), Tango (T), Foxtrot (F), Viennese Waltz (VW) ** Rhythm -- Cha Cha (C), Rumba (R), East Coast Swing (Sw), Bolero (B), Mambo (Ma) * International Style (the ISTD's syllabus, the the IDTA's syllabus, and a combined version) ** Standard -- Waltz (W), Tango (T), Viennese Waltz (VW), Foxtrot (F), Quickstep (Q) ** Latin -- Cha Cha (C), Samba (S), Rumba (R), Paso Doble (PD), Jive (J)