Argentine Tango

The Argentine Tango is a beautiful, improvisational social dance that has developed over the last century in the City of Buenos Aires. It is a true dance of leading and following. Many find Argentine Tango quite challenging, commanding an advanced knowledge of dance skills for partner dancing. Argentine Tango, with its dramatic character and use of leg and foot actions, uses slower music and progresses counter clockwise in the line of dance.

Salsa

The word Salsa means sauce, denoting a “hot” flavor, and is best distinguished from other Latin music styles by defining it as the New York sound developed by Puerto Rican musicians in New York. The dance structure is largely associated with mambo type patterns and has a particular feeling that is associated mainly with the Clave and the Montuno.

Night Club Two-Step

Night Club Two- Step, not to be confused with country two-step, is one of the most practical and versatile social dances ever conceived. It is designed to be used with contemporary soft rock (“Love Song”) music. This type of music is common just about everywhere, nightclubs, radio, etc. The rhythm of the dance is very simple and rarely changes from the 1 & 2 count. This simple romantic dance fills a gap where no other ballroom dance fits. It gives the dancer, either beginning or advanced, the opportunity to express and create without a rigid technique being required. It’s attractive, romantic, and a real asset to learn since it will be used often.

Hustle

The Hustle (Disco) is a member of the Swing family, and is like the West Coast Swing in pattern. It has a distinct flavor, utilizing Disco style music & revived partner style among nightclub dancers in the 70s. Hustle is danced to the contemporary pop dance music of the last 20 years. It is a fast, smooth dance, with the lady spinning almost constantly, while her partner draws her close and sends her away.

Bachata

The authentic version is still danced today in the Caribbean and all over the world. It is increasingly danced to faster music, adding more footwork, simple turns and rhythmic free-styling and with alternation between close (romantic) and open position. Authentic Bachata is danced with soft hip movements and a tap or syncopation (1, 2, 3, tap/syncopation). It can also be danced with or without bouncing (moving the body up on the beats and down again in between the beats by adding slight spring to ones legs). Authentic Bachata was created by Dominican social dancers over the course of decades (starting around the beginning of the 1960s) and is still evolving to this day.
At some point in the late 1990s, dancers and dance-schools in the western world began using a made-up basic step going side to side pattern instead of the box-steps, maybe as they considered it too complicated or due to a misunderstanding of the authentic steps. The basic steps of this pattern move side to side, changing direction after every tap. Characteristics of this “early” dance school dance is the close connection between partners, soft hip movements, tap with a small “pop” of the hip on the 4th step (1, 2, 3, tap/hip) and does not include many turns/figures. Most of the styling in this dance is from ballroom dance and show moves like dips are commonly used in the dance. This was the first new dance to Bachata music that was popularized by dance schools outside the Dominican Republic.