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Strictly Come Dancing
The history of the dances
New dances
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Jitterbug
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The term jitterbug comes from a 1934 Cab Calloway song written by his trumpeter Edwin Swayze called Jitterbug.
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The dance is a version of the Lindy Hop, which became popular in the Twenties.
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In the following decade, white youngsters adopted the dance to rebel against the strictures of their parents. These young rebels became known as the Jitterbugs, and were the punk rockers of their generation.
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Its popularity was huge, and soon dancehalls couldn't accommodate all the wild kicks and arm movements. The answer was to make the jitterbug a slotted dance.
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Since the dance no longer travelled around the room, it could be performed in a smaller area. The man in particular stays in the same spot on the floor while the woman dances around him. There are few lifts and much less floor work, and the dancers remain vertical throughout.
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The awkwardness is purposeful – there are lots of flicks of the arms, head and hair and twitches of the shoulder. Timing and ability to stay on the beat is crucial as is the ability to express the music through dance.
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This tamer version made its way over to Europe with American GIs during the Second World War.
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Glenn Miller's big band sound is the music most people associate with the jitterbug.
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The Argentine Tango
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Referred to as the 'The History of Love in Three Minutes', the Argentine tango is all about the man's control and the woman's seductiveness. No other dance connects two people more closely, emotionally as well as physically.
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The Argentine tango is magical, intoxicating, romantic, and passionate!
It is much smoother and more sensual than the ballroom tango, with the couple's upper bodies close together and lower bodies apart. Dancers face in the same direction (the woman's right, the man's left) and so dance almost cheek to cheek.
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Although the dance epitomises the glamour and elegance of high society, the Argentine tango originated in the underbelly of society - its brothels.
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As immigrants streamed into the outskirts of Buenos Aires during the 1880s, many came toward the houses of ill repute. The tango dance originated as an 'acting out' of the relationship between the prostitute and her pimp. Ìý
When Ricardo Guiraldes - a poet and writer and an upper-class playboy in Argentina - gave a tango performance at a fashionable Parisian salon, the crowd was deeply attracted to the dance.
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With the popularity of the Argentine tango in Europe, Argentine high society took a new look at the dance and welcomed it into their own lives.
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The legacy of its rough beginnings means that the dance retains a sense of competition, machismo and the fight for survival…
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Salsa
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There is much debate where salsa dance has its origins, but it is generally accepted that it stems from salsa music.
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In London during the Seventies there were Latin dance clubs, but they were divided into two categories: those which played Cuban music and those which played Columbian music.
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The visits of the great salsa music artists such as Tito Puente and Celia Cruz to London played a large part in the evolution of salsa – the dance
is a partner dance, with a leader (male) and a follower (female).
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The follower must always have light but firm contact with the leader. This allows the leader to guide the follower more precisely, and also allows the follower to feel the signals and the directions given by the leader.
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Salsa is usually danced in close contact hold with plenty of sexy swings to the rhythm. The word salsa is often used to refer to a hot sauce. Hot and saucy also mean sexy, which is exactly what the salsa is - a very hot, sexy dance.
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Ballroom
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The Waltz
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The waltz has its history rooted in a peasant dance from the Provence area of France in 1559, from a piece of folk music called The Volta.
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Partners had to hold each other in such a close embrace that many declared it immoral. Louis XIII (1601-1643) even had it banned from court on this account.
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The Viennese Waltz
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The Viennese waltz is said to be a derivation of The Landler – a dance developed in Bavaria during the 12th & 13th centuries.
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The French dispute this saying that, like the traditional waltz, the Viennese waltz was also developed from The Volta. Ìý
The Tango
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The gauchos (cowboys) of Argentina wore chaps that hardened from the foam and sweat of the horse's body, causing them to walk with flexed knees.
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At night they would go to crowded night clubs and ask prostitutes to dance but since the gaucho hadn't showered, the lady would dance in the crook of the man's right arm, holding her head back.
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Her right hand was held low on his left hip, close to his pocket, looking for a payment for dancing with him.
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Foxtrot
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During the summer of 1914, actor Harry Fox was appearing in shows in New York with Yansci Dolly.
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People at the Jardin de Danse on the roof of the New York Theatre soon started to copy the act that Harry was putting on downstairs, leading them to refer to the dance as Fox's Trot. Ìý
Quickstep
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During the Twenties many bands played the foxtrot too fast and some couples couldn't keep up. Over time, a faster version was born, absorbing extra elements of ragtime such as the charleston.
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This led to the creation of what today we call the quickstep. Ìý
Latin American
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Rumba
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The dance relies on the age-old premise of the lady trying to dominate the gentleman by means of her womanly charms. Incorporating all the elements of teasing and withdrawal, it is considered the most sensual of the Latin dances.
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Samba
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It is believed that the word samba is derived from a West African Bantu word, meaning to pray or invoke the spirits of their ancestors.
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It is rumoured to be a dance that can excite people to such an extent that it sends them into a trance.
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It is danced annually at the Rio Carnival in Brazil.
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Jive
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After its beginnings in 1927, the dance soon became equated with youth. Older adults disapproved of it and tried to ban it from dance halls, claiming jive was non-progressive and disturbed other dancers who were progressing anti-clockwise around the floor.
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It was bought to Europe by American GIs during the Second World War but was danced underground due to its "corrupting influence".
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Paso Doble
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The Paso Doble is based on the bullfight. The man represents the bullfighter (torero) and the lady the red cape (cappa). It is danced to the characteristic march music used for procession at the beginning of a corrida. Ìý
Cha Cha Cha
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When the English dance teacher Pierre Lavelle visited Cuba in 1952, he realised that sometimes the rumba was danced with extra beats. When he returned to Britain, he started teaching these steps as a separate dance.
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