Want to learn how to dance, but not sure where to start? Read Here:

There are a thousand styles of dance out there and so you have to ask yourself what type of dancing do you want to do?  I’m sure this sounds confusing, but to simplify this question there are 3 different kinds of dance: Solo Dancing, Partner Dancing, and Group Dancing.  If you are looking to dance alone or individually with a group you will want to focus on solo dancing.   If you are looking to dance with a partner then you will want to focus on the other forms of dance since they all involve partner dancing. Now in general we say that there are about 5 different forms of dancing each with as many as ten different popular styles of dance under each form.  The 5 different forms are: Solo Dancing, Ballroom, Latin, Swing, and Country.  As can be seen below:

Now that we’ve showed you the different forms in a chart style format we are going to show them with pictures for each style of dance below:

Now there are a lot of different dynamics about the different forms dance.  If we start with Solo dances you will find that majority are women that do these types of dances.  The age is generally younger for the contemporary, hip hop, ballet, and for line dancing it’s on average a mixed group of young and more mature adults.  If you are looking to learn with a partner dance but are considering that maybe learning a solo form of dancing will suffice I would say you would find that there are big differences and key aspects of arm and upper body techniques missing in solo dances that are in partner dances.   I have danced with many people who knew how to do hip hop, contemporary, and line dancing, but had not known that they could not dance with a partner well.  The skill of dancing with someone is a skill mainly taught by dancing with them and not some much just in footwork.  So my recommendation is, if you are looking to learn partner dancing then you will have to choose one of the other 4 forms other than the solo form of dancing.

In regards to Ballroom Dancing I would have to say it is probably one of the most developed and organizationally organized forms of dance compared to almost all other forms.  Maybe Ballet is most structured but in terms of partner dancing I think the Ballroom community has developed their educational structure better than anyone other forms.  The Ballroom community is also closely connected to the Latin Dance Community and many times you will see the two communities of dance hosting events together.  Ballroom dances have more focus on the frame of the partner dance.  It generally draws a more mature crowd socially unless you attend certain special dance events where competitors come together to do different styles of Ballroom dance.  Ballroom Dancing has it’s own style of music.

Latin Dancing on the other hand draws crowds of all ages.  You can see in Latin Dancing that there is lots of action and there is a very strong competitive atmosphere in the Latin Dance World.  You will find Latin Dances like salsa and cha cha in almost any community across the world.   Latin Dancing is done to Latin music.

Swing Dancing generally draws younger crowds but you do see the odd few who are still rockin out some really cool moves at the age of 80.  The community is also very much like the latin community where you have a lot of action in the dance.   There is not a lot of competition in the Swing Dancing Community unless you do West Coast Swing.  West Coast Swing is a very popular style of Dance because it utilizes all genres of music.  Unlike classic swing where you have typically 1940’s or earlier band era music.  You will find that West Coast Swing seems to stand on it’s own as a community compared to the other forms of Swing Dancing.  West Coast also seems to have a mix between younger and older crowds.

Now regarding Country Western Dancing you have a mixture of swing, latin(cha cha), and Ballroom dancing (Waltz, Night Club).  It also has a large competition circuit across the whole United States and other parts of the world.  Country Western Dancing is the most popular form of partner dancing in the United States.  There is also a large social dancing community among Country Dancers.  Country Western Dancing has the largest dancing bars around the whole of the United States, Canada, England, Germany, Italy, Australia, and more for partner dances.  The bars, coupled with community hall dances, rodeos, country music festivals, country dance festivals, country western dance studios and more creates the largest group of partner dances in America.  I would also say that Country Swing Dancing as well, is probably the most popular style of partner dancing among young adults in the world.  It has the most action out of all the different styles dance with dips, lifts, leans, drops, and aerials done about 5 times as much than any of the other styles of dance.  Young people seem to love those types of moves and that’s probably why the dance is so popular.

Well now that you know the different forms of dance and can see that there are many different styles in each form you probably might be wondering whether you just end up learning one style or not.  I would say in general most people try to learn about 3 to 5 styles.  The more styles you learn the more chances you have to dance with someone.  So if you are looking to learn I would say go for some group classes at a dance studio or find some place where they are having dance lessons, whether it be a country bar, school, rec center, community center, etc.  Once you have had about 5 lessons you should be starting to feel confident on your own in the style you learned.  Then just do another 5 for another style and repeat the process.

You can look up places to dance on facebook, google, and I also recommend people to look at meetup.com because they have lots of events hosted for dance lessons and dances.

Hope you enjoyed our article.

Take care,

Corey