Dance Style Resource

Check here for brief overviews and definitions of everything from acro to zumba!

Southeast Asian Dance

Encompassing many different dance styles, Southeast Asian dances share musical roots, as most styles use a gong and chime orchestra as accompaniment. In Java, the dances are modeled on the tradition of puppetry, while in Bali, dances have more of a religious influence.

Square Dancing

Square dancing became widespread and integral to the North American folk tradition in the late 19th century. Most styles of square dancing feature several couples moving in square formations and patterns, to the instructions of a “caller” and a fiddler.

Social Dance

The generic term ‘social dance’ signifies partnering forms and communal dances that are mostly performed during celebratory and public occasions, outside of theatrical setting. One of the earliest forms of social partnering dance is the waltz, which originated in the eighteenth-century in ballrooms in Austria and Germany.

Salsa

Samba

Samba is one of the most popular social dances in Brazil. There are several distinct styles of samba, the common elements include the complexity of bodily configurations and the syncopated accompaniment in 2/4 musical beat.

Square Dancing