1. Swing
First known as the Lindy (in honor of Charles Lindberg) this perennially popular dance emerged in the late 1920′s.
2. Foxtrot
Created in 1912 by Harry Fox, the Fox Trot was the first dance that permitted people to hold each other closer than arm’s length.
3. Waltz
This “mother of all dances” originated in Italy in the 1600′s as a round dance called the Volte.
4. Tango
Rudolph Valentino single-handedly danced this Latin import into popularity beginning in 1910.
5. Rumba
The Rumba is a popular romantic Latin dance dating back some 400 years ago, and is better known as the Latin “get acquainted” dance or “the dance with the wiggle”.
6. Samba
A street Festival dance that originated in Brazil, the Samba was introduced to the United States in the late 1920′s in a Broadway play called “Street Carnival.”
7. Cha-Cha
An offshoot of the Mambo, the Cha Cha (originally the cha-cha-cha) evolved out of popular movement in the slow-tempo Mambo called the Triple Mambo.
8. Mambo
Introduced by band leader Anselmo Sacaras in 1944, the Mambo – a merger of Swing and Rumba, didn’t really catch on until the 1950s and it remains very popular today.
9. West Coast Swing
It is believed that the WCS’s origins are found in the Lindy Hop. In a 1947 book, Arthur Murray recognized that, “There are hundreds of regional dances of the Jitterbug type.
10. Quick Step
The Quickstep evolved in the 1920s from a combination of the Foxtrot, The Chase G Chug, Charleston, Shag, Peabody, and One-Step.
11. Viennese Waltz
What is now called the Viennese Waltz is the original form of the Waltz.
12. Salsa
Salsa dance movements originate from the Cuban Son of the 1920s more specifically through the beat of Son Montuno with strong influences from the dance of Danzon, Mambo, Guaguanco and other Afro-Cuban folkloric dancing.