The Three Worlds of Ballroom Dance

Social

Competitive

Exhibition

Yes, that question is intentionally provocative, and is easily answered. All three forms are valid, each enjoyed by their adherents for good reasons. But it's helpful to know how and why they differ from each other. As you'll see in the third section below, it's sometimes essential to know the differences.

First, what is Ballroom Dance?

"Ballroom dance" refers to traditional partnered dance forms that are done by a couple, often in the embrace of closed dance position ("ballroom dance position"). These include waltz, swing, tango and salsa.

"Ballroom dance" is the overall umbrella term, covering all three forms discussed on this page.

Social/ballroom dance forms are important. The earliest dance forms ever described in detail (in the 15th century) were partnered social dances. Many of today's performative dance forms, including ballet and jazz dance, evolved from social dance forms that came first.

The three worlds of ballroom dance share the same historical roots, similar step vocabulary and music, so the three forms are considered siblings, related by birth. Yes, siblings are known to fight, but they can also be mutually supportive.

I.

What is the essential difference between the three?

Social Ballroom

Your partner

Competitive Ballroom
(DanceSport)

The judges

Exhibition Ballroom

An Audience

What are your audience's expectations?

• For amateur performances, audiences mostly want to see that the dancers are enjoying themselves, so mistakes are generally accepted.

Both Lead and Follow engage in a highly active attention to possibilities.

An exception is Jack and Jill competitions, usually in WCS and Lindy hop, with a partner that one has not danced with before.

But improvised exhibitions do exist, occasionally in swing, tango and blues.

Difficulty of technique

To state the obvious, competitive ballroom technique is designed for competitions. If dance technique is easy, judges won't be able to separate the good dancers from the very best. Therefore competitive ballroom technique is intentionally difficult, so that only the very best dancers can master it. It requires many years, and extreme focus, to master this technique. U.S. Ballroom Dance Champion Stephen Hannah said, "You must want to go to the very top and be the very best dancer. You must be able to use your time seven days a week without allowing any other influences to interfere."

Conversely, social ballroom technique is intentionally easy. Dance partnering is challenging enough as it is, to coordinate one's movements with another person. And most people want to dance with their friends as soon as possible. Therefore social dance technique is intentionally expedient, so that dancers can focus on their partners instead of intricate footwork.

II.
A brief history of the three forms

For the first century of closed-couple dancing, only the first category of ballroom dance existed: noncompetitive social ballroom dance. This was the 19th century, the age of the waltz and polka, when "ballroom dance" meant precisely that – dancing in a ballroom.

An important part of the 19th century ballroom mindset, in both Europe and America, was selfless generosity, with an emphasis on enhancing the pleasure of your dance partners and the assembled company.

"In general manners, both ladies and gentlemen should act as though the other person's happiness was of as much importance as their own." — Prof. Maas, American dance master, 1871

"True, genuine politeness has its foundation deeper than in the mere conformation to certain rules, for it is the spontaneous and natural effect of an intelligent mind and kindly heart which overlooks annoyances in consideration for the happiness of others." — Edward Ferrero, American dance master, 1859

Another important part of the original ballroom attitude was a flexible mindset and adapting to your partner. The American dance master William DeGarmo wrote in 1875,

"Gentlemen who acquire a diversified style easily accommodate themselves to different partners. No two persons dance alike. When their movements harmonize, this individuality is not only natural and necessary, but it pleasingly diversifies the whole."

For most social dancers, this attitude of generosity, kindness and flexibility has never ceased, and continues to this day.

Exhibition ballroom dance came next. Performative social dance forms were occasionally staged in cabarets and Vaudeville at the end of the 19th century, but the performance of social dances for an audience mostly took off in the 20th century. Vernon and Irene Castle (pictured right) were foremost among professional dancers who started to perform social dances onstage, from 1912 to 1915. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers surpassed the Castle's fame and influence two decades later, through the medium of film. The tradition of performed ballroom dance continues today in many films, such as "Take the Lead" and Broadway shows like "Burn the Floor."

Competitive ballroom dance came last, growing out of the Sequence Dancing movement in the working-class suburbs of London, where hundreds of dancers would memorize choreographed waltzes like Arthur Morris' Veleta (1900). These expanded to include sequenced one-steps, two-steps, tangos and saunters (foxtrots). Different populations of dancers in London had different preferences, and by 1914 there was a class division between those who preferred freestyle vs. choreographed dance. The upper classes in London preferred freestyle dancing, while the working class in the outskirts preferred sequence dancing, and would hold weekly balls where dancers would gather to learn, memorize and perform a rapidly growing number of sequence dances.

A primary motivation of the middle classes is upward mobility. You can raise your position in life through the mastery of skills. The working class ethic embraced the mastery of sequence dances, which led the the Frolics Club and Queen's Hall in London to create the first judged competitions of ballroom dance in 1922, as a way to elevate one's social position through perseverance and hard work. This work ethic is still visible in competitive ballroom dance today.

Then competitions introduced the format of the elimination round, where the competition began with a fairly crowded floor, filled with all of the competitors dancing at once. The judges thinned the crowd down to a few finalists – those to be individually evaluated. This change in competition format resulted in a dramatic change in the look of competitive ballroom dance. The dancers had to perform far more expansive movements, to stand out from the crowd. Extreme, exaggerated movements and costuming were a matter of survival, either outshining the others or being quickly eliminated.

III.

Of the three forms, which one is best? It depends on you. Dancers usually have a preference for the one that especially suits their personality.

It's important to know the differences, for the following three reasons:

To recognize which form(s) best match your personality.

Dean Paton points out the differences in this page. (Click on the first article, "Before You Sign Up.") Dean believes there's an essential difference between social and competitive ballroom dance, and that different personalities are naturally drawn to one or the other. It essentially comes down to knowing yourself, and finding the right match for you. Quoting Dean, "We call your attention to these two kinds of dancing because, unless you understand something of their differences, you could land on the wrong dance planet and end up miserable."

To avoid the unfortunate mistake of applying the rules and attitudes of one form to another. This isn't just an abstract differentiation — the repercussions can be serious.

For instance, occasionally a ballroom dancer will pedantically insist that his partner conform to competitive stylistic details at an informal social dance, "You're doing it wrong. You have to do it my way," resulting in the contradiction of antisocial behavior at a social event. (See more on the "Sketchy Guys" page.) Conversely, socially adapting to your partner's mis-step at a competition may eliminate you from that round. Both forms are equally valid, within their own arena, but they have almost opposite attitudes.

Some dancers do both social and competitive dancing, or all three forms, and some of them are wonderfully adept at knowing which attitudes are appropriate for each. At a social dance, they're friendly, spontaneously adaptive, and warmly supportive of their partner's differing style. Then they are rigorously correct and expansive when competing. They understand and respect the differences.

To sharpen your ability to spot deceptive marketing practices.

As the competition ballroom dancer Juliet McMains points out in her eloquent book Glamour Addiction, some (not all) ballroom studios attempt to change the minds of students who arrive wishing to learn social ballroom dance. She wrote:

Primarily because teaching competitive ballroom dance has proved to be so much more profitable than teaching social dance, the industry rhetoric implies that social ballroom dancing is merely poorly executed DanceSport. Students usually embark on a social dance program with the expectation that they will take a few lessons, learn how to dance, then leave the studio in a month or two. From a business perspective, studios and teachers are deeply invested in altering this plan. If a teacher can sell a student on competition dancing, their student will have to spend years taking dance lessons to master the difficult competition technique.

Very few students enter the studio as aspiring competitors. It is only through calculated encouragement by their personal dance teacher that new students are persuaded to enter categories of competition, initiating them into the DanceSport lifestyle.

Competitive ballroom dance is a perfect fit for those drawn to competing, so neither we nor Juliet McMains (who is a professional competitor) are criticizing competition ballroom dance, nor the many honest studios.

The point is that it's smart to be aware of the many differences:
Technique
Styling
Standardization
Difficulty of technique
Adaptability
Motivation
Attitude