History of The Foxtrot Ballroom Dance

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Dance Around the World

Jose Ramirez teaches Noble teens dance styles from around the world like swing, rumba and the cha cha.

June 9, 2011

History of The Foxtrot Ballroom Dance

The Foxtrot is a uniquely American dance originating in New York City.  It was first danced in 1914 by Harry Fox, who was a vaudeville performer.  He created the dance and he and his dance partner danced trot steps to Ragtime music. New Yorkers coined the phrase “Fox’s trot” to describe the dance.  Later, people just started calling it the Foxtrot.

The new Fox’s trot was an unusal style of movement for dancing.  The dancing elite tried to capture the dance’s style.  G.K. Anderson, an American, started dancing the foxtrot in dance competitions in London.  Not only was he dancing the foxtrot in competitions, he was wining competitions with the foxtrot.  This set the initial style of the foxtrot in the professional dancing world.

The trotting steps are intense and difficult to do for a long peirod of time.  This was true, in particular, for the ladies.  The dancers would get tired and couldn’t sustain the trotting steps.  Therefore, over the years, the trotting steps were replaced with gliding and sauntering steps.  When this happened, the Foxtrot became an instant hit across America.

Most social dance bands play foxtrot music, so it is a good dance to learn for ballroom dances.  It is also a great dance for weddings.  It has quick and slow steps and is highly versatile.  It is a traveling dance for when there is a lot of room on the dance floor and also has box steps for when there is little room.

The basic steps are easy to learn and as the dancers perfect those, they can add in a multitude of steps to spice up the dance.  This is an impressive dance to do for a First Dance of the bride and groom because it isn’t very difficult and has steps to impress the guests.

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