Dallas is blessed with a large community of ballroom dancers. As one of several ballroom dance studios offering ballroom dance lessons to our community of ballroom dancers and Dallas area residents in general, we understand the fears of many new students and how they are often hesitant to get out on the dance floor. Many are afraid of making mistakes, looking silly in front of others or feeling inadequate. Here at at Dancemasters, we feel one of the best ways to help beginner level students conquer the jitters that most newcomers have is to teach one of the most basic and versatile dances, the Fox Trot. Learning the basics of Fox Trot is a good way to prepare for many other dances as well.
Let’s first understand a little bit of history about the Fox Trot. The Foxtrot was developed in the United States in the 1920’s. Named after its creator, Harry Fox, the Foxtrot is frequently associated with the smooth dancing style of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, but it has been made more popular recently on TV shows such as “So You Think You Can Dance” and “Dancing With The Stars”, and has become one of the most popular ballroom dances in history. Foxtrot is a smooth progressive dance characterized by long, continuous flowing movements across the dance floor. The footwork timing is usually “slow, quick, quick” or “slow, slow, quick, quick.”
Typically danced to big band swing-style music in 4/4 time, it is adaptable to most music styles. The first and third beats are accented more strongly than the second and fourth beats. It is danced in combinations of slow and quick steps, with each slow step taking two beats and each quick step one beat of music. Therefore, a dance basic figure in slow, slow, quick, quick rhythm takes one and a half measures, while a dance figure in slow, quick, quick rhythm takes one measure.
For the basic forward step, the leader starts by facing the line of dance. On the first of a four step sequence (slow, slow, quick, quick), the leader steps forward with his left foot while the follower steps backward with her right. On the second step, the leader steps forward in the same manner with his right foot, while the follower steps backward with her left, thus completing the slow-slow portion of the basic. For the first step of the quick- quick, the leader slides his left foot to the left, while the female slides her right foot to the right followed by closing of the feet with a weight change for the second quick.
Once the basic forward step is mastered, you will be ready for the basic backward, and from there you are well on your way to learning other steps, which is why we recommend taking advantage of our beginner dance lesson specials to come try out the Fox Trot at the oldest existing ballroom studio in the Dallas area. We have a variety of group classes as well so be sure to check out our studio calendar for all our monthly events in one place.
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Dancing is not only good cardio but great for the whole body. An adult can burn between 250 to 400 calories during an hour of dancing depending on the intensity. Dancing is known to improve stamina, flexibility, posture, and increase lung capacity. Ballroom dancing helps strengthen and tone all the major muscles groups as effectively as walking, jogging, or cycling. Ballroom dancing also plays a huge part in strengthening the core muscles of the abdomen and back.
