IDTA EXAM SYLLABUS as per international standards

LATIN AMERICAN DANCES

Jive

Cha-Cha-Cha

Samba

Rumba

Paso Double


BALLROOM DANCES

Waltz

Quick Step

Tango

Foxtrot

Viennese Waltz


SOCIAL DANCING

LATIN AMERICAN DANCES

Slow Jive

Cha-Cha-Cha

Samba


BALLROOM DANCES

Waltz

Rhythm Dance


OTHER LATIN AMERICAN DANCES

Salsa

Bachata

Lambada

Kizomba

Zouk

Argentine tango


Latin American & Ballroom Dance.

JIVE

Jive is a dance style that originated in the United States from African-Americans in the early 1930s. It was originally presented to the public as 'Jive' in 1934 by Cab Calloway. It is a lively and uninhibited variation of the Jitterbug, a form of Swing dance. Glenn Miller introduced his own jive dance in 1938 with the song "Doin' the Jive" which never caught on.

Jive is one of the five International Latin dances. In competition it is danced at a speed of 176 beats per minute, although in some cases this is reduced to between 128 and 160 beats per minute.

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CHA CHA CHA

The cha-cha-cha, or simply cha-cha, is the name of a dance of Cuban origin.

It is danced to the music of the same name introduced by Cuban composer and violinist Enrique Jorrín in 1953. This rhythm was developed from the danzón by a syncopation of the fourth beat. The name is onomatopoeic, derived from the rhythm of the güiro (scraper) and the shuffling of the dancers' feet.[3]

Cha-cha-cha may be danced to authentic Cuban music, or to Latin Pop or Latin Rock. The music for the international ballroom cha-cha-cha is energetic and with a steady beat. The Cuban cha-cha-chá is more sensual and may involve complex polyrhythms.

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SAMBA

Samba is a lively, rhythmical dance of Brazilian origin in 2/4 time danced under the Samba music. However, there are three steps to every bar, making the Samba feel like a 3/4 timed dance. Its origins include the Maxixe.

The Samba music rhythm has been danced in Brazil since its inception in the late 19th century. There is actually a set of dances, rather than a single dance, that define the Samba dancing scene in Brazil; thus, no one dance can be claimed with certainty as the "original" Samba style.

Another major stream of the Samba dance besides the Brazilian Samba dancing styles is Ballroom Samba which differs significantly. This style is done with a partner in closed hold or open positions including but not limited to hand to hand hold, or side by side positions.

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RUMBA

"Rumba" refers to ballroom-rumba, one of the ballroom dances which occurs in social dance and in international competitions. In this sense, rumba is the slowest of the five competitive International Latin dances: the Paso Doble, the Ssamba, the Cha-Cha-Cha and the Jive being the others. This ballroom Rumba was derived from a Cuban rhythm and dance called thebolero-son; the international style was derived from studies of dance in Cuba in the pre-revolutionary period.

The international ballroom Rumba is a slower dance of about 120 beats per minute.

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PASO DOBLE

Pasodoble, or paso doble, (literal meaning in Spanish: double-step) is a traditional couple's dance from France and straight away adopted by the Spanish community. It is danced to the type of music typically played in bullfights during the bullfighters' entrance to the ring (paseo) or during the passes (faena) just before the kill. It corresponds to the pasodoble dance (traditional and ballroom).

Pasodoble is a lively style of dance to the duple meter march-like pasodoble music. It is modelled after the sound, drama, and movement of the Spanish and Portuguese bullfight.

Famous bullfighters have been honoured with pasodoble tunes named after them. Other tunes have been inspired by patriotic motifs or local characters.

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WALTZE

The waltz is a smooth, progressive ballroom and folk dance in  triple time, performed primarily in closed position.  It is actually the English or slow waltz, danced at approximately 90 beats per minute with 3 beats to the bar (the international standard of 30 measures per minute)

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QUICK STEP

The quickstep is a light-hearted member of the standard ballroom dances. The movement of the dance is fast and powerfully flowing and sprinkled with syncopations. The upbeat melodies that quickstep is danced to make it suitable for both formal and informal events. Quickstep was developed in the twenties in New York and was first danced by Caribbean and African dancers. Its origins are in combination of slow foxtrot combined with the Charleston, a dance which was one of the precursors to what today is called swing dancing.

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TANGO

The tango (possibly from Latin tangere, meaning "touch") is a partner dance that originated in the 1890s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Uruguay and Argentina, and soon spread to the rest of the world.[2]

Early tango was known as tango criollo (Creole tango). Today, there are many forms of tango extant. Popularly and among tango dancing circles, the authentic tango is considered to be the one closest to the form originally danced in Argentina and Uruguay.

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FOXTROT

The foxtrot is a smooth, progressive dance characterized by long, continuous flowing movements across the dance floor. It is danced to big band (usually vocal) music. The dance is similar in its look to waltz, although the rhythm is in a 4 4 time signature instead of 3 4. Developed in the 1910s, the foxtrot reached its height of popularity in the 1930s, and remains practiced today.

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VIENNESE WALTZ

Viennese Waltz is the original form of the waltz. It was the first ballroom dance performed in the closed hold or "waltz" position. Unlike the Waltz the Viennese Waltz is danced at about 180 beats (58-60 measures) a minute. To this day however, in Germany, Austria, Scandinavia, and France, the words Walzer (German for "waltz"), vals (Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish for "waltz"), and valse (French for "waltz") still implicitly refer to the original dance and not the slow waltz.

The Viennese Waltz is a rotary dance where the dancers are constantly turning either toward the leader's right (natural) or toward the leader's left (reverse), interspersed with non-rotating change steps to switch between the direction of rotation. A true Viennese waltz consists only of turns and change steps. Other moves such as the fleckerls, American-style figures and side sway or underarm turns are modern inventions and are not normally danced at the annual balls in Vienna. Furthermore, in a properly danced Viennese Waltz, couples do not pass, but turn continuously left and right while travelling counterclockwise around the floor following each other.

As the Waltz evolved, some of the versions that were done at about the original fast tempo came to be called specifically "Viennese Waltz" to distinguish them from the slower waltzes. In the modern ballroom dance, two versions of Viennese Waltz are recognized: International Style and American Style.

Today the Viennese Waltz is a ballroom and partner dance that is part of the International Standard division of contemporary ballroom dance.

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RHYTHM DANCE

Rhythm generally means a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions" (Anon. 1971, 2537). This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time can apply to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or frequency of anything from microseconds to millions of years.

In the performance arts rhythm is the timing of events on a human scale; of musical sounds and silences, of the steps of a dance, or the meter of spoken language and poetry. Rhythm may also refer to visual presentation, as "timed movement through space" and a common language of pattern unites rhythm with geometry. In recent years, rhythm and meter have become an important area of research among music scholars. Recent work in these areas includes books by Maury Yeston (Yeston 1976), Fred Lerdahl and Ray Jackendoff, Jonathan Kramer, Christopher Hasty (Hasty 1997), Godfried Toussaint (Toussaint 2013), William Rothstein, and Joel Lester (Lester 1986).

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SALSA

Salsa is a popular form of social dance that originated in New York with strong influences from Latin America, particularly Cuba and Puerto Rico. The movements of salsa have its origins in Cuban Son, Cha cha cha, Mambo and other dance forms, and the dance, along with the salsa music, originated in the mid-1970s in New York.

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BACHATA

Bachata is a style of dance that originated in the Dominican Republic.  In partnering, the lead can decide whether to perform in open or closed position. Dance moves, or step variety, during performance strongly depends on the music (such as the rhythms played by the different instruments), setting, mood, and interpretation. Unlike Salsa, Bachata dance does not usually include many complex turn patterns, but they have come to be used more and more as the dance evolves.

The original dance style from the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean is a basic dance sequence in a full 8 count moving within a square. Dancers in the Western World much later began developing a more simple pattern and added dance elements from other dances as well, the basic is also in a full 8 count, but with a side-to-side motion. Both Styles consist of 3 steps normal and then a tap step. The tap is often accompanied by a "pop" of the hips, and is sometimes substituted with syncopations (steps in between the beats). Bachata music has an accent in rhythm at every first count (one) in the measure of four beat, most people dance starting on the first beat and this is called dancing bachata to the basic rhythm of the music. But bachata can be danced to different timings as well e.g. tapping on the first beat and then take the first step on the second beat (dancing on two), one also seen Dominicans dancing on three and four. The tap is done on the opposite foot of the last step, while the next step is taken on the same foot as the tap. The dance direction changes after the tap or fourth step.

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MERENGUE

Merengue is a style of Dominican music and dance. Partners hold each other in a closed position. The leader holds the follower's waist with the leader's right hand, while holding the follower's right hand with the leader's left hand at the follower's eye level. Partners bend their knees slightly left and right, thus making the hips move left and right. The hips of the leader and follower move in the same direction throughout the song. Partners may walk sideways or circle each other, in small steps. They can switch to an open position and do separate turns without letting go each other's hands or releasing one hand. During these turns they may twist and tie their handhold into intricate pretzels. Other choreographies are possible.

Although the tempo of the music may be frenetic, the upper body is kept majestic and turns are slow, typically four beats/steps per complete turn.

In the social dancing of the United States the "empalizada" style is replaced by exaggerated Cuban motion, taught in chain ballroom studios for dances of Latin American origin (cha-cha-cha, rumba, mambo, salsa).

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ZOUK

Zouk (or Zouk béton) is a fast jump up carnival beat style of rhythmic music originating from the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, popularized by the French Antilles Kassav' in the 1980s.

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KIZOMBA

Kizomba is one of the most popular genres of dance and music originating in Angola. It mixes influences of traditional semba with Angolan merengue and Kilapanda (traditional Angolan music). On this basis, Kizomba music emerged as a more modern music genre with a sensual touch mixed with African rhythm. Unlike semba, kizomba music is characterised by a slower and usually very romantic rhythm, sung generally in Portuguese.

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LAMBADA

Lambada is a dance music from Pará, Brazil. The dance became internationally popular in the 1980s, especially in Latin America and Caribbean countries. It has adopted aspects of dances such as forró, salsa, merengue, maxixe and the carimbó.

Lambada is generally a partner dance. The dancers generally dance with arched legs, with the steps being from side to side, turning or even swaying, and in its original form never front to back, with a pronounced movement of the hips. At the time when the dance became popular, short skirts for women were in fashion and men wore long trousers, and the dance has become associated with such clothing, especially for women wearing short skirts that swirl up when the woman spins around, typically revealing 90s-style thong underwear.

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ARGENTINE  TANGO

Argentine tango is a musical genre of simple quadruple metre and binary musical form, and the social dance that accompanies it. Its lyrics and music are marked by nostalgia, expressed through melodic instruments including the bandoneón. Originating at the ending of the 19th century in the suburbs of Buenos Aires, and Montevideo, Uruguay, it quickly grew in popularity and spread internationally.

DESCRIPTIONS

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