Introduction to Standard Ballroom

Join us Saturday mornings to take your ballroom into International Standard technique. This rotating series develops the frame, swing and sway that define the smooth Standard style. It’s built for dancers who’ve found their footing and are ready to refine how they move.

Schedule

Saturdays – Community Classes

• 11:30am – Ballroom Fundamentals
• 12:30pm – Introduction to Standard Ballroom

Class Description

Level 2: Introduction to Standard Ballroom – Saturdays 12:30pm

Take your ballroom into International Standard technique with three dances built on swing and sway: Waltz, Quickstep and Viennese Waltz. Each month focuses on one dance, developing the closed hold, body movement and rise and fall that give Standard its sweeping, connected quality, from the grounded swing of Waltz to the bright speed of Quickstep and the continuous rotation of Viennese Waltz.

Waltz is the anchor. You’ll build the swing and sway here at a tempo you can feel, then carry it into the two fastest dances in the Standard syllabus, where that same movement has to hold up at speed. This is where the mechanics become movement.

Some prior ballroom experience recommended.

> New to Ballroom?
Start with Ballroom Fundamentals at 11:30am. This class covers the American Smooth dances and builds the timing and movement that prepare you for Standard. Our recommendation is to complete the full 3-dance rotation x2 (about six months) before moving up.

Pricing

• Community Class Rate: $15

Our Community Classes aim to provide more affordable options to our students and the general community at large.

Upcoming Schedule

• Aug: Waltz
• Sep: Quickstep
• Oct: Viennese Waltz
• Nov: Waltz
• Dec: Quickstep

Dance Styles

Waltz (International)

International Waltz shares the 3/4 timing and rise and fall you meet in the American Smooth Waltz, but dances it in a closed hold with full body swing and flight, traveling and sweeping through each figure rather than staying in place. It’s the anchor of this level, the slow dance where you develop the swing and sway that Quickstep and Viennese Waltz then demand at speed.

Quickstep

Quickstep is fast, light and bright, full of runs, chassés and little hops and skips that skim across the floor. It runs on the same swing and sway as Waltz but at nearly twice the speed, so it takes the movement you’ve built and asks you to keep it buoyant at tempo. It’s the most energetic dance in the Standard set and the clearest test of whether your swing holds up when things speed up.

Viennese Waltz

Viennese Waltz is the fastest dance in Standard, a continuous rotating whirl at around twice the tempo of the slow Waltz. Its vocabulary is small, natural turns, reverse turns and change steps, but the speed is the whole challenge, there’s nowhere to hide, so balance and rotational control have to be solid. It’s why this dance sits at Level 2, and why it feels like a reward once the swing and sway from Waltz are in place.

Where Standard Fits in Ballroom

Ballroom is the umbrella term for a wide family of partner dances, and International Standard is one of its most refined branches. Standard is a smooth, traveling style: partners stay in a single closed hold throughout, never breaking apart, and move around the floor together as one frame. That unbroken connection is what gives Standard its sweeping, elegant look, and it’s the main thing that separates it from American Smooth, where partners can release and dance apart.