Types of dance we train
Let me introduce you to the dance styles I teach
Types of Club Style Latin Dances
Salsa
Salsa is a cocktail of Latin-American and Afro Caribbean dances. It’s a combination of rhythms and music that have mingled over time, with mambo, cha-cha, merengue, and even jazz, rock, R & B and Hip-Hop. Salsa has taken many different forms and is guarantee a fresh, spontaneous and distinctive dance experience for all. It has an ever growing worldwide following in Restaurants, clubs, bars, and dances classes, where it’s performed in versions for both soloists and couples. It’sCharacterized by intricate footwork, hip movements, turns, rotations and crossbody lead moves.The dance that burns up the dance floor is excellent for working on quick rhythms and tempo changes. Though its impressive to watch, salsa is quite basic and easy to learn, its danced three steps to four beats. Salsa is one of the “spiciest” club dances and is consider the King & Queen of Latin Social dancing.
Bachata
Bachata is a romantic style of music with slow, sensual rhythms. It’s a very social dance and is often dance in couples. Bachata is considered easier that Salsa because the music and dance is slower. Bachata dancing is characterized by its lively steps and hip movements. It requires learning body isolation movements, connection, and the intricacies of bachata music.
Merengue
Merengue is a fun and easy dance made up of simple marching steps. Merengue is a great dance to start with for beginners looking to learn popular Latin dance styles, with less structure than some of the other popular Latin dances. It can also travel counter-clockwise around the dance floor. It’s a great dance for working on Cuban hip motion and practicing rhythm changes.
Cumbia
Cumbia dancing is considered to be very sensual; it involves a lot of hip shaking and body movement. This genre of music combines traditional Latin American and Caribbean rhythms with modern instruments and sounds. It is often danced in couples and is great for weddings, parties and social dancing events.
Cha-Cha
Cha-Cha (or Cha-Cha-Cha) is an energetic, playful, and party-time dance, perfect for dancing to upbeat music. A must have for a confident social dancer. The dance is performed in an open hold, light and bouncy feeling, and on the spot, moving slightly but be sure to not rush through the steps. It emphasizes Cuban motion and rhythm expressed throughout the body. Its very similar to Rumba but features the additional “cha chacha chasses chants at the end of every bar of four counts.
Kizomba
Kizomba dancing is a very sensual style of dance that involves close partner interaction. Its typically danced to slow, romantic music as a way to express love for each other.
Rumba
Rumba sometimes called the “Dance of Love” is considered the slowest and most romantic of Latin dances. Its continuous flowing Cuban Motion gives Rumba its sensual and sultry look making it entrancing to watch and to dance. Rumba is a fusion of Cuban son music and African influences.
Mambo
Mambo is a high-energyand spicy dance, typically danced to big band music. It’s a great way to get your heart rate up and burn some calories. It characterized by strong Cuban Motion, staccato movement, and expression of rhythms through the body. Its also features many swivels and spins. The dance holds on count 1 and breaks on count 2. Mambo is perfect for dancers who wants to move and grove. Its is the fastest Latin Dance.
Bolero
Bolero is a slow dance characterized by smooth, gliding movement, dramatic arm styling, lots of close contact and a romantic feel. It’s a sensual dance that is perfect for couples. Bolero is a mixture of three dances: Tango (Contra body movements), Waltz (rise and Fall), and Rumba (Cuban Motion). Bolero music is slow and dreamy.
Tango
Tango evokes strong steamy passionate couples and is one of the most beautiful of all dances. Its both earthy and romantic. It remains one of the most famous, most recognizable, most taught dances in the world. Ballroom Tango is characterized by a closed rigid hold, intertwined movement, a low center of gravity and emphasis on Contra Body Movement. Moving in Tango is stealthy, almost cat-like and has unmistakable staccato feel. It’s a walking dance in contrast to other ballroom styles. By Contrast, the moves for Argentine Tango are less formal, emphasizing expressiveness, intimacy, and passion. However, ballroom Tango still requires strong aggression and sensuality. The steps themselves are relatively easy to learn. Feeling the mood are essential factors in this dance.
Samba
Samba is a solo art form dance with rapid moving hips and quick transfers of weight that originated in Brazil and are danced at street festivals and other celebrations. In the US, Samba evolved into a couples’ dance that was standardized as a ballroom dance in 1956. Samba ballroom dance is an upbeat, fun, high-energy dance that progresses counter-clockwise around the dance floor. It’s characterized by its bounce and rolling hip action. Its perfect for any occasion and for getting your heart rate up. The basic steps are easy to learn. But generally, the “Samba bounce” takes time and practice to master and is considered the most difficult of the Latin Dances.
Waltz
Waltz is characterized by rise and fall, and sway. The feet stay in contact with the floor giving it a smooth, gliding look. Its an elegant gracefulness partner dance with a romantic feel. It’s easy to learn because its slow, smooth and uses four steps. It has a ¾ timing with a flowing style of twirls. It’s considered the oldest of the current ballroom dances and the best dance of the world. It’s a world of enchantment on the dance floor.
Foxtrot
Foxtrot is the foundation for all other dances. It is often called the “get acquainted” or “first impression” dance. The social foxtrot is ideal for beginners. Its one of the easiest ballroom dances to learn, as well as being one of the most flexible and enjoyable. It is combined of a mixture of slow and quick steps dance today, a formulation that allows for greater variety than any other ballroom dance. It’s natural walking action makes it an all-purpose dance that can be performed to many different styles of music on a 4/4 timing. Key characteristics of the foxtrot are smooth, gliding steps with heel lead, controlled movement, and an easygoing look. Its more reminiscent of the waltz as many of its patterns have been adapted straight from the waltz. Mastering the basic steps should provide you with the confidence you need to get onto the dance floor and perform the social foxtrot comfortably at weddings, and other special events.
Viennese Waltz
The Viennese Waltz is a classic dance style that is featured in many romantic movies and animated films. It is characterized by sweeping, graceful turns that rotate quickly around the floor in either a clockwise (natural) or Counter-clockwise (reverse) direction. Although it shares many similarities to the slow waltz, it is danced at a much faster tempo-twice the speed of the slow waltz (180 beats per minute).
Quickstep
The quickstep is a lighthearted dance of the standard ballroom dances. It has recently gained more exposure from TV shows like “Dancing with the Stars” and “So you think you can dance”. 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. Its a speed up version of the foxtrot with a bit of Charleston.
East Coast Swing
East Coast Swing traces its roots to the original Swing dance Lindy Hop.In the early 1940’s Lindy hop was tamed and simplified to become a ballroom dance called Eastern Swing, now called East Coast Swing. East Coast Swing is a fun upbeat social partner dance. Distinguish by its bounce, back break (rock step) and swing hip motion. ECS is the easiest of the swing dances to learn, and is most versatile and popular.
West Coast Swing
West Coast Swing is a partner dance with roots in Lindy Hop. It brings forth a buoyant personality and the sprightliness of the dance becomes contagious. It is characterized by an elastic look that results from its extension-compression technique of partner connection. It is smooth (no bounce) and primarily danced in a slot. It allows room for syncopated footwork and improvisation. WCS can be danced to a wide range of popular music including Rhythm & Blues, Country Western, Funk, Disco, Rock and Pop.
Jive
Jive is a happy, boppy, energetic dance, with plenty of knee-lifting, bending, rocking of the hips, kicks, flicks, and twirling of the woman. It’s the fastest of Latin dances. Its often danced to a style of big band music called “Swing”. Jive and ECS are generally the same figures. The difference being: Jive is expected to have a springy “up” bounce off the floor with lots of knee actions and East Coast Swing’s triple steps are done with a “pulling” across the floor action.
Soca
Soca is a style of music and dance originated from the Caribbean Island of Trinidad & Tobago. It is influenced by many styles of music including reggae, calypso, zouk, afrobeats, Latin, African and East Indian rhythms, giving it a diverse style. The rhythmic energy of Soca encourages audiences to dance, emphasised by synthesised sounds and electronically mixed effects. It is a fun and joyful to dance.
Reggaeton
Reggaeton is strongly influenced by Latin American, Caribbean and hip hop music. Its fun, sexy, free spirited style of dance that is popular in nightclubs and workout classes. It’s characterized as shoulder pops, body waves and lower body isolations.
How long does it take to be a good Latin or Ballroom dance
Know More
It takes about two years for a beginner student to learn all the basics and to perform them with some level of competence. However, it takes many years, even a lifetime for some to become a true expert dancer.
Latin: American & International
International Ballroom dance is a type of ballroom dance that is danced in competitions worldwide. (eg. Samba. Tango, Quickstep, Foxtrot).
There are a wide variety of Latin and Ballroom dances that are danced and enjoyed by people around the world. However, these popular dances can be danced at many social events and found in competitions worldwide.
Love at First Dance - Dance Benefits
There are many benefits that comes from dancing and learning to dance. With Love at First Dance, students will gain over time all the following benefits and lots more.
Please check what are most important to you:
- Dancing is excellent for your Health as its a form of Exercise.
- Opportunity to be part of our fun and exciting community of Events, Entertainment & Relaxation adventures.
- Challenging your Brain and Physical Abilities
- GetMore Fun and Enjoyment out of Life.
- Be noticed
- Become more Popular.
- Impress a person or someone Special.
- Learning for a Special Event or Wedding.
- Leading with Class & Dignity for Men.
- Following with Grace & Poise for Women.
- Getting over Self-Consciousness
- Opportunity to Meet New People and Make New Friends.
- Develop Good Posture
- Developing a Deeper Connection with your partner, be more Intimate
- DevelopTrust, Tolerance and Patience with yourself and your partner
dance movement and styling
Solo Dancing
No previous dance experience or partner is required for beginners to start learning to dance. Its highly recommended by dance professionals to practice solo before advancing into partner work.
Because only you control your own body. Only you individually can learn, feel and train your own muscle coordination and muscle memory correctly or incorrectly if you practice incorrectly. Only you individually can experience how you learn and discover the pace you learn at and the space you need to learn stress free, the timing, rhythm, groove, move your hips, ribcage, arm, body isolation, springy bounce in the body, and develop your own styling an dinner dancer.
It’sabout firstly learning tocreate a deeper connection with yourself that only you cando and feel from within before collaborating in partnership dancing. As now you both will be bringing the best of you into the partnership so you can enjoy the dance together if you are a couple, or can be enjoyed by the partner you invite to dance with you.
In Person Meeting
Love at First Dance @388 Brown’s Line Etobicoke, Ontario
@Fregata Restaurant 1900 Dundas Street, East Mississauga, Ontario
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