Both the Slow Waltz and Viennese Waltz are romantic dances performed intimately. The pair moves across the room in unison, gliding their feet and swinging their bodies as one. Slow Waltz music is typically 90 beats per minute while Viennese Waltz music is a quicker 180 beats a minute.

Originating from New York and popularized by vaudeville actor Harry Fox, the Foxtrot was a fast dance performed with the American ragtime music genre. Today’s Foxtrot is usually danced to swing music, with Slow Foxtrot and Quickstep as contemporary variations.

Originally performed by Caribbean and African dancers, the Quickstep is a fast-moving upbeat dance comprising of hops, runs, turns and chasses or three-step glide patterns. Complex light footwork is essential to doing the famous “Running Right Turn”, “V6″, and “Fishtail” quick steps.

A sensual dance, the Tango can be controversial at times with its passionate intensity on the dance floor. Argentine tango is danced in an embrace where leader and follower move while in a chest-to-chest position. American style ballroom tango, however, allows partners to dance side by side or apart from each other.

The slowest of the five Latin dances, the Rumba is popular in Cuba where it is performed to a rhythm called the bolero-son. Competition moves are extremely complex as compared to social ballroom rumba.

Social cha-cha is danced to Cuban music which is sensual and involves complex polyrhythms, while ballroom cha-cha music is energetic with a steady beat. Cuban cha-cha uses the two- three-chachacha step, whereas Western cha-cha counts one-two-chachacha or chachacha-three-four.

The Jive is a slower, more elegant version of the highly popular boogie of the 1940s. Ballroom jive is a very bubbly dance characterized by lifting of knees and bending or rocking of hips.