Social dance

Social dancing is done for social reasons, not for an audience. People take part to connect with others and have fun, though these dances can also serve ceremonial, competitive, or romantic purposes. In Europe over the last few centuries, partner dances have been common, but in other parts of the world, circle or line dances are more typical. In Western cultures, the kinds of dances done at social events shift as social values change. Music for 14th-century social dances, like the ballo, carol, stampita, saltarello, trotto, and roto, survives in manuscripts, but the specific steps are lost. The 15th century is the earliest period with written dance records. A manuscript from Brussels describes the Burgundian court dance, a basse dance that spread across Europe, where large groups performed steps in triple time. Italian courts had balli, with varied choreographed rhythms, steps, and positions, documented in instruction books by dance masters. Dances of lower classes were not recorded until the Late Renaissance. Courtiers in the late 16th century had to prove themselves through social skills, especially dance. Recorded dances from that time include the pavane and the Canary dance. Thoinot Arbeau's *Orchésographie* describes peasant branles, along with the 16th-century basse danse and la volta. Peasants supplied new dances to the court as older ones lost their novelty. During the Baroque Era, court balls displayed social status. A formal ball began with a branle where couples stood in a line according to rank, with the highest-ranking dancing first. The menuet and gavotte became popular, and balls often ended with an English country dance. France led in dance, but the French Revolution moved things away from formality. In the Regency Era (1811–1830), the quadrille was the most popular dance in England and France, with steps like chassé and jeté that skimmed the ground. Other dances, such as the mazurka, were done in lines and squares. The waltz arrived in Britain near the end of the Napoleonic Wars. It was a partner dance where couples held each other more closely than before, and neither partner led—dancers were equals, which was new. The polka also had partners scandalously close. These dances were fresh, inventive, youthful, and somewhat daring, mirroring society. By the late 19th century, Americans were tired of their grandparents' court dances. In the early 20th century, they paired Victorian dances like the two-step with ragtime music. Other dances included the African American cakewalk and animal dances like the turkey trot. The most popular social dance was the one-step, where couples took one step per beat, making it easy for beginners. The phonograph record shifted dancing to recorded music, with radio stations, jukeboxes, and sock hops playing records. Swing dance grew in popularity in the 1930s, taking many forms; some, like the Lindy Hop and West Coast Swing, survive today. Rock 'n' roll in the 1950s brought rebelliousness, especially among teenagers who did not want to copy their parents. Dancing was mostly swing-based but varied by region. Couples began dancing as individuals for the first time, suggesting there did not have to be a leader and follower. The mid-20th century also saw strong Latin American influence, especially from the Caribbean. In Cuba, Spanish colonial ballroom traditions mixed with Indigenous Taíno forms and the music and dance of enslaved Africans, creating many partnered social dances. These styles spread to the United States through immigration and cultural exchange, especially in growing Latino communities in New York, Miami, and Los Angeles. The 1950s brought nationwide dance crazes like the mambo and cha-cha-chá, popularized through nightclubs, television, and touring orchestras. They attracted Latino audiences and became mainstream American culture. The mambo craze was fueled by bandleaders like Pérez Prado, whose big-band mambo music was hugely popular in the 1950s. By the late 1960s and early 1970s, Cuban and Puerto Rican influences merged into salsa, a hybrid genre of music and dance that became a fixture of social life in urban centers. The term "salsa" was popularized by figures like Johnny Pacheco, founder of Fania Records, who helped turn various Afro-Caribbean styles into a unified mainstream genre.