Whats the difference between Ballroom Dance, Modern, Standard, International and Dancesport?
Ballroom is the most general and the oldest term that has been used sometimes to describe Waltz, Tango, Slow Foxtrot, Quickstep and Viennese Waltz and sometimes it was also used for Latin American dances, namely Cha cha, Samba, Rumba, Paso Doble and Jive. Sometimes it was also used to refer to Old Time and Sequence dances. So the term “Modern Ballroom” (in short “Modern”) was introduced in Australia to indicate clearly that the speaker was not referring to Old Time, Sequence or Latin-American dances. But in Europe the term “Modern” was already frequently used to describe a totally different type of dancing (eg. jazz or other form of solo dancing), so the Europeans called it “Standard” instead. But “Standard” had an unclear meaning in America, where there is an American version of it (called American Smooth). Therefore Americans introduced the term “International Standard” to make the difference clear. Dancesport describes the competitive side of dancing Standard and Latin-American styl
