Learn to Dance the Bolero! Add Romance to Your Life
January 13, 2014Learn to Dance the Cotton-Eye Joe!
February 3, 2014The Balboa—a form of Swing named for the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach, CA—was the answer to crowded dance floors in the 1950s.
The basic steps of the Balboa take up a small amount of space. It is danced mostly in the close embrace and is led with a full body connection. Dancers execute fast and elaborate footwork while keeping their torsos close together. Communication between the lead and follow is accomplished through weight shifts, which most viewers cannot even see. For this reason, the Balboa is often considered more of a dancers’ dance than a spectators’ dance.
Balboa is a restrained or introverted dance, with most of the movement occurring below the knees. This is an eight-count dance. It involves chaining two-step movements together into groups of eight-count patterns, while shuffling your feet on the dance floor. It appeals to many dancers because of its variations on turns, kicks, and twirls that allow the lead to show off his partner’s legs—an effect that is particularly dramatic when the follow is wearing a skirt and high heels.
You can dance the Balboa to a wide variety of tempos: fast music (over 300 beats per minute) or slow music (under 100 beats per minute). Dancing to slower music allows the dancers more time for the intricate footwork and variations that make this dance so popular.
Learn how to dance the Balboa and other Swing dances from the professional instructors at the Arthur Murray Dance Studios in Charlotte and Lake Norman, NC.
videos:
