Smooth Dancing

The American Smooth or Smooth Dancing, along with its counterpart American Rhythm, constitute what is know as the American Style of ballroom dancing. American Smooth loosely corresponds to the Standard category of international style ballroom dance. However, it differs in its inclusion of open and separated figures.

The Smooth dances themselves are significantly different than the Standard dances. This is in result to the influence by dancers like Fred Astaire and Arthur Murray in the years following World War II. While elegance and flow remain the goal, as in international standard, dancers do not remain in closed position exclusively. Instead, they break away from each other periodically and experimenting with open footwork.

Dress

In competitions, competitors are costumed as would be appropriate for a white tie affair. Full gowns for the ladies and bow tie and tail coats for the men. Though in American Smooth, men are abandoning the tail suit in favor of shorter tuxedos, vests, and other creative outfits.

Dancers wear costumes not greatly dissimilar to those worn by their counterparts in Standard. Standard dresses often have prominent floats embellishing the arms and fuller skirts. Due to the open movement and changing are positions, this is typically absent in Smooth.

American Smooth Competition Dances

The Waltz

In the 19th and early 20th century, numerous different waltz forms existed. This includes versions performed in 3/4 or 6/8 (sauteuse), and 5/4 time (5/4 waltz, half and half). It involves breaking contact almost entirely in some figures. For example, the Syncopated Side-by-Side with Spin includes a free spin for both partners. Open rolls are another good example of an open dance figure. The follower alternates between the lead’s left and right sides, with the lead’s left or right arm (alone) providing the lead.

The Tango

The Tango is earthy and dramatic. Although walking movements dominate, Tango walks, having a “stalking” or “sneaking” character, are unlike the walks of other Ballroom dances. Movements are sometimes slow and slithery, and other times sharp and stacatto, such as a quick foot flick or a sharp head snap to promenade position. Tango has the same counter clockwise flow of movement around the dance floor. It has a lesser sense of urgency in comparison to the smoother and more continuous ballroom dances.

The Foxtrot

A beautiful, romantic dance, the Foxtrot is composed of simple walking steps and side steps. This smooth dancing combines slow steps, which use two beats of music, and quick steps, which use one beat of music. The footwork timing is usually “slow, quick, quick” or “slow, slow, quick, quick.” The Foxtrot must be danced very smoothly, with no jerking of the body. Timing is also a very important component of the Foxtrot. As the Foxtrot is more challenging than other styles of dance, it is usually recommended to master the Waltz and Quickstep prior to attempting it.

The Viennese Waltz

What is now called the Viennese waltz is the original form of the waltz. It was the first smooth dancing performed in the closed hold or “waltz” position. The dance that is popularly known as the waltz is actually the English or slow waltz. This is danced at approximately 90 beats per minute with 3 beats to the bar (the international standard of 30 measures per minute), while the Viennese waltz is danced at about 180 beats (58-60 measures) per minute. To this day however, in Germany, Austria, Scandinavia, and France, the words Walzer (German), vals (Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish), and valse (French) still implicitly refer to the original dance and not the slow waltz.

The Viennese waltz is a rotary dance where the dancers are constantly turning either toward the leader’s right (natural) or toward the leader’s left (reverse), interspersed with non-rotating change steps to switch between the direction of rotation. Furthermore, in a properly danced Viennese waltz, couples do not pass but turn continuously left and right while traveling counterclockwise around the floor following each other.