Dancesport is the term for competitive ballroom dancing. The term “dancesport” was created to help it gain Olympic recognition. The governing body for dance sport is the World DanceSport Federation.
“Dancesport” denotes international and American style of competitive ballroom, these are the categories: International Standard, International Latin, American Smooth, and American Rhythm. These categories apply to individual couples and formation dance.
There are rules set by the World Dance Council for international competitions. The music for the competition won’t be revealed until the competition day. The chosen music follows a strict tempo. For couples competition, it will be around 90 seconds to two minutes.
Some competitions only employ the basic steps, especially for elementary competitions. International competitions are open, but it should be within the limits of the traditional styles. The “Viennese waltz” has a defined choreography, it is limited to seven well-specified figures.
The first dance sport championship was in 1909. The first formation team was performed by Olive Ripman in 1931 in London. The Asian Games included a dancesport comeptition in 2010, which included a five Latin dances competition (samba, cha-cha-cha, rhumba, pasodoble and jive), plus indivdual competitions for Quickstep, Slow foxtrot, Tango, and the Waltz.
Similar Sports
- Breakdancing — an athletic style of street dance
- Sport Aerobics — the objective is to perform high-intensity gymnastic moves in sync with background music.
- Wheelchair Dancing — all of the participants of a team perform dance routines while riding in a wheelchair.
- Pole Dancing Sport — participants perform various types of acrobatic moves like spins, climbs, twists and body inversions around a pole.
- Capoeira — a form of martial art from Brazil which has a combination of aspects of dance moves, acrobatics, movements and music.
Related Pages
- Complete list of sports
- Dancesport was an event at the 2010 Asian Games.
- The Encyclopedia of Sports