Sunday, March 11, 2012

Foxtrot History

By Susan Todd


There is a range of different and unique ballroom dances. Foxtrot is included in the more fresh additions to the ballroom dance lineup. This is an American dance that all began in NY by Harry Fox in 1914. Harry Fox was a vaudeville performer, and he and his partner started performing "trot" steps to Ragtime music. New Yorkers started calling it "Fox's Trot" and the foxtrot was born.

Harry Fox was initially employed by the New York theatre. The theatre was a movie-house and the management had vaudeville acts in between the shows. They initially hired Harry Fox and his "Dancing Beauties" to put on a dancing show for a month.

Fox's trot was a strange kind of movement and a number of those in the dancing elite were soon attempting to capture the dance's style. The foxtrot turned into a valid ballroom dance when the American G.K. Anderson won a lot of competitions in London. This set the style of the foxtrot in the professional dancing world.

The music and the dance have developed through the years. The trotting steps were tough to do for a long period of time. The dancers would get exhausted and the steps were especially a bit hard for the women to continue. Because of this, the trotting steps were replaced with gliding or 'sauntering'. This made it an instant hit in he United States.

The foxtrot today is a smooth and sauntering dance. It has swift and slow steps and is exceedingly adaptable. Most social dance orchestras play foxtrot music, so it is indeed a great dance to learn for ballroom dances.

There are a number of variations of the Foxtrot and the Lindy and the Hustle both developed from the foxtrot. It has a high acceptance around the world today in social dance circles.

Foxtrot music is generally jazz or Big Band type music. Usually, jazz and Big Band music is utilized for swing dancing. The difference is the speed of the song, where swing is danced to quicker music and foxtrot to slower music. The steps in foxtrot and swing can be interchanged and makes the dance lots of fun.

Other than jazz and Big Band music, the foxtrot rhythm has been employed by Frank Sinatra, Natalie Cole, Michael Buble, Stevie Wonder, Harry Connick, Jr., and others. As a result of this, the foxtrot can be danced to more recent music other than jazz and Big Band music.

The essential steps of the foxtrot are easy to learn. As dancers get a handle on the dance, a number of steps can be added for a huge variety in the dance. The foxtrot is a travelling dance which moves around the room and also has steps to keep the dancers in place on an overcrowded dance floor. Due to this, it makes for a dramatic first dance for a bride and groom and can then be pulled out for social dancing with a bunch of family and friends.




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