In the early twentieth century, American ragtime and the Parisian tango fuelled a dancing craze in Britain. Public ballrooms were built throughout the country, providing a glamorous setting for dancing. The new English style, defined in the 1920s and followed by the films of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the 1930s, ensured that ballroom dancing continued to be the most popular British pastime until the 1960s, rivalled only by cinema.
This book explores the vibrant history of ballroom and Latin dancing: the dances, lavish venues, competitions and influential instructors. It also traces the decline of couple dancing and its resurgence in recent years with the hugely popular TV shows Strictly Come Dancing and Dancing with the Stars.
Author(s): Hilary French
Publisher: Reaktion Books
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 393
City: London
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Contents
Introduction
One: ‘A Flood of Splendour’: Blackpool’s New Ballrooms
Two: Jazz, Ragtime and Tangoitis
Three: The Democratization of Dancing
Four: Basic Technique Takes Shape
Five: Dancing in Public
Six: Nightlife and Private Clubs
Seven: Hollywood Glamour
Eight: Everyday Glamour
Nine: Togetherness: Holiday Camps and Sequence Dancing
Ten: Jitterbug, Rock’n’Roll and Jive
Eleven: Latin, the 1960s and Change
Twelve: Television, Come Dancing and Peggy Spencer
Thirteen: The End of an Era
Fourteen: Twenty-First-Century Ballroom
Appendix: The Ten International style Ballroom and latin Dances
References
Select Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Illustration Acknowledgements
Index
