Country
Two-StepThe Original Two-Step was a simple dance that caught on with the public when John Phillip Sousa came out with the "Washington Post March " in 1891. The old quadrilles, glides and reels were cast aside in favor of dances such as the Two-Step. Many songs doubled as one or Two-Steps (crossovers).
This Two-Step comes from the "Valse a' deux temps" (waltz), the dance consisted of a series of chasse's, forward or sideways with a skip in each step and was done to 2/4 or 4/4 time (basically a Quick-Quick-Slow). There was a mass amount of music written as a Two-step and / or march. When ragtime suddenly appeared, the Sousa marches started to wain, however some patterns of the two-step still remain in the Fox-trot of today. In 1847, in his book "La Danse des Salons", Henri Cellarius expressed his regrets about the use of the term "deux temps" stating that the dance would be better accepted if it were called "deux pas" (two step) as the term better described the step of the dance (he also suggested that the trois temps would be better called the "trois pas" - "three step").
The Collegiate Foxtrot was done in the late 1910's and was later revived during the 1940's in the square dance world for the kids and became very popular among the square and round dancers of that time. As time went on many people lost it's roots and began calling it the Texas Two or Country Foxtrot. The Texas Two-Step (Slo-Slo-Quick-Quick version) has nothing to do with Sousa's original dance done to Sousa's Music except in its name. In many's haste to find its source, many concieve Sousa's to be it's parent, however the Collegiate foxtrot was the parent of the Texas Two Step. also see Collegiate Foxtrot.
Double Two-Step
Triple Two-Step
The triple two step was mainly developed in the Dallas Fort Worth area of Texas. The dance was greatly modified, starting in the 1970's. Today, it is danced in country-western dance competitions.
Country Waltz
Old Time Waltz
Country Cha-Cha
Night Club Two-Step
Shuffle
Polka
Polka is a type of dance and genre of dance music; it originated in the middle of the 19th century in Bohemia, and is still a common genre of Czech folk music; it is also common both in Europe and in the Americas. In classical music, many polkas were composed by both Johann Strauss I and his son Johann Strauss II; a couple of well-known ones were composed by Bedrich Smetana and Jaromir Vejvoda, the author of Skoda lasky ("Roll Out the Barrel").
The polka (a 2/4-beat dance of Czech origin) should not be confused with the polska (a Swedish 3/4-beat dance with Polish roots); cf. also polka-mazurka. A related dance is the redowa.
Polkas are played in Hungary as well; in Hungarian they're called porkak (plural).
Line Dances
Couples Line Dances
Mixers