American Style
The Smooth and Rhythm categories of American style DanceSport roughly correspond to the Standard and Latin categories of International style. In Smooth, 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 which are typically absent in Smooth, due to the open movement and changing arm positions requiring less restriction on the body; however, the dances themselves are significantly different as a result of 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 breaking away from each other periodically and experimenting with open footwork. The Rhythm dances were also influenced by American dancers of the post-WWII era, but the differences between it and International Latin are more subtle. Costumes are similar, and while step patterns are not identical, movements are as free and explicitly sensual as in Latin.
Read more about this topic: List Of Dance Sport Dances
Famous quotes containing the words american and/or style:
“The Americans are violently oral.... That’s why in America the mother is all-important and the father has no position at all—isn’t respected in the least. Even the American passion for laxatives can be explained as an oral manifestation. They want to get rid of any unpleasantness taken in through the mouth.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)
“One man’s style must not be the rule of another’s.”
—Jane Austen (1775–1817)