Western promenade dances are a form of partner dance traditionally danced to country-western music, and which are stylistically associated with American country and/or western traditions.
Specific dances are often associated with a specific song or songs, for example "San Antonio Stroll", "Orange Blossom Special" and "Cotton-Eyed Joe".
In promenade-style partner dancing the partners (dance couple) dance side-by-side, maintaining a connection with each other through a promenade handhold. The man dances traditionally to the left of the woman. There is no leader or follower, as in ballroom-style partner dancing, because both partners execute the steps identically. However, the man does function as a leader in a limited capacity, when and if there is undertaken turns, twirls and other fancy arm maneuvers.
Famous quotes containing the words western, promenade and/or dance:
“All of Western tradition, from the late bloom of the British Empire right through the early doom of Vietnam, dictates that you do something spectacular and irreversible whenever you find yourself in or whenever you impose yourself upon a wholly unfamiliar situation belonging to somebody else. Frequently it’s your soul or your honor or your manhood, or democracy itself, at stake.”
—June Jordan (b. 1939)
“The day of the sun is like the day of a king. It is a promenade in the morning, a sitting on the throne at noon, a pageant in the evening.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“Spring, the sweet spring, is the year’s pleasant king;
Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring,
Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing,
“Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!””
—Thomas Nashe (1567–1601)