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:
“So motionless, she seemed stone dead—just seemed:
She was too old for death, too old for life,
For as if jealous of all living forms
She had lain there before bivalves began
To catacomb their shells on western mountains.”
—Edwin John Pratt (1882–1964)
“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)
““And because I am happy, & dance & sing,
They think they have done me no injury,
And are gone to praise God & his Priest & King,
Who make up a heaven of our misery.””
—William Blake (1757–1827)