This light-hearted dance involves concentrated footwork and lifting or twirling your partner. It became popular in the 1920's and was originally invented at the Savoy Ballroom in New York. A spin-off of the Lindy Hop, the swing dance combined fast twirls and steps to the beat of jazz music. Today, the swing dance is still performed in an old-fashioned manner using the exact same techniques developed decades ago. Over the last 12 years USABDA has promoted the growth of all forms of ballroom dance as well as coming up with a program to establish chapters in each state. They have enjoyed major growth in numbers of chapters, dancers, competitions, workshops and social dances each year. Each year the USABDA sends United States representatives to the World Games. The music that is associated with the Jive is commonly called Ragtime, possibly because the participants dressed up in their finest clothes ("rags") or maybe because of the syncopation of the music giving it a ragged feel. Ballroom Dancing - The Samba When the Samba music plays its party time! This raised more than a few eyebrows of "polite" society. The rise in popularity of the Viennese Waltz, like the standard waltz, can at least in part be contributed to the music of Johann Strauss and toVienna's famous ballrooms. As with the standard waltz the music can be either vocal or instrumental and can be classical, country, or even rock. The knees bent stance of the dance was basically the way the Gauchos naturally walked as a result of wearing chaps that get soaked from the sweat of their horses then harden as they dry. The Milonga is the forerunner of the Tango. It also used the same sharp head and shoulder moves and the characteristic sudden stops of the Tango. Still a third suggestion is that the dance (in its earlier version) resembled the way a fox walks (with one foot in front of the other leaving a single track). In the early fox trot the feet were placed in a single line one in front of the other. It wasn't until the 1950's that this ballroom dance was revised to have two different dance lines, one for each foot.