Roca Blanca Dance

Swing Styles include Single Rhythm Swing, East Coast Swing.  West Coast Swing Intermediate level only.

Latin Styles include Rumba, Salsa and Cha cha.  Merengue and/or Samba may be taught as time allows.

Beginner
You will learn the fundamental patterns that are the building blocks of more challenging patterns that will be taught in the intermediate level.  You will learn frame & connection, leading and following skills, how to listen to music and have fun doing it.  Various dance styles for both swing and latin will be taught in preparation for social dancing in night clubs, dinner dance clubs and ballrooms. There is no shame in repeating a beginner class as there is always new information and opportunity to be more prepared to advance to the next level.

Intermediate
This level involves more challenging patterns and dance styles, therefore a solid knowledge of the basics is necessary.  Concentration will be on connecting patterns together in cohesive ways that provide you with a greater confidence and refinement in your dancing.  This level will always have new challenging patterns every 6 weeks no matter how many times you repeat the intermediate level.

The instructor will do all they can to help every student, however must go the middle road to help the majority. If a student is struggling or bored then it is recommended they persue private dance lessons to catch up or move quickly to the next level of intermediate or advanced dancing.

Waltz, Foxtrot, Tango, Waltz, Night Club 2 Step, Country 2 Step and more are currently taught in private classes.

Private Class can be 1 - 4 people
$60 per hour for single or couple with additional $10 for the 3rd person and $10 for 4th person totalling $80 which can be divided 4 ways for a real deal.

HISTORY
Bolero was originally a Spanish dance with Moroccan roots. Bolero is often called the “Cuban Dance of Love” and is thought to have similar origins to Rumba. Bolero is believed to have evolved from Afro-Cuban and Spanish folk dances such as the Danzon, Beguine and Fandango. Arriving in the US in the mid 1930’s, it was danced in its traditional form to a constant beat of drums. Contemporary Bolero music is slow and dreamy, usually with Spanish vocals and soft percussion.

CHARACTERISTICS
Bolero is a slow dance characterized by smooth, gliding movement, dramatic arm styling and a romantic feel. Bolero is a mixture of three dances: Tango (contra body movement); Waltz (rise and fall) and Rumba (Cuban motion and slow Latin music).

HISTORY
Cha Cha evolved from a version of Cuban Mambo called “Triple Mambo”. As music always dictates the dance, triple steps were inserted between the forward and back breaks when a slower version of Mambo music was played. Reportedly, Cha Cha got its name from the sound of women’s shoes shuffling across the floor.

Cha Cha was introduced to the US in the early 1950’s and promptly sparked a dance craze. Enrique Jorrin, a Cuban violinist, is attributed with creating the first Cha Chas song. After arriving in the US, the traditional violins and flutes were often exchanged for big band instruments such as trumpet, trombone and saxophone.

CHARACTERISTICS
Cha Cha is lively and fun. A non progressive dance, it emphasizes Cuban motion and rhythm expressed throughout the body.

HISTORY
East Coast Swing (ECS) traces its roots to the original swing dance, Lindy Hop. Lindy Hop was created in the late 1920’s by African American youth at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem. Danced to the swing and jazz music of big bands such as Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway and Benny Goodman, Lindy Hop was a dynamic athletic dance.

By the mid 1930’s, Lindy Hop (also called Jitterbug and Swing) had captured the imagination of young people everywhere. It was widely danced in the US and Europe through the end of World War II. In the early 1940’s, Lindy Hop was tamed and simplified by dance schools to become a ballroom dance called Eastern Swing. In the late 1970’s, the name was changed to East Coast Swing.

CHARACTERISTICS
ECS is a fun upbeat dance. Distinguished by its bounce, back break and swing hip motion, ECS is also a non progressive dance.

HISTORY
The story of the Foxtrot begins around the turn of the 20th century when influential African American musicians, such as Scott Joplin, began composing syncopated ragtime music. There was no sitting still to this fervent new music, and a smooth dance like the Waltz just would not do. A new breed of dances quickly evolved in response to ragtime. One of the first was called the Turkey Trot, a one-step that included flapping the arms like a turkey. Then came a flood of others, like the Monkey Dance, the Horse Trot, the Grizzly Bear, the Bunny Hug and the Kangaroo Dip. Ragtime seemed to demand dances with jerky steps, possibly emulating the walk and the wild abandon of animals.

In 1914, a young dancer named Harry Fox did his version of trotting on the stage of the Ziegfield Follies. Fox's fast and jerky trot became the hot new thing in New York. When the Foxtrot traveled to England, the jumps and high jinks of the original were ironed out. What remains is a smooth, elegant dance more reminiscent of the Waltz than of the Trot's hyperactive past. In fact, many of Foxtrot's patterns have been adapted straight from the Waltz.

CHARACTERISTICS
Key characteristics of the Foxtrot are smooth, gliding steps with a heel lead, controlled movement and an easygoing look. The Foxtrot is an all-purpose dance that can be performed to many different styles of music.

HISTORY
Merengue is the national dance for the Dominican Republic where it originated in the early 1800’s and became popular by the mid 1800’s. Merengue bands from the countryside typically included a vocalist backed by an accordion, a metal scraper and a double headed tambora drum played with a stick. Legend says the dance got its characteristic look from an old hero who had returned from battle with a wounded leg. While dancing, he couldn’t help but limp to one side. Out of respect, all the villagers started dancing with a limp.

Whatever its true origins, Merengue arrived in New York as early as the 1940’s, gradually becoming a part of the Latin Scene. The music has recently evolved into an international phenomenon, with musicians such as Juan Luis Guerra, popularizing its easy to follow beat.

CHARACTERISTICS
Merengue is a fun and easy dance made up of simple steps. Primarily a non progressive dance, it can also travel counter clockwise around the floor. Noted for its Cuban motion, Merengue is also characterized by its “marching” feeling.

HISTORY
It’s not too often that the origins of a new dance can be traced to a single individual. But that’s precisely the case with Night Club Two Step, a dance created and popularized by renowned California teacher Buddy Schwimmer in the mid 1960’s.

He was involved in a line dance called Surfer Stomp, where the guys stood on one side and the girls on the other. They joined hands and pushed the girls up in the air on the “touch” count.  The count was: one, two, three, touch four.  It worked fine when done to faster music, but when a slow piece would come on, the footwork was too slow. So the step was double timed and the count became One & Two & Three & Four.

CHARACTERISTICS
It is frequently danced to mid-tempo ballads in 4/4 time.  Some think it has evolved to include elements from other dances such as Rumba and New York Hustle.  The Nightclub Two Step basic step takes eight beats.Typically it's danced in American-style dance position with a more relaxed hold than typical ballroom dances. The "official" rhythm for the basic step is quick-quick slow, although some prefer to start on the slow, usually on beat two of the music.  Night Club Two Step is an easy dance that almost anyone can learn. Its key characteristic is a rock step followed by a side step. Schwimmer says that the rock step is actually a 5th position break, adding that he doesn’t recommend pronounced Latin hip movements.

HISTORY
Most accounts say Rumba came from Cuba, although versions existed elsewhere in Latin America and the Caribbean. Rumba is a broad term referring to multiple music and dance forms, including Danzon, Guaracha and Son. These forms are a blend of African slave and colonial Spanish culture. The livelier forms feature fast hip movements and sexual strutting performed to a fiery orchestra of percussion. However, ballroom Rumba comes from Son, one of the slower, less eroticized versions of the dance.

By the late 1920’s, America’s appetite for Latin music was whet. Orchestra leaders such as Xavier Cugat introduced the popularized Rumba music and dancing, which continued to grow in the 1930’s and 40’s. After much debate, Rumba was finally standardized as a ballroom dance in the mid 1950’s.

CHARACTERISTICS
Sometimes called the “dance of love”, Rumba is distinguished by its romantic feel. It is a non progressive dance (remains on one part of the floor). Perhaps its most important characteristic is the continuous flowing Cuban motion, which gives Rumba its sensual look.

HISTORY
Mambo developed from the Cuban dance Danzon, and was greatly influenced by Cuban Haitians and American Jazz. Perez Prado is credited with introducing Mambo at a Havana nightclub in 1943. Other Latin musicians made significant contributions to Mambo’s growth and development, including Tito Rodriquez, Tito Puente and Xavier Cugat.

Around 1947, Mambo arrived in New York. Quickly becoming all the rage, Mambo was taught at dance schools, resorts and nightclubs, reaching its height of popularity by the mid 1950’s. The fad waned with the birth of Cha Cha, a dance developed from mambo. Recently, it has regained its popularity, due in large part to a New York dancer named Eddie Torres, as well as popular Mambo songs and movies.

CHARACTERISTICS
Mambo is a fast and spicy dance characterized by strong Cuban motion, staccato movement and expression of rhythm through the body. Mambo also features many swivels and spins.

Generally speaking Mambo and Salsa are similar with the following exceptions:

• Mambo - the dancer holds on count 1 and breaks on count 2

• Salsa - the dancer holds on count 4 and breaks on count 1

HISTORY
In 1787, Waltz began to appear on the operatic stages of Vienna. As the popularity of Waltz increased in Vienna, so did its tempo. Sometime in the early 1800’s, Austrian composers such as Johann Strauss and Franz Lanner increased the number of measures per minute in their Waltzes. The faster music required dancers to have greater technique and endurance.

This new version of Waltz became known as Viennese Waltz. Like Waltz, many considered the dance to be immoral. In a book written about good manners by the English author Miss Celbart, she advised that while it was permissible to dance Viennese Waltz if a lady were married, it was “to loose of character for maidens to perform”. Despite such contentious, Viennese Waltz continued to be extremely popular in Europe and America until the First World War.

CHARACTERISTICS
Viennese Waltz is characterized by its speed (approximately twice as fast as Waltz), as well as a rise and fall and sway (both significantly less than in Waltz). With its elegance and turns, Viennese Waltz has an air of magic about it.