Ballroom Dancing - The Quick Step The Quick Step: The Charleston, the Black Bottom, the Shimmy and probably a couple other dances all melded into a faster version of the Fox Trot, which in 1923 became known as the Quick Step. The evolution of the Quick Step ended with a dance that utilizes a lot of movement, hops, runs, Quick Steps and rotation. It is common American protocol for women to match their partner when it comes to choosing the color of their ballroom dress. However, the color can be anything the couple chooses, but it should be kept in mind that the shoes will need to match the dress exactly. There are many options for finding a ballroom dress to match your needs. Ballroom dancing has grown by leaps and bounds in the past decade, and more and more people are catching on to the dance craze. This is important and certainly works in your favor because you can find several instructional DVD's and videos on ballroom dancing. You can watch them in the comfort of your own home and practice at any time. There was even a joke at one time that Ginger Rogers should have gotten top billing since she did everything Fred Astaire did and she did it backwards in high heels! In 1935 Shirley Temple tapped her way through The Little Colonel with Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and in 1939 after Judy Garland watched dozens of "munchkins" dance and sing to celebrate the wicked witches demise she joined with the scarecrow, tin man and lion and they danced their way to the land of Oz. 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! The word "ball", when referring to a social gathering as opposed to a child's toy, comes from the Latin "ballare" meaning to dance. This is the base for ballroom (a room for dancing), ballet (a dance), and ballerina (a dancer). In the late 18th and early 19th centuries ballroom dancing was very popular among the upper classes of England.