Proper poster also improves balance, gives you more control and makes for a smoother dance. The old adage is "Persistent practice of postural principles promises perfection" gives you a clue to the importance of good posture in any ballroom dance. Timing: Just as bad posture can blow you right out of the water, if your timing and the music's timing don't match - you lose. While walking on a treadmill or doing crunches are well-known exercises, they only work certain parts of your body - which leave you to workout longer in order to cover the rest. Ballroom dancing literally works every part of your body and every major muscle group. You are more likely to see results faster due to the challenge your body endures with dancing. However, ballroom dancing is certainly nothing new and has quite an extensive background. Let's start by discussing the meaning behind the world "ballroom". In simple theory, it means a place where balls may be held. The English language adopted this term from the Latin word "ballare", meaning "to dance". For ballroom dancing long, smooth, easy gliding steps combine to give the Fox Trot its unhurried appearance. The Fox Trot is danced with the same type of hold that is used in the standard waltz, with a combination of long slow steps and short lively ones. The timing of this ballroom dance is of great importance. Unlike the Waltz, the sway and the rise and fall motions are to be avoided at all costs. The desired movements are very sharp and well defined. The music for this ballroom dance is usually provided by an orchestra that has a piano, guitar, violin, flute and a bandoneon (an offshoot of a koncertina, which looks a little like a small accordion). You can find references to the Waltz that go back more than 400 years, however the popularity of the dance had started to wane until 1913 and the advent of the Hesitation Waltz which, as the name implies, slowed the dance down considerably incorporating hesitations and poses throughout the dance. Before the Hesitation, dancing the Waltz was pretty much an endurance test with the couples dancing in one direction then reversing direction when they became dizzy.