International ballroom - why jive?

[blue]

For a non-ballroomer, the 10 standard international ballroom dances is kind of a funny mix. If my sources are correct, included dances are

Waltz
Viennese walts
Tango
Foxtrot
Quickstep

Cha-cha
Rumba
Samba
Paso doble
Jive

How and when were these 10 dances picked? To me, jive seems like the real odd bird here, and why it was put in the group of latin dances I have no clue. I mean, jive comes from jitterbug - right?

 

[Chris Stratton]

I'd think paso doble is the odd one of the "latin" lot. Jive may have a different heritage that the other latin dances and some differences in technique, but it fits in with the overall dynamic of the style fairly well - suitable for the same costumes, same interaction between partners, mostly a spot dance, etc. You could argue that it descends from foxtrot, and has (had) some overlap of mood and music and even figures with quickstep, but today I'd say that quickstep and jive are more the contrasting ways of handling that kind of music and energy in the context of the two families.

 

[Anonymous]

I'd swap tango and jive. Seems to jive well that way.

*facepalm*

 

[Warren J. Dew]

The boring answer is that the five "standard" dances are the ones that travel, and the five "latin" dances are the ones that don't travel as much. Historically, I believe the "standard" dancers are the ones which were regularized before World War II.

Jive is definitely too postmodern to be in the standard group. There was at one point a move to add tango to the latin group, but that would have put it in both groups.

 

[DancePoet]

I'm ok with the way it is.