Ballroom is on a lot of screens this autumn: the current season of a US celebrity ballroom TV show drew 151,353 English Wikipedia page views on 21 October, against about 14,000 a day in early September (Wikimedia's daily counts).
Slow Slow QuickTap your song. Dance something that fits it.
Tap the beat of the song you want to dance to. The page shows which dances fit its tempo and how many phrases the music holds, then sketches a route on the floor. One run writes a beginner routine phrase by phrase, with cues and a short practice plan.
1 The music
Play your song and tap along with the beat - four taps or more.
2 Pick the dance
Each bar is a dance's usual tempo range; the lighter edge is 10% either side. The red needle is your tempo, the faint ones are half and double. Press a row to pick it.
3 Who, where and when
4 The floor
One phrase of counts. S is a slow step (two counts, the dash holds it), Q a quick step (one count).
- In place
- Forward or back
- Sideways
- Turn or twirl
- Pose
5 Write the routine
One run fills your music phrase by phrase with beginner figures, a cue for each block (and the partner's mirror for a couple), a short practice plan for the days you have, and a few things to watch out for. Nothing risky: no lifts, drops, jumps or kicks.
The verdict follows a fixed order: switch the dance if your tempo or beat does not fit it; otherwise keep it, simpler if it only fits at half or double time, or it is a hard dance for someone who has never danced; otherwise dance it as is.
6 Saved routines
How the free side works
The tap pad takes the middle gap of your last eight taps. The tempo ranges are approximate international-style competition tempos (beats per minute); social dancing is far looser, so treat them as estimates. The slow sway's 60 to 130 is the page's own rule of thumb. A dance fits when your tempo is inside its range or within 10% of it, fits at half or double time when half or twice your tempo lands there, and does not fit otherwise - or when the beat is wrong: a waltz needs three beats to a bar, the rest need four.
The music is cut into phrases of two bars (6 counts in three-beat music, 8 in four-beat music). The sketch on the floor is the page's placeholder from a few beginner figures; the footprints show the shape of each kind of block, not an exact figure. A written routine is checked against all of it: the verdict, the dance, the phrase count, the figure limit for your level, the partner cues, travel on a small floor, the practice sessions, and anything risky.
Slow Slow Quick is a practice aid. It is not a dance teacher; if you can, take one lesson before a big day, and stop if anything hurts.