Rochester Ballroom Dancing
About our dances
We hold multiple dance events throughout the years for our members and their guests. Our dinner dances have an hour for socializing with your dance friends, a sit down buffet style dinner, followed by two and a half hours of dancing with a live band providing the music. The bands play a range of music for: ballroom dances, like Fox Trot, Waltz and Tango; Latin dances, like Rumba, Cha Cha and Salsa; and club dances, like East Coast Swing, West Coast Swing and Country Two-Step. Club members are always looking to expand their dance repertoire.
Members register for the dances ahead of time, and are allowed to bring guests to most dances. Guests pay a small extra fee to attend. Members can choose to attend only the dance portion of the event.
For each dance, one or more members volunteer to be the host. The host(s) have a simple set of tasks to do that helps each dance run smoothly. If you are a member, please contact the Dance Host Coordinator to volunteer to host a dance.
Note: Pre-registration is required for all dances. There is no drop-in attendance. Members will receive registration information in a newsletter prior to each dance. There are no refunds after the Reservation due date.
Non-members: We encourage ballroom dancers in the community who are not club members to experience our monthly dances. Non-members can attend as guests of a member and will pay the non-member cost for the dance. If you do not know any club members, you can request an invitation to attend a dance. We allow you to attend up to two dances by invitation. After that, we request that you become a member or be invited as the guest of a member. Contact us to ask for an invitation to one of our dances.
Dance dress code
We have a business casual dress code for our dances. No denim jeans of any color, or t-shirts. For men, slacks and a collared shirt. For women, a dress, or blouse with slacks or skirt.
We encourage making the monthly dance a "dress up" event. Many members continue to do this even after we adopted the current more relaxed dress code. Some dances, such as the Club Anniversary dance and the Holiday dance, are specified as formal dances where men are asked to wear jacket and tie (tuxedo, if you have one) and women will dress in more formal evening attire. Everyone has fun at the October dance when many attendees take the Halloween theme to heart.
Dance floor etiquette
When we are dancing, we follow some basic dance floor etiquette rules. If you are a beginner who is new to ballroom dancing, don't let this scare you away. Dance floor etiquette rules are not complicated.
Follow line of dance etiquette
Some dances, like Fox Trot, Waltz, Tango, and Country Two-Step, move around the dance floor in what is called line of dance. The motion is always counter-clockwise. Couples will move at different speeds. The faster dancers will be toward the outside of the dance floor, and slower dancers stay toward the center.
Other dances, like the Swing dances, Rumba, and Cha Cha, are known as spot dances, and for the most part stay in one place on the dance floor. If everyone is doing these dances, couples will spread out around the entire floor taking a small bit of dance floor turf as their own. If there are dancers doing line of dance dances at the same time, find your spot in the center of the floor so that the line of dance lanes are left open.
Sometimes things go wrong and bumps on the dance floor result, or feet get stepped on. If you do this, smile and apologize to the other dancers. If this happens to you, smile and apologize to the other dancers. Don't completely ignore the incident by just continuing to dance.
The leader has the primary responsibility for looking out for where the couple is going on the dance floor and protecting the partner. If you are the follower and see a problem looming that the leader may be missing, let the leader know.
Make sure that you are always dancing in control and at a safe speed for your skill level and the level of congestion on the dance floor.
The dance floor is for dancing. Conversation with your friends should be done off the dance floor. Similarly, watch and admire the technique of the really good dancers from the sidelines.
Get to the other side of the dance floor by going around the floor rather than cutting through the middle. This is particularly important if you are carrying beverages. If you do spill something on the dance floor, get it cleaned up immediately. Liquids on the dance floor are very dangerous to the dancers.
There is no place for "dance rage" on the dance floor. If someone is not quite maintaining dance floor etiquette, let it go or make a gentle request for them to change what they are doing. This would be especially important if the others are beginning dancers. At some point, we all were where they are.
Finally, an absolute rule is to have fun and look like you are enjoying yourself. Do this even when you and your partner can't agree on anything about the dance step you just learned in class. It seemed so easy in class, but now nothing seems to be right with it. We've all been there, and even very experienced couples still have those times.