I'll tell you what we teach our kids in our church youth group -- it's just a basic box, (slow, quick, quick).

A box step is common to waltz (1,2,3, 4,5,6), foxtrot, rumba and samba, maybe others.

The nice thing is, we teach a simple box to 4/4 music, teach them how to turn it and how to go forward (go forward on second half instead of back).

It may not be classic ballroom, and I don't worry about a lot of technique, but it gets people dancing, and even a box step in closed position is impressive if the rest of the people at the dance don't know anything about dance.

The nice thing is that in an hour or so, we can have people doing something besides the 'bearhug', or 'penguin'.

The one exception I have on teach technique, is that I make sure to teach dance position and connection. Can't dance without it.

There's usually not much of a call for ballroom dancing per se at a senior prom. Much of today's music doesn't lend itself very well to any of the ballroom dances, and most of your friends will just be slow dancing (rocking back and forth), or just doing the non-partner hip-hop/techno thing. So if you want to blend in, I'd personally suggest pursuing that side of it.

Still, ballroom dancing is a lot of fun, and it doesn't hurt to learn some basics, just in case they happen come in handy at the prom or anytime after.

You'll probably want to know the box step and a basic underarm turn, which can be translated to many different dances (including Foxtrot, Waltz, and Rumba). This works well for a good deal of slow to meduim tempo music. Check out the ballroomdancers.com Rumba section, and look for the box and the 6-count underarm turn. And ignore the hip motion... just dance it casually (see Foxtrot for a more casual style of movement).

For dancing to faster music, you should pick up a couple of swing basics. Swing tends to blend in well with most fast dancing situations. And sometimes at a party, prom or nightclub you'll get one of those retro music sets with hits of the 30's and 40's, or more likely of the 50's and 60's. This is a perfect opportunity to show off your swing knowledge. East Coast Swing or Jitterbug is a good place to start. They're easy and fun. See if you can learn the basic, the underarm turn to right, and the underarm turn to left. These can all be found at ballroomdancers.com.

Good luck!

Sincerely,
Jonathan Atkinson
www.ballroomdancers.com

Just occurred to me that this might be of interest to you: if you want to get a sense for what it looks like, here's a video clip of me dancing it with my teacher at a recent event at my studio. (Yeah, I know my style needs help...)

dear Steven,

please can you tell me what kind of comp is showed at your clip ?

thanks