| There are several different theories on the source of | | | | side steps. When on a crowded dance floor like in a |
| this ballroom dance's name. The most often told | | | | night club short steps are used. For ballroom dancing |
| story is that the dance was made popular by a new | | | | long, smooth, easy gliding steps combine to give the |
| man named Harry Fox who was a vaudeville | | | | Fox Trot its unhurried visual aspect. |
| comedian with the Ziegfeld Follies. Another story | | | | The Fox Trot is danced with identical type of hold |
| says that the dance is so named as a consequence | | | | that's made use of in the common waltz, with a |
| of the similarity to an equestrian gait that was | | | | compounding of long slow steps and short lively ones. |
| dubbed the Foxtrot by the military. It is a gait where | | | | The timing of this ballroom dance is of great |
| unlike a typical trot where the front left and rear | | | | importance. The slower steps are carried out on the |
| right (or front right and rear left) legs are moved | | | | heels while the quick steps are done on the toes. |
| simultaneously causing a somewhat jerky motion, the | | | | The Fox Trot can be danced to most any music no |
| Foxtrot has the animal moving each leg one at a | | | | matter whether it is slow or fast. In the 1920's the |
| period making for a smooth trot that's easier on the | | | | Fox Trot was embraced by America's youth. They |
| animal and the rider. This trot actually led to the | | | | loved this ballroom dance, which set off as a bouncy |
| increase in a breed of horse called the Missouri Fox | | | | trot-like step that had been incorporated into the |
| Trotter. Still a third suggestion is that the dance (in its | | | | vaudeville act of Harry Fox. The Fox Trot has in a |
| earlier version) resembled the way a fox walks (with | | | | very short space of time become one of the most |
| one foot before the other leaving a lone track). | | | | loved ballroom dances up to date. It is in addition one |
| In the early fox trot the feet were placed in a lone | | | | of the hardest to learn. |
| line one before the other. It wasn't until the 1950's | | | | There is also what is called a U.S. citizen Smooth style |
| that this ballroom dance was revised to have two | | | | of Fox Trot that differs in as much as the hold can |
| different dance lines, one for each foot. Around 1922 | | | | be broken throughout the performance so you will |
| the jerking, trotting steps of the dance were | | | | see more open movements and underarm turns. |
| interchanged for a more relaxed movement called a | | | | Ballroom dancing has undergone many changes and |
| Saunter. By 1927 the jumpiness was gone and the | | | | one of the most significant developments was the |
| steps were smooth and gliding and the dance was | | | | employment of the quick and slow steps of the Fox |
| now remarked as a Slow Foxtrot. | | | | Trot allowing the dancers more variety than the |
| This ballroom dance is made from strolling steps and | | | | earlier one and two step dances. |