There are four categories (or styles) of competition ballroom dance defined by the two major ballroom dance organizations – World Dance Council and National Dance Council of America (*).  Each category (International Standard, International Latin, American Smooth and American Rhythm) has a corresponding page on the music4dance website that can be found by clicking on the name of the category on the  Ballroom Dancer section of the home page or at the bottom of the dance style page.

Note: Music4Dance has been through a major upgrade since this documentation was written.  The general concepts on this page are still generally accurate.  But colors, icons and some specifics will differ from the live site.  Please contact us with specific questions or requests for updates.

Each dance category page includes a table of the dances for the standard four or five dance round in the order that they are danced [A].  Each dance name [B] is an active link to more details about the dance.  Each of the MPM (Measure Per Minute) [C], DanceSport [D] and NDCA (National Dance Council of America) [E & F] columns shows a tempo or tempo range for the dance that is also an active link to a list of songs of that tempo or range that have been tagged with that dance style.  The tempi shown for the DanceSport and NDCA columns are the tempi that those organizations have specified.  The MPM [B] and BPM [G] columns represent aggregates of the other columns in Measures Per Minute and Beats Per Minute respectively.

Some of the categories include dances that aren’t part of the standard round.  These dances are listed in a separate table with the same columns as the table shown above.

(*) Do you compete in dance styles not listed here or represented by organizations other that the WDC and NDCA?  Please let us know and we’ll look into expanding our site to include those dances and organizations.