Balboa Videos!

Jason and Dominique at Camp Hollywood 2007!

Jason and Dominique competing in the Pro Balboa Division of the 2007 National Jitterbug Championships held at Camp Hollywood in California.

Jason and Dominique at the ABW 2007!

Our star instructors for Balboa Explosion competing at the All-Bal Weekend in Cleveland in 2007!

A Little History

There are still many discussions about how Balboa started. Did it come from the Charleston, or the Foxtrot? Like most popular dances, it probably evolved and took influences from many sources. One thing that is certain, is that Balboa made it possible to dance on extremely crowded dance floors. The dance originated and grew in popularity in California, in the region in and around Balboa Island. Great Balboa dancers were known for their smooth, subtle footwork and great partner connection.

The Sweetheart Dance

In those days, it was common for ballrooms to outlaw "breakaways," which were essentially any move where the man and woman separated. Balboa began as a dance with small, subtle footwork, in which the partners always stayed glued together. In fact, some referred to it as the "sweetheart dance" because of the close connection, and if a girl had a boyfriend, it was polite for other guys who wanted to dance with her to ask the boyfriend for permission before even asking the girlfriend to dance.

Nick and Denise

Modern Balboa dancers Nick and Denise competing at the All-Bal Weekend in 2005.

Two Kinds of Bal

This style was perfect on dance floors with thousands of people crowded together. However, a new generation appeared that wanted to do more. They'd seen the crazy videos of Lindy Hoppers, and they wanted to "swing"! The new direction of the dance rebelled against the rule about not separating, and began to incorporate a lot of twists, turns and toss-outs, with characteristic rotating feel. The new dance was just called "swing" by the dancers, but nowadays it's referred to as "Bal-Swing."

Venice Beach, California

This famous home-movie style clip from 1940 shows how the kids were dancing in California before the Lindy Hop became popular there. This is the dance called "Swing" at the time, that we now call Bal-Swing.

Sam Militello and Barbara Rice

One of the great things about Balboa and Bal-Swing, is that they allow very smooth dancing even at fast speeds. Watch two old-timers showing that you really don't have to be young to swing!

Willie and Ann, Hal and Marge

Another clip of great old-timers showing off. The first couple includes Willie Desatoff, who was known for his amazingly flashy footwork. The second couple is Hal and Marge Takier.

Crazy Bal-Swing with Hal and Betty Takier

This is a great example of Bal-Swing taken to the extreme, with Hal and Betty Takier mixing in aerials and some other styles of swing. You get to see how crazy Hal was back in the day!

Nick and Sylvia

At the beginning we see Nick and Sylvia, two of the world's top Balboa dancers, shortly followed by a large group of other great Bal dancers.

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