14 February 2019
Choosing the right holiday insurance package
Get out your glitter ball and sew on your sequins as the competition on BBC One's Strictly Come Dancing hots up.
Have you ever wanted to dance the sizzling samba like Jake and Janette or the tempestuous tango like Pixie and Trent? We look at the history of some of Strictly's most popular dances and find put where you can step into their dance shoes.
TANGO IN BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA
Originally a risqué show from the Buenos Aires underworld, tango mixed European music with African and Cuban moves. It differed from previous dances in calling for improvisation. The sultry dance seduced Paris in 1912 and its international fame spread.
Head to the city’s authentic neighbourhood ‘milongas’ (dance venues) and experience the real tango. Watch intertwined dancers in action, encircling each other and the dance floor, listen to live orchestras or catch exhibition dance performances. Celebrate a tango great at the Museo Casa Carlos Gardel and pay your respects at the Cementerio la Chacarita.
Find somewhere to stay in Buenos Aires
WALTZ IN VIENNA, AUSTRIA
Its roots in traditional German folk dance make it the world’s oldest ballroom dance. As it stepped onto 19th century ballrooms, the intimate moves made the dance as contentious as it was fashionable. Its popularity has endured and Austrians dance the New Year in with Strauss’s Blue Danube Waltz playing on radio.
Why not join them? Vienna has hundreds of balls over a three-month period where you can waltz the evening away like Kevin and Frankie. You could go to the Imperial Ball at the Hofburg on New Year’s Eve or the wildly opulent Opera Ball on 31 January. You could even go on a boat down the Blue Danube or go to a Strauss concert at one of the city’s many concert halls.
FOXTROT IN NEY YORK, USA
This smooth, progressive dance is credited to Vaudeville actor Harry Fox. He amused audiences with distinctive dancing to ragtime songs on the New York stage in 1914. Husband and wife ballroom dancing team Vernon and Irene Castle then popularised the dance, imbuing it with their trademark elegance and sophistication.
Pack your dancing shoes and head to New York, New York to find out more: you can even dance the foxtrot to the city’s anthem like Frank Sinatra. There are dance studios across the city that you can enrol in and practise your slow, slow, quick, quick moves. Dive into a Broadway theatre to imagine the dance’s early days and catch one of today’s excellent shows. With all of this to inspire you, you’ll soon be dancing with joy like Caroline and Pasha.
