What makes a dance Progressive?

DK Instructor Cassie Tucker asks, What makes a dance Progressive?

Here is an interesting fact you might not know. The term progressive can mean different things when used in conjunction with dance. For one, it simply means a dance where you keep changing partners; where one partner “progresses” to the next. Dances such as the Military Two Step, Crunch, Progressive Jive and Progressive Cha Cha are all partner progressive dances.

In another context, progressive can mean a dance that travels. For instance, Slow Foxtrot and Quickstep are both progressive dances, as they feature long steps and graceful movement, designed to keep the dance progressing around the room. In Latin, Samba is a progressive dance because it travels.

At DK, we almost always use progressive to refer to partner changing dances. However, if you ever come across the term progressive Waltz and find yourself utterly confused as to how that would work, you now know it means the “travelling” progressive!

Cassie