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50 free Ballroom Dance trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Ballroom dancing is a sport that dresses like a party. Ten dances, each with its own tempo, character and rulebook, are judged on timing, footwork and floor craft by panels that place a final with a system first written down in the 1930s. Behind the sequins are a century of codified technique, two rival world bodies, and a seaside festival that has crowned champions since 1920. These 50 questions cover the Standard and Latin dances and where they came from, the terms dancers use on the floor, the American and International styles, the organisations and championships, the pioneers who shaped the craft, ballroom on film, and the judges, hosts and winners of Strictly Come Dancing and Dancing with the Stars. Most are pitched for a pub table or a Saturday-night sofa; a handful are for people who know their Blackpool from their British Open. Play on your phone with instant answers and explanations, or print it for a quiz night, a dance-school social or a Strictly final party.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which star's RKO screen-test report supposedly read 'Can't sing. Can't act. Balding. Can dance a little'?
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire went on to found the Fred Astaire Dance Studios in 1947, selling the chain in 1966. Producer Pandro S. Berman claimed he never heard the screen-test story in the 1930s.
Q 02Which dance, the first in which a man held a woman close, was banned by California's mission priests until 1834?
The waltz
The waltz was banned in California because of its 'closed' position, and its arrival in English society in 1813 drew a sardonic anonymous tribute from Lord Byron.
Q 03Which Latin dance, built on a Spanish military march, casts the leader as a matador and is rarely danced socially?
Paso doble
Paso doble is mostly performed only in competitions because of its many choreographic rules, with the follower playing the matador's cape, the bull, or even the matador.
Q 04Which competition 'Latin' dance is really a swing dance, carried to Europe by American soldiers around 1940?
Jive
Jive is grouped with the Latin dances in competition even though its roots lie in swing, and its name comes from African-American slang popularised by bandleader Cab Calloway's dictionary.
Q 05Standard couples travel around the floor following the 'line of dance', which runs in which direction?
Counter-clockwise
Counter-clockwise travel around a rectangular floor is the rule for the Standard dances, while most Latin routines are performed more or less in one spot.
Q 06Since 1920 the Blackpool Dance Festival, the oldest of its kind, has been held in which Winter Gardens venue?
Empress Ballroom
The Empress Ballroom floor was relaid in 1934 with 10,000 pieces of oak, mahogany, walnut and greenwood over 1,320 four-inch springs. At 20,790 square feet it was once among the world's largest.
Q 07After its long-time head judge died in 2023, Dancing with the Stars renamed which prize in his honour?
Mirrorball Trophy
The Mirrorball Trophy was renamed from season 32, when many of the original professionals returned to perform a group dance to 'Moon River' in tribute.
Q 08Vernon Castle, half of the dance duo Vernon and Irene Castle, died in 1918 in what way?
A plane crash in Texas
Vernon Castle had flown with distinction for Britain's Royal Flying Corps, only to die in a plane crash in Texas at a training base near Fort Worth. 'Castle' was a stage name: he was born William Vernon Blyth.
Q 09Which silent film star popularised a stylised Argentine tango in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921)?
Rudolph Valentino
Rudolph Valentino's Hollywood steps mixed with the social dances of the day and began the American style's split from the Argentine original.
Q 10Which Australian director turned his 1984 student play about dancer Scott Hastings into the 1992 film Strictly Ballroom?
Baz Luhrmann
Baz Luhrmann made Strictly Ballroom the first of his Red Curtain Trilogy, followed by Romeo + Juliet (1996) and Moulin Rouge! (2001).
Q 11Which ballroom dance, the oldest still competed, emerged in Austria in the late 18th century from the Ländler?
Viennese waltz
The Viennese waltz is danced at about 58 bars a minute, twice the speed of its slower English cousin, and gained ground through the Congress of Vienna and the music of Lanner and the Strausses.
Q 12Which dance did Vernon and Irene Castle refine and popularise in Watch Your Step, Irving Berlin's first Broadway score?
Foxtrot
Foxtrot, by Vernon Castle's own account, had been danced by African Americans at an exclusive club for fifteen years before he and Irene made it a craze in 1914.
Q 13Which Latin dance did Cuban violinist Enrique Jorrín develop in the early 1950s as a slower alternative to mambo?
Cha-cha-cha
Q 21What name is given to the hip rotation in Latin ballroom dance, produced by bending and straightening soft knees?
Cuban motion
Cuban motion straightens the knee after the full weight transfer, giving fluid legs, whereas International 'Latin motion' straightens it before, for a sharper leg action.
Q 22Which Standard ballroom dance term describes the body ascending and descending through the feet, ankles and legs?
Rise and fall
Rise and fall is one of the things judges mark in a final, along with timing, footwork, alignment, direction and floor craft.
Q 23Men's Standard ballroom dance competition dress, with tail coat and bow tie, follows which formal dress code?
White tie
Cha-cha-cha was originally called the Triple Mambo, and its name arose when dancers at Havana's Silver Star Club improvised a triple step to Jorrín's less syncopated tunes.
Q 14Which International Latin dance, the slowest of the five at about 24 bars a minute, is adapted from Cuban son?
Rumba
Rumba, despite its name, rarely included elements of actual Cuban rumba, and the first competition in it was held at the Savoy Ballroom in 1930.
Q 15Which Brazilian dance, introduced to America by Carmen Miranda in the 1940s, is competed with a knee-driven 'bounce'?
Samba
Samba's competition bounce is not an up-and-down hop but a knee action with little elevation, created by bending and straightening the knees.
Q 16Which slow dance at 24 bars a minute is one of the five American Rhythm dances but absent from International Latin?
Bolero
Bolero sits alongside East Coast swing and mambo in the American Rhythm syllabus, a style found in the United States and Canada rather than in international competition.
Q 17Which competitive style dances the Standard repertoire with open and separated movements as well as closed hold?
American Smooth
American Smooth allows closed, open and separated movements where International Ballroom permits only closed positions, and its men have even abandoned the tailsuit.
Q 18Ballroom tango differs from Argentine tango through its more open frame and what kind of strong movement?
Staccato
Staccato attack marks ballroom tango, which branched from its Argentine and Uruguayan roots by admitting European, American, Hollywood and competitive influences.
Q 19In ballroom terminology, a turn described as 'natural' rotates which way, as opposed to a 'reverse' turn?
To the leader's right
To the leader's right is the natural direction and to the left the reverse; the fastest Standard dance alternates the two using non-rotating change steps.
Q 20What is the ballroom dance term for a three-step figure in which the feet are closed on the second step?
Chassé
Chassé figures sit among the quickstep's walks, runs and turns, a repertoire developed to brisk ragtime-era jazz in the 1920s.
White tie is the model, with full gowns for the women; the Standard dances are normally danced to Western music, often from the mid-twentieth century.
Q 24The term 'dancesport' was invented to help competitive ballroom dancing gain what?
Olympic recognition
Olympic recognition came on 5 September 1997, yet the ballroom dances have still never been contested at the Games themselves.
Q 25Which body, founded in 1957 as the International Council of Amateur Dancers, adopted its present name in 2011?
World DanceSport Federation
World DanceSport Federation became its name only in 2011, after 21 years as the International DanceSport Federation, and it also governs Para dancesport.
Q 26Which professional governing body, founded in Edinburgh in 1950, made Donnie Burns its president in 2005?
World Dance Council
World Dance Council is the name it has used since 2006, having begun life as the International Council of Ballroom Dancing, and it regulates professional competition.
Q 27Which London body, formed at the Hotel Cecil in 1904, codified the ballroom technique now known as International Style?
Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing
Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing members published the first book embodying the new standards in 1927, Modern Ballroom Dancing, which stayed in print until a 2005 edition.
Q 28What is the 11-rule method, introduced in Britain in 1937, by which judges' majority marks place a ballroom dance final?
The skating system
The skating system was formulated by Arthur Dawson, allows no ties, and ranks the couples in each dance before compiling an overall order.
Q 29Which bandleader won the first World Ballroom Championship in 1922 and became known for 'slow, slow, quick-quick-slow'?
Victor Silvester
Victor Silvester's strict-tempo records sold 75 million copies, and he fronted BBC Dancing Club on television through the 1950s.
Q 30Which studio-chain founder, born Moses Teichman, staged the world's first 'radio dance' at Georgia Tech in 1920?
Arthur Murray
Arthur Murray dropped his German-sounding surname amid First World War anti-German feeling, and his wife Kathryn hosted The Arthur Murray Party on TV from 1950 to 1960.