Modern ballroom dancing evolved from social folk dancing of the Middle Ages. People danced as a group in lines and circles around the central hearth in the room, rather than as couples. During the Renaissance and early modern period, formal social dances evolved separately from folk dances. Elegant, stylized dances such as the minuet, which emerged at the end of the 17th century, became common in royal courts throughout Europe. Dances like the quadrille, the cotillion and the polka allowed young people to interact with potential spouses under careful supervision. As dance floors became smoother in the late 19th century, the waltz -- a dance for couples -- rose to popularity in Europe and the United States. Along with an influx of Latin American dances, the 20th century saw new, high-energy dances influenced by jazz, swing and rock music, emerge in the United States.
Louis XIV opened the first establishment for ballet instruction, which eventually became the Paris Opera Ballet. In the 1890s, Marius Petipa choreographed some of the most iconic classical ballets for the Russian Imperial Ballet, including "Sleeping Beauty" and "Swan Lake." Ballet instruction was mostly concentrated in Russia, Italy and France, until the 1920s and 1930s, when Italian dancers founded England's Royal Academy of Dance, and Russian choreographer George Balanchine immigrated to the United States. Balanchine established the School of American Ballet and the New York City Ballet.
Jazz dance evolved from the African cultural dances that slaves brought to the United States in the 1700s and 1800s. In the late 19th century, minstrel shows -- which included skits, songs and dances performed by white people in black face -- brought African dance styles to the stage. As jazz and swing music became popular in the 1920s and 1930s, dances like the Charleston began to merge with the African-inspired movements of minstrel shows. From the 1930s to the 1950s, choreographer Jack Cole combined steps of ballet, modern dance and African dance in his choreography for Broadway and film. Cole's innovative movement solidified jazz dance as a formal dance technique and style.
Like jazz dance, tap dancing is the product of the American melting pot. Irish immigrants brought lively step dancing with intricate and percussive footwork to the United States in the late 18th and 19th centuries. The Irish solo dance combined with the English clog dance and African rhythms to emerge as a kind of folk dance. By the mid-19th century, an early form of tap dancing was featured in minstrel shows across the nation. Tap dancing was identified as a distinct dance form by the early 20th century as tap shoes became more advanced and dancers traded and passed down steps. As the 20th century progressed, tap became a staple dance style of theatrical spectacles and films thanks in part to dancers like Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and Fred Astaire.
Modern dance has technical foundations in ballet but evolved as a reaction to the confines of traditional story ballets that dominated Western dance culture until the early 20th century. American dancers Isadora Duncan and Ruth St. Denis first challenged normative dance styles in the 1910s, 1920s and 1930s by dancing barefoot and drawing on exotic, ethnic and abstract sources for choreographic inspiration. Rather than tell narrative stories, Duncan and St. Denis strove to communicate emotions and ideas using free movements. St. Denis formed Denishawn, the first modern dance company in 1915 with Ted Shawn. Dancer Martha Graham took modern dance to new heights in the 1940s and 1950s, creating a dance technique inspired by natural human breathing patterns. Graham's style and choreography inspired a new generation of modern dance choreographers including Merce Cunningham and Paul Taylor.