Several hundred colleges have added ballroom classes to their curricula. I tell my students that 'If you are a man who can do ballroom dancing, all the women will love you. If you are a woman who can do ballroom dancing, all the women will hate you. And it doesn't have to be at a ballroom dance. To the uninitiated, ballroom dancing is divided into smooth, or modern, and Latin, or rhythm, categories.
Smooth dances comprise the waltz, foxtrot, quickstep, Viennese waltz and tango.
Solomon attributes the surge in ballroom dancing to nostalgia and the reaction to the individualistic, me-first generation that grew up in the 60s and 70s. When I went dancing, I was dancing either with my reflection or by mself, and my friends were dancing by themselves. We were afraid of touching each other. In addition, Solomon says the changing norm, the fear of AIDS and urban violence make people want to have more civilized and classic customs. The focus these days is on partnership and monogamy and old-fashioned chivalry.