Books on Teaching Dance

A list of books on how to teach social & ballroom dance

The Library

This is, to my knowledge, a complete list of book on teaching social partner (ballroom) dancing.

Books that actually talk about how to teach ballroom dance are very rare, and even harder to find. Current search technology has trouble differentiating between "Teach Yourself to Dance" and "How to Teach dance". And when you find them, most of these books have only a small part of the book actually dedicated to teaching. Most of the content of dancing teaching books is given to step lists. This is unfortunate, as the concepts of teaching dance do not change rapidly, but the dances themselves do.

This is partly because books on teaching are from an era before YouTube and the like, and steps list were the only way to convey patterns. Now, video and classes are a much better way to learn patterns, so what I look for is book that talks about how to actually teach a class.This list contains 22 books that cover how to teach social partner / " ballroom dance — I own 21 of them. Still hunting for Henley.

There are a few more, if you count dance specific books, like "How to Teach Salsa". I'll probably add those later.

If you find any others, please let me know!

The Social Dance Instructor: A Complete Training Manual Adair, Nicholas
Teaching · Social · 20 pages on teaching
This book seems to only be available through kobo.com.
Group Instruction in Social Dancing Ballwebber, Edith (illustrated by P. Sidle)
Teaching · Social
Teachers Manual of Ballroom Dancing Cropper, Dorothy Norman
Teaching
Dance Instruction: Science Applied to the Art of Movement Gray, Judith A.
Teaching · General
Teaching Social Dancing Harris, Augusta; Keys, Donnabel
Teaching · Ballroom
Intruduction to the Teaching of Dance Hayes, Elisabeth R.
Teaching · General
Techniques of Teaching Ballroom Dance Heaton, Alma
Teaching · Ballroom
How to Teach Ballroom Dancing Hill, Thomas
Teaching · Ballroom · 178 pages on teaching
Rotary Waltz Syllabus Hill, Thomas
Teaching · Waltz
The Art of Social Dancing: a Text Book for Teachers and Students Hostetler, Lawrence A.
Teaching · Ballroom
Classic Teaching Methods for Dance Teachers Jack Henley
Teaching · Social · not yet in my collection
This is the only one of these books I do not own. If you have a copy to share, please let me know. The New York Public Library has a scan, but I haven't gotten around to requesting a copy.
Teach Like Pro Jarmolow, Diane
Teaching · Ballroom · 290 pages on teaching
One of the two best books on the subject. (The other is mine!). It has a bit of a focus on the dances done in competitions, but there is still a lot of value, even if those aren't the dances you teach. Recommeneded.
Social Dance Instruction Steps to Success Judith Patterson Wright
Teaching · Ballroom
Dance Teaching Methods and Curriculum Design Kassing, Gayle; Jay, Danielle M.
Teaching · General
How to Teach Dance - A Beginner's Guide Klement, Rolfe
Teaching · General
The Teaching of Popular Dance Mortin, Vigil L.
Teaching · Ballroom
Middle & High Grades 6-12 A Social Dance Unit for Schools Osborn, Teresa
Teaching · Social · 10 pages on teaching
This is a 38 page book, that is mostly step lists to teach. It's aimed at teachers of 11 - 17 year olds. It's the kind of book you would give to a PE teacher, and say "You are teaching ballroom dancing next week". It's very short, so there isn't room for a lot of information. It's exactly what it claims to be: a short outline you could use to organize a class of kids that don't already dance. You'll probably need to look up the steps on youtube, but that's reasonable.
Social Dance Forms of North America Powers, Richard
Reference
The Art of Teaching Social Dancing Trautz, Rudi
Teaching
This book has some useful information, but it suffers from poor content design. The book is presented as a class outline for six series of classes, each with eight class meeting. There is good information in here, but it's buried within classes that you likely don't teach in this format. You have to read through a lot of information that won't be useful to you to extract the parts that you can use.
Teaching Ballroom Dancing: The Class Method Various
Teaching · 1 page on teaching
This is a 38 page pamphlet, with 1-2 pages on teaching. Not recommended. At all.
Social Dance for Students and Teachers Waglow, I. F.
Teaching · Ballroom
Ballroom Dance Book for Teachers White, Betty
Teaching · 46 pages on teaching