How ballroom dancing gripped Britain

Published: Dec. 16, 2022, midnight

From the Turkey trot to the scandalously intimate moves of the Parisian tango, the 20th century saw Britain gripped by dance craze after dance craze. Performed in public halls up and down the country, ballroom took the nation by storm as people from all walks of life sashayed to the dancefloor with their partners. Hilary French tells Emily Briffett about ballroom\u2019s dramatic surge in popularity, its decline in the 1960s and its recent resurgence with Strictly Come Dancing.\n \n(Ad) Hilary French is the author of Ballroom: A People\u2019s History of Dancing (Reaktion Books, 2022). Buy it now from Amazon:\nhttps://www.amazon.co.uk/Ballroom-Peoples-History-Hilary-French/dp/1789145155/?tag=bbchistory045-21&ascsubtag=historyextra-social-histboty\nSubscribe to BBC History Magazine or BBC History Revealed this season and receive a book of your choice worth up to \xa330* at https://www.buysubscriptions.com/subscribe2022\nListeners from outside the UK can also subscribe\n*Book promotion only available for UK residents\n\n Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices