can anyone explain?
thank you
There are lots of minor technical details, but two of the most notable ones: International ballroom consists of ten major competed dances, five Standard and five Latin. The Standard dances are foxtrot, waltz, Viennese waltz, quickstep, and tango. The Latin dances are cha cha, paso doble, rumba, samba, and jive. American ballroom has nine major competed dances (plus several others not in the "nine dance championship" group). The smooth dances are foxtrot, waltz, viennese waltz, and tango. The five rhythm dances are swing (eastern), cha cha, rumba, bolero, and mambo.
One of the things you'll notice first about the differences in Standard and smooth is that standard is danced competely in closed positions, where smooth is full of open positions, shadow positions, underarm turns, and other "showy" elements. And of course there's no quickstep.
In comparing Latin and rhythm, you may actually see American forms of samba and paso doble at competitions in American style, though they aren't part of the major nine-dance grouping. Rumba in the American style is a box rumba, though, where the International rumba basic figure is more akin to a slow American mambo pattern. They're quite different dances, despite sharing the same name. Jive is also faster and bouncier than swing.
There are lots of less apparent differences, as well, generally small differences in standard figures and techniques. I won't bore you with the details of the lady's heel turn in Standard foxtrot turns compared to the simpler side step in the American form, but if you begin to learn both, the differences quickly become apparent.
I've had my share of faux pas trying to dance one style when the lady only knew the other style, at parties with people I don't know, but it doesn't take long to recognize the glitch and make the correction.
