I was just woundering what you would suggust for me. I am a 16 year old girl and I was interested in starting ballroom dancing. What would you suggest for me to start with out of Swing, Salsa, Waltz, Cha Cha, Rumba, Fox Trot, Hustle, Mambo, Samba, Tango and Merengue?

Samantha: In my opinion, start with the dances most often used outside the practice studio, swing. East coast, West coast and hustle.

Strictly speaking neither of these are ballroom dances, are they?

Samantha; I pretty much agree with owendancer, start with the dances that you will use the most. East coast swing is danced at most ballroom dances, even the formal ones around here, plus there are clubs that have dances for this. It's a fairly easy dance to learn too. Hustle isn't as common in ballroom venues but you'll find it's popular in clubs, particularly with younger groups, and another that is easy to learn. If you like latin music, think about Mambo/Salsa, they are nearly the same dance. You'll find ballroom people doing Mambo and clubs favoring Salsa, but when it's "Salsa on 2" I don't even know what the difference is. West coast swing is another popular club dance, but you won't see it much in ballroom venues and it's a more difficult dance to start with. I really enjoy it but I think some of the others might be a better place to start. I live in Ohio, you might want to look around a bit, different dances are popular in different areas.
Good luck, whatever you pick, I'm sure you'll be glad you started dancing.

Gary

Definitely dances you can use in social settings are fun, but why not learn a variety of dances?

I kind of fell into ballroom by mistake. For a few years I had been taking salsa and samba because they were the only dances I wanted to learn socially.

When I moved, the only dance studio near me was a chain that required you learn 6 dances at once (waltz, tango, foxtrot, rumba, swing, chacha). At first I balked at the idea, but now am obsessed with ballroom.

Of course I still go to the salsa clubs, but now I also go regularly to "socials" and ballroom dancing clubs.

Experiment! See what you like! Have fun with it!