There are no rules in social dancing stating that a male must ask a female to dance. Leaders and followers may invite each other to take to the floor.

You don’t have to accept every invitation to dance. If you choose to decline a dance, do so with a smile. Be polite and perhaps offer to dance at a later time.

Gentlemen/Leaders, please escort your lady/partner onto the dance floor and find a good spot to dance in. Hold her by the hand, or gently guide with your arm around her back if it is crowded, as you escort her. Do not drag her behind or walk off ahead without her. Once the dance is finished, escort her back off the dance floor to her seat.

If you are an experienced ballroom dance leader dancing with a beginner follower., don’t expect her to do advanced moves. Build the dance. Start with easy stuff.

And what they’re doing. Dancing is an involved activity you can’t just be zoning out while you’re dancing with someone and expect everything to go perfectly. This is important for both men and women. Making eye contact and paying attention to your partner serves two purposes: it shows that you’re present/involved/care about them and respect them. It makes it really clear what to do next and helps you avoid making unnecessary mistakes.

The frame is one of the most important part of ballroom dancing – it is the main way that the leader and follower communicate on the floor. Therefore both partners need to maintain strength in their back and arms. If the tension in the elbows is broken so is the line of communication – support your own weight and don’t lean on your partner.

Aways reassure your dance partner. Your partner may lack confidence in the dance skills. Give encouragement rather than criticism. 

Make sure you don’t have bad body odour or bad breath. This is a very important ballroom dance etiquette.

This does happen. Always sneeze or cough into the under side of your elbow. Do not sneeze into your hand and then ask your partner to take that hand for dancing.

If you’re a lady/follower, don’t backlead it makes it incredibly difficult for the leader to dance with you. It interferes with their attempts to lead you – wait for the leader to lead you and not try to guess or decide ahead of time what they’re going to do next.

Ballroom dancers move around the floor in a counter-clockwise direction.

Should move to the centre of the room. So if you are a beginner to ballroom dance, just learning new moves, don’t clog up the main line of dance. Stay towards the centre.

Consideration of others is very important on the dance floor. You and your dance partner aren’t the only ones on the dance floor. Try not to swing your elbows or steer your partner wildly across the floor. Don’t travel excessively or bump into other people. Yes, accidents and collisions do happen not he dance floor, especially when its crowded. If the place is crowded, try to do moves that are more compact.

It happens to everyone, even to those who have been dancing for years. Stepping other dancers feet and bumping into others is a normal part of social dancing. A polite apology goes a long way.

Assume a position at the edge of the dance floor where there is room to join – wait for the sequence to start again and join at that point taking care not to interfere with dancers already in the line of dance.

is a dance class, don’t expect to be shown how to perform a new dance at a ballroom dance social event – its not fair to the other dancers – if you don’t know the sequence – sit it out.

Should be off the dance floor. If you’d like to talk, do it off the dance floor.

Don’t cut through. Don’t walk across the middle of the ballroom dance floor holding drinks.

If you are carrying some drinks and you do spill something, clean it up before some dancer slips and get hurt.

At the end of each dance you should thank your dance partner. They will appreciate your gratitude and be more likely to accept your invitation to dance again.

Never forget to smile! Smiles are contagious and can make everyone on the dance floor feel better.