Latin ballroomPost
Latin Ballroom Dance Counts: Jive, Samba, Rumba and Paso Doble
Jive is 1 2, 3 a 4, 3 a 4. Samba is 1 a 2. Rumba is 2 3 4-1. Paso doble is a step on every beat. Counts, time signatures and tempos side by side.
4 min readWritten at Count Studio
Jive, samba, rumba and paso doble share a floor and a syllabus. They don't share a count. Two of them sit in 2/4, two in 4/4, and the competition tempos are quoted in bars a minute rather than the beats a minute you tap with your foot. Here are the four counts, side by side.
Latin ballroom dance counts: the short answer
Jive is counted 1 2, 3 a 4, 3 a 4: a rock step, then two chassés. Samba is counted 1 a 2, in 2/4, with the "a" as the last quarter of the beat. Rumba is counted 2 3 4-1: quick, quick, slow, with the slow step covering 4 and 1. Paso doble is a march with one step on every beat, counted 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. Jive, samba and rumba counts here match the Count Studio library; the tempos come from the federation tables.
Side by side
The World DanceSport Federation (WDSF) and the World Dance Council (WDC) each publish a tempo, and they differ a little. The DanceSport tempo table lists these competition tempos in measures (bars) per minute:
| Dance | Count | Time | WDSF bars a minute | WDC bars a minute | Beats a minute (WDSF) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jive | 1 2, 3 a 4, 3 a 4 | 4/4 | 42 to 44 | 42 | 168 to 176 |
| Samba | 1 a 2 | 2/4 | 50 to 52 | 48 | 100 to 104 |
| Rumba | 2 3 4-1 | 4/4 | 25 to 27 | 24 | 100 to 108 |
| Paso doble | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 | 2/4 | 60 to 62 | 56 | 120 to 124 |
The last column is plain arithmetic: bars a minute times the beats in a bar. That is why a rumba at 25 to 27 bars a minute and a samba at 50 to 52 land at a similar beat speed: the rumba bar holds four beats, the samba bar two. When someone gives you a tempo, ask whether it is bars or beats. For more styles in one place, see the dance tempo chart.
When each count is used
Jive
The ballroom jive is a rock step followed by two chassés, so it reads 1 2, 3 a 4, 3 a 4. Socially it is often counted 1 2 3a4 5a6, the same six steps with the chassés run together. Either way the music is 4/4 and the tempo is the quickest of the four. You can see the jive count and hear where the "a" falls.
Samba
Ballroom samba is in 2/4 at 50 to 52 bars a minute. Its signature count, 1 a 2, splits the first beat unevenly: the values are 3/4, 1/4 and 1 of a beat. That short "a" makes the bounce. Other samba counts on the same page use halves, such as 1 & 2, which is 1/2, 1/2 and 1.
Rumba
International rumba is quick-quick-slow, danced on beats 2, 3 and 4 of four-beat music. That is why dancers count it 2 3 4-1, with the slow step taking 4 and 1. The American style is the mirror image: slow-quick-quick on beats 1, 3 and 4. If a partner counts rumba from 1 and you count it from 2, you're probably using different styles.
Paso doble
Pasodoble is march music in duple metre, and the display dance takes one step per beat, around 120 to 130 steps a minute. With a step on every beat there is no quick or slow to say, so you simply count to 8. The music has sections with a brief pause between them, and routines are built on highlights that line up with those phrases, so keeping the 8s is how you know which section you are in. The Latin ballroom dances are easy to mix up on paper; the cha-cha sits next to them, and how to count cha-cha covers that one.
How to switch between them
Start with two questions. How many beats are in a bar, two or four? And on which beat does the first step land? Samba and paso doble are in 2/4. Jive and rumba are in 4/4. Then check the first step: jive starts on 1, international rumba on 2, and samba on the 1 with its split beat.
A quick check before a class helps. Count one bar out loud with the music, say how many beats it held, and only then say the dance's count over it. If the bar held two beats, you are in samba or paso doble territory. If it held four, you are in jive or rumba, and the dance's own count tells you where the steps sit inside those four.
When you change dances, change the unit you think in. For paso doble, think in steps. For rumba, think in quick and slow. For samba and jive, think in the small "a" between beats.
Practise it with Count Studio
Pick one dance and tap the count for a minute at the slow end of its range before you add steps. Then move up. Count Studio has the jive, samba, rumba and paso doble counts in its library, a tempo range from 20 to 320 BPM, and tap tempo to match a track you are teaching to. It is coming November 27 to iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch.
Bottom line
The four dances are counted four ways: a rock step and chassés for jive, a split beat for samba, quick-quick-slow from 2 for rumba, and a step on every beat for paso doble. Ask whether a tempo is in bars or in beats before you trust it, and check which style a partner is counting.
Questions
How is the jive counted?
The ballroom count is 1 2, 3 a 4, 3 a 4: a rock step, then two chassés. Socially it is often counted 1 2 3a4 5a6. Count Studio's library holds the jive pattern.
Why does the rumba count start on 2?
International rumba is quick-quick-slow, danced on beats 2, 3 and 4 of four-beat music. Count it 2 3 4-1, where the slow step takes 4 and 1.
Is the paso doble counted in 8s?
Yes. It is a march in 2/4 with one step per beat, and choreography phrases run in 8s, so you count 1 to 8.
Do the WDSF and WDC use the same tempos?
Not quite. For samba the WDSF table gives 50 to 52 bars a minute and the WDC gives 48. Check the rules of the competition you are entering.