What is quickstep?
Quickstep is the lightest and fastest-moving Standard dance: chassés, lock steps, runs, hops and skips skimming across the floor while keeping a closed hold. It looks effortless when danced well, but it is one of the most athletic ballroom dances.
History
Bands in the 1920s played foxtrots so fast that English dancers developed a new dance, merging fast foxtrot with the Charleston. The Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing standardized it, and it joined the International Standard program.
Basic technique
- Quarter turns and progressive chassé
- Lock steps, running finishes and tipple chassés
- Hops, skips and pepperpot figures at advanced levels
Music & tempo
50–52 bars per minute, about 200–208 BPM — swing, electro swing and up-tempo jazz.
Songs for quickstep
| Song | Artist | BPM | Key | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| More | Chinese Man | 96 | A# minor | 2007 |
| Cheek to Cheek | DJ Disse & Betina Bager feat. Fred Astaire | 96 | C major | 2010 |
| Body and Soul (take 2) | The Benny Goodman Trio | 96 | C# major | 1997 |
| Bach Goes to Town: A Fugue in Swing Tempo | Benny Goodman | 96 | A# major | 2002 |
| I Wan’na Be Like You | Phil Harris, Louis Prima, Disney Studio Orchestra, George Bruns | 96 | C minor | 1992 |
| I Just Got a Letter | Glenn Miller | 96 | D# major | 1991 |
| Sold American | Glenn Miller | 97 | D# major | 2005 |
| Harmonize | The Ranch Girls & The Ragtime Wranglers | 97 | C major | 2001 |
| Brain Cloudy Blues | Merle Haggard | 97 | G# major | 1970 |
| Mercy, Mercy, Mercy | Willie Bobo | 97 | D# major | 1967 |
BPM as measured by audio analysis; some tracks read at half or double the danced tempo.
All 63 quickstep songs by BPM →
What to wear
Ballroom Standard shoes.
How to get started
Learn foxtrot first; quickstep builds on its frame and footwork.
We list 1 studios that teach quickstep, or browse all dance studios by state.
Key partner-dance terms
Recent research
- Dancing for Healthy Aging: Functional and Metabolic Perspectives. — Alternative therapies in health and medicine, 2019
- Reliability of Judging in DanceSport. — Frontiers in psychology, 2019
- Lower stress system activity and higher peripheral inflammation in competitive ballroom dancers. — Biological psychology, 2012
- Effect of Dance Experience on Loading Patterns Among Ballroom Dancers. — Journal of dance medicine & science : official publication of the International Association for Dance Medicine & Science, 2026
- Application of Functional Training in Sports Dance Training. — Journal of environmental and public health, 2022
Books about quickstep
- Modern Ballroom Dancing by Victor Silvester (1935)
- Ballroom dancing by Alex Moore (1936)
- A complete practical guide to the art of dancing by Thomas Hillgrove (1863)
- MODERN BALLROOM DANCING by BRYAN ALLEN, Victor Silvester (1943)
- Dancing by Betty Lee (1926)
- Dancing and its relations to education and social life by Allen Dodworth (1885)
Encyclopedia summary
The quickstep is a light-hearted dance of the standard ballroom dances. The movement of the dance is fast and powerfully flowing and sprinkled with syncopations. The upbeat melodies that quickstep is danced to make it suitable for both formal and informal events. Its origins are in combination of slow foxtrot combined with the Charleston, a dance which was one of the precursors to what today is called swing dancing.
Frequently asked questions
What tempo is quickstep?
50–52 bars per minute, which is about 200–208 beats per minute.
What BPM is Quickstep?
Quickstep is usually danced to music between 192 and 208 beats per minute (50–52 bars per minute in competition). Browse 63 songs that fit on our Quickstep music page.
How many calories does quickstep burn?
About 404 calories per hour for a 155-lb (70 kg) person, based on a MET value of 5.5 from the Compendium of Physical Activities. See calories burned quickstep for every body weight.
Related styles
Foxtrot
United States (New York vaudeville)
Swing & Vintage Jazz DanceCharleston
African American communities of the South; named after Charleston, South Carolina
Ballroom & DanceSportJive
United States (jitterbug) refined in English ballrooms
Ballroom & DanceSportViennese Waltz
Vienna, Austria
Ballroom & DanceSportWaltz
Austria and southern Germany (from the Ländler)
Ballroom & DanceSportBallroom Tango
England and the United States, adapted from Argentine tango
Ballroom & DanceSportCha-Cha
Cuba (cha-cha-chá music by Enrique Jorrín)
Ballroom & DanceSportRumba
Cuba (son and bolero-son); ballroom versions in the US and England
Last reviewed October 2026 · Editorial policy