The Quickstep is an International Style ballroom dance that follows a 4/4 time beat, at about 50 bars per minute.^[1]p62 From its early beginning as a faster Foxtrot, the Quickstep has become quite different. It is danced to the fastest tempo of the ballroom dances.

The Quickstep developed in the 1920s from a combination of the Foxtrot, the Charleston, and other dances. The dance is English in origin, and was standardized in 1927. Although it came from the Foxtrot, the Quickstep now is quite separate. Unlike the modern Foxtrot, the feet often close and syncopated (split-beat) steps occur often. Three characteristic dance figures of the Quickstep are the chassés, where the feet come together, the quarter turns, and the lock step.^[1]p126

This dance became a very dynamic one with a lot of movement on the dance floor, with many advanced patterns including hops, runs, quick steps with a lot of momentum, and rotation. The tempo of Quickstep dance is rather brisk as it was developed to ragtime era jazz music which was fast-paced compared to other dance music.

Today the complexity of Quickstep as done by competition dancers has increased. They use more syncopated steps. While in older times quickstep patterns were counted with "quick" (one beat) and "slow" (two beats) steps, many advanced patterns today are cued with split beats, such as "quick-and-quick-and-quick, quick, slow", with there being further steps on the 'and's.

• Demonstration of basic figures by Marcus & Karen Hilton, nine times World Professional Ballroom Champions. [1]

v t e Dance
Index Outline
Participation	Solo Partner close embrace closed position open position slow dance Group Circle Contra Line Round Square
Social	Ceremonial Competitive Concert Ecstatic Erotic Fad Folk Sacred Street War
Major present-day genres	Acro Ballet Ballroom Waltz Foxtrot Quickstep Tango (International style) Latin and American dances Samba Rumba (International style) Cha-cha-cha Paso doble Belly Breaking Contemporary Country–western Boogaloo Hip-hop Jazz Latin Lyrical Modern Polka Postmodern Swing Tap
Technique	Ballet technique Choreography Connection Dance theory Graham Lead and follow Pole dance Moves (glossary) Musicality Pointe Sequence dance Spotting Turnout Turns
Regional (National dances)	Arab Africa Armenia Assyrian Austria Azerbaijan Bulgaria Burma (Myanmar) Cambodia China Croatia Cuba Denmark Europe Georgia Greece India Indonesia Faroe Islands Israel Ireland Italy Japan Korea Kurdish Mexico Middle East Netherlands Persian Peru Philippines Poland Romani Russia Serbia Sri Lanka Thailand Turkey Ukraine United States African-American Venezuela Vietnam
Related	Dance and disability Dance and health Dance costume Dance etiquette Dance notation Dance in movies Dance in mythology and religion Dance occupations Dance on television Dance research Dance science Dance technology Dance troupe Dancing mania History of dance Women in dance
List of dances