World Ballroom Dance Champions Council" (WD&DSC), and renamed again as the WDC. The Professional Ballroom section (occasionally called Professional Modern in British tradition) of DanceSport) covers the dances waltz, foxtrot, quickstep, tango and Viennese waltz. World Ballroom Dance Champions This page lists the official World Champions – Professional Ballroom of the World Dance Council (WDC), and its historical predecessors. The championships are authorized and organized under the auspices of the WDC. The designation "Ballroom" replaces the previously used "Modern" or "Standard" in WDC terminology; it does not include the latin dances. World Championships of a sort have been held in ballroom dancing since 1909
Ballroom dance is derived from the word "ball" which in turn originates from the Latin word "ballare" which means 'to dance' (a ball-room being a large room specially designed for such dances). In times past, ballroom dancing was social dancing for the privileged, leaving folk dancing for the lower classes. These boundaries have since become blurred. The definition of ballroom dance also depends on the era: balls have featured popular dances of the day such as the Minuet, Quadrille, Polonaise, Polka, Mazurka, and others, which are now considered to be historical dances. The first authoritative knowledge of the earliest ballroom dances was