Latin American dance is a category of ballroom dancing. Like International Standard, it is a division of International Style dance. As only three of the five International Latin dances actually originate from Latin American, the category is also called International Latin, Latin or Latin and American. The five dances included are the rumba, the samba, paso doble, the cha-cha-cha and jive. Like all ballroom dances, they are danced with a partner.

Rumba
• The rumba comes from Cuban dancing and is the slowest of the five Latin American dances. The modern dance is based on the observations of English dance teacher Pierre Zurcher Margolie, who traveled to Cuba in 1952. The style of the rumba is tight, with a distinct hip sway and little rise and fall from movement of the dancer's knees and ankles. The rumba, like the waltz and foxtrot, is a traveling or progressive dance, where the dancers move around the dance floor.

Samba
• The samba comes from dancing of Brazil in the early 1900s. Many steps, in particular, have their origin in the maxixe. The dance has a bouncing movement that comes from the movement of the dancers' knees and is notable for its frequently shifting rhythms.

Paso Doble
• Paso doble style dance, whose name means "double step" in Spanish, comes from the dance style of southern France and is based on the sounds and movements of Spanish bullfighting. Paso doble has less hip movement than the other Latin American dances and other characteristics that make it closer to the International Standard dances. Like the rumba, paso doble is a traveling dance.

Cha-cha-cha
• Like the rumba, the cha-cha-cha has its origin in Cuba and the observations of Pierre Zurcher Margolia on his trip in 1952. The name reflects the sounds of an instrument and dancers' shuffling feet. Also like the rumba, the cha-cha-cha is tight and has little rise and fall.

Jive
• The jive is a dance style from African-American communities in the United States. It developed in the early 1940s and is based on the jitterbug, a kind of swing dance. At the time, "jive" was a word for meaningless talk. The style of dance was brought to England, where English dance teachers refined it and set it to slower music. The modern jive dance has frequent knee bending and hip movement. It became the fifth Latin American dance in 1968.