What is Balboa? 

Balboa is a close embrace swing-era dance popularized in Southern California in the 1930s and 1940s. It is most commonly danced to traditional swing-jazz music. 

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What we know of today as Balboa is a combination of Pure Balboa (or "Balboa Shuffle"), a chest-to-chest partnered dance, and Bal-Swing, a more open-positioned partner swing dance. 

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We recommend reading this "way-too-brief" History of Balboa from Jazz Dance Historian, Bobby White at his blog, Swungover!