[4][5][6][7] The first unofficial world championship took place in 1909,[8] and the first formation team[9] was presented in 1932 by Olive Ripman at the Astoria Ballroom, London.

Competitors may also be grouped by experience level, with categories such as Beginner, Novice, Intermediate, Pre-Amateur and Amateur.

In December 2011, the WDSF Open and the Australian Nationals were held at the Hisense Arena located within the Olympic park in Melbourne.

In the finals, couples are marked under the skating system and judged by timing, footwork, rise and fall, alignment, direction and floor craft.

The WDSF website shows letters and certificates from the IOC that recognise dancesport as an eligible sport for inclusion pursuant to rule 29 of the Olympic Charter.

[20] [21] On its website, the IDSF gives an upbeat appraisal of the chances of dancesport being included in a future summer Olympic Games.

[26] However, it was announced in December 2016 that breakdancing would form part of the programme for the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics under the "dancesport" label, with men's, women's and mixed-team events included in a one-on-one battle format.

[27] Over the years, competitive ballroom dancing has evolved so much in its choreography, requiring a higher level of athleticism.

These dancers seem to perform at such a high level of energy expenditure that a deeper understanding of these energy demands may help build specific training programs used to sustain a high quality dance performance consistent over a few rounds of a competition.

In 1988, an Australian study was conducted to determine the heart rate and estimated energy expended during ballroom dancing.

[28] After administrating all required laboratory tests (in order to record their height, weight, body fat percentage, fat free mass and the resting/maximal heart rate and VO2 values), the couples danced a five-dance final, given a 15 to 20 second break between each dance.

The purpose of this study was to estimate the energy requirements from heart rates acquired during competition simulation and previously recorded measures of VO2 and HR.

[28] Astrand and Rodahl (1977) classify any exercise being extremely heavy if it results in a heart rate above 150 beats min−1.

[28] Finally, the energy expenditure for male athletes was estimated to be 54.1 ± 8.1 kJ min−1 for Standard and 54.0± 9.6kJ min−1 in the Latin American dances.

[30] Comparing the mean gross energy expenditures (in kJ min−1) between ballroom dancing and other sports, it is evident that competitive dancing is equally as demanding in comparison to other sporting activities such as basketball (35.83 kJ min−1) or cross-country running (44.37kJ min−1) (Consolazioetal, 1963),[32] and that competitive ballroom dancing requires a cardiovascular system that can work at a high energy level in order to match the given physiological strain.