Discofox or Disco Fox is a social

Social dance

Social dance is a major category or classification of danceforms or dance styles, where sociability and socializing are the primary focuses of the dancing...

 partner dance

Partner dance

Partner dances are dances whose basic choreography involves coordinated dancing of two partners, as opposed to individuals dancing alone or individually in a non-coordinated manner, and as opposed to groups of people dancing simultaneously in a coordinated manner.In the year 1023 the German poet...

 evolved in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 in mid-seventies as a rediscovery of the dance hold in the improvisational disco

Disco

Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...

 dance scene dominated by solo dancing, approximately at the same time when hustle

Hustle (dance)

The Hustle is a catchall name for several disco dances which were extremely popular in the 1970s. Today it mostly refers to the unique partner dance done in ballrooms and nightclubs to disco music. It has some features in common with swing dance. Its basic steps are somewhat similar to the...

 emerged in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Both dances were greatly influenced by the Saturday Night Fever

Saturday Night Fever

Saturday Night Fever is a 1977 drama film directed by John Badham and starring: John Travolta as Tony Manero, an immature young man whose weekends are spent visiting a local Brooklyn discothèque; Karen Lynn Gorney as his dance partner and eventual friend; and Donna Pescow as Tony's former dance...

starring John Travolta

John Travolta

John Joseph Travolta is an American actor, dancer and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease...

. In various regions it is also known under different names: Disco Hustle, Swing Fox, Disco Swing, Rock Fox.

Discofox is very popular in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 and Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

.

The set of figures is influenced by various dances: foxtrot

Foxtrot (Dance)

The foxtrot is a smooth progressive dance characterized by long, continuous flowing movements across the dance floor. It is danced to big band music, and the feeling is one of elegance and sophistication...

, swing

Swing (dance)

"Swing dance" is a group of dances that developed with the swing style of jazz music in the 1920s-1950s, although the earliest of these dances predate swing jazz music. The best known of these dances is the Lindy Hop, a popular partner dance that originated in Harlem and is still danced today...

, salsa

Salsa (dance)

Salsa is a syncretic dance form with origins in Cuba as the meeting point of Spanish and African cultures.Salsa is normally a partner dance, although there are recognized solo forms such as solo dancing "suelta" and "Rueda de Casino" where multiple couples exchange partners in a circle...

, etc., adapted to the musical style and basic step of the dance. Moreover, various fusion styles emerged, such as Sals-Discofox and Disco Cha.

Discofox may be danced to a wide variety of 2/4 and 4/4 music: 70s disco, 80s eurodance

Eurodance

Eurodance is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1980s or early 1990s primarily in Europe. It combines many elements from House, Techno, Hi-NRG and especially Italo-Disco...

 (italo-disco), discopolo, pop

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

, techno

Techno

Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...

. Tempo may vary. In social setting it is mostly danced in one place, although the couple may also move across the dance floor. It is danced with various types of single and double handhold

Handhold (dance)

A handhold is a manner the dancers hold each other's hands during the dance.A hold is the way one partner holds another one with hands.Hold and handhold are important components of connection in dance.-Couple dances:*Waist-hand hold...

. Among the figures are various handwraps, spins, throw-outs/catches, poses, drops, and for competitions also acrobatic figures.

There are international competitions in discofox.

Basic timing and step

The beginner's count of the basic step is "step-step-tap". Advanced dancers use hustle-style split-beat four-step basic (still occupying 3 beats of music) counted variously: (1,2, & 3), (1,2, a3) (1,2, 3&), (1,2, 3a).