The foxtrot is a smooth, progressive dance characterized by long, continuous flowing movements across the dance floor. It is danced to big band (usually vocal) music. The dance is similar in its look to waltz, although the rhythm is in a ⁴
₄ time signature instead of ³
₄. Developed in the 1910s, the foxtrot reached its height of popularity in the 1930s and remains practiced today.

The dance was premiered in 1914, quickly catching the eye of the husband and wife duo Vernon and Irene Castle, who gave the dance its signature grace and style. The origin of the name of the dance is unclear, although one theory is that it took its name from its popularizer, the vaudevillian Harry Fox. Two sources, Vernon Castle and dance teacher Betty Lee, credit African American dancers as the source of the foxtrot. Castle saw the dance, which "had been danced by negroes, to his personal knowledge, for fifteen years, [at] a certain exclusive colored club".

W. C. Handy ("Father of the Blues") notes in his autobiography that his "The Memphis Blues" was the inspiration for the foxtrot. During breaks from the fast-paced Castle Walk and One-step, Vernon and Irene Castle's music director, James Reese Europe, would slowly play "The Memphis Blues". The Castles were intrigued by the rhythm, and Jim suggested they create a slow dance to go with it. The Castles introduced what they then called the "Bunny Hug" in a magazine article. Shortly after, they went abroad and, in mid-ocean, sent a wireless to the magazine to change the name of the dance from "Bunny Hug" to "Foxtrot." It was subsequently standardized by Arthur Murray, in whose version it began to imitate the positions of tango.

At its inception, the foxtrot was originally danced to ragtime. From the late 1910s through the 1940s, the foxtrot was the most popular fast dance, and the vast majority of records issued during these years were foxtrots.^{[citation needed]} The waltz and tango, while popular, never overtook it. Even the popularity of the Lindy hop in the 1940s did not affect the foxtrot's popularity, since it could be danced to the same records used to accompany the Lindy hop.

When rock and roll first emerged in the early 1950s, record companies were uncertain as to what style of dance would be most applicable to the music. Notably, Decca Records initially labeled its rock and roll releases as "foxtrots", most notably "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and His Comets. Since that recording, by some estimates, went on to sell more than 25 million copies, "Rock Around the Clock" could be considered the biggest-selling "foxtrot" of all time. Today, the dance is customarily accompanied by the same big band music to which swing is also danced.

Over time, the foxtrot split into slow and quick versions, referred to as "foxtrot" and "quickstep" respectively. In the slow category, further distinctions exist between the International or English style of the foxtrot, and the American continuity style, both built around a slow-quick-quick rhythm at the slowest tempo, and the social American style using a slow-slow-quick-quick rhythm at a somewhat faster pace. In the context of International Standard category of ballroom dances, for some time the foxtrot was called "Slow Foxtrot", or "Slowfox". These names are still in use, to distinguish from other types of foxtrots.

Three distinct styles of slow foxtrot are in common use among ballroom dancers today: the American Social Style, the American Continuity Style, and the International Style. All three are partner dances in which the dancers progress around the dance floor in a counter-clockwise direction and are danced to much the same music. However, they differ significantly in technique, positions, and figures.

The American Social Style was, and to some extent still is, widely employed in the United States as a social and party dance. It is particularly well suited to dancing in a crowded room, by partners who may or may not know each other well, and who may or may not have had much formal training in dance. Its defining feature is that the dancers close their feet at the end of almost every figure, as opposed to passing their feet as in the other two styles. As a result, the dancers progress fairly slowly around the room, and some figures can even be danced in place. Furthermore, almost every figure begins in much the same position, with the two partners facing each other squarely in the closed position and the man starting on his left foot. Since each figure leads so easily and consistently in the next, it is fairly easy for the leader to string multiple figures together on the fly in an ever-changing sequence. Body contact is unnecessary and not generally expected; all figures can be led through the frame formed by the arms. Hence, the potential social awkwardness of body contact between partners who do not know each other well is avoided. As American Social Style is the only style allowed in bronze (beginner) level American Style dance competition, this style is sometimes also known as "American Bronze Foxtrot".