Viennese Waltz
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Viennese waltz (german: Wiener Walzer) is a genre of
ballroom dance Ballroom dance is a set of partner dances, which are enjoyed both socially and competitively around the world, mostly because of its performance and entertainment aspects. Ballroom dancing is also widely enjoyed on stage, film, and television. ...
. At least four different meanings are recognized. In the historically first sense, the name may refer to several versions of the
waltz The waltz ( ), meaning "to roll or revolve") is a ballroom and folk dance, normally in triple ( time), performed primarily in closed position. History There are many references to a sliding or gliding dance that would evolve into the wa ...
, including the earliest waltzes done in ballroom dancing, danced to the music of Viennese waltz. What is now called the Viennese waltz is the original form of the waltz. It was the first ballroom dance performed in the closed hold or "waltz" position. The dance that is popularly known as the waltz is actually the English or slow waltz, danced at approximately 90 beats per minute with 3 beats to the bar (the international standard of 30 measures per minute), while the Viennese waltz is danced at about 180 beats (58-60 measures) per minute. To this day however, in Germany, Austria, Scandinavia, and France, the words (German), (Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish), and (French) still implicitly refer to the original dance and not the slow waltz. The Viennese waltz is a rotary dance where the dancers are constantly turning either toward the leader's right (natural) or toward the leader's left (reverse), interspersed with non-rotating ''change steps'' to switch between the direction of rotation. As the waltz evolved, some of the versions that were done at about the original fast tempo came to be called specifically "Viennese waltz" to distinguish them from the slower waltzes. In the modern ballroom dance, two versions of Viennese waltz are recognized: International Style and
American Style This is a list of dance terms that are not names of dances or types of dances. See List of dances and List of dance style categories for those. This glossary lists terms used in various types of ballroom partner dances, leaving out terms of high ...
. Today the Viennese waltz is a ballroom and partner dance that is part of the
International Standard international standard is a technical standard developed by one or more international standards organizations. International standards are available for consideration and use worldwide. The most prominent such organization is the International Or ...
division of contemporary ballroom dance. The Waltz Series is a New York membership society devoted to preserving the pre-World War I tradition of Viennese waltz. It organizes a program of dances.


History


Early history

The Viennese waltz, so called to distinguish it from the
waltz The waltz ( ), meaning "to roll or revolve") is a ballroom and folk dance, normally in triple ( time), performed primarily in closed position. History There are many references to a sliding or gliding dance that would evolve into the wa ...
and the French waltz, is the oldest of the current ballroom dances. It emerged in the second half of the 18th century from the German dance and the
Ländler The Ländler () is a folk dance in time which was popular in Austria, Bavaria, German Switzerland, and Slovenia at the end of the 18th century. It is a partner dance which strongly features hopping and stamping. It might be purely instrumen ...
in
Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
and was both popular and subject to criticism. At that time, the waltz, as described in a magazine from 1799, was performed by dancers who held on to their long gowns to prevent them from dragging or being stepped on. The dancers would lift their dresses and hold them high like cloaks, and this would bring both their bodies under one cover. This action also required the dancers' bodies to be very close together, and this closeness attracted moral disparagement. In 1797, Wolf published a pamphlet against the dance entitled "Proof that Waltzing is the Main Source of Weakness of the Body and Mind of our Generation". But even when faced with all this negativity, it became very popular in Vienna. Large dance halls like the Zum Sperl in 1807 and the Apollo in 1808 were opened to provide space for thousands of dancers. The dance reached and spread to England sometime before 1812. It was introduced as the German waltz and became a huge hit. It gained ground through the
Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna (, ) of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon B ...
at the beginning of the 19th century and by the famous compositions by
Josef Lanner Joseph Franz Karl Lanner (12 April 1801 – 14 April 1843) was an Austrian dance music composer and dance orchestra conductor. He is best remembered as one of the earliest Viennese composers to reform the waltz from a simple peasant dance to s ...
,
Johann Strauss I Johann Baptist Strauss I (; also Johann Strauss Sr., the Elder, the Father; 14 March 1804 – 25 September 1849) was an Austrian composer of the Romantic music, Romantic Period. He was famous for his light music, namely waltzes, polkas, and galo ...
and his son,
Johann Strauss II Johann Baptist Strauss II (25 October 1825 – 3 June 1899), also known as Johann Strauss Jr., the Younger or the Son (german: links=no, Sohn), was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed ov ...
. Initially, the waltz was significantly different from its form today. In the first place, the couples did not dance in the closed position as today. The illustrations and descriptions make it clear that the couples danced with arm positions similar to that of the precursor dances, the
Ländler The Ländler () is a folk dance in time which was popular in Austria, Bavaria, German Switzerland, and Slovenia at the end of the 18th century. It is a partner dance which strongly features hopping and stamping. It might be purely instrumen ...
and the
Allemande An ''allemande'' (''allemanda'', ''almain(e)'', or ''alman(d)'', French: "German (dance)") is a Renaissance and Baroque dance, and one of the most common instrumental dance styles in Baroque music, with examples by Couperin, Purcell, Bach ...
.Quirey, Belinda 1976. ''May I have the pleasure? The story of popular dancing''. p. 66; "The Century of Waltz". The hold was at times semi-closed and at times side by side. Arms were intertwined and circling movements were made under raised arms. No couple in Wilson's plate are shown in close embrace, but some are in closed hold facing each other. Another significant difference from the present technique was that the feet were turned out and the rise of foot during the dance was much more pronounced. This can be seen quite clearly in the figure, and such a style imposes its limitations on how the dance can be performed. To understand why Quirey says "The advent of the in polite society was quite simply the greatest change in dance form and dancing manners that has happened in our history" we need to realize that all European social dances before the waltz were communal sequence dances – communal, because all the dancers on the floor took part in a preset pattern (often chosen by a master of ceremony. Dancers separately, and as couples, faced outwards to the spectators as much as they faced inwards. Thus all present took part as dancers or as onlookers. This was the way with the
country dance A country dance is any of a very large number of social dances of a type that originated in the British Isles; it is the repeated execution of a predefined sequence of figures, carefully designed to fit a fixed length of music, performed by a ...
and all previous popular dances. With the waltz, couples were independent of each other and were turned towards each other (though not in close contact).
Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...
wrote a furious letter, which precedes his poem "The Waltz", in which he decries the anti-social nature of the dance, with the couple "like two cockchafers spitted on the same bodkin."


Technique and styles

The Viennese waltz is a rotary dance where the dancers are constantly turning either in a clockwise ("natural") or counter-clockwise ("reverse") direction interspersed with non-rotating change steps to switch between the direction of rotation. A true Viennese waltz consists only of turns and change steps. Other moves such as the fleckerls, American-style figures and side sway or underarm turns are modern inventions. The competitive styles of Viennese waltz has a reduced number of steps, depending on the style and competition level or medal exam level.


International-style Viennese waltz

International-style International style may refer to: * International Style (architecture), the early 20th century modern movement in architecture *International style (art), the International Gothic style in medieval art *International Style (dancing), a term used in ...
Viennese waltz is danced in
closed position In partner dancing, closed position is a category of positions in which partners hold each other while facing at least approximately toward each other. Closed positions employ either body contact or body support, that is, holding each other is ...
. The syllabus is limited to natural and reverse turns, closed and open changes, fleckerls, contra check, left whisk, and canter-time
pivot turn In dance, a pivot turn (or simply pivot) is a general classification for dance turns in which the performer's body rotates about its vertical axis without traveling. The performer may be supported by one or both feet, which swivel in place during t ...
s (canter pivots). In
World Dance Council The World Dance Council Ltd (WDC), is a registered limited company, the legal successor to the ''International Council of Ballroom Dancing'', and was established at a meeting organized by Phillip J. S. Richardson on 22 September 1950 in Edinburgh, ...
competition, canter pivots are excluded.


American-style Viennese waltz

American-style Viennese waltz has much more freedom, both in dance positions and syllabus.


See also

*
Waltz The waltz ( ), meaning "to roll or revolve") is a ballroom and folk dance, normally in triple ( time), performed primarily in closed position. History There are many references to a sliding or gliding dance that would evolve into the wa ...
*
Austrian folk dancing Austrian folk dancing is mostly associated with Schuhplattler, Ländler, polka and waltz. However, there are other dances such as Zwiefacher, ''Kontratänze'' and ''Sprachinseltänze''. Types of dance In Austria, folk dances in general are k ...
*
Ballroom dance Ballroom dance is a set of partner dances, which are enjoyed both socially and competitively around the world, mostly because of its performance and entertainment aspects. Ballroom dancing is also widely enjoyed on stage, film, and television. ...
* Palm court


References

{{Authority control Waltz Ballroom dance Dance in Austria Waltz, Viennese Culture in Vienna cs:Valčík