Waltz is a smooth graceful ballroom dance characterized by large, powerful flowing movements. It is one of the best beginning dances. The basic step box or four step is very easy to learn and then transferring that to the progressive advanced stage is simple. The progressive stage consists of large steps and continuous turns, the rise & fall of the dancers in sync is called pulse. Graceful and elegant, Waltz dancers appear to float around the floor almost in surreal movements. The tempo is slow, but the expressive quality of the music creates very powerful and dynamic movements from dance couple.
HISTORY
In the early 1800's, the Waltz was denounced by both church and state of England, for its vulgarity and immorality... The man holding the lady so close to his body in the formal closed dance position raised quite a few eyebrows of the time. The criticism that it received also calls the younger dancers to adopt it just as today's youth create over night fads.
Throughout its history, the Waltz has undergone many changes. Before it became a ballroom dance craze, it began as a folk dance in the seventeenth century somewhere in Austria and Bavaria. By the middle of the eighteenth century, the dance had grown in popularity to become one of the most popular dances in Europe.
The the folk dance beginnings of the standard Waltz tempo was very fast and quite demanding to the average dancer, and before long, composers were writing music which was much slower. From this music evolved a style of Waltz called the Boston, with slow turns, and long gliding movements across the dance floor. While the Boston eventually faded away, it did evolve into what we now know as Slow Waltz. Throughout the twentieth century, the English refined the movements and codified the technique into the competitive International style Slow Waltz.
Like most dances the basic Waltz steps the four step or box is its core and a beginner picks it up in one dance lesson. To really start the formal slow Waltz you see in the finer dance halls you move into the progressive stage which means "moving forward" on the second beat and instead of the lead moving his right foot back he moves it forward guiding the lady backwards. After learning this backward movement then you add in a bit of angle in each backstep to create the turns. The beginner can appear as a pro with just these few steps and throwing in a couple of partner spins and releases you will be well onto you way to becoming a true Ballroom dancer.
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