Viennese Waltz
Viennese Waltz (German: Wiener Walzer) is the genre of a ballroom dance. At least
three different meanings are recognized. In the historically first sense, the name
may refer to several versions of the waltz, 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 and the
first ballroom dance in the closed hold or "waltz" position. The dance
that is popularly known as the Waltz is actually the English or slow waltz, danced
approximately at 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) a minute. To this day however, in Germany, Austria and
France, the words "Walzer" (German for "waltz") and "valse"
(French for "waltz") still implicitly refers to the original dance and
not the slow waltz.
The Viennese Waltz is a rotary dance where the dancers are constantly turning either
in a clockwise (natural) or anti-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 and
are not normally danced at the annual balls in Vienna. Furthermore, in a properly
danced Viennese Waltz, couples do not pass, but turn continuously left and right
while travelling counterclockwise around the floor following each other.
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.
History of Viennese Waltz
The Viennese Waltz, so called to distinguish it from the Waltz and the French Waltz,
is the oldest of all ballroom dances. It emerged in the second half of the 18th
century from the German dance and the Ländler in Austria and in the beginning was
disapproved-of on account of its "lasciviousness", e.g. because the ladies'
ankles were visible. Later it gained official acceptance and even popularity due
to the Congress of Vienna at the beginning of the 19th century and the famous compositions
by Josef Lanner, Johann Strauss I and his son, Johann Strauss II.
In the 1920s in Germany the Viennese Waltz became outdated as more modern and dynamic
dances emerged. In England the Viennese Waltz acclimatized, there Boston and later
Waltz were preferred.
At the beginning of the 1930s the Viennese Waltz had its comeback as a folk dance
in Germany and Austria. The former military officer Karl von Mirkowitsch made it
acceptable both for society and ballroom, since 1932 the Viennese Waltz has been
present on ballroom dance floors. About the same time, the Viennese Waltz had its
comeback also as a (folk dance) in The Greater Cleveland Ohio U.S.A. Area. It was
because the greatest number of Slovenians (60,000 - 80,000) settled in that area.
Slovenia, being right below Vienna Austria, was influenced in their folk dance by
the Viennese Waltz. Frankie Yankovic, Slovenian from Cleveland Ohio traveled the
world playing his version ("Cleveland Style" as per Polka Hall of Fame,
Euclid Ohio)of the Viennese Waltzes. His Blue Skirt Waltz went Platinum 1949. Even
in 2007, there are several opportunities to waltz each week in The Greater Cleveland
Area. In 1951 Paul Krebs, a dance teacher from Nürnberg, combined the traditional
Austrian Waltz with the English style of waltzing and had great success at the dance
festival in Blackpool in the same year. Since then the Viennese Waltz is considered
a full privilege member of the International Standard ballroom dances; in 1963 it
was added to the Welttanzprogramm which is the fundament of European dancing schools.
The Viennese Waltz has always been symbol of political and public sentiments. It
was called the "Marseillaise of the heart" (Eduard Hanslick, a critic
from Vienna in the past century) and was supposed to "have saved Vienna the
revolution" (sentence of a biographer of the composer Johann Strauss I), while
Strauss I himself was called the "Napoleon Autrichien" (Heinrich Laube,
poet from the north of Germany).
