WALTZ
(beginner class starts next week http://www.uiuc.edu/ro/dancing/)
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The initial versions of the Waltz can be dated back to the
sixteenth century in Germany, France, and Austria. These
dances usually included high leaps and although they were
danced in 3/4 time, they were endcaps to dances with a 2/4
time signature. They did introduce elements of advancing
while turning, however. The first real waltz is considered
to be the Volta, or Landler. It developed in the suburbs of
Vienna and the Austrian Alps among the lower class in the
mid-1500s and incorporated the lewd, sinful closed position
partnership. It took a few centuries for the Waltz to gain
recognition among aristocrats, not only because of its
immorality when dancers bodies came very close or in fact,
did touch each other (!), but also because the Waltz was
relatively easy to learn compared to the usual court dances
which included very complex steps, such as the Minuet. The
Waltz was forbidden in Switzerland, Swabia, and Puritan New
England until the early 1800s. An 1816 editorial of the
Waltz depicted the aristocratic sentiment of its vulgarity
in The Times after it was danced in the English court:
We remarked with pain that the indecent foreign
dance called the Waltz was introduced So long as this
obscene display was confined to prostitutes and
adulteresses, we did not think it deserving of notice; but
now that it is attempted to be forced on the respectable
classes of society by the civil examples of their superiors,
we feel it a duty to warn every parent against exposing his
daughter to so fatal a contagion.
Transcending the public decrees against waltz and
religious leaders opposition to the dance was the beautiful
waltz music composed by Josef Lanner and Johann Strauss.
Traveling orchestras played their pieces up and down the
Danube, leading to widespread appeal of waltz music
(especially Viennese Waltz music) by 1830, and outstanding
newspaper reviews of the composers. This, along with the
human attraction to breaking rules resulted in dancehalls
packed with waltzers.
The American Waltz we know today was introduced as the
Boston Waltz by dance Master Lorenzo Papatino (because he
demonstrated it in Boston in 1834). This version had more
gliding steps and was slower than the waltzes danced in
Europe. The popularity of the Boston diminished by WWI, but
led to the development of the English Waltz (International
Style Waltz), which included the hesitation step. After
Waltz gained popularity and acceptance, the Polka developed
as the second closed-position dance.
References
www.bobjanuary.com/waltz.htm
www.centralhome.com/ballroomcountry/waltz.htm
www.streetswing.com/histmain/z3waltz.htm
Compiled by Lynn Marie Milewski
Dancing Illini President
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Jan 29 2003 - 14:24:51 CST