I would like to present you my greatest passion which is dance. One of the most popular and the oldest dance style is Vienna Waltz. Imagine: colorful flowing ball gowns, tails, a ballroom full of people and beautiful music. It is a wonderful atmosphere! Let’s go there with our imagination!
1. Briefly about history…
The meaning of waltz has its origin from German word ‘walzen’ which means to roll, turn or to glide. Vienna Waltz has its beginning in the suburbs of Vienna in the alpine region of Austria. Firstly, waltzes were played in the ballrooms of the Hapsburg court in the seventeenth century. In the middle of the eighteenth century in France the allemande form of the waltz was very popular. Allemande form is a lively triple-time dance related to the waltz. The waltz was strong criticized. Rapid turning movements and holding each other closely meant that it was regarded it as vulgar and sinful according to religious leaders. England was a stark example with waltzes accepted even more slowly.
2. Costumes
Women wear long ball dresses with long gloves. Men most often wear black, smart tailcoats or modern suits.
3. Steps and music
The Viennese Waltz is danced in a fast triple ¾ time in a closed dance position. Compared to typical waltzes which range between 30-90 beats per minute, the Vienna Waltz is typically in the range of 120-180 beats per minute. Because of the faster pace it makes it a bit more challenging to perform. The basic steps for the Viennese Waltz are:
1) The natural turn to the right
2) The reverse turn to the left
The change of steps between turns allows you to change directions while still following the line of dance.
The most popular music compositions was created by Strauss and Russian Dmitri Shostakovich (e.g. Second Waltz).
And what about you – do you like
dance? What is your favourite dance style?
Comments
As I can see from the article the history of waltz begun hundreds years ago and at this time it was a standard to know how to do that. Nowadays it is not so popular, there are no longer occasions to perform it. We do not have ballrooms parties and barely anyone from our friends know even basic steps.
http://interrete.org/jaw-dropping-dance-portraits-by-alexander-yakovlev/
The photos you've shown are really nice. I always thought of dance contests as a really shoddy events with people with fake tan and ugly costumes. But it seems that Viennese waltz balls look really elegant and nice. It's definitely a bit old fashioned but I would still like to see (not necessary take part in it) a ball like that if I would ever got a chance. Anyway it kind of reminds me of Spanish Riding School in Vienna where special breed of white horses perform.
I don't have a favorite dance style. I used to go to flamenco and salsa classes for a few years. I was really interested in Spanish culture so that's how I got into flamenco and I still think it's a very expressive and cool dance style, a lot of tap dancing and other cool variations in it. Anyway I really enjoy watching modern dancing, jazz and modern ballet and I would say those could be my "favorites". I really like the way that this girl dances :) :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vjPBrBU-TM
Sorry for deleted comments.
Viennesse Waltz is beautiful, I think that it is one of the most beautiful dances. By the way, dancers costumes are beautifull. Women could fell like the star when they are wearing dresses for example like this:
http://i42.tinypic.com/v6ureh.jpg
What do you think about it?
And music is always beautiful. Uhh, I'm dreaming about beautifull Viennesse Waltz. It is so beautifull, so elegant.
My imagination let me go for a beautiful bal.
Have you ever heard it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpEoMe4a0IE ?
What about you? Have you ever danced viennese waltz outside the dance class? :D
According to dancing in general – I rather don't like it :P I prefer not to dance haha So it's quite hard to say which one is my best one, especially when you don't have much occasions to dance somewhere else than dance floor in the club :P I guess it would be really weird to dance vienna waltz there :D
Regarding to the music I heard and I love it. I've got chills when I listen it! Look at this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoS1_CRS5fA&list=PL29C30DF582C0AE52 ! This one is my favourite :)
Dresses are divine! Professional dancers may feel like a princess :)
Regarding to dance contests I know that a lot of people during watching this kind of show feel that it is so patetic and affected. I think that dance has got a lot of templates and it is close in it a little bit, especially - standard dance styles. But for me dance give me freedom feeling, I feel a music in every part of my body and I love to express my emotion by dance. Ballet dancers (I had ever dance ballet but I know basic figures) are beautiful but we should remember that this kind of dance has got figures and fixed movements too. The figures in dance allow to characterize him but don't close it in the transmission. We can recognize dance by the movements or steps but it is not everything which comes in its composition. For me each dance is a story... :)
The music and dance of girl in Sia clip is nice, I know it and I really like!
I recommend this video, this is a Ukrainian ballet dancer performing to "Take me to church" song by Hozier. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-tW0CkvdDI
You're right they may feel like a princesses. It's like live in the fairytale, amazing and charming :)
Your music is beautifull but very known. I like it but I preffer less known music ;)
One day I'll sign up to dance school and I learn to dance.
Viennese waltz basics are not that difficult, even I am able to dance somehow. I like watching (and trying just a little bit) Rock'n'Roll dance.
I'm not really into dancing right now, but I really appreciate watching ballet dancers. I try to go to Teatr Narodowy whenever they play something I haven't seen. I think ballet is beautiful, because it can show the whole story just by movement. Plus, the decorations are always just perfetct. If someone hasn't been there for a while, I recommend going there :)
About the controversy - it's really hard to tell if such accusations are justified or not. Of course it seems ridiculous when we compare it to our modern customs, however I think that recently our society is so focused on sex that it's not so good for us. I mean, we have problems with children having sex very early and other things. It had to start with something and escalate. I'm not saying that this dance is the source of our problems, I just think that we shouldn't just disregard such objections too easily.
Ah and I'm also not saying that sex is a bad thing, just that the society is focused on it.
Viennese Waltz looks very elegant and sophisticated. I really like the performance in the last video you have posted. It's impressive how they can maintain the tempo and order of movement while still being so graceful. They truly deserve the applause.
Anyway it was nice to learn something about this subject.