Modern Waltz

The Waltz is very popular with all dancers, often the first learnt and the most enduring throughout a dancer's lifetime. The Waltz is very often used by the Westland Ballroom Dance Section (in common with many clubs) to start and end an evening dance. Although many of the melodies for the dances are traditional there are a great number of new modern tunes and great arrangements of traditional music.

Traditionally the Waltz is used on important occasions such as weddings and anniversaries to focus attention on the couple enjoying the special moment or memory. For this reason many people are introduced to the joy of dance because of a need to perform a basic waltz in public.

Originally the waltz started as a country folk dance from 17th Century Austria and Bavaria . The Waltz was introduced into the British ballroom dance scene from about 1880. There was much scandal associated with the new waltz craze and it was considered by many to be both immoral and vulgar for a man and woman to dance in an embrace. Of course this notoriety made the waltz appealing to the daring young (and not so young) things of the late 19th Century. This dance became a firm favourite of Queen Victoria .

Because this is the only ballroom dance in 3/4 time with a strong accent on the first beat, it inspired Johann Strauss to write fast popular music. The music by Strauss created the Viennese Waltz which is a derivative of the Ballroom Waltz that generally circles in one direction for eight bars and then circles in the opposite direction for the next eight bars. The different directions of rotation are effected by a change step in between each reversal.