The Waltz

The Waltz has its history rooted in a peasant dance from the Provence area of France in 1559. It's based on a piece of folk music called The Volta. Partners had to hold each other in such a close embrace that many declared it immoral at the time; Louis 13th (1601-1643) even had it banned from court on this account.

How routines should look:

The footwork and steps should be kept very simple.

We should be able to see a slight swaying action from the couple - a musical lilt - a gentle rise and fall.

We should see lots of rotation.

Routines should include:

The Waltz has the least steps of all of the dances - there are only three steps that we should see:

Natural turns - turn to the right

Reverse turns - turn to the left

Change step - this step is executed in between the natural and reverse steps, and is used to aid the dancers to move to the other foot.