Waltz
The waltz grew out of couple dances of country communities in Bavaria, Tyrol and Styria around 1750 and is danced in three-four time. It reached England in 1791, and after the Regency years it became fashionable; a contemporary diarist claimed that nothing had caused such a stir in English society as its introduction in 1813.
In the 1910s Vernon and Irene Castle introduced the Hesitation Waltz. In England, the Ballroom Branch of the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing, formed in 1924, gave the waltz a firm technical structure. The slow waltz is now the first of the five International Standard dances, danced only in closed hold at around 28 bars a minute.
Sources
- Waltz (Wikipedia)
- History of Modern Ballroom (Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing)
- International Standard / English style ballroom dance (Wikipedia, Ballroom dance)
Organisations connected with this dance
- Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (ISTD), Modern Ballroom faculty
- World DanceSport Federation (WDSF)
- Blackpool Dance Festival
Listed as references; being listed is not an endorsement by or of the organisation.