Slow Waltz

Past and Present

Slow Waltz came into being in the twenties, in Boston, as an advancement of Viennese Waltz, which beneath the known "round" movements already contained the new elements of "straight ahead" movement. Because of its origin it is also called "English Waltz". This name was used first at competitions in 1929, though Slow Waltz was already danced at the world championship in 1922.

In the beginning, Slow Waltz mainly had been a dance with a "moving forward" character, a dance of passing feet, like Boston or Slowfox. Later on the feet were closed at the end of the beat because of the increased rotation angle. As full rotations proved to be problematic, Slow Waltz got a diagonal structure by dancing only a 3/4-rotation at clockwise and counter-clockwise rotation. This new mode choreographed by English dance instructors, has been accepted by the Imperial Society since 1927.

Because of its rhythmically swinging movements in combination with a soft, often sentimental music, Slow Waltz is considered to be the most harmonic of the standard dances. It is often danced at the beginning of dance events.