DANCING
VIENNESE WALTZ
The Waltz is a dance performed to music with three beats to the bar. This means that if a step is taken on each beat, then each bar starts with the opposite foot to that of the previous bar. This can be a source of great difficulty for the beginner, but when mastered gives the dance a delightful romantic lilt.
The first record of a dance to 3/4 rhythm is a peasant dance of the Provence area of France in 1559, as a piece of folk music called the Volta, although the Volta has also been claimed to be an Italian folk dance at this time. The
word 'volta' means 'the turn' in Italian. Thus, even in its earliest days, the dance appears to have involved the couple turning as they danced.
The dance became very popular in Vienna, with large dance halls being opened to accommodate the craze: Zum Sperl in 1807, and the Apollo in 1808 (said to be able to accommodate 6000 dancers). In 1812 the dance was introduced into England under the name of the German Waltz. It caused a great sensation.
Through the 19th Century, the dance stabilised, and was further popularised by the music of Josef and Johann Strauss.
Currently, the Viennese Waltz is danced at a tempo of about 180 beats per minute, with a limited range of figures: Change Steps, Hesitations, Hovers,
Passing Changes, Natural and Reverse Turns, (travelling or on the spot as
Fleckerls), and the Contracheck.
MODERN WALTZ
In the early 19th Century, the 'Waltzen' became popular through many parts of
Germany and Austria, with the local variants being called by the name of the
area in which they were danced. The form from 'Landl ob der Enns' in upper
Austria became very popular, and became known by the abbreviated name of
the 'Landler'.
By 1800 the Landler was described as having the same quick gliding rotating
movements steps as the Waltzen but done to a slower tempo.
A more sedate form of the fast Viennese Waltz, danced at a leisurely 90 beats
per minute, also evolved in America around 1870 known originally as
the 'Boston'.
The present form of the dance has been variously described as being derived
around 1910 in England both from the Landler and from the Boston the dancers
began taking advantage of the slower tempo to add more figures, some with extra
syncopated beats, some with slow 'picture' steps. These give the dance light
and shade, and make it more interesting to perform and to watch.
QUICKSTEP
As Ragtime music evolved into Swing through the 1920's, new dances such as the
Charleston, the Shimmy, and the Black Bottom became popular. The Charlston was
danced with wild swinging arms and side kicks to music at 200 to 240 beats per
minute. It subsequently became very popular worldwide, but the wild character
of the dance induced many sedate ballrooms either to ban it altogether, or to
put up notices saying simply 'PCQ', standing for 'Please Charleston Quietly'.
These dances became absorbed into a faster version of Foxtrot after a visit by
Paul Whiteman's band to the UK in 1923, becoming known as the Quickstep.
Currently it is danced at a tempo of approximately 200 beats per minute. It
retains the walks, runs, chasses and turns, of the original Foxtrot, with some
other fast figures such as locks, hops, and skips added.
SAMBA
The Portuguese imported many slaves from Angola and Congo into Brazil in the
16th century, who in turn brought their dances such as the Catarete, the
Embolada and the Batuque
A composite dance evolved in the 1830's combining the plait figures from these
Negro dances and the body rolls and sways of the indigenous Lundu. Later,
carnival steps were added like the Copacabana (named after a popular beach near
Rio de Janeiro). Gradually members of the high society in Rio embraced it,
although they modified it to be done in closed ballroom dancing position (which
they knew was the only correct way to dance anything). The dance was then
called the Zemba Queca, and was described in 1885 as 'a graceful Brazilian
dance'. This was later called the 'Mesemba'. The origin of the name 'Samba' is
unclear: perhaps it is a corruption of Semba, although another suggestion is
that is derived from 'Zambo' which means the offspring of a Negro man and a
native woman.
The dance was later combined with the Maxixe. This was also originally
Brazilian: a round dance described as like a Two Step, and named after the
prickly fruit of a Cactus. The Maxixe was introduced into the U.S.A. at the
turn of the 20th century.
The Maxixe became popular in Europe after a demonstration in Paris in 1905. It
was described as having the steps of the Polka done to the music of the Cuban
Habanera. The present day Samba still contains a step called the Maxixe,
consisting of a chasse and point.
RUMBA
This had its origin with the African Negro slaves imported into Cuba, whose
dances emphasized the movements of the body rather than the feet. The tune was
considered less important than the complex cross rhythms, being provided by a
percussion of pots, spoons, bottles, etc. .
It evolved in Havanna in the 19th century by combination with the Contradanza .
The name 'Rumba' possibly derives from the term 'rumboso orquestra' which was
used for a dance band in 1807, although in Spanish, the word 'rumbo'
means 'route', 'rumba' means 'heap pile', and 'rhum' is of course an
intoxicating liquor popular in the Caribbean, any of which might have been used
descriptively when the dance was being formed. The name has also been claimed
to be derived from the Spanish word for 'Carousel'.
The rural form of the Rumba in Cuba was described as a pantomime of barnyard
animals, and was an exhibition rather than a participation dance The
maintenance of steady level shoulders while dancing was possibly derived from
the way the slaves moved while carring heavy burdens. The step called
the 'Cucaracha' was stomping on cockroaches. The 'Spot Turn' was walking around
the rim of a cartwheel. The popular Rumba tune 'La Paloma' was known in Cuba in
1866.
The Rumba was introduced into the U.S.A. in the 1930's as a composite of this
rural Rumba with the Guaracha, the Cuban Bolero (unrelated to the Spanish
Bolero) and the Son.
The British dance teacher Pierre Lavelle visited Havanna in 1947 and discovered
that the Rumba was danced with the break step on beat 2 of the bar, rather than
on beat 1 as in the American Rumba. He brought this back to Britain, together
with the names of the many steps he learned from Pepe Rivera in Havanna. These
together with dancing the break on beat 2 rather than beat 1, have become part
of the standard International Cuban Rumba.
CHA CHA
When the English dance teacher Pierre Lavelle visited Cuba in 1952, he realised
that sometimes the Rumba was danced with extra beats. When he returned to
Britain, he started teaching these steps as a separate dance.
The name could have been derived from the Spanish 'Chacha' meaning 'nursemaid',
or 'chachar' meaning 'to chew coca leaves', or from 'char' meaning 'tea', or
most likely from the fast and cheerful'Cuban dance: the Guaracha. This dance
has been popular in Europe from before the turn of the century. For example it
is listed on the program of the Finishing Assembly in 1898 of Dancie Neill at
Coupar Angus in Scotland.
It has also been suggested that the name Cha Cha is derived onomatipeically
>from the sound of the feet in the chasse which is included in many of the
steps. This would account for it being called the 'Cha Cha Cha' by some people,
after the rhythm:
whereas others call it the 'Cha Cha' after the rhythm:
These differ only as to which beat of the musical bar is stressed by the
dancing: beat 4 in the first case, beat 1 in the second.
In 1954, the dance was described as a 'Mambo with a guiro rhythm'. A guiro is a
musical instrument consisting of a dried gourd rubbed by a serrated stick.
The Mambo was originally a Haitian dance introduced to the West in 1948 by
Prado. The word 'Mambo' is the name of a voodoo priestess in the religion
brought by the Negroes from Africa. Thus the Cha Cha Cha had its origins in the
religious ritual dances of West Africa. There are three forms of Mambo: single,
double, and triple. The triple has five (!) steps to a bar, and this is the
version that evolved into the Cha Cha Cha .
The 'Cha Cha' is danced currently at about 120 beats per minute.
JIVE
This dance originated with the Negroes in the South East of U.S.A., where it
had an affinity with the war dances of the Seminole Indians in Florida. One
reference suggests that the Negroes copied it from the Indians. Another
suggests that the Negroes brought the dance from Africa, and the Indians copied
it. The latter is more likely, as the word 'Jive' is probably derived
>from 'Jev' meaning 'to talk disparagingly' in the West African Wolof language
The current version called the Jive has basic steps composed of a fast
syncopated chasse (side, close, side) to the left followed by another to the
right (right then left for the lady) followed by a slower break back and
replace forward. The hips are moved half a beat after each of the steps, and
the weight is kept well forward with all steps being taken on the toes.
In its beginnings, in 1927, the dance became equated with youth. Older adults
disapproved of it and tried to ban it from dance halls by the rationalisation
that because Jive was non-progressive, it disturbed the other dancers who were
progressing anti-clockwise around the dance floor .
The association between youth and this dance has continued through its
subsequent metamorphoses as Swing , Boogie-Woogie , B-Bop ( Beach Bop ) , Rock
& Roll , Twist , Disco , Hustle and Ceroc.
TANGO
Tango developed in the late 1800's, in the streets of Buenos Aires, Argentina,
among the poor, and has often been associated with the prostitutes of that era,
who were said to gain customers through this seductive dance. We do not know
much of its earliest development within argentina, but we know that it was in
the early 1900's 'discovered' by the higher society in Buenos Aires. It became
every popular and was, in 1930, known as Argentina's most danced social dance.
Argentine tango is an intimate and passionate social dance (couples' dance)
that is characterized by its closeness between the partners, rapid and
complicated legwork, and (today) a very slick and sexy look. There is a
distinction between what we call salon tango, or social tango, and the fantasy
tango, or choreographed tango. The salon tango is more intimate and has
improvised and less acrobatic moves, while the fantasy tango is based on more
elaborate, choreographed moved and is for theatrical purposes.
The characteristic instrument of Argentine tango is the accordion, although
many combinations can be found, including cello, violin, piano, flute, etc.
