First Wedding Dance Styles DAY 3 Waltz

First Wedding Dance Styles DAY 3 Waltz

As part of our daily guide helping you choose your First Wedding Dance style, will it be a Wedding Day Waltz?

Originating from Germany, the characteristic flowing rise and fall of the Waltz offers an ethereal, graceful quality when bride and groom dance in their wedding day finery.  Another of the more classic, romantic and formal styles of ballroom, which will suit songs that are counted in a 3/4 time signature. Three beats to the bar means three steps in a basic Waltz footwork pattern.

Body Control

Couples dance in closed hold and you’ll see from the video example below the man/the lead have a strong, proud air to their poise, remaining lifted in the chest, whilst the woman/the follower may arch backwards.  There is minimal movement to the upper body, aside from the dancers’ upper body leaning slightly to follow the turn of the head towards the left or right shoulder.

Travelling Patterns

Social Waltz steps usually travel anti-clockwise around the dance floor, and in a ballroom with many other partners dancing, couples will move to the centre of the floor to perform steps on the spot.  The usual rules of course can be stretched for your first wedding dance, so that the floor patterns can travel in any direction, or that posture can be more relaxed.

The Music

There are different types of Waltz dance, as there are many forms of the music.  Traditionally classical composers such as Strauss, Chopin and Brahms wrote Waltz scores, and now more modern popular songs using the 3/4 time signature can also be danced to, such as;
Come Away With Me – Nora Jones
Kissing You – Des’ree
Kiss From A Rose – Seal
If I Ain’t Got You – Alicia Keys
Here’s a beautiful Waltz from a Strictly Come Dancing moment, performed to Des’ree’s Kissing You.  Just like something out of a fairytale.

First Dance Lesson (c) Mike Edwards