The Viennese Waltz is most notable for being the classic Prince Charming and Cinderella dance. The Viennese Waltz is a delightful, charming, elegant and glamorous ballroom dance that originated in Vienna in the 1800's and is the result of Waltz music being played at a much faster tempo. The Viennese Waltz is a fun, exciting dance to learn as you can see when viewing the Viennese Waltz video, which demonstrates the dance, on this page.
The Viennese Waltz is a progressive, rotational, much faster dance than the Waltz and is danced counterclockwise around the dance floor. The Viennese Waltz is a dance that is characterized by big, sweeping, graceful turns with "rise and fall" and "sway" movements that are less than in the Waltz because of the speed of the dance. Viennese Waltz music is written in 3/4 time and is counted "1 2 3, 1 2 3, with a strong accent on the first beat. Today, dancers can dance the Viennese Waltz to a variety of Waltz music. The social Viennese Waltz is a beautiful enjoyable dance for all levels of dancer and even today there is an annual Viennese Waltz Ball dedicated to this dance.
There are two styles of Viennese Waltz. The first style is the International Style Standard Viennese Waltz, which is danced in a closed dance hold throughout the dance and incorporates natural turns, reverse turns, change steps, contra checks, fleckerels (a fast moving foot pattern that creates turns done in one position on the dance floor), left whisks and cantor pivots. The second style is the American Style Smooth Viennese Waltz, which allows the dancers to break contact (completely in some figures) with open movements, underarm turns, spins, high kicks and a greater variety of figures. The Viennese Waltz is demonstrated in the Viennese Waltz video on this page.