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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 (Chujoy, 1967, 958) in 1559,
as a piece of folk music called the Volta (Sadie, 1980, 20/74),
although the Volta has also been claimed to be an
Italian folk dance at this time (Norton, 1994, 12/426).
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.
During the 16th Century, the Volta became popular in the royal
courts of Western Europe. Arbeau describes it as like a Galliard
(done to 3/2 music) but done to slow 6/4 music (Sadie, 1980, 20/74).
Actually both it and the Galliard had 5 steps to 6 beats (and hence
also alternated feet in alternate measures). The Volta required the
partners to dance in a closed position but with the lady to the left
of the man! The man held the lady about the waist, and the lady
put her right arm on the man's shoulders, and held her skirt with
her left. This was necessary to stop it flying up, because the
dance involved the man lifting the lady using his left
thigh under the lady's right thigh (Norton, 1994, 12/426).
Glynis Johns playing the part of Mary Tudor
performs this dance in the movie "The Sword and the Rose".
A famous illustration of this dance is a contemporary painting
said to be of Elizabeth I of England dancing the Volta
with the Earl of Leicester, being lifted in the air by her
partner (at Penshurst Place, Kent). This ascription is probably
facetious, as the painting appears to be from the French Valois court.
The Volta appears to be similar to a present day Norwegian
Waltz folkdance. As in any turning dance, as the couple
perform their step around their partner, they have to take a larger
than usual step to get from one side of their partner to the other.
In this Norwegian Waltz, the man assists the lady to do this by lifting
her into the air as she takes this step (thus neatly accommodating
the general difference in leg length of the partners).
In order to do this in the Volta, the partners had to hold each
other in such a close embrace that many declared it immoral.
Louis XIII (1601-1643) had it banned from court on this account
(Sadie, 1980, 20/74).
Thus although the Volta may have originally been in 3 time,
it evolved to be in 5 time. One of the first published dances
in 3 time was "Hole in the Wall" published by Playford in 1695.
In 1754 the first music for the actual "Waltzen" appeared in
Germany (Sadie, 1980, 20/200). Any connection between the Waltzen
and the Volta remains obscure, except that the word "waltzen"
in German also means "to revolve" (Norton, 1994, 12/482).
In 1799 Arndt wrote that
"the dancers grasped the long dresses so that it would not drag
or be trodden upon, and lifted it high holding them like a cloak
which brought both bodies under one cover, as closely as possible
against them"
Thus the Waltzen also attracted moral criticism, with Wolf
publishing a pamphlet in 1797 (Sadie, 1980, 20/200) entitled
"Proof that Waltzing is a main source of weakness of the body
and mind of our generation".
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