Ballroom Waltz Dance Pattern

The Waltz is a graceful and smooth dance performed in a counter-clockwise direction around the dance floor maintaining the line of dance. The waltz dance pattern features a rise and fall character to the dance with a step, slide and step in ¾ time. The shoulders should move smoothly parallel to the floor without going up and down and the rise and fall should be executed with the tip-toeing motion at the end of each step. Dancers are requested to lengthen their steps to give flowing fluidity to the movements. If you learn the box pattern and under arm turn then you would have learnt the main waltz dance pattern.

Basic Box Step: Couples face each other with their body touching each other and their steps should be the exact opposite of each other’s steps. This means that the woman does exactly the opposite of what the man does in relation to foot and direction. Man Forward, woman backward, man left foot, woman right foot and vice versa.

The man keeps his left foot forward, then steps sideways with his right foot and follows up by placing his left foot alongside the right foot. Simultaneously the woman does the opposite. She keeps her right foot backward, steps sideways with her left foot and places the right foot alongside the left foot. This will complete a half turn of the box pattern. Then the man steps backward with his right foot, steps sideways with his left foot and places the right foot alongside the left foot. The female partner mirrors this step thus completing the box. Remember that in waltz dance pattern, the box step pattern is the basic one which will help you to execute other steps too.

Underarm Turn: The male lead dancer gives the sign to commence the underarm turn by elevating his left hand enabling the female follower to turn. The woman takes six steps while moving forward and rotating simultaneously and returns to her original position by the time she finishes the sixth step.

Dance Position: Both partners should hold their bodies erect with a firm body posture to provide enough tension for lead dancer to lead and the female follower to follow. The body stance should not be sloppy or slack. The male lead holds the female follower’s right hand in his left hand. The female follower should remember to lightly place her right hand on his left hand and not hold the male lead’s hand. The female follower should rest her left hand on the right upper arm of the male lead and the male keeps his right hand below her left arm just under the shoulder blade.

Waltz Music: Music for the Waltz dance pattern has a ¾ time beat counted as 1, 2 and 3, with a step performed for each beat. All dancers dance in a single direction, circling and dancing around the floor creating lovely rotating movements. Thus when all the couples adhere to the waltz dance pattern there is minimum collision among dancers.