The Waltz

As most people know, the waltz is a ballroom and folk dance performed in closed position (holding your partner while facing them).

It is not know exactly when the waltz arrived to the United States, but by the middle of the 19th century it was firmly established in U.S. society. It got the attention of socialites who started courting the lower classes, which led to new castes.

It emerged in the 16th century in Southern Germany when peasants started dancing the landler, a dance so fun that the upper class men would attend these lower class' gatherings just to enjoy it. Soon later the dance was given the name of walzer, which comes from the Latin volvere which means to rotate. But it wasn't only the spinning around the room that made people notice this dance, but rather the closed position you had to dance it in; face to face, holding your partner close. In 1825, the Oxford dictionary defined the waltz as "riotous and indecent."

But nowadays, the waltz is a classic and seems totally innocent. We even have multiple ballroom dance competitions where the waltz is the star of the show. Here, my favorite:

• Information from: Wikipedia.org, Dance.LoveToKnow.com, DanceLovers.com, SocialDance.Stanford.edu
• Videos from YouTube (users: Aaron1912, 37even)
• Picture from Pinterest (user: Sidorela Peraj)