Standard Dances

Standard Dances are those eminent and elegant dances that brings the atmosphere of romanticism and emotions. Martha’s Dance Center offers:

Click here to find out about Latin Dances


Viennese Waltz

The Viennese waltz was born in the suburbs of Vienna and in the alpine region of Austria in the 1700's. The waltz was originally a folk dance, danced by peasants in Austria and Bavaria. Many of the familiar waltz tunes can be traced back to simple peasant yodeling melodies. The word, waltz comes from the old German word "walzen" which means to roll, turn, or to glide.

Viennese waltz is a fast–moving, challenging, and exciting dance. Like the polka, this dance requires stamina. Many folks cannot sustain the dance through more than two minutes. Because the dance moves fast, do not attempt to dance the Viennese waltz until you learn the footwork.

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Slow Waltz

The Slow Dance originated significantly later than Viennese Waltz from a combination of Slow American Dance – Boston. The tempo is half as slower as in Viennese Waltz. Although this dance does not constitute of many figures, it’s easy to dance.

Slow Dance is usually danced all around the floor counterclockwise. The most important element is a harmony and fluency as well as grace expressed in variations of rise & fall.

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Tango

Tango derived from Buenos Aires slums in Argentina. At first it was not successfully accepted by a general public. What’s more — it was condemned by pope and German emperor banned to dance tango on his courts.

Tango is a dance of affection. It is all about disguised passion and extreme focus with tremendous craving to be together and desire of closeness. Tango teaches discipline and concentration: man – predictability and planning; woman – patience and dedication.

Tango is a dramatic dance and has a fierce character full of unexpected directions, turns and quick head movements.

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Foxtrot

Foxtrot is a typical English dance. Its name is derived from words "fox’s trot". This dance is based on fundamentals of walking. What is interesting is that two feet never touch. The slow music is an extreme challenge for partners and it gives countless ways of interpretation. The movements should be fluent and strong as well as partners should keep same speed at all time.

Foxtrot is considered to be the most difficult Standard dance.

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Quickstep

Quickstep was born in America along with the advent of vogue of jazz music. This dance contains elements of Foxtrot, Polka and Charleston. It is also called quick Foxtrot.

To dance Quickstep at the beginning you have to remember and control its all steps because its dynamic pace does not allow to stop and prepare for net figure. It’s easy to lose the rhythm, fall or even bump into other dancers.