Dance Skating - The Viennese Waltz

Last year I did a series of posts about the compulsory dances being skating in the World Class and Junior World Class competition levels.  I figured it was about time to get started on that for this season.  This year the competitive requirements are:

WC Team:

Viennese Waltz

Tango Delanco (NEW dance being skated for the first time this season)

WC Solo:

Starlight Waltz

Quickstep

JrWC Team:

Dench Blues

Harris Tango

JrWC Solo:

Imperial Tango

Fourteen Step Plus

Last year's JrWC team dances are being used for solo this year, so I don't feel the need to do another post for those.  Also, since the Tango Delanco is a brand new dance for this skating season, I don't know when I will be able to find video documentation for the new dance.  The other dances have all been skated in competition previously, so I thought it would be fun to start reviewing them.

The first dance I want to discuss is the Viennese Waltz.  This is one of the traditional skating dances, dating back to the 1930s.  It is skated to a waltz tempo with 138bpm.  This can be quite a lovely dance, with steps alternating between quick pushes and turns and long flowing edges.  Like many of the traditional roller dances, there are two variation - an International and an American version.  Aside from the general difference in American and International styles of pushing, the International version is a Set Pattern where the steps must be repeated at the same position on the skating surface, and the American version is a Boarder Pattern Dance; usually skated with three patterns.

In order to help the main page load faster, I will post the video links after a jump break.

Some examples of the international version:

And the American style:

This dance is also used in ice:

Currently the American version is used in competition in the Senior Solo dance event, where the ladies steps are skates.  It is also skated in the RSA #15 Gold Medal Test for both Team and Solo American Dance.  The International version is skated in the World Class Team division, but has not been used in the solo event thus far.  It is skated in the RSA #12 Gold Medal Test for International Team and Solo Dance.