Ballroom Guide

These routines are 100% free for you to use, practice, and compete with. If a figure you want to use is missing, add it! If you are having a problem with a certain figure, replace it. These routines are yours now.

N.B. The Commencing Alignments given are those of the Man. From this alignment and the figure itself, the Lady's alignment can be inferred.

Bronze Viennese Waltz Routine 1

Difficulty: 3/10

This routine is your best bet if you're just learning Viennese Waltz. Granted, this dance is still difficult for beginners, but using this routine will make your life as easy as possible.

To dance this routine, commence at the end of a long side, approaching a corner. Dance Natural Turns until you have gotten around the entire short side, then dance a Forward Change. From there, dance Reverse Turns until you reach about 3/4 of the way down the long side, at which point you should dance another Forward Change, and restart the routine. Below is an example of what this routine may look like. Depending on the size of your steps and the size of the floor, you may end up dancing more or fewer Natural Turns or Reverse Turns before you change.

It is a lot easier to round corners while dancing Natural Turns than Reverse Turns, but dance too many turns in the same direction and you will get dizzy. That is why you should use Reverse Turns when going in a straight line down the long side. Make sure you don't wait until you are already in the corner to change back to Natural Turns - play it safe and do it when you are 3/4 of the way down the long side.

Bronze Viennese Waltz Routine 2

Difficulty: 6/10

This routine, although consisting only of Bronze figures, is used by dancers all the way up to the Professional level. The reason is that this routine matches the music perfectly. As discussed in this BGBB article about Musicality and Phrasing, a musical phrase typically comes in a set of eight bars. This routine uses eight bars to dance a Natural Turn and Change, and eight to dance a Reverse Turn and Change, making your dancing more powerful and musical without you having to do anything.

The difficulty with this routine is that this will sometimes require you to dance Reverse Turns around a corner, which is a very, very difficult feat. For that reason, this routine, while legal in the Bronze Syllabus, is not recommended for beginners. Even if you are capable of dancing this routine around the room, unless you are capable of dancing it well, the added difficulty of dancing Reverse Turns around the corner may drag you down more than the improved musicality boosts you up.

Bronze Viennese Waltz Routine 3

Difficulty: 4/10

This routine combines the musicality of the second routine with the ease of getting around the corners using Natural Turns. Although it is most musical to take a full eight bars to dance a Natural Turn and Change, or a Reverse Turn and Change, it is still somewhat musical to do the same in four bars. To use this hybrid routine, try to get around the corners using only Natural Turns and a Back Change, but make sure you take some multiple of four bars to do it, for example, 4, 8, or 12 bars. Then dance your Reverse Turns and Forward Change down the long side, but again, make sure that lasts some multiple of four bars. By doing this, you will spare yourself the hassle of dancing around the corners with Reverse Turns, yet you will still look somewhat musical. Below is an example of what this routine may look like. Depending on the size of your steps and the size of the floor, you may end up dancing more or fewer Natural Turns or Reverse Turns before you change.