"Slow" Viennese Waltz ???

[tanya_the_dancer]

OK, here's the story. We went to a New Year dinner/dance to a big (in terms of square footage) studio in the nearby town. In the beginning of dancing they announced that requests are welcome. So half-way through the evening my husband went and requested VW. The result - they played a song which is normally a VW, but they slowed it down to the speed of American bronze waltz :shock: So obviously it did not work as a VW. What's up with that??? And they played only 1 (one) tango in the entire 4 hours of dancing.

 

[Chris Stratton]

I think you will find that it is quite common that the DJ's at socials are playing for a different idea of dancing than what you had in mind - often assuming a lot more limted dance skills and less development of the uniqueness of each dance. You will for example find that the slow dances are played too fast, and the fast dances played too slow - everything trending towards the middle where less skill is needed to initially survive.

When you find one who does suit your needs, that will be the place you go back to.

 

[tanya_the_dancer]

I think next year we will go to a different place. Will have to figure out where to spend the night, though. This one is close enough that we can drive back home. The next closest place is over 1 hour drive, driving that far at 1am just does not sound very attractive.

 

[cornutt]

I think you will find that it is quite common that the DJ's at socials are playing for a different idea of dancing than what you had in mind - often assuming a lot more limted dance skills and less development of the uniqueness of each dance. You will for example find that the slow dances are played too fast, and the fast dances played too slow - everything trending towards the middle where less skill is needed to initially survive.

Yes, I see this a lot at venues like company parties where they hire a DJ who doesn't normally cater to dancers. Likely that DJ didn't really know what VW is, as distinguished from slow waltz. He just found something that was in 3/4 time and played it. (At least give him credit for that... I was at a party once where we asked for a waltz, and the DJ played Air Supply's "All Out of Love". ) The other thing I see a lot is people will asked for a rumba or bolero, and the DJ responds with something that has a languid melody but is actually too fast a tempo for rumba (the canonical example being "Lady In Red"). If you aren't armed with some NC2S steps, you wind up sitting out a lot at parties like that.

 

[tanya_the_dancer]

Yes, I see this a lot at venues like company parties where they hire a DJ who doesn't normally cater to dancers. Likely that DJ didn't really know what VW is, as distinguished from slow waltz. He just found something that was in 3/4 time and played it. (At least give him credit for that... I was at a party once where we asked for a waltz, and the DJ played Air Supply's "All Out of Love". ) The other thing I see a lot is people will asked for a rumba or bolero, and the DJ responds with something that has a languid melody but is actually too fast a tempo for rumba (the canonical example being "Lady In Red"). If you aren't armed with some NC2S steps, you wind up sitting out a lot at parties like that.

No in this case he knew what VW is (at least what songs are VW). He did take a VW song and slowed it down. Because when my husband went and asked if they are going to play a VW waltz he asked for, because when they played the song which was supposed to be VW, it was too slow, they said "Well, we already played this song, but we had to slow it down because nobody can dance a waltz that fast". And that studio teaches mainly ballroom, but it also has sizeable country clientele and apparently it has a lot of non-partner group classes like belly dancing and line dancing. And the DJ was one of their teachers.

 

[White Chacha]

I guess they know their clientele - sigh.

 

[wooh]

Wow, I know the feeling of not falling in line with what the crowds want. But I guess it is crazy to want VW or quickstep or samba at a ballroom social instead of a bajillion swings and 2-steps.