Viennese Waltz Steps: A Beginner’s Lesson in Vienna

The Viennese waltz is built from just two figures, a natural turn and a reverse turn, joined by non-rotating change steps, and a beginner learns the natural turn first because turning one way is enough to get you around a room. I took a beginner’s class at the Tanzschule Elmayer in Vienna, Austria, and went from standing still to whirling in an hour. This is what I learned, what the steps actually are, and how you can take a waltz class in Vienna yourself.

What are the basic Viennese waltz steps?

The basic Viennese waltz step is the square, called the carré, and everything else is that square with a turn folded into it. A full Viennese waltz is made of natural turns, which rotate to the leader’s right, reverse turns, which rotate to the leader’s left, and the change steps that let you switch between the two.

My teacher broke the hour into three figures, in this order.

1. The carré, or square. Left foot back, step to the right, right foot forward. Three steps, three beats, no rotation. You walk the shape of a small square on the floor.
2. The carré with a quarter turn to the right. The same three steps, with a quarter of a rotation worked into them. This is the beginning of the natural turn.
3. The carré with a half turn to the right. The same again, with half a rotation. Two of these and you have turned a full circle, which is what makes the dance travel.

We practised each one three times over: alone, then together, then to music. That order matters more than it sounds. Trying a new figure for the first time while also holding onto another person and also listening to a beat is how people decide they cannot dance.

Only the right turn is taught at the start. The left turn, the reverse, is harder and comes later, and until you have it you will be going round and round in one direction, which has a consequence I will come to.

How to hold your partner in a Viennese waltz

The hold is what stops the turning from throwing you both off balance, and it is more specific than it looks from a distance. Here is what I was corrected on as a follower.

Right arm up, hand resting loosely in his. Elbow pointing down and a little outward, but never travelling further back than your own back. Left arm resting on his, left hand holding on to his arm.

Nobody grips. The frame holds its shape because of where the arms are, not because either person is squeezing, and a follower who hangs off the leader’s arm makes every turn heavier.

Viennese waltz tempo: why it is so fast

The Viennese waltz is danced at about 180 beats per minute, which is roughly 58 to 60 bars a minute at three beats to the bar. That makes it one of the fastest of the standard ballroom dances.

The dance most people picture when they hear “waltz” is the English or slow waltz, danced at about 90 beats per minute, or 30 bars. The Viennese is exactly double it.

That gap is the whole difficulty, and my teacher taught it by walking me up it. We practised to slow English waltz music, then he pushed the tempo from 30 bars to 38, to the low 40s, to 50, and finally to 60.

Somewhere between 55 and 60 something changed for me. A little under 60 I still felt in control of my own movement. At 60 I felt like I was being danced rather than dancing, which is a real and specific sensation and probably the single most useful thing I took away from the hour.

I also had to keep repeating the rhythm in my head to hold the correct posture: “1-2-3, 4-5-6, waltz-waltz-waltz, waltz-waltz-waltz”.

How to stop getting dizzy when you waltz

Turn the other way. That is the trick my teacher gave me and nobody had taught me in 15 years of dance classes, and it works immediately.

The dizziness happens because a beginner only knows the natural turn, so you spend the whole dance rotating in one direction. Once you have the reverse turn as well, you alternate, and the problem largely disappears. That is a large part of why experienced dancers stop looking dizzy.

Until then, a few turns the other way between figures resets you.

My waltz lesson at Tanzschule Elmayer

I walked in excited and a little uneasy. I have been taking dance classes for 15 years, but never a Viennese waltz lesson, and I did not think my hip-hop moves were going to help me here.

Tanzschule Elmayer sits behind a perfectly painted green door in a little street in the busiest part of Vienna, and it is an institution. Teenagers from all over the city come here to learn ballroom dancing before their first ball, experienced dancers come to sharpen up, and then there are beginners like me.

I had booked into the 4 p.m. class, aimed at beginners and open to visitors. You did not need a reservation for that class, but you did need a dance partner, and as I was in Vienna alone, the school arranged one for me.

I swapped my worn-down sneakers for heels in the ladies’ dressing room. No need for proper ballroom shoes, they assured me. Then I sat and waited.

After a few minutes a gentleman came into the reception area, and he turned out to be both the teacher and my partner for the hour. Another couple were meant to join us and did not turn up, so my group class quietly became a private one.

That was intimidating for about two minutes, and then it was obvious that learning a dance one-to-one is far easier than learning it in a group. In one hour we covered the basic steps, what the pattern looks like on the floor and how the tempo feels.

At the end of it I was whirling around the room and grinning. This is the thing I love: moving to the rhythm, concentrating on the steps, feeling it in every part of my body.

Had I learned to dance the Viennese waltz? Sort of. I was not about to call myself a waltzer. But if an hour gets you around the room, the rest cannot be that far off.

Where to take Viennese waltz lessons in Vienna

Vienna has two kinds of waltz teaching for visitors: the traditional dance schools, which mostly run courses for residents, and workshops written specifically for travellers. Which one suits you comes down to whether you are travelling with a partner.

Tanzschule Elmayer

Tanzschule Elmayer, in the Palais Pallavicini on Bräunerstraße, is the school I went to and the one my friend Katrin at Visit Austria called the waltz institute of Vienna. It has been teaching for more than a hundred years and runs the Elmayer-Kränzchen ball in the Hofburg.

Its published programme is now built around courses and private lessons rather than the drop-in class I took. A private lesson costs €95 (about $102, £81) for 50 minutes, and that price covers one person or a couple, with blocks of five lessons at €450 (about $485, £383) and ten at €800 (about $860, £680). There are also compact courses of three sessions: summer courses running every second week in July and August, wedding courses from March to June, and ball crash courses from November to February.

The visitor drop-in class is no longer on the programme, so email or phone before you travel rather than turning up expecting the 4 p.m. Saturday class I walked into.

The Waltz School by Waltz in Vienna

The Waltz School runs one-hour Viennese waltz workshops written for international visitors and taught in English by Aga Bohun, a certified Dance Master, and they are bookable online. This is the closer equivalent to what I did, and the one to look at if you want a single session slotted into a city break.

One thing to check before you book: you must attend as a couple, and they do not provide partners or match solo dancers. That is the opposite of what Elmayer did for me, and it is the single most important practical difference between the two if you are travelling alone.

What to wear for a waltz class

Wear anything comfortable you can move in, and if you are a follower, add a below-the-knee skirt and heels. You do not need ballroom shoes, and heels still make a difference.

Heels are worth it for a practical reason as well as a romantic one: you balance your weight differently in flats, so learning the steps on heels from the start saves you relearning them later.

The skirt is not necessary at all. It is simply more fun when the skirt whirls with you, and below the knee rather than a mini for the obvious reason.

Do you need any experience?

No. Beginner classes and visitor workshops in Vienna assume no dance background at all, and the schools say so explicitly.

What you do need is a partner, or a school that will find you one. Check that before you book, because it is the thing that most often stops a solo traveller taking a class.

A short history of the Viennese waltz

The Viennese waltz is the oldest of the current ballroom dances and the original form of the waltz, and it emerged in Austria in the second half of the 18th century out of the German dance and the Ländler. It was popular and controversial at once, because it was the first ballroom dance done in a closed hold.

That is what made it scandalous. Every European social dance before it was a communal sequence, danced in patterns, with couples facing outwards as much as inwards. The waltz turned couples towards each other and set them loose from the rest of the room.

In Germany, Austria, Scandinavia and France, the plain word for waltz still means this dance rather than the slow one. In English it usually means the slow waltz, which is where a lot of the confusion about tempo comes from.

A true Viennese waltz is only turns and change steps. The fleckerls, the underarm turns and the American-style figures you see in competition are later additions.

Where to stay in Vienna

I spent two nights at the Hotel Zeitgeist Vienna, a four-star hotel on Sonnwendgasse next to Vienna Central Station, which puts you one train from the airport and a short U-Bahn ride from the dance schools in the first district.

The fitness room, sauna, infrared cabin and bicycles are free for guests. There is a restaurant, café and bar with a garden, an outdoor area in the courtyard, and its own underground car park with direct lobby access if you are driving. Breakfast is organic and regional.

Book direct-rate comparisons before you commit, because the hotel discounts its own bookings. Check current prices and availability here.

How to get to Vienna

Fly or take the train, and then use the S-Bahn or the City Airport Train from Vienna Airport into the centre. I flew direct from Brussels and took the train from the airport straight into the city.

For an overview of flight options and prices, check Trip.com.

If you are already reasonably close to Vienna or simply prefer the train, look here for timetables and prices. Vienna is a direct train from Salzburg, Munich, Prague, Budapest and Bratislava, so it is an easy add-on to a central European trip.

Viennese waltz FAQ

How fast is the Viennese waltz? About 180 beats per minute, or 58 to 60 bars a minute at three beats to the bar. That is exactly double the English or slow waltz, which runs at about 90 beats per minute.

How many steps does the Viennese waltz have? Three, repeated: the dance is made of natural turns, reverse turns and non-rotating change steps, all built on the same three-step square. Everything else is a later addition.

Can you learn to waltz in one lesson? You can learn enough to travel round a room in one hour, which is what happened to me. You will have one turn rather than two, and you will get dizzy.

Do I need a dance partner to take a class in Vienna? Usually yes. Some schools will pair a solo visitor with a teacher, and the visitor-focused workshops generally require you to book as a couple, so ask before you pay.

Do I need ballroom shoes? No. Ordinary heels are fine for a beginner’s class, and the schools say so. Learning in heels rather than flats saves you adjusting your balance later.

WonderfulWanderings Pro Tips

The five tips below come from an hour of beginner instruction at Elmayer and from checking what Vienna’s schools currently offer visitors.

1. When you get dizzy, turn the other way. It works within a couple of bars, and it is why experienced dancers alternate natural and reverse turns rather than spinning one way all evening. No one had told me this in 15 years of dance classes.
2. Ask whether the school provides a partner before you book. Elmayer paired me with the teacher when nobody else turned up; the visitor workshops require you to come as a couple and will not match you. For a solo traveller this decides which class you can take.
3. Learn in heels from the first lesson. You carry your weight differently in flats, so starting in flats means relearning the balance later. You do not need proper ballroom shoes, just ordinary heels.
4. Practise every figure alone first, then with a partner, then to music. That is the order my teacher used, and doing all three at once is how beginners conclude they cannot dance.
5. Expect the tempo, not the steps, to be the hard part. The figures are simple. At 60 bars a minute the sensation changes from dancing to being danced, and that happens abruptly, somewhere just above 55.

About the author. This guide is written and maintained by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team. Wonderful Wanderings was founded in 2012 by Sofie Couwenbergh, and the first-hand notes in this post come from her beginner’s Viennese waltz lesson at the Tanzschule Elmayer in Vienna, taken after 15 years of dancing everything except ballroom. The team covers Austria for independent travellers, including the Vienna hotels, flights and trains worth booking around a few days in the city, and updates this page when schools change their programmes and prices.