Folk dance from Denmark

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Dance description:

Trippevals "353" (Mince Waltz no. 353) Couple dance Mince waltz steps  (3 steps per bar) Approximate animation of the foot steps

Trippevals "353" (Mince Waltz no. 353) - couple dance
bar 1		Normal dance position or hold is perfect (though a special hold from a local region in Jutland is getting more in use). Dance couple wise in the line of dancing in the ballroom. Steps are much like polka, but here with even 3 steps per bar, 1 step per beat, ("just like hearing the steam engine at the coop dairy", 100 years ago). It is not a waltz. The feet "step" on the floor (just like the music), they do not "slide" along the floor as in waltz. See the animation above.
bar 2		Compared to (Vienna) waltz the turning around is late by 1/4 of a round (see animation of dance 1). So the foot steps on the 3 beats are: "1, together, 3" Like for the gent: "left, right up together with left, left" turn and: "right, left, right" Opposite for the lady.

The dance is repeated as long as pleased.
 

So the steps in mince waltz and Vienna waltz are:
Mince waltz:  "1, together, 3"
Vienna waltz: "1, 2, together"

(((
It is decided in a publication from Copenhagen in 1944 (Vejledning for ledere i folkedans) that old-time countryside waltz in Denmark is or should be Vienna waltz. If you dance different you dance wrong.
I grew up with waltz basically as "1, together, 3", that is rather much the same as in mince waltz. Only that the foot movement is smooth and more sliding and the feeling in your body is smooth and waving. Or the step 3 is rather suppressed so the steps in many situations are: "1, together, up on toes". In this way my parents dance (recognized as good dancers), and so did my grandmother. In this way everybody danced at dance parties in my childhood home. And they learned it from their parents and grandparents, etc. And looking into historic files I get the impression that most of Denmark danced waltz like that 100 years ago. "Peasant waltz" some might call it. It was wrong, because waltz comes from outside Denmark, and should historically be Vienna waltz. But all our other folk dances did somehow in a way also come to us from abroad and were changed here in Denmark (except maybe the Peasant Girl, dance 11). I feel that we have to know this peasant waltz to understand some of the old dance descriptions right. With this "peasant waltz" the name mince waltz is more obvious.
The problem is that "my" peasant waltz and the (easier) Vienna waltz are so very different in some important details. This is not a problem dancing with the 1/3 of the ladies that so nicely just follows the man (= me) leading. With another 1/3 of the ladies it works out. (Only some Copenhagen girls told me that they in my tyrolese waltz felt I dropped them on the doorstep when they expected to be followed up to the bedroom). But with the last 1/3 of the ladies it gets to be a difficult if not impossible task, because they "know" how to dance waltz all the way out into their toes. And they are right of course, so now I have finally decided to yield.
So: old-time waltz = Vienna waltz all over in Denmark. period.
)))

Forget about what is written ((( above ))), and just have an enjoyable time, not thinking about unimportant details.

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