Serendipidy, I could have added many things, such as the fact that's it's difficult for inexperienced dancers to give VW its characteristic grandeur.

You had already mentioned the amount of space needed. I saw no reason to repeat the point.

I have been dancing most of my life it seems, and that's 55 years, and I have to say that nailing the Viennese Waltz continues to be difficult. My wife and I can do it, and probably without getting too dizzy and such, but we'd never pick it as a dance to do in front of a lot of people at an important occasion. I admire the courage and ambition, but if one of you is a beginner with two left feet, as you say, you may find even the six to seven months you are giving yourself to be cutting it close for a VW that you'd both feel comfortable with. There are ways to make the steps real small and the turns almost stationary in nature, but the true feel of the VW is lots of spinning, lots of fast movement along the LOD and tricky step patterns that are difficult to master and keep proper timing. But it is great fun, and so very cool when you do it right with a partner who can keep up.
Good luck, but listen closely to Serendipidy and jofjonesboro on this one. They are right on target in their thoughts. A modern waltz could carry a little more elegance and romantic flair for when the spotlight is on the bride and groom.

I would agree it would take about 6 months to learn to do a Viennese Waltz with confidence. With a few months more real world experience dancing it, it should be possible to present in in moderately sized space. Try using back changes - some say they are less elegant, but they let you work in tighter quarters.

But I would not recommend this as a wedding dance, except to already experienced dancers. I absolutely would do one my myself, but not as the only dance (might just have to do all five). In fact I think I'd ask about 6 couples of skilled friends to seed onto the floor one at a time during the Vw and join us. A good way to open the reception from the first dance to general dancing.

I don't want to get off on a tangent from the original question, but it seems like the forum to ask this question, that I have been wondering about. In the Viennese Waltz, on the man's third step, I have been crossing my left foot in front of my right. But as the dance speeds up, I will sometimes not completely cross and it will be more of a tap right next to the right foot, or other times the left foot will go slightly behind the right. It kind of depends on the pace and how my partner and I are doing as far as staying on count. This is American Standard style I am talking about. Is this OK, or am I "cheating" and robbing the dance of its true style?

If your left foot is not crossing in front or is even going behind, you might be overturning step 2. Try to stay going "forward" longer and make the turn more as your arrive on step 2, so that your left foot can fold into place in front of your right. As they say, it's a traveling dance that happens to rotate, not a rotating dance that travels.

anymouse, I just tried that, and it does help. It will be a different "feel" that will take some time, but I can see where it will make a difference. Thanks for the tip. It's one of those subtle things that make a big difference in a dance this fast-paced. I also like the analogy of a traveling dance that happens to rotate, as opposed to vice versa. Just to be clear, though, you did mean "make the turn more as you arrive on step 2" and not step 3, correct? When I tried it, I went L forward on step 1, R side/forward on step 2 with some rotation, and then L step 3 passing in front of R. It seemed to smooth it out for me.

Too often, discussions of turning figures center on the footwork. It is very important to keep in mind that the shoulders are as important in any such figure as the feet.

If you fail to turn your shoulders properly, the footwork will be more difficult.

jj

"Too often, discussions of turning figures center on the footwork. It is very important to keep in mind that the shoulders are as important in any such figure as the feet."

Yes, often problems with foot position are a symptom of problems in the aim of body movement.

But problems with foot action could be different - either they body not giving the foot a chance to do its thing, or simply poor foot technique as its own problem.

The original positng was concerning the International Style of V.Waltz. On a Reverse Turn there is about zero rise and fall. It is as flat as the footwork will allow.. On the Reverse Turn turn over the RF on the second step, and get step three down right on the beat of three. In short don't try to lower and step at the same time.

"The original positng was concerning the International Style of V.Waltz. On a Reverse Turn there is about zero rise and fall. It is as flat as the footwork will allow.."

This is not correct. If you go back to the descriptions, there is rise and fall in the reverse turn too.

It would be correct to say that it's substantially less than in the natural turn, and it would probably also be correct to say that many over do it when trying to learn the dance, but it should still be there to a degree.