The sounds of Pyotr Tchaikovsky's “Waltz of the Flowers” have become a holiday standard, but this family favorite began as a dance of rebellion, embraced by teens and sneered at by parents. When the dance first whirled through the ballrooms of Vienna, it caused an outrage and marked a decisive shift in European social customs.
The dance's origins are probably humble. Its name comes from walzen— “to turn” in German—and may have developed out of the folk music of Austria's western Tyrol region (although some authors associate its choreography with the volta, a 16th-century couples dance). Whatever its exact origin, by the late 1700s the waltz spread throughout Europe. The dance craze was particularly popular among young people from the wealthy middle classes, the perfect expression of a new, confident bourgeoisie, who were discarding the aristocratic customs of their elders.
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