Acid house pioneer Adamski wants to get us all dancing in 3/4 Viennese time and ‘partying like its 1799’
London’s clubland is about to be hit by an unlikely new dance craze: the return of waltzing, but with electronic beats. Clubbers will be given lessons in waltz steps from legendary choreographer Les Child (who brought voguing from New York to the UK), before being told to “party like it’s 1799”.
The unlikely project is the brainchild of acid house pioneer Adamski. “I’d been spending a lot of time in Venezuela, and the folk music there is influenced by waltz music from Vienna, all in 3/4 time,” he explains. “Old Viennese classical music isn’t groovy, but the Venezuelans have added this Latin swing element, with basslines, which sounds amazing. I thought it would be interesting to do something like that, so I started chopping contemporary beats like dubstep and grime 3/4 time, and came up with this new sound.”
Music for a twirling dance performed by couples in close proximity seems a long way from acid culture, but Adamski remembers being first struck by a similar notion during an Ibiza residency in 1989. “The rave had a logo of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and it stuck in my mind. In my lifetime, people have always danced alone. I thought it would be great to get people to dance together.”
At last month’s Bestival, the 44-year-old couldn’t get people waltzing because “they were packed in like sardines”. But when it was played at a Vivienne Westwood party in Vienna earlier this month, where the designer wore lederhosen, “the Austrians couldn’t believe it. We were bringing waltzing home.”
The club nights (and a forthcoming album) will see him joined by singers David McAlmont and Viktoria Modesta, punk drummers, pianists and young MCs, the idea being to unite cultures and generations under the 3/4 groove.”I’ve been scouring the internet for songs in waltz time. We’ll be doing mashups of Kanye West and Kelis next to a mental version of Engelbert Humperdinck’s The Last Waltz.” Adamski says that he is updating the old Balearic philosophy of “anything goes, as long as you can dance to it” to “anything goes, as long as you can waltz”.
But can anyone waltz? “It helps if you’re lithe and supple, but it’s very easy and you feel lovely,” says Child. “You’re sweeping, spinning and gliding. It’s like you’re flying.”
Could the waltz be the next dance craze? | Music | The Guardian.
