when was the waltz from
This detail from frontispiece to Thomas Wilsonâs Correct Method of German and French Waltzing (1816), shows nine positions of the Waltz, clockwise from the left (the musicians are at far left). The history of the waltz actually dates back to the 1500âs. There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance, i.e. a waltz, from the 16th century including the representations of the printer H.S. Beheim. The French philosopher Montaigne wrote of a dance he saw in 1580 in Augsburg, where the dancers held each other so closely that their faces touched.