Corbin Bleu and Karina Smirnoff gave a dramatic twist to the Viennese waltz on “Dancing with the Stars” in Los Angeles in October 2013. If you have ever thought that formal wear is too, well, formal for waltzing and the waltz itself too staid, check the video. The pair give the genre a blast by using the theme music to the hit TV series “Game of Thrones”.
As one judge on the show asked, “Is it the Viennese waltz?” Well, perhaps not. But he nonetheless gave them 7/10 for the overall choreography – and I would too.
What do you think? Is Viennese Waltz meets Game of Thrones a great choreography? Should we still call it a Viennese waltz? Do you have any other examples of innovation in the waltz we can look at?
Game of Thrones composer
This got me thinking: who is the composer of Game of Thrones and is there a connection with Viennese waltz? I got an answer for the first part, but none for the second. The composer is Ramin Djawadi, a German composer who has worked on “Batman Begins”, “Clash of the Titans” and “Iron Man”.
In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter he stated that, “Deep down, classical Romantic music is what I love: Brahms, Tchaikovsky – the Romantics. As a teen I got into rock and played guitar, my main instrument. At Berklee [College of Music], I played jazz. Because I don’t write lyrics, I got into film music. It’s nice to go through these evolutions because film composers get asked to do so many styles.”
Djawadi’s website can be found here.