Claudel became increasingly frustrated with Rodin's unwillingness to break away from his long-term mistress, Rose Beuret, and their love affair ended in 1892.

As originally conceived, the work depicts two naked dancers, a man and a woman, in a dance hold, frozen at a moment in time in their amorous embrace.

Her plaster model of the sculpture was reviewed in 1892 by the art critic Armand Dayot, who was working as an inspector for the French Ministry of Beaux-Arts.

In his report to the ministry, he praised the sensuality and expression of the work, and the modelling of the figures, but concluded that it was not acceptable for public display due to the indecency of the naked dancers.

Dayot reviewed the amended plaster model in 1893: he was impressed with the sense of movement added by the drapery, and supported the new work, known as La valse avec voiles ("The waltz with veils").

Claudel exhibited this revised plaster model in 1893 at the Paris Salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, but the minister Henry Roujon deemed it unacceptable for a woman to be given a public commission for artwork which included a naked man.