Dance Today

• Dance (from French danser, perhaps from

Frankish) is a sport and art form that generally
refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic
and to music,[1] used as a form of expression,
social interaction or presented in a spiritual or
performance setting. Dance is also used to
describe methods of non-verbal communication
(see body language) between humans or animals (
bee dance, patterns of behaviour such as a mating
dance), motion in inanimate objects (the leaves
danced in the wind), and certain musical forms or
genres. In sports, gymnastics, figure skating and
synchronized swimming are dance disciplines
while martial arts kata are often compared to
dances.
• Definitions of what constitutes dance are
dependent on social, cultural, aesthetic,
artistic and moral constraints and range from
functional movement (such as folk dance) to
virtuoso techniques such as ballet. Dance
can be participatory, social or performed for
an audience. It can also be ceremonial,
competitive or erotic. Dance movements
may be without significance in themselves,
such as in ballet or European folk dance, or
have a gestural vocabulary/symbolic system
as in many Asian dances. Dance can
embody or express ideas, emotions or tell a
story.
• Dancing has evolved many styles. Breakdancing
and Krumping are related to the hip hop culture.
African dance is interpretive. Ballet, Ballroom,
Waltz, and Tango are classical styles of dance
while Square and the Electric Slide are forms of
step dances.
• Every dance, no matter what style, has something
in common. It not only involves flexibility and
body movement, but also physics. If the proper
physics is not taken into consideration, injuries
can and are likely to occur.
• Choreography is the art of creating dances. The
person who creates (i.e., choreographs) a dance is
known as the choreographer.
• Dancing and music
• Many early forms of music and dance were created
and performed together. This paired development
has continued through the ages with dance/music
forms such as: jig, waltz, tango, disco, salsa,
electronica and hip-hop. Some musical genres also
have a parallel dance form such as Baroque music
and Baroque dance whereas others developed
separately: classical music and classical ballet.
• Although dance is often accompanied by music, it
can also be presented independently or provide its
own accompaniment (tap dance). Dance presented
with music may or may not be performed in time to
the music depending on the style of dance. Dance
performed without music is said to be danced to its
own rhythm.
• Dance competitions
• A dance competition is an organized event in
which contestants perform dances before a judge
or judges for awards and, in some cases, monetary
prizes. There are several major types of dance
competitions, distinguished primarily by the style
or styles of dances performed. Major types of
dance competitions include:
• Competitive dance, in which a variety of theater
dance styles—such as acro, ballet, jazz, hip-hop,
lyrical, and tap—are permitted.
• Open competitions, which permit a wide variety
of dance styles. A popular example of this is the
TV program So You Think You Can Dance.
• Dancesport, which is focused exclusively on
ballroom and latin dance. Popular examples of this
are TV programs Dancing with the Stars and
Strictly Come Dancing.
• Single-style competitions, such as highland dance,
dance team, and Irish dance, which only permit a
single dance style.
• Today, there are various dances and dance show
competitions on Television and the Internet.
• Dance occupations
• There are different careers connected with
dancing: Dancer, dance teacher, dance sport
coach, dance therapist and choreographer.
• Dancer
• Dance training differs depending on the dance
form. There are university programs and schools
associated with professional dance companies for
specialised training in classical dance (e.g. Ballet)
and modern dance. There are also smaller,
privately owned dance studios where students may
train in a variety of dance forms including
competitive dance forms (e.g. Latin dance,
ballroom dance, etc.) as well as ethnic/traditional
dance forms.
• Professional dancers are usually employed on
contract or for particular
performances/productions. The professional life of
a dancer is generally one of constantly changing
work situations, strong competition pressure and
low pay. Professional dancers often need to
supplement their income, either in dance related
roles (e.g., dance teaching, dance sport coaches,
yoga) or Pilates instruction to achieve financial
stability.
• Dance teachers
• Dance teacher and operators of dance schools rely on
reputation and marketing. For dance forms without an
association structure such as Salsa or Tango Argentino
they may not have formal training. Most dance
teachers are self employed.
• Dancesport coaches
• Dancesport coaches are tournament dancers or former
dancesports people, and may be recognised by a dance
sport federation.
• Choreographer
• Choreographers are generally university trained and
are typically employed for particular projects or, more
rarely may work on contract as the resident
choreographer for a specific dance company. A
choreographic work is protected intellectual property.
Dancers may undertake their own choreography.
Modern Dances
• Ballet is a formalized type of performative dance, the
origins of which date lay in sixteenth- and seventeenth-
century French courts, and which was further developed
in England, Italy, and Russia as a concert dance form.
The early performances preceded the intervention of the
proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers
with the most of the audience seated on tiers or galleries
on three sides of the dancing floor. The early ballet
dancers were not as highly skilled as they are now. It has
since become a highly technical form of dance with its
own vocabulary. It is primarily performed with the
accompaniment of classical music. It has been influential
as a form of dance globally and is taught in
ballet schools around the
• the world, which use their own cultures and societies
to inform the art. Ballet dance works (ballets) are
choreographed, and also include mime, acting, and
are set to music (usually orchestral but occasionally
vocal).
• Classical ballet
• Classical ballet is the most formal of the ballet
styles; it adheres to traditional
ballet technique. There are variations relating
to area of origin, such as Russian ballet,
French ballet, and Italian ballet.
• Neoclassical ballet
• Neoclassical ballet is a ballet style that uses
traditional ballet vocabulary but is less rigid than
the classical ballet.
• Contemporary ballet
• Contemporary ballet is a form of dance influenced
by both classical ballet and modern dance
Breakdance
• Breakdance, breaking, b-boying is a street dance
style that evolved as part of the hip hop movement
among African American and Puerto Rican youths
in Manhattan and the South Bronx of
New York City during the early 1970s. It is
normally danced to electro or hip hop music, often
remixed to prolong the breaks, and is a well-
known hip hop dance style. Breakdancing
involves the elements of toprock, downrock,
freezes, and power moves. A breakdancer,
breaker, b-boy or b-girl refers to a person who
practices breakdancing.
• Breakdancing may have begun as a building,
productive, and a constructive youth culture
alternative to the violence of urban street gangs.[1]
Today, breakdancing culture is a discipline
somewhere between those of dancers and athletes.
Tango
• Tango is a musical genre and its associated dance
forms that originated in Buenos Aires, Argentina
and Montevideo, Uruguay, and spread to the rest
of the world soon after that.
• Early tango was known as tango criollo, or simply
tango. Today, there are many tango dance styles,
including Argentine Tango, Uruguayan Tango,
Ballroom tango (American and International styles)
, Finnish tango and vintage tangos. What many
consider to be the authentic tango is that closest to
that originally danced in Argentina and Uruguay,
though other types of tango have developed into
mature dances in their own right.
• Different styles of
Tango are:

• Tango Argentino
• Tango Oriental (uruguayo)
• Tango Canyengue
• Tango Liso
• Tango Salon
• Tango Orillero
• Tango Milonguero (Tango
Apilado)
• Tango Nuevo (New Tango)
• Show Tango (also known
as Fantasia)
• Ballroom Tango
• Finnish Tango
• Dances from Latin America
• Latin dance typically includes dances originating
in Latin America and the Caribbean islands such
as cha cha cha, rumba, samba, salsa, mambo,
danza, merengue, tumba, bachata, cumbia, and
bolero. Some dance instructors also include tango
and Argentine tango in this list, although these
differ from the rest in their style. In Argentina
tango is not considered folk dance as is the case
with dances like chacarera, gato, escondido and
zamba. Typical Bolivian folk dances are morenada
, kullawada, llamerada, caporales and the recently
created tinku. In Colombia one of the typical
dances is the cumbia, not to be mistaken with
Argentine cumbia, a popular music genre
influenced by Caribbean reggae and ska.
• The second is a more formal usage, to describe a
category of International style ballroom dances,
also called Latin American dances or
International Latin. It consists of the following
five dances: rumba, samba, paso doble,
cha-cha-cha, jive.
• Cha-cha-cha dance
• Cha-cha-cha is the name of a
Latin American dance of Cuban origin.[1]
The name may also be spelled chachachá.
• Cha-cha-cha may be either danced to authentic
Cuban music, or Latin Pop or Latin Rock. The music
for the international ballroom cha-cha-cha is energetic
and with a steady beat. The Cuban cha-cha-chá is more
sensual and may involve complex polyrhythms .
Styles of cha-cha-cha dance may differ in the
place of the chasse in the rhythmical structure.
The original Cuban and the ballroom cha-cha-
cha count "two-three-chachacha".Some other
styles of dance, such as Country/western may
count "one-two-chachacha" or "chachacha-
three-four.
• Cha-cha-cha is
one of the five
dances of the
"Latin
American"
program of
international
ballroom
competitions.
Salsa
• Salsa is a dance for Salsa music created by
Spanish-speaking people from the Caribbean and
their immigrant communities in the US. Salsa
dancing mixes African and European dance
influences through the music and dance fusions.
• Salsa is normally a partner dance, although there
are recognized solo forms, line dancing (suelta),
and Rueda de Casino where groups of couples
exchange partners in a circle. Salsa can be
improvised or performed with a set routine.
• The name "Salsa" is the Spanish word for sauce,
connoting (in American Spanish) a spicy flavor.
• The dance steps currently being danced to salsa
music come from the son, but were influenced by
many other Cuban dances such as Mambo,
Cha cha cha, Guaracha, Changüí, Palo Monte,
Rumba, Abakuá, Comparsa and sometimes even
Mozambique. Solo salsa steps are called "Shines",
a term taken from Tap dancing. It also integrates
swing steps. Salsa can be a heavily improvised
dance.
• Salsa couple
Rumba
Rumba is a family of percussive rhythms, song and
dance. It originates in Cuba as a combination of
the musical traditions of Spanish colonizers and of
Africans brought to Cuba as slaves. It is secular,
with no religious connections. The details of how
it developed are not fully known.
Jazz Dance
• Jazz dance is an umbrella term that can refer to
several related dance styles. All of them are
connected via common roots, namely tap, ballet,
jazz music, and African-American rhythms and
dance.
• Although jazz dance can be performed its
traditional form, it is often influenced by other
dance styles such as acro, ballet, contemporary,
lyrical, and hip hop. In turn, many other dance
styles are influenced by jazz dance.
Jazz dance pic.
Belly Dance
• Belly dance (Arabic: ‫ )رقص شرقي‬is a
Western term for a traditional Egyptian dance
genre known as raqs sharqi (‫;رقص شرقي‬
literally "oriental dance") or sometimes raqs
baladi (‫ ;رقص بلدي‬literally "dance of country",
and so "folk" dance). It is also sometimes called
"Middle Eastern Dance" in the United States,
"danse du ventre"[1], or by the Turkish term
Çiftetelli .
• The "true origin" is unclear but may be Egypt or
India.
• Today there are two forms of Oriental belly dance;
the first is called raqs baladi, a social dance
performed for fun and celebration by men and
women of all ages, usually during festive
occasions such as weddings and other social
gatherings. The second form, the more theatrical
and the more popular in the West today, is called
raqs sharqi. Like raqs baladi, raqs sharqi is
performed by both male and female dancers.
Dance Pop
• Dance-pop is a style of electronic dance music
and a subgenre of pop music that evolved from
disco, circa 1981, that combines dance beats with
a pop/R&B song structure. Because there is such
an emphasis on fully-formed songs in dance-pop,
it is often viewed as a separate classification unto
itself apart from pure dance music [1]. Dance-pop
is also closely related to the teen pop and
Eurodance movements in the mid- 80s and late
1990s, the rise of boy bands and girl groups, and
the reintroduction of the vocoder and similar such
innovations.
Dance Pop Artists
• Paula Abdul • Ace of Base
• Mariah Carey • All Saints
• Duran Duran • Backstreet Boys
• Whitney Houston Bananarama
•
• The Human League
• NSYNC
• Janet Jackson
• Billy Ocean
• Michael Jackson
• Stacey Q
• Madonna
George Michael • Nu Shooz
•
Pet Shop Boys • Gloria Estefan
•
• Prince • Bobby Brown
• Spice Girls • Lindsay Lohan
• TLC
• ABC
• Modern Dancers Today:
• Modern dancers use dancing to express their
innermost emotions, often to get closer to their
inner-selves. Before attempting to choreograph a
routine, the modern dancer decides which
emotions to try to convey to the audience. Many
modern dancers choose a subject near and dear to
their hearts, such as a lost love or a personal
failure. The dancer will choose music that relates
to the story they wish to tell, or choose to use no
music at all, and then choose a costume to reflect
their chosen emotions.