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So You Think You Know Dance Vanessa Kanamoto Susan Perlis Roshanda D Spears Mary Francis Cissy Whipp

The document titled 'So You Think You Know Dance?' serves as an educational textbook on the fundamentals of dance, created for dual enrollment students in Louisiana. It covers various dance forms, their historical contexts, purposes, and the elements that define dance, while also emphasizing the importance of cultural influences on dance aesthetics. The textbook is part of a broader initiative to provide open educational resources and enhance access to quality education for high school students.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)

27 views272 pages

So You Think You Know Dance Vanessa Kanamoto Susan Perlis Roshanda D Spears Mary Francis Cissy Whipp

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So You Think You Know Dance?

SO YOU THINK YOU KNOW DANCE?

Fundamentals of Dance

VANESSA KANAMOTO; SUSAN PERLIS; ROSHANDA D. SPEARS; AND

MARY FRANCIS "CISSY" WHIPP

LOUIS: The Louisiana Library Network

So You Think You Know Dance? by LOUIS: The Louisiana Library Network is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License, except where otherwise noted.
CONTENTS

Introduction 1
Table of Contents 3

Part I. Main Body

1. What is Dance? 7
2. Elements of Dance 17
3. Ballet 31
4. Modern Dance 72
5. Tap, Jazz, Musical Theater, Television and Film 125
6. Religious and Social Dance 169
7. Hip Hop 213
8. Current Trends 236
9. Summary 248

Appendix A 253
Appendix B: Checklist for Accessibility 264
INTRODUCTION | 1

INTRODUCTION

The Creation of this Book

This textbook was created as part of the Interactive OER for Dual Enrollment project, facilitated by LOUIS:
The Louisiana Library Network and funded by a $2 million Open Textbooks Pilot Program grant from
the Department of Education. This project supports the extension of access to high-quality post-secondary
opportunities to high school students across Louisiana and beyond. This project features a collaboration
between educational systems in Louisiana, the library community, Pressbooks technology partner, and
workforce representatives. It will enable and enhance the delivery of open educational resources (OER) and
interactive quiz and assessment elements for priority dual enrollment courses in Louisiana and nationally.
Developed OER course materials will be released under a license that permits their free use, reuse, modification
and sharing with others.
The target audience for this project and this textbook are dual enrollment students. Dual enrollment is the
opportunity for a student to be enrolled in high school and college at the same time. A dual enrollment student
receives credit on both their high school and college transcripts for the same course.

Review Statement
This textbook and its accompanying course materials went through at least two review processes:

• Peer reviewers, coordinated by Jared Eusea, River Parish Community College, used an online course
development standard rubric for assessing the quality and content of each course to ensure that the
courses developed through Interactive OER for Dual Enrollment support online learners in that
environment. The evaluation framework reflects a commitment to accessibility and usability for all
learners.
◦ Reviewers
▪ Anne Branscum
▪ Lisa Abney
▪ Casey Merrell
• The Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME) collaborated with
LOUIS to review course materials and ensure their appropriateness for dual enrollment audiences.
Review criteria were drawn from factors that apply across dual enrollment courses and subject areas,
such as determining appropriate reading levels, assessing the fit of topics and examples for high school
2 | INTRODUCTION

DE students; applying high-level principles for quality curriculum design, including designing for
accessibility, appropriate student knowledge checks, and effective scaffolding of student tasks and prior
knowledge requirements, addressing adaptability and open educational practices, and principles related
to inclusion and representational social justice.
◦ Reviewers
▪ John McBride
▪ Sara Shearman
TABLE OF CONTENTS | 3

TABLE OF CONTENTS

So, You Think You Know dance? Fundamentals of Dance

By: Vanessa Kanamoto, Susan Perlis, Roshanda D. Spears, Nary Francis “Cissy” Whipp
Edited by: Peter Klubek
4 | TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

(OER adaption statement)

Chapter 1

Introduction, What is Dance? Purposes of Dance/Dance Aesthetic

Chapter 2

Elements of Dance

Chapter 3

Ballet (historical context: origin, prominent figures, elements,

vocabulary, reflection)

Chapter 4

Modern (historical context: origin, prominent figures, reflection)

Chapter 5

Tap, Jazz, and Musical Theater (historical context: origin, prominent

figures, elements, vocabulary, reflection)

Chapter 6

Religious and Social Dance (historical context: origin, prominent

figures, elements, vocabulary, reflection)

Chapter 7
TABLE OF CONTENTS | 5

Hip hop (historical context: origin, prominent figures)

Chapter 8

Current trends in dance (overview of course)

Chapter 9

Chapter 9 (Summary/Review) Final Exam

Glossary
6 | TABLE OF CONTENTS
WHAT IS DANCE? | 7

Fig. 1 Word Cloud Generated image created by the Dance Cohort CC BY

8 | WHAT IS DANCE?

Fig 2. “Children dancing, Overture Center for the Arts, Madison” by ali
eminov is marked with CC BY-NC 2.0.

Learning Objectives

With this chapter, you will begin working toward:

• Demonstrating a culturally informed dance aesthetic.

• Identifying the purposes of dance.

“Dance evaporates—everything goes…we just have this little hint. The deterioration actually
adds to the meaning of it.”—dancer and film director Connie Hochman on trying to capture the
ephemera
WHAT IS DANCE? | 9

Introduction
There are many definitions of dance, with people defining dance in
their own way. In this chapter, you will consider your personal
definition of dance. You will learn the purposes of dance. You will
reflect on your experiences and upbringing to determine their
influence on your dance aesthetic.

• Poetry, prose, and music are arts that exist in time. It is through the
manipulation of rhythm and tempo that these arts are created.
• Painting, sculpture, and architecture are arts that exist in space. It is
through the design of space that these arts are created.
• Dance is the only art that is a creation in both time and space.

How do you define dance?

Fig. 3 Unsplash.com s/photos/

ballerina – First found on Oct 26,
2020

Elements of Dance
Dance can be studied in terms of its raw materials. We can describe movement thoroughly by breaking dance
down into its basic components. A complete understanding of the building blocks of dance allows us to
analyze, interpret and speak about dance in a thorough and understandable way. To increase dance literacy and
appreciate dance as an art form, we must look at the elements of dance. Through the manipulation of these
elements by the human body, dance happens. The elements of dance will be discussed in more detail later in
Chapter 2. To describe dance, it is useful to analyze it in terms of these Elements of Dance:

• Body
• Energy
• Space
• Time
10 | WHAT IS DANCE?

Purposes of Dance
Dance can be studied in terms of its purpose and
function within a culture. Cultures impact how people
engage with the world, as environmental influences,
societal behaviors, and attitudes are intertwined within
the development and shaping of dance forms. In this
respect, dance is a carrier of culture. The purposes of
dance include:

• Religious Dance / Dance to Please the Gods

• Social Dance / Dance to Please Ourselves
• Performance Dance / Dance to Please Others Fig. 4 “DTH” by Blinkofanaye is marked with CC
BY-NC 2.0.

Religious Dance
The earliest dances were likely religious in nature. Some religions embrace dance and use it as a part of their
rituals. Other religions have eschewed dance or banned it for a number of different reasons.
The Ancient Greeks and Africans used to dance to solidify their community. Ancient Greek dance, as well
as ancient African dance, was divinely inspired. Everyone participated in religious ceremonies as cultivated
amateurs and up-standing citizens. A big part of the program was processions and circle dances. The realities
of the cosmos ruled the symbolism of the dances, and references to the sun, moon, and constellations figured
into the movements.

Types of Religious Dance:

1. Dances of Imitation
2. Medicine Dances
3. Commemorative Dances
4. Dances for Spiritual Connection

Dances of Imitation

Particularly in primitive and indigenous cultures, dances of imitation are performed. Dancers imitate animals
and natural phenomena to embody specific qualities, like channeling the prowess of an animal. The dances
serve various purposes, often promoting favorable outcomes, such as good weather and hunting.
WHAT IS DANCE? | 11

Medicine Dances

Shamans, as spiritual leaders, serve as intermediaries between the human and spirit worlds. Both men and
women may be Shamans. The religion is animistic (attributes a spirit to all things), and rituals address
medicine, religion, a reverence for nature, and ancestor worship. On the summer solstice, Shamans perform a
fire ritual at night. The Shaman drums carry the ancestral spirits of the Shaman.

Commemorative Dances

Dances are created to remember a special day, event, and meaningful moment. Some commemorative dances
are very old. Maypole dances have early pagan roots. It is a celebration of the rebirth of spring. The Second Line
is a West African form of dance that is a ritual to celebrate the life of the recently departed. After the slaves were
brought to the new world, this dance became more of a celebration for parties and Mardi Gras festivals.

Dances for Spiritual Connection

In some cultures, the dancers seek to suppress their ego to find oneness with God. In others, dance may be used
to connect with dead ancestors spiritually. Some religions use dance to tell their origin stories and preserve their
heritage.
12 | WHAT IS DANCE?

Social Dance
In social dance, we establish a connection with others. Social dance can
be sorted into four general categories based on the purpose of the dance.

Types of Social Dance

1. Courtship Dances
2. Work Dances
3. War Dances
4. Communal Dances

Courtship Dances

In cultures where marriages are arranged, men and women do not engage
in courtship dances. In other cultures, dance may serve as simple flirtation
Fig 5. “Social Dancing” by
or involve more complex rituals. Destinys Agent is marked with
CC BY-NC 2.0.
Work Dances

Some dances are centered around the work that groups perform. Dances that mimic work routines were used
in past times to help build unity and continuity among the crew.

War Dances

Dance has always been used in conjunction with

training for war. Several cultures throughout history used
dance as grounds for war preparation. The Greeks
participated in pyrrhic dances and used weapons to mimic
war tactics in preparation for battle. Capoeira was created
by enslaved Africans in Brazil, using dance as a guise for
practicing fighting. The Māori of Aotearea/New Zealand
dance the Haka as an intimidation tactic that instills
warriors with ferocious energy. In South Africa, the
Fig. 6 “War Dance, Bawomataluo Village, South Indlamu dance was inspired by Zulu warriors during the
Nias” by ILO in Asia and the Pacific is marked Anglo-Zulu wars, was derived from the war dances of
with CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
amabutho (warriors), and was mainly used to motivate
WHAT IS DANCE? | 13

the men before they embarked on their long marches into battles barefoot. Today, cultures continue to pass
down these traditions to new generations as tradition.

Communal Dances

Communal dances are often a part of festivals and parties. Dances like springtime’s Maypole dance and the
Jewish hora bring a whole community together to share happy times. Communal dances also can be a way for
a community to share grief and memories, like the Table of Silence performed at Lincoln Center every year to
commemorate 9/11.

Performance Dance
Performance dances are presentational and often are entertainment for an audience. Some amateur dancers put
on shows, but there are also professional dancers who attain highly polished technique.
Types of Performance Dance

• Ballet
• Modern
• Tap
• Jazz
• Musical Theater, Film, and Television
Fig. 7 “Ballet de Moscú 2011” by ExpoMeloneras
• Hip Hop is marked with CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
14 | WHAT IS DANCE?

Dance Aesthetic
Your aesthetic is that which you find pleasing or
beautiful. It is your tastes and preferences, your “likes”
and “dislikes.” Your perception of dance will be informed
by your aesthetic, which might result in subjective
judgments about the dances you see. Therefore, it is
essential to acknowledge when these biased opinions
emerge to be receptive to the dances you are witnessing
and objectively respond to them. By keeping an open
mind, we can better our understanding of the uniqueness
of each dance as an art form.
Fig. 8 www.pictaram.com tag/africa – First
found on Sep 28, 2016

Cultural Traditions
Culture is shared values, beliefs, and customs shared amongst a group of people that contribute to a person’s
dance aesthetic. The rhythms of West Africa or Argentina that you grew up listening to can also play a part in
shaping rhythmic tastes. Dance is an important way that the lore and traditions of a culture are preserved over
time as it is passed down from generation to generation.
Different religions incorporate dance into their worship. Some religions include it as an intrinsic part of their
ritual, and even link dance to the spiritual experience. Other religions eschew dance altogether. Your religious
upbringing and experiences may influence your dance aesthetic.
The program on Safeguarding intangible cultural heritage in formal and non-formal education is a
UNESCO initiative, which recognizes that:

• Education plays a key role in safeguarding intangible cultural heritage.

• Intangible cultural heritage can provide context-specific content and pedagogy for education programs
and thus act as a leverage to increase the relevance and quality of education and improve learning
outcomes.

UNESCO considers dance an intangible cultural resource. UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage division
recognizes the following in its Summary Report on education: “The creative process of inter generational
transmission is at the center of intangible cultural heritage safeguarding.”
WHAT IS DANCE? | 15

Family Influence
Different generations may prefer different dances. The dances your parents and their friends do is probably
different from what you and your friends like. Maybe you have a grandparent who can teach you some older
dances.

Media
Do you watch dance on television, in movies, online, in live concerts and shows, at half-time? The many factors
of your experiences influence your dance aesthetic.

Personal Response
You will also have a personal response to dance. Do you prefer to move fast or slow, bouncy or gliding, all over
the room or just a little bit? Do you want your dance to demonstrate emotion, or do you prefer a show of
virtuosity?

Kinesthetic
Consider your physical response to dance as you think
about your dance aesthetic. Dance is capable of eliciting
joy, sorrow, and a wide spectrum of emotions. What
aspect of the dance spoke to your personal experiences?
Dance is a beautiful and meaningful stand-alone art. It
can be performed without any ancillary arts. But it is also
an art that partners successfully with other arts. Costume,
scenery, poetry, drama, and music are often a part of the
spectacle. As you watch dances this semester be aware of
the music, costumes, and staging that help to lend color
and meaning to the dance.
In preserving a culture’s dances one is able to preserve
its stories and other art forms as well. Fig. 9 “Odissi” by Iqbal Saggu is marked with CC
BY 2.0.
16 | WHAT IS DANCE?

Summary
People have different ideas about how to define dance. One way to understand dance is to analyze its movement
elements: body, energy, space, and time.
We can also study dance in terms of its purpose. Religious dances serve to imitate animals or natural
elements, to achieve healing, to commemorate an occasion, or to reach spiritual connection. Social dances can
serve in courtship, to find unity in work, unity in war, or camaraderie in the community. Performance dance is
created and practiced for presentation to an audience. Western performance dance forms that have developed
include ballet, modern, tap, jazz, musical theater, and hip hop. Protest dance can be created to effect social
change.
One’s dance aesthetic is shaped and influenced by numerous factors. Family, media, personal response, and
kinesthetic response are all contributors to a personal aesthetic.

Check your Understanding

1. What is your definition of dance? Explain your response. How does your definition differ from those
in the textbook?
2. What factors influence your dance aesthetic?

Resources:
Safeguarding intangible cultural heritage in education; UNESCO; https://ich.unesco.org/en/
education-01017
ELEMENTS OF DANCE | 17

ELEMENTS OF DANCE

Fig. 1 Word Cloud

Generated image created
by the Dance Cohort CC
BY

Learning Objectives

• Recall the Elements of Dance

• Distinguish between the Elements of Dance
• Analyze, identify, and describe the Elements of Dance
18 | ELEMENTS OF DANCE

“A dance, as a work of art, must be constructed as well as a beautiful building…. A dance must have a beginning,
development, and climax – just as a building has foundations, walls, and roof.”
-Ted Shawn

What are the Elements of Dance?

The Elements of Dance are the basic building blocks of dance that help us identify and describe movement,
assisting in the ability to analyze, interpret and speak/write about dance as an artistic practice. When viewing
dance, we want to put into words what we are witnessing by analyzing its most important qualities. The
elements of the dance provide us with the tools to do so.
In dance, the body can be in constant motion and even arrive at points of stillness. However, even in
stillness, the dancers are inherently aware of themselves. No matter the case, all forms of dance can be broken
down into their primary elements: BODY, ENERGY, SPACE, and TIME. To easily remember the dance
elements, we use the acronym: B. E. S. T., which stands for BODY, ENERGY, SPACE, and TIME. Dance
can be seen as the use of the BODY with different kinds of ENERGY moving through SPACE and unfolding
in TIME.
Let’s take a quick look at the elements of dance before we dig in further.

Watch This

Randy Barron, Teaching Artist on the Kennedy Center’s National Roster, made this video to explain
the Elements of Dance:
ELEMENTS OF DANCE | 19

One or more interactive elements has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view
them online here: https://louis.pressbooks.pub/danceappreciation/?p=21#oembed-1

Body

The body is the dancer’s instrument of expression. When an audience looks at dance, they see the dancer’s
body and what is moving. The dance could be made up of a variety of actions and still poses. It could use the
whole body or emphasize one part of the body. Exploring body shapes and movement actions increases our
awareness of movement possibilities.

Body Shapes

The choreographer who is designing a dance may look at

their dancers as sculpture. They choose shapes for the
dancers to make with their bodies. These can be curved,
straight, angular, twisted, wide, narrow, symmetrical, or
asymmetrical. These shapes can be geometric designs, such
as circles or diagonals. They could make literal shapes such
as tree branches or bird wings. They can also make
conceptual shapes (abstract) such as friendship, courage, or
sadness. Sometimes a choreographer emphasizes the
negative space or the empty area around the dancers’ bodies
Fig 2. photos/ instead of just the positive space the dancer occupies. Look
dancer-performer-theatre-acting-5420494/ – at the positive and negative spaces in Fig 2.
Attributed Clarence Alford First found on Jul
24, 2020 Filename: dancer-5420494_640.jpg
(599 x 640, 61.9 kB) CC-BY
20 | ELEMENTS OF DANCE

Fig 3. www.orenda.net.in/ – First found on Nov

17, 2019 Filename: coach-1-550×380.jpg (550 x
380, 19.1 kB)

BodyMoves/Actions

Dance movements or actions fall into two main categories:

Locomotor: (traveling moves) walk, run, jump, hop, skip, leap, gallop, crawl, roll, etc.
Nonlocomotor: (moves that stay in place) melt, stretch, bend, twist, swing, turn, shake, stomp, etc.
Below is an example of body movements and shapes by Modern Dance choreographer Paul Taylor.

Watch This

Excerpt from Modern Dance choreographer Paul Taylor’s Esplanade. Observe how the dancers use
locomotor movement as they run and form circular formations, and create lines in space.

Body Parts

Each part of the body (head, shoulders, elbows, hips, knees, feet, eyes, etc.) can move alone (isolated) or in
combination. In the classical Indian dance form Bharatanatyam, dancers stomp their feet in a percussive
rhythm. At the same time, the dancer performs hand gestures, known as mudras, codified hand gestures that
are important in the storytelling aspect of Bharatnatyam to communicate words, concepts, or feelings.
Observe in the video below, how the dancer alternately emphasizes her feet and legs with her hand and
arm gestures. In Classical Indian dance forms, facial expressions and hand gestures play an important role in
storytelling.

Watch This

Excerpt from Pushpanjali, choreographer Savitha Sastry performs a Classical Indian dance solo
called Bharatanatyam. Observe how the dancer alternately emphasizes their feet and legs with
hand and arm gestures.

In the next video, dancers are participating in the GAGA technique developed by Isralei
choreographer Ohad Naharin. In this movement language, dancers are directed to listen to their
inner sensations to elicit physical responses; movement. Notice how the dancers are integrating the
entire body to create fluid and successive movement.
22 | ELEMENTS OF DANCE

Check Your Understanding

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it
online here:
https://louis.pressbooks.pub/danceappreciation/?p=21#h5p-1

Energy
An exploration of “how” a movement is done rather than “what” it is, gives us a richer sense of dance as
an expressive art. A dancer can walk, reach for an imaginary object and turn, making these movements look
completely different by changing the use of Energy. For example, anger could be shown with a loud quick
walk, a sharp reach, and a strong twisting turn. Happiness could be depicted by using a delicate gliding walk,
a gentle reach out, and a smooth light turn. Energy is what brings the dancer’s intent or emotion to the
audience. The element of Energy is sometimes called Efforts or Movement Qualities.
Dancer and movement analyst Rudolf Laban broke it down into four Efforts, each of which is a pair of
opposites:

1. Space (direct or indirect use of space) When the dancer is paying attention to the use of space, they can
be direct, single-focused, and targeted in their use of space. Conversely, they can be indirect, multi-
focused, and aware of many things in the space around them.
2. Weight or force (strong or light use of weight) The dancer can emphasize the effort or use of force by
fighting against it, throwing their weight and strength into movements. The opposite is using a yielding,
light sense of weightlessness in their movements.
ELEMENTS OF DANCE | 23

3. Time (sudden or sustained use of time) Not to be confused with tempo, the dancer’s use of time can be
reflected in their movement. It can appear hurried, as though fighting against time. Conversely, the
dancer can have a relaxed attitude toward time as though they have all the time in the world.
4. Flow (bound or free use of the flow of movement) When the dancer’s flow is bound up, they can appear
to be careful and cautious, only allowing small amounts of flow. The opposite is when the dancer
appears to throw the movement around without inhibition, letting the movement feel carefree.

Another way we can define energy is by looking at the Movement Qualities. Movement Qualities are
energy released during various time spans to portray distinct qualities. There are six dynamic Movement
Qualities.

1. Sustained (slow, smooth, continuous)

2. Percussive (sharp, choppy, jagged)
3. Swinging (swaying, to and fro, pendulum-like)
4. Suspended (a moment of stillness, the high point, a balance)
5. Collapsed (fall, release, relax)
6. Vibratory (shake, wiggle, tremble)

Notice the kinds of Energy the dancers are displaying in the examples below.
In the first video the dancers are using Efforts of direct, strong, sudden and bound movements. In terms of
Movement Qualities the dancers are using percussive, vibratory, and moments of collapse.

Watch This

Hip Hop dance crew Kaba Modern uses the Efforts of direct, strong, sudden, and bound
movements. In terms of Movement Qualities, the dancers use percussive, vibratory, and
moments of collapse.
24 | ELEMENTS OF DANCE

In the National Opera of Ukraine’s preclude from Chopiniana, the dancers are using Efforts of light
and free. The Movement Qualities are sustained and suspended.

Check Your Understanding

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it
online here:
https://louis.pressbooks.pub/danceappreciation/?p=21#h5p-12

Space
Let’s look at where the dance takes place. Is the dance expansive, using lots of space, or is it more intimate,
using primarily personal space? An exploration of space increases our awareness of the visual design aspects
of movement.

1. Personal Space: The space around the dancer’s body can also be called near space. A dance primarily in
ELEMENTS OF DANCE | 25

personal space can give a feeling of introspection or intimacy.

2. Negative Space/Positive Space: Sometimes, a choreographer emphasizes the negative space or the
empty area around the dancers’ bodies instead of just the positive space the dancer occupies. Look at
the positive and negative space in the photograph below.
3. General Space: The defined space where the dancer can move can be a small room, a large stage, or even
an outdoor setting.
4. Levels: Dancers use a variety of levels: high, middle, or low. High movements can reach upward using
jumps, leaps, or when lifting each other. A middle level move is generally a move that takes place
between the height of the dancer’s shoulders and knees. Low level moves can include sitting, kneeling,
sinking to the ground, rolling, or crawling.

Fig. 4. photos/
agility-ballet-dancing-athlete-1850711/ –
First found on Mar 28, 2021 Filename:
agility-1850711_1280.jpg (1280 x 1097, 113.2
kB)

5. Directions: While dances made for the camera often have the performers facing forward as they dance,
they can also change directions by turning, going to the back, right, left, up, or down.
6. Pathways or Floor Patterns: Where the dancer goes through space is often an important design
element. They can travel in a circle, figure eight, spiral, zig-zag, straight lines, and combinations of lines.
7. Range: Movements or shapes can be near reach, mid-ranged, or far reach. Range is associated with
one’s kinesphere. Kinesphere is the immediate area surrounding the body and is described as a three-
dimensional volume of space. Imagine a bubble around the dancer’s body, with their arms and limbs
extended to their fullest extent in every possible direction without moving from a fixed spot, this is
considered a personal kinesphere. Movement occurs in a person’s kinesphere and includes near reach
(movement that is close to the body, small or condensed), mid-reach (movement that is neither near not
far, but comfortably in the middle ), and far reach (large and expansive movement).
26 | ELEMENTS OF DANCE

Fig 5. Français :
Épreuve
gélatino-argentiq
ue 1925 24,5 x 21
cm 18 May 2017
Mathildemultiple.
CC
Attribution-Share
Alike 4.0
International
license.

8. Relationship: Dancers can explore the relationship between different body parts; the relationship of
one dancer to another dancer or a group of dancers; or the relationship to a prop or to objects in the
dance space.

Fig. 6. Egyptian
Modern Dance
Theatre in
performance
“devil hope.” 27
September 2016,
21:43:59 Esraa
abd el khalla. CC
Attribution-Share
Alike 4.0
International
license.

Watch This

Excerpt from George Balanchine’s ballet Apollo. Notice the interlocking of circles of the dancers’
arms and the straight lines made by the dancers’ legs.
ELEMENTS OF DANCE | 27

In this next video, notice various floor patterns such as circular pathways and straight lines that
are made by the group of dancers. Observe the dancers’ use of gestures that go from near to far
reach from personal space to filling the general space. The choreography also uses levels from low
to high.

Check Your Understanding

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it
online here:
https://louis.pressbooks.pub/danceappreciation/?p=21#h5p-26

Time
Dance is a time art; movement develops and reveals itself in time. Adding a rhythmic sense to movement helps
transform ordinary movement into dance and informs when the dancer moves.

1. Pulse: The basic pulse or underlying beat

28 | ELEMENTS OF DANCE

2. Speed (tempo): Fast, moderate, slow

3. Rhythm Pattern: A grouping of long or short beats, accents or silences
4. Natural Rhythm: Timing which comes from the rhythms of the breath, the heartbeat, or natural
sources like the wind or the ocean.
5. Syncopation: Accents the off-beat in a musical phrase.

Compare the different uses of Time in the two videos below.

In the first video, the dancers have no musical accompaniment and use their breath to initiate movement
and cue each other for the timing. Their movement is also slow to moderate tempo and imitates the natural
rhythm of the ocean.

Watch This

Excerpt from Modern Dance choreographer Doris Humphrey’s Water Study. In this video, the
dancers have no musical accompaniment and use their breath to initiate movement and cue each
other for the timing. Their movement is also slow to moderate tempo and imitates the natural
rhythm of the ocean.

Promo clip of Step Afrika!, the dancers are creating rhythm patterns with body percussion. There is
an emphasis on syncopation and varying tempos with accents.

Summary
All dance forms share foundational concepts known as the Elements of Dance. The Elements of Dance are
overarching concepts and terminology that are useful when observing, creating, analyzing, and discussing
dance. Dance can be broken down into its primary elements : Body, Energy, Space, and Time. It can be easily
recalled through the acronym B.E.S.T.
The Body is the mobile instrument of the dancer and helps inform us what is moving. The Body category
includes shapes, actions, whole body, and part body movements. Energy is how the body moves. When
speaking about energy, we can refer to effort or movement qualities. Space is where movement occurs
and includes personal and general space, levels, directions, pathways and floor patterns, various sizes of
movements, range of movement, and relationships. Time is when the dancers move. The Time category
includes pulse, speed, rhythmic patterns, natural rhythm, and syncopation.
As an observer of dance, it can be easy to allow our biases to influence how we perceive dance. By using
dance vocabulary and stating what we observe, we can be more objective in our discussions of dance. Using the
Elements of Dance, we can view dance through an unbiased lens to consider its structural elements to deepen
our understanding and appreciation of dance as an art form.

Check Your Understanding

1. Try making shapes that depict literal and abstract concepts. Some examples of literal shapes
might be a flower, a seashell, or a rainbow. Some abstract shapes might be circles, diamonds, or
even concepts such as friendship, heroism, or depression.

2. Make a short (10 second) dance phrase and perform it twice with two different types of energy.

3. On paper, draw a map with a continuous pathway without lines overlapping. After mapping your
pathway, try adding locomotor movement on various levels that compliments your pathway
design.

4. Make a sentence introducing yourself and your favorite food. For example: “Cissy Whipp likes
chips and guacamole.” or “Vanessa Kanamoto likes grilled shrimp.” Now try clapping the rhythm
your sentence makes. (Notice how the two examples have very different rhythms.) Create a
30 | ELEMENTS OF DANCE

movement pattern that matches the rhythm pattern of your sentence. Practice until you can repeat
it four times in a row.

Check Your Understanding

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Resources:
The Elements of Dance website from Perpich Center for Arts Education in
partnership with University of MN Dance Program https://www.elementsofdance.org/
BALLET | 31

BALLET

Learning Objectives

• Explain the function of court dance and the development of ballet.

• Summarize the development of ballet from its professionalization through Romantic,
Classical, Avant-Garde, Neoclassical, and Contemporary Ballet.
• Associate major ballet milestones with the works and choreographers responsible.

“Nothing resembles a dream more than a ballet, and it is this which explains the singular
pleasure that one receives from these apparently frivolous representations. One enjoys, while
awake, the phenomenon that nocturnal fantasy traces on the canvas of sleep; an entire world
of chimeras moves before you.”

-Theophile Gautier, French poet

What is Ballet?
Ballet is the epitome of classical dance in Western cultures. Classical dance forms are structured, and stylized
techniques developed and evolved throughout centuries requiring rigorous formal training. Ballet originated
with the nobility in the Renaissance courts of Europe. The dance form was closely associated with appropriate
behavior and etiquette. Eventually, ballet became a professional vocation as it became a popular form of
32 | BALLET

entertainment for the new middle-class to enjoy. Ballet spread throughout the world as dance masters refined
their craft and handed their methods down from generation to generation. Over 500 years, it has developed
and changed. Dancers and choreographers worldwide have contributed new vocabulary and styles, yet ballet’s
essence remains the same.

Ballet Characteristics

Codified Technique

Ballet is a codified dance form ordered systematically and has set movements associated with specific
terminology. Ballet is a rigorous art and requires extensive training to perform the technique correctly. The first
ballet creators’ principles have survived intact, but different regional and artistic styles have emerged over the
centuries. Ballet classes follow a standard structure for progression and are comprised of two sections:
The first part of ballet class typically begins with a warm-up at the barre. The barre is a stationary handrail
that dancers hold while working on balance, allowing them to focus on placement, alignment, and
coordination. The second half of the ballet class is performed in the center without a barre. Dancers use the
entire room to increase their spatial awareness and perform elevated and dynamic movements.

Fig. 1
www.sortiraparis.c
om scenes/danse/
agenda/
33610-le-grand-bal
let-de-cuba-au-ca
sino-de-paris-le-18
-11-2010 – First
found on Jun 7,
2015 Filename:
52529-le-grand-ba
llet-de-cuba.jpg

Alignment and Turnout

Ballet emphasizes the lengthening of the spine and the use of turnout, an outward rotation of the legs in the
hip socket. This serves both to create an aesthetically pleasing line and increase mobility.
BALLET | 33

Foot Articulation

Ballet demands a strong articulated foot to perform demanding

movements and create an elongated line.
Pointe shoes, a ballet staple, add to the illusion of weightlessness and
flight. They are constructed with a hard, flat box to enable dance on the tips
of the toes; it is a technique called en pointe that requires years of training
and dedication to develop the needed strength in the feet, ankles, calves and
legs.

Fig.3 Modern pointe shoes,

modeled by Daria L. The edge
of the toe pad, which is inserted
between the foot and toe box
for cushioning, can be seen on
the right foot. CC Public Domain
Elevated Movement Public Domain

Traditionally, ballet favors a light quality, called ballon, with elevated

movements. Dancers seem to overcome gravity effortlessly and achieve great height in their leaps and jumps.

Pantomime and Storytelling

Ballet can tell a story without words through a

language of gestures called pantomime. Some
movements are easily understood or have simple
body language, but more abstract concepts are given
specific gestures of their own to convey meaning.
The facial expressions, the musical phrasing, and Fig 2. Original file (4,236 × 2,549 pixels, file size: 2.47
dynamics all play a role in communicating the story. MB, MIME type: image/jpeg); ZoomViewer This file is
made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0
Pantomime developed in ballet’s Romantic period Universal Public Domain Dedication. CC0
and was further incorporated during the Classical
era.
34 | BALLET

Watch This

The Royal Ballet dancers demonstrate and decode ballet pantomime for Swan Lake. David
Pickering addresses the audience in the basics of pantomime, and audience members mimic the
movement. In the second part of the clip, principal dancers Marianele Nunez and Thiago Soares
reenact Act 2 as David Pickering narrates the pantomime.

Court Dance: Italy and France

In medieval Italy, an early pantomime version featured a single performer portraying all the story characters
through gestures and dance. A narrator previewed the story to come, and musicians accompanied the
pantomime. Pantomimes were quite popular, but they were sometimes over-the-top in their efforts to be
comedic, often resulting in lewd and graphic reenactments. Dance was a part of everyday life. Peasants danced
at street fairs, and guild members danced at festivals, but it was in the royal courts that ballet had its genesis.
BALLET | 35

Fig. 4 Unknown
author –
http://www.people
playuk.org.uk/
collections/
object.php?object_
id=285&back=%2F
guided_tours%2Fp
antomime_tour%2
Fearly_pantomime
%2Fharlequin.php
%3F CC Public
Domain
36 | BALLET

European Renaissance: Ballet de Cour

Catherine de’ Medici

Catherine de’ Medici, a wealthy noblewoman of Florence, Italy,
married the heir to the French throne, King Henri II. In 1581, she went to
Paris for a royal wedding accompanied by Balthazar de Beaujoyeulx, a
dance teacher and choreographer. Catherine de’ Medici commissioned
Beaujoyeulx to create Ballet Comique de la Reine in celebration of the
wedding, and it became widely recognized as the first court ballet. The
ballet de cour featured independent acts of dancing, music, and poetry
unified by overarching themes from Greco-Roman mythology. The ballet
included references to court characters and intrigues. After the Ballet
Comique de la Reine production, a booklet was published with libretto
telling the ballet story. It became the model for ballets produced in other
European courts, making France the recognized leader in ballet.

Fig 6 Painted Fig. 5 Representation of a Ballet

Portrait of before Henri III. and his Court, in
Catherine de’ the Gallery of the Louvre.
Medici (1519-1589) Re-engraving from an original
CC Public Domain on Copper in theBallet comique
de la Royne by Balthazar de
Beaujoyeulx (Paris: Ballard,1582).
According to T.E. Lawrenson,
The French Stage and Playhouse
in the Seventeenth Century (2nd
ed., 1986), p. 184, this
performance took place in the
Petit Bourbon. CC Public
Domain.

King Louis XIV

During King Louis XIV’s reign, France was a mighty nation. King Louis XIV kept nobility close at hand by
moving his court and government to the Palace of Versailles, where he could maintain his power. At court, it
BALLET | 37

was necessary to excel in fencing, dance, and etiquette. Nobility vied for an elevated position in court as one’s
abilities in the finer arts reflected success in politics.
King Louis XIV was a great patron of the arts and vigorously trained in ballet. He performed in several
ballet productions. His most memorable role was Apollo, gaining the title the “Sun King” from “Le Ballet de
la Nuit,” translated to “The Ballet of the Night.”
Louis XIV’s love of dance inspired him to charter the Académie Royal de Musique et Danse, headed by
his old dance teacher Pierre Beauchamps and thirteen of the finest dance masters from his court. In this
way, the king assured that “la danse classique,” that is to say, “ballet,” would survive and develop. The danse
d’ecole provided rigorous training to transition from amateur performance to seasoned professionals. This also
opened the door for non-nobility to pursue ballet professionally. For the first time, women were also allowed to
train in ballet. Women were only allowed to participate in court social dances until this point. Men performers
took on all the roles in court ballets, wearing masks to dance the roles of women.

Fig 7. Louis XIV

dans Le Ballet de
la nuit. The ballet
was
choreographed in
1653. It was
significant because
Louis XIV made his
debut at court.
This court ballet
lasted 12 hours,
beginning at
sundown and
lasting until
morning, and
consisted of 45
dances. Louis XIV
appeared in 5 of
them. The most
famous dance of
Ballet de la Nuit
portrays Louis XIV
as Apollo the Sun
King. CC Public
Domain
38 | BALLET

Transitioning from the ballet de cour, dances of the Renaissance

ballroom grew into the ballet a entrée, a series of independent episodes
linked by a common theme. Early productions of the academy featured the
opera-ballet, a hybrid art form of music and dance. Jean-Philippe Rameau
served as both composer and choreographer for many early opera-ballets.
At this time, there was a differentiation of characters that dancers
assumed. These roles were generally categorized as:

1. danse noble: regal presentation suitable for roles of royalty

2. demi-charactere: lively, everyday people; “the girl next door”
3. comique: exaggerated, caricatured characters

Some significant developments aided in the progression of ballet as an art

form at the Académie Royale de Musique et Danse. Pierre Beauchamps
Fig. 8 File:Attribué à Joseph
significantly contributed to ballet by developing the five basic positions of Aved, Portrait de Jean-Philippe
the feet used in ballet technique. He also laid the foundation for a Rameau (vers 1728) – 002.jpg
Joseph Aved: Portrait of
notation system to record dances. Raoul Auger Feuillet refined the Jean-Philippe Rameau Artist
notation and published it in 1700; then, in 1706, John Weaver translated it artist
QS:P170,Q489437,P5102,Q23076
into English, making it globally accessible.
8 Title Portrait of Jean-Philippe
Rameau Object type painting CC
Public Domain

Watch This

In this split-screen, Feuillet’s dance notation is shown on the left side while dancers perform the
Baroque dances on the right side.

The Académie Royale de Musique et Danse was the

place to train classical dancers. Dancers and dance masters
alike traveled to the great centers of Europe, bringing
French ballet to the continent. Today’s Paris Opera Ballet
is the direct descendant of the Académie Royal de
Musique et Danse.

Fig 9 Paris Opera Ballet: flickrhivemind.net Tags/

académienationaledemusique,palaisgarnier/
Interesting – First found on Jan 27, 2019
Filename: 3769637899_a409d8c5ab_b.jpg (1024
x 768, 319.3 kB) CC Public Domain

Watch This

The TED-Ed animated video clip summarizing the origins of ballet.

Dance in The Age of Enlightenment

The Age of Enlightenment was a philosophical movement that emphasized freedom of expression and the
eradication of religious authority. These ideas caused criticism among philosophers who believed art forms
should speak to meaningful human expression rather than ornamental art forms.
40 | BALLET

Jean-Georges Noverre (1727-1810)

Ballet master and choreographer Jean-Georges Noverre challenged ballet traditions and made ballets more
expressive. In his famous writings, Letters on Dancing and Ballet, Noverre rejected dance traditions at the
Paris Opera Ballet and helped transform ballet into a medium for story-telling. The masks that dancers
traditionally wore were stripped away to show dramatic facial expressions and convey meaning within ballets.
Pantomime helped tell the story of the ballet. In addition, plots became logically developed with unifying
themes, integrating theatrical elements. From Noverre’s concepts, ballet d’action emerged.

Carlo Blasis (1797-1878)

Carlo Blasis was particularly influential in shaping the vocabulary and structure of ballet techniques. He
invented the “attitude” position commonly used in ballet from the inspiration of Giambologna’s sculpture
of Mercury. He published two major treatises on the execution of ballet, the most notable, “An Elementary
Treatise Upon the Theory and Practice of the Art of Dancing.” Blasis taught primarily at LaScala in Milan,
where he was responsible for educating many Romantic era teachers and dancers.

Fig 10 A picture of Bologna’s Mercury on a Russian

stamp. (public domain)https://upload.wikimedia.org/
wikipedia/commons/f/f0/1988_CPA_6022.jpg and A
dancer performs an attitude.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Glossary_of_ballet#/media/
File:Yamamoto_Mashiko_-_Le_Corsaire_-_Prix_de_
Lausanne_2010-4.jpg CC BY-SA
BALLET | 41

Costume Changes

During the Renaissance, men and women wore elaborate clothing.

Women wore laced-up corsets around the torso and panniers (a series of
side hoops) fastened around the waist to extend the width of the skirts.
Men wore breeches and heeled shoes. The upper body was bound by
bulky clothing and primarily emphasized footwork. By the 18th century,
there were changes in costuming. Two dancers helped revolutionize
costumes.

Marie Sallé (1707-1756)

Marie Sallé was a famous dancer at the Paris Opera, celebrated for her
dramatic expression. Her natural approach to pantomime storytelling
influenced Noverre. She traded the elaborate clothing that was
fashionable at the time to match the subject of the choreography. In her Fig. 11 Adelaïde Simonet as the
self-choreographed ballet “Pygmalion,” she wore a less restrictive Princess in the pantomime-ballet
Ninette à la Cour, first produced
costume, wearing a simple draped Grecian-style dress and soft slippers.
by the Paris Opera Ballet in 1778
This allowed for less restricted movement and expression. with choreography by Maximilien
Gardel, as performed in London in
1781. CC Public Domain
Fig 11 Garnier’
After Nicolas
Lancret
(1690–1743).
Mademoiselle Sallé
CC Public Domain

Marie Camargo (1710-1770)

Marie Camargo, a contemporary of Sallé, exemplified virtuosity and flamboyance in her dancing. She
shortened her skirt to just above the ankles to make her impressive fancy footwork visible. She also removed
the heels from her shoes, creating flat-soled slippers. This allowed her to execute jumps and leaps that were
previously considered male steps.
42 | BALLET

Fig. 12 La Camargo
Dancing c1730,
Nicolas Lancret
(1690-1743).
Andrew W. Mellon
Collection,
National Gallery of
Art, Washington,
DC.
https://upload.wiki
media.org/
wikipedia/en/7/77/
La_Camargo_Danc
ing.jpg CC Public
Domain

Check Your Understanding

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online here:
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Romantic Ballet
From France and the royal academy, dance masters brought ballet to the other courts of Europe. These
professional teachers and choreographers attended London, Vienna, Milan, and Copenhagen, where the
monarchs supported ballet. During the 18th century, the French Revolution ended the French monarchy, and
Europe saw political and social changes that profoundly affected ballet. By the 19th century, the Industrial
Revolution resulted in middle-class people working in factories. Art shifted from glorifying the nobility to
emphasizing the ordinary person.
The Romantic era of ballet reflected this pivotal time. Ballets had now become ballet d’action, ballets that
tell a story. ballets that tell a story. The Romantic era was a time of fantasy, etherealism, supernaturalism, and
exoticism. Artistic themes included man v.s. nature, good vs. evil, and society v.s. the supernatural. The dancers
appeared as humans and mythical creatures like sylphs, wilis, shades, and naiads. Women were the stars of
the ballets, and men took on supporting roles. Choreography now included pointework, pantomime, and the
BALLET | 43

illusion of floating. Romantic ballets most often appeared as two-acts. The first act would be set in the real
world, and dancers would portray humans. In contrast, the second act was set in a spiritual realm and often
would include a tragic end.

Theater Special Effects

The opera houses featured stages with prosceniums, a

stage with a frame or arch. The shift of performance
venues had a significant effect on ballet in the following
ways:

Fig 13 Stage of the Garnier Opera House, Paris,

France. scarletgreen from Japan –
1. In ballrooms, geometric floor patterns were appreciated
operagarnier12f. CC BY 2.0
by audiences who sat above. The audience’s perspective
changed to a frontal view with the introduction of the proscenium stage, and the body became the
composition’s focus.
2. Turned-out legs were emphasized, allowing dancers to travel side-to-side while still facing the audience.
This required dancers to have greater skill and technique.
3. The proscenium stage separated the audience and performers, transitioning from its social function to
theatrical entertainment.
4. Curtains allowed for changes in scenery.
5. The flickering of the gas lights in the theaters gave a supernatural look to the dancing on the stage.
6. Theaters also enabled rigging to carry the dancers into the air, giving the illusion of flying.

The stagecraft of the time lent itself to creating the scenes that choreographer Filippo Taglioni would use in
his ballets.
44 | BALLET

La Sylphide

In 1824, ballet master Filippo Taglioni (1777-1871) choreographed

La Sylphide. His daughter Marie portrayed the sylphide, an ethereal,
spirit-like character. Marie Taglioni (1804-1884) wore a white romantic
tutu with a bell-shaped skirt that reached below her knees, creating the
effect of flight and weightlessness. Taglioni also removed the heels from
her slippers and rose to the tips of her toes as she danced to give her
movement a floating and ethereal quality. Taglioni is recognized as one
of the first dancers to perform en pointe.
La Sylphide features a corps de ballet, a group of dancers working
in unison to create dance patterns. Because the corps de ballet is dressed
in white romantic tutus (as is the norm with sylphs, fairies, wilis, and
other creatures that populate the worlds of Romantic ballet), La
Sylphide is known as a ballet blanc.
Fig 14 Alfred Edward Chalon
(1780–1860) (artist) Lane, Richard
James (A.R.A.) (1800–1872)
(lithographer) J. Dickinson
(publisher) – This file was derived
from: Marie Taglioni in Zephire et
Flore.jpg: Marie Taglioni as Flore in
Watch This Charles Didelot’s ballet Zephire et
Flore. Hand colored lithograph,
circa 1831. CC Public Domain

WATCH this video of the Royal Scottish Ballet that describes and shows excerpts from La Sylphide

Auguste Bournonville (1805-1879)

Auguste Bournonville, a French-trained dancer, served the Royal Danish Ballet as a choreographer and
BALLET | 45

director. Four years after the original La Sylphide production, Bournonville re-choreographed the ballet.
Bournonville’s dances feature speed, elevation, and beats where the legs “flutter” in the air. He also expanded
the lexicon of male dancing by adding ballon for men and stylized movements for women that portrayed them
as sweet and charming. Bournonville created many dances for the Danish ballet, and the company has preserved
his choreography through the centuries.

Watch This

The Bournoville variation from Napoli demonstrates movements of elevation

Giselle

Giselle is a ballet masterwork that is still performed worldwide. It is inspired by the literary works of Heine and
Hugo that referenced the supernatural wilis. Giselle was choreographed by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot and
composed by Adolphe Adam. It is almost a template for the traditional Romantic ballets. Act one is set in a
village, and act two is in a graveyard, an otherworldly place populated by the ghosts of young girls who died
before their wedding day; willis. Giselle falls in love with a young man, Albrecht, who pretends to be a local but
is really a nobleman. Distraught by his deception, she dies from grief. When Albrecht visits her grave, the wilis
conspire to dance him to death. Giselle, now a wili herself, intervenes to save him.

Coppélia

Not all Romantic era ballets were tragic and supernatural. Arthur St. Léon created the great comedic ballet
46 | BALLET

Coppélia: The Girl with the Enamel Eyes. The ballet is based on a tale by E.T. A. Hoffman. It tells the story
of a village boy, Franz, enamored by the girl Coppélia. Unbeknownst to him, she is an automaton. His jealous
girlfriend Swanilda discovers the deception created by the doll’s creator, and when the old toymaker tries to
animate his doll with magic, she takes the doll’s place and pretends to come to life. The characters’ antics were
great hits with audiences, and the ballet remains popular today.

Classical Ballet: Imperial Russia

About the time King Louis XIV was sponsoring the creation of ballet in his court, Peter the Great became tsar
of Russia (1682-1725). He embraced science and Western social ideas in an effort to bring “the enlightenment”
to Russia. Peter built the imperial city of St. Petersburg and established his court there. His successor, Empress
Anna, retained Jean-Baptiste Lande in 1738 to establish a ballet school at the military academy she had
established. This school became the home of the Maryinsky Ballet. The Bolshoi Ballet was a rival school and
company later established in Moscow.
Following Lande’s lengthy directorship in St Petersburg, many of Europe’s most important ballet masters
and choreographers took a turn at the helm in creating dance in Russia, including Jules Perrot, Filippo
Taglioni, and Arthur St Léon.

Marius Petipa (1818-1910)

Marius Petipa was the most influential choreographer of this era, known as “The Father of Classical Ballet.” A
dancer from a family of French ballet dancers, he moved to St Petersburg as a minor choreographer. He rose to
great importance in Russian ballet as the director and choreographer of the Maryinsky Ballet for nearly sixty
years (1847-1903). He created over sixty ballets in his career, restaging a number of the great Romantic era
ballets (much of the existing choreography of ballets like Giselle and Coppélia is the work of Marius Petipa’s
restaging.) Petipa also created new original ballets, beginning with The Pharaoh’s Daughter, a five-act ballet
complete with an underwater scene and livestock onstage.
BALLET | 47

Fig 15 Photograph
of Marius Petipa
by an unidentified
photographer –
Photo collection of
Adam Lopez,
wikipedia user [1]
CC Public domain.

Characteristics of Classical Ballets

Marius Petipa is responsible for the defining characteristics of classical ballets. Petipa’s creations told stories
using ballet, character dance, and choreographic structures that highlighted the most technical dancers of the
company.

Classical Ballet Choreographic Structure

Petipa developed a standard choreographic structure. He used character dances, folk dances that depicted
various cultures, to add variety to the performance. Unlike the Romantic ballets that consisted of two acts,
classical ballets expanded to three or four acts. Many dances that had nothing to do with moving the plot
forward were included in these ballets to make them longer. These extra dance numbers are called
divertissements (diversions). Divertissements were often character dances. The end of the ballet usually
features the grand pas de deux, a duet for the principal dancers. The grand pas de deux has four sections:

1. Adagio- The principal dancers perform slow movement together that is fluid and controlled.
2. Man’s Variation- Males display their technical virtuosity by performing leaps, turns, and jumps.
3. Woman’s Variation- Females often perform quick footwork and turns.
4. Coda- The principals dance together to display impressive movements.
48 | BALLET

Watch This

The Sleeping Beauty grand pas de deux featuring Robert Bolle and Diana Vishneva.

Contextual Connections

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky composed three great ballets. He was already a recognized and respected
composer in Russia when Petipa asked him to compose the ballet score for The Sleeping Beauty.
Petipa gave Tchaikovsky specific instructions on the music he required for the ballet. The ballet was
lavishly produced and became an enormous success.

Tchaikovsky’s second ballet, The Nutcracker, was choreographed by Petipa’s choreographic

assistant, Lev Ivanov (1834-1901). Petipa’s choreographic assistant, Lev Ivanov, worked alongside
Petipa in the creation of many ballets. He created entire portions of Petipa ballets and ballets of his
own.

The Nutcracker was not admired in Russia at the time – it was seen as frivolous and trivial. It was in
BALLET | 49

America in the middle of the twentieth century that the Nutcracker found popularity as a vehicle
for local dancers in communities around the country.

The third well-known ballet Tchaikovsky composed was Swan Lake. Marius Petipa choreographed
the first and third acts of the ballet- those set in the environs of Prince Siegfried, town and
ballroom, and the world of people. Lev Ivanov choreographed acts two and four, the beautiful
scenes set at the lake with the swans.

After the revolution of 1917, the Russian populace

embraced ballet. Rather than discarding it as a symbol of
the tsars, the working class adopted it as their own, and
ballet became a symbol of national pride.
At the end of the 19th century, Russia was at the apex
of the ballet world, and this continued well into the 20th
century. The Vaganova Choreographic Institute in St
Petersburg employs Russia’s finest teachers to train its
dancers. The life of a ballet dancer in Russia brings
Fig. 16 orps de ballet by Jack Devant ballet privileges and opportunities that make acceptance into
photography CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
the school highly desirable.

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50 | BALLET

Ballet Russes: Dance and The Avant-Garde

Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929)

Sergei Diaghilev, a Russian art lover, organized the Ballet Russes

in 1909. He identified ballet as the ideal vehicle to present the
Russian arts to the West. Diaghilev’s troupe included some of
Russia’s finest dancers and choreographers recruited from the
Vaganova Institute and the Maryinsky ballet. He promoted
collaborations with avant-garde composers and artists of the time.
The tour to Paris extended twenty years as the Ballet Russes
performed for Paris, Europe, and the Western world. The Ballet
Russes introduced a new and modern form of ballet, revitalizing
ballet in the West.

Michel Fokine (1880-1942)

The first choreographer of Ballet Russes was Michel Fokine. Like Fig. 17 George Grantham Bain
Jean-Georges Noverre, Fokine developed principles to reform Collection (Library of Congress) – This
image is available from the United
ballet. Fokine focused on ballet’s expressiveness rather than physical
States Library of Congress’s Prints and
prowess. He believed movement should serve a purpose to the Photographs division under the digital
theme, and costumes should reflect the dress of the time and ID ggbain.20797. CC Public Domain
setting. Fokine also stripped away pantomime in his ballets,
emphasizing movement and self-expression as the catalyst for storytelling. His one-act ballet Les Sylphides was
reminiscent of the earlier ballet La Sylphide in its use of the ethereal sylph. But Fokine’s ballet had no plot. A
single man, a poet, dances among a group of sylphides in a ballet that evokes a dreamlike mood.

Watch This

Excerpt from Les Sylphides (c 1928). This black-and-white clip is some of the only footage of the
BALLET | 51

company that exists. Diaghilev did not want his ballet company to be filmed because he was afraid
of losing income from box office sales.

Fokine’s The Firebird was based on tales from Russian folklore. His Petrouchka told the story of a trio of
puppets at a Russian street fair.

Vaslav Nijinsky (1889-1950)

Vaslav Nijinsky was a principal dancer of the company and is

remembered for his astonishing gravity-defying jumps and poignant
portrayals. When Fokine left the company, Nijinsky became the principal
choreographer. He choreographed the “Rite of Spring: Tales from
Russia,” “Afternoon of a Faun,” and “Jeux.” Nijinsky’s dances were
controversial because the themes, movement aesthetics, and music were
unconventional for the time. “The Rite of Spring” portrays a pagan ritual
and fertility rites that left the audience in uproar on its opening night.

Fig. 18 The dancer Vaslav

Nijinsky in the ballet Le spectre Watch This
de la rose as performed at the
Royal Opera House in 1911. CC
Public Domain
52 | BALLET

Excerpt from the Rite of Spring.

One or more interactive elements has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view them online
here: https://louis.pressbooks.pub/danceappreciation/?p=184#oembed-8

Léonide Massine (1895-1979)

Léonide Massine followed Nijinsky as a choreographer, where he expanded on Fokine’s innovations, focusing
on narrative, folk dance, and character portrayals in his ballets. Parade is a one-act ballet about French and
American street circuses. Pablo Picasso designed the cubist sets and costumes.

Watch This

Excerpt of Parade. The characters are introduced in three groups as they try to entice an audience
into the performance. The giant cubist figures portray business promoters.

Bronislava Nijinska (1891-1972)

Bronislava Nijinska, the fourth Ballet Russes choreographer, was Vaslav’s sister and stands out as one of the
few recognized women choreographers. Her ballet Les Noces, set to music by Stravinsky, was noted for its
BALLET | 53

architectural qualities. She created several ballets known for being Riviera chic, portraying the carefree lifestyle
of Europe’s idle rich.

Watch This

Excerpt from Le Train Bleu; you can see the costumes designed by Coco Chanel.

George Balanchine (1904-1983)

George Balanchine was the fifth and last choreographer of Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes. He created ten ballets for
the company. The “Prodigal Son” is a retelling of the bible story. “Apollo” shows the birth of the god Apollo
and his tutoring in the arts by the three muses. Those two ballets remain in the repertory of the New York City
Ballet.

Watch This

Excerpt from Balanchine’s “Apollo” performed by Pacific Northwest Ballet.

Watch This

This short clip features pictures and footage with commentary by Lynn Garafola, Nancy Reynolds,
and Charles M. Smith.

Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and Original Ballet Russe

The dancers of Ballet Russe were left at loose ends after the death of Diaghilev. A former Russian colonel,
Wassily de Basil, joined with Rene Blum, and found the funding to buy Diaghilev’s sets and costumes. He
hired George Balanchine as the choreographer for the new company, Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Balanchine
recruited girls of twelve and fourteen to become the new stars of the company. The trio, Tamara Toumanova,
Irina Baronova, and Tatiana Riabouchinska, was dubbed the baby ballerinas.
Excerpt from Les Sylphides featuring the baby ballerinas:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKtN38sL3es

In little more than a year, Blum had split from de Basil, and Balanchine was replaced with Leonide Massine
as choreographer. Massine created ballets from 1932-1937, including Gaite Parisienne, and Les Presages, the
first ballet set to a symphony.
Ultimately Massine split from de Basil. In a court battle, de Basil’s company retained the rights to all of
Massine’s work during that time. But Massine held on to the name Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo.
The Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo toured Europe, and when World War II broke out the company sailed
for North America, while De Basil’s company, now named The Original Ballet Russe, headed to Australia.
They later also toured the US and South America. Both companies performed for countless new audiences,
BALLET | 55

introducing Russian ballet to the New World. American dancers were hired to fill the ranks of the companies.
Among others, five Native American ballerinas were hired to tour with the companies.

The Five Moons

Many American dancers found work with Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and Original Ballet Russe. Five
exceptional Native American dancers who became ballerinas with these companies hailed from Oklahoma.
Known as the Five Moons, a reference to their tribes, these women gained fame and success at the highest levels
of ballet, and were foundational in the development of Oklahoma dance institutions.
Maria Tallchief (Osage Nation, 1925-2013) went on to dance with New York City Ballet. She married
George Balanchine and worked with him for many years. Balanchine’s Firebird was a signature role for her.
Marjorie Tallchief (Osage Nation, (1926-2021), Maria’s sister, was known for her great versatility as a
dancer. She had a successful dancing career in Europe and the states, then served as director at Dallas Civic
Ballet Academy, Chicago’s City Ballet, and Harid Conservatory in Boca Raton.
Moscelyne Larkin (Peoria/Eastern Shawnee/Russian, 1925-2012) first learned ballet from her dancer
mother. She starred at Radio City Music Hall and founded Tulsa Ballet Theatre with her husband.
Yvonne Chouteau (Shawnee Tribe, 1929-2016) joined Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo at the age of 14 where
she danced many roles from the Ballet Russe repertory. She served as an artist in residence at the University of
Oklahoma and founded Oklahoma City Ballet with her husband.
Rosella Hightower (Choctaw Nation, 1920-2008) danced with these major companies and with American
Ballet Theatre, but she later found her work in France, as director of Marseilles Opera Ballet and then Ballet de
Nancy. Hightower was the first American director of the Paris Opera Ballet.

Fig 19. Two of the

Five Moons
sculptures at the
Tulsa Historical
Society. From left
to right: Marjorie
Tallchief, Rosella
Hightower.
Attributed to Peter
Greenberg. CC
BY-SA 3.0
56 | BALLET

Both Ballet Russe companies had disbanded by 1960. Many of the retired dancers went on to found ballet
schools and companies throughout the New World and Europe.

Neoclassical Ballet
Neoclassical dance utilizes traditional ballet vocabulary, but pieces are often abstract and have no narrative.
Several choreographers were experimenting with the neoclassical style. Balanchine’s work is regarded as
neoclassical, embracing both classical and contemporary aesthetics. Balanchine wanted the attention to be
on the movement itself, highlighting the relationship between music and dancing by creating movement that
mirrored the music. Balanchine also employed freedom of the upper body, moving away from the verticality of
the spine for a more expressive movement that drew inspiration from vernacular jazz dance styles that became
prominent.

American Ballet in The 20th Century

At the invitation of Lincoln Kirstein, George Balanchine went to New York City when the Ballet Russes ended
in 1929. In 1934, they established the first ballet school in the United States, the forerunner of the School
of American Ballet. It expanded into a short-lived dance company. In 1948, Balanchine established a small
company that ultimately grew to become the New York City Ballet (NYCB). New York City Ballet is the
resident company of Lincoln Center in NYC and one of the most recognized ballet companies in the country.
George Balanchine was a prolific choreographer with a long career. Due to his contributions to the
development of ballet in the United States, Balanchine is known as “the father of American ballet.” He wanted
to express modern 20th-century life and ideas to capture the spirit and athleticism of American dancers. Some
of his most famous ballets include Serenade, Jewels, Stars and Stripes, and Concerto Barocco.

Watch This

Excerpt of the Rubies pas de deux from the ballet Jewels.

BALLET | 57

American Ballet Theatre (ABT)

American Ballet Theatre (ABT), a New York City

Ballet contemporary, is also recognized as a premier ballet
company. Its mission is to preserve the classical repertoire,
commission new works, and provide educational
programming.
Its directors have included Lucia Chase and Oliver
Smith, Mikail Baryshnikov, and Kevin McKenzie.
Hundreds of renowned choreographers have created
works with ABT. Antony Tudor created intimate
psychological ballets, Agnes de Mille created ballets of
Americana, and Jerome Robbins produced ballets across
Fig. 20 KCB Dancers George Balanchine’s The a range of styles.
Four Temperaments Photography by Steve
Wilson CC By 2.0

Watch This
58 | BALLET

Excerpt from Rodeo by Agnes de Mille, the dancers mimic the bowed-legs of cowboys and trot
about as if they are astride horses. Aaron Copland composed the music.

Ballet grew in other cities of America as well. San Francisco Ballet was founded by Adolphe Bolm, a Ballet
Russes dancer. Chicago and Utah both established ballet companies early on.

Other Notable American Ballet Artists

Mid-20th Century:

Jerome Robbins (1918-1998)

Jerome Robbins was an American-born dancer and a significant choreographer in ballet, musical theater, and
film. Robbins contributed modern ballets to the repertory of New York City Ballet and American Ballet
Theatre. His artistic works are influenced by ordinary people and reflect current times.

Watch This

Short documentary that highlights scenes of Fancy Free with commentary by Daniel Ulbricht and
Ella Baff. Fancy Free is set in the 1940s; this ballet is about the escapades of sailors onshore. Fancy
Free is the precursor for the musical, On the Town.
BALLET | 59

Robert Joffrey (1930-1988)

In 1953 Robert Joffrey began his company, Joffrey Ballet, as a small touring group traveling in a single van. It
is primarily known for its pop-culture ballets, like Astarte, and historical recreations of ballets like Nijinsky’s”
Rite of Spring,” Fokine’s “Petrouchka,” and Massine’s “Parade.”

Arthur Mitchell

Arthur Mitchell was the first African-American principal dancer to

perform with a leading national ballet company, New York City Ballet. In
1969, in response to news of Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination,
Mitchell created a ballet school in his childhood neighborhood. The
Dance Theatre of Harlem rose from the ballet school, a classical ballet
company composed primarily of African-American dancers.
Mitchell wanted to produce ballets that would raise the voices of people
of color and create opportunities for them to dance professionally. He used
his company as a platform for social justice. In his Creole Giselle, Mitchell
reimagined the romantic ballet and set it in Louisiana during the 1840s.
According to the Dance Theatre of Harlem’s program notes, “during this
time, social status among free blacks was measured by how far removed
one’s family was from slavery. Giselle’s character is kept the same; her
Fig. 21 Portrait of Arthur greatest joy is to dance. Albrecht is now Albert, and the Wilis are the ghosts
Mitchell from the United States of young girls who adore dancing and die of a broken heart.”
Library of Congress’s Prints and
hotographs division under the
digital ID cph.3c16603. CC Public
Domain

Watch This
60 | BALLET

This archival material from Creole Giselle includes pictures and dancing clips narrated by the
dancers of the original ballet, Theara Ward, Augustus Van Heerden, Lorraine Graves.

Check Your Understanding

Contemporary Ballet: Ballet in The 21st Century

Contemporary ballet is a dance genre that uses
classical techniques (French terminology) that
choreographers manipulate and blend with other dance
forms, such as modern dance.
Alonzo King LINES Ballet
Alonzo King is an American choreographer who
initially studied at the ABT. King also danced with
notable choreographers Alvin Ailey and Arthur Mitchell
before founding his company, LINES Ballet. LINES
Fig. 22 Dance Theatre of Harlem photo credit: Ballet is located in California, where King uses Western
Matty Stern/U.S. Embassy Tel Aviv CC By 2.0
and Eastern classical dance forms to create contemporary
ballets.
BalletX
BalletX was founded in 2005 by Christine Cox and Matthew Neenan and is located in Philadelphia. The
mission of BalletX is to expand classical vocabulary through its experimentation to push the boundaries of
ballet.

Watch This

Christine Cox and Matthew Neenan discuss the mission of BalletX. The footage shows clips of the
company’s performances, pictures, and interviews with the company members.

Complexions Contemporary Ballet

In 1994, Complexions was founded by Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson. The mission of
Complexions is to foster diverse and inclusive approaches in the making and presentation of their works to
inspire change in the ballet world.

Watch This

Excerpt from WOKE that uses music from Logic to explore themes of humanity in response to the
political climate.

Other Notable Contemporary Ballet Artists

• Nederlands Dans Theater founded in 1959 is a Dutch contemporary dance company
• William Forsythe founded The Forsythe Company (2005-2015), integrating ballet with visual arts.
• Jiří Kylián blends classical ballet steps with contemporary approaches to create abstract dances.
• Amy Hall Garner combines ballet, modern, and theatrical dance genres.
• Trey McIntyre founded the Trey McIntyre Project in 2005, combining ballet, contemporary dance
with visual arts.
• Ballet Hispánico, founded by Tina Ramirez in 1970, blends ballet with Latinx dance to create more
opportunities for dancers of color, known as one of America’s Cultural Treasures.
• Justin Peck is the resident choreographer for New York City Ballet, creating new works, and earned a
Tony Award for his choreography in the revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel.
BALLET | 63

Inclusivity
From its origins in the elite white-only courts of France and Italy and well into the present day, western dance
forms had a history of exclusionism. In the United States, the first Black ballet dancer who broke the color
barrier in 1955 to dance in a major ballet company was Raven Wilkinson. Wilkinson danced and toured with
the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Racial segregation was at its height during this time, forcing Wilkinson to
deny her race when performing at most venues. After facing years of discrimination, Wilkinson eventually left
the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. After facing rejection from several American ballet companies, Wilkinson
was hired to dance with the Dutch National Ballet. Wilkinson later became a mentor to Misty Copeland.

Fig. 23 Ballerina Raven Wilkinson speaks

about Misty Copeland in Glamour / Vogue
magazine video. CC By

In 2015 Misty Copeland became the first African American female principal dancer with American Ballet
Theatre. Copeland is also the first woman of color to take the lead role of Odette/Odile in Swan Lake. Her road
to principal dancer was difficult as many claimed she had the wrong skin color to dance professionally. Due to
the racism faced throughout her life, Misty Copeland uses her platform to bring awareness to the challenges
people of color face in the ballet world by advocating for diversity.
64 | BALLET

Watch This

Misty Copeland’s interview on race in ballet.

Misty Copeland
Racial barriers have caused choreographers to challenge the
traditional Eurocentric forms of ballet. Hiplet, a fusion of ballet
movement and hip-hop, was created by Homer Hans Bryant to
provide opportunities for dancers of color to connect to ballets and
express themselves in a contemporary and culturally relevant way.

Fig. 24 Gilda N. Squire Gildasquire –

Extracted from File:From the ballet Watch This
Coppelia.jpg CC By-SA 4.0
BALLET | 65

In this video, Hiplet creator Homer Hans Bryant discusses how he developed this dance style.

Gender Roles
Ballets historically tend to follow stereotyped gender roles that
emphasize femininity and masculinity. These conventional standards
are reinforced in the movements, roles, costuming, and partnering
displayed in ballets. In pas de deuxs in classical ballets, female dancers
are paired with male dancers. Female dancers are often portrayed as
delicate, complacent, ethereal beings. In contrast, male dancers are
presented as dominant and strong; they lift their female partners,
enforcing the image of men supporting women.

Mathew Bourne

In 1995, Matthew Bourne took a contemporary approach to classical

ballet in his reimagined Swan Lake. Bourne disrupts societal
expectations by replacing the female swans with men. In the male-male Fig 25. “George Balanchine’s Apollo
pas de deux, the dancers lift and support each other, shifting the power – David Ingram & Traci Gilchrest –
photo by Peter Zay” by Charlotte
dynamics to emphasize equality in the movement.
Ballet is marked with CC BY-NC-ND
2.0.
66 | BALLET

Watch This

“The New Adventures” excerpt of “Swan Lake.”

LGBTQIA+ Representation

Ballets have also reinforced heterosexual norms and narratives. Societal ideals of feminine and masculine
stereotyped gender roles have caused inequality in the representation of the LGBTQIA+ community.
Although there are openly gay male dancers in ballet, their roles pressure them to adhere to rigid ideas
of masculinity. The chivalrous prince rescues the helpless female character. Historically, the Romantic era
brought the ballerina to the forefront, and ballet became perceived as a feminine art form. Dancers who
identify as lesbians are excluded from the ballet narrative because movement qualities reinforce binary norms.
The representation gap for all sexual orientations has excluded people in the LGBTQIA+ community.
Many feel the pressure to conform to rigid gender stereotypes. LGBTQIA+ artists today are using their
platforms to address the lack of representation and challenge ballet traditions to include a wide spectrum of
sexuality.

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo adds a twist of humor in classical ballets. The company, founded in
1974, features men performing en travesti (in the clothing of the opposite sex.) The dancers in this company
challenge the gender norms of ballet by assigning men to traditionally female roles.
BALLET | 67

Watch This

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo’s version of “Swan Lake.” In the pas de quatre, or dance of
four, the dancers perform a parody of the. “Dance of the Little Swans.”

Ballez

Ballez is a ballet company founded by Katy Pyle in 2011. Ballez aims to dismantle the patriarchal structure of
ballet to create inclusive spaces for the representation of queer dancers. In 2021, Pyle reimagined the romantic
ballet, Giselle. In Ballez’s production Giselle of Loneliness, Ballez highlights the experiences of queer and
gender non-conforming, non-binary, and trans dancers. The dancers perform an audition solo inspired by the
“mad scene” from the original Giselle that comments on the personal challenges and experiences affecting their
relationship with ballet from an LGBTQIA+ lens.

Watch This

An interview with Katy Pyle.

68 | BALLET

Body Types

Generally, ballet centers on European aesthetics,

including the ideal body shape. George Balanchine, the
founder of New York City Ballet, favored a ballet dancer
with a long neck, sloped shoulders, a small rib cage, a
narrow waist, and long legs and feet. These ideals have
resulted in the pressure to maintain a slender physique
and have caused body dysmorphia in many dancers.
Copeland has stated that at the age of 21, artistic staff
commented on how her body “changed” and their hopes
to see her body “lengthen.” According to Copeland, Fig 26. CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain
“That, of course, was a polite, safe way of saying, ‘You Dedication
need to lose weight.’” In 2017, Misty Copeland released
her health and fitness book “Ballerina Body: Dancing and Eating Your Way to a Leaner, Stronger, and More
Graceful You.” Copeland shares her health-conscious approaches to developing healthier and stronger bodies
in this book.

BALLET TIMELINE

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it
BALLET | 69

online here:
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SUMMARY
Ballet is a Western classical dance form with a rich history—beginning in the Renaissance as a royal court
entertainment infused with social and political purposes, eventually developing into a codified technique. Over
time, ballet transformed, experiencing costume changes in the Enlightenment that led to dancers being able to
express themselves without being confined to restrictive clothing. In the Romantic era, ballet d’action emerged,
emphasizing emotions over logic to help communicate the ballet’s story. There were also technical elements
such as flying machines that gave the impression of dancers floating onstage. The unique theater effects led to
female dancers beginning to dance en pointe. During the Classical period, Russia became the leader of ballet,
with government support to establish ballet schools. Ballet shifted in pursuit of virtuosity, demanding greater
technique from dancers. The Ballet Russes made a significant impact by modernizing ballets, bringing ballet to
other world regions, helping establish ballet in America, and a new ballet style was formed, neoclassical. Today,
choreographers challenge the ballet traditions and embrace various dance genres to blend with ballet, known
as contemporary dance.

Check Your Understanding

1. Ballet Pantomime

Choreograph a short pantomime that tells a story through dialogue. You may either choose to ask a
friend or family member to exchange dialogue or perform your dance alone. Use a combination of
traditional pantomime gestures from the selected videos and add original gestures and facial
expressions. Record your pantomime and share the link on the discussion board (Minimum of 20
seconds). Include a script summarizing what your pantomime says.
70 | BALLET

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3

Here are some topic examples you might consider:

• Activities or sports you like to participate in and why.

• What makes you happy (taking walks, spending time with friends, etc.).
• Aspects about your day.
• A place you’ve traveled to and what you saw.
• Words of encouragement/affirmation.

2. Elements of Dance in Ballet

DIRECTIONS: Utilizing the Elements of Dance, watch two videos from different ballet eras
(Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the Romantic period, Classical, Avant-Garde, Neoclassical, and
Contemporary) and write a reflection speaking to the salient qualities observed. Answer the
following prompts:

• Compare and contrast the aesthetics observed using the Elements of Dance.
• How does the movement reflect the ballet era? How does the period reflect the movement?

3. Dear Catherine de’ Medici

DIRECTIONS: Write a letter to Catherine de’ Medici that speaks to the current discourse in the ballet
world. Select one of the discussion topics found in Chapter Three and watch the associated video
(race in ballet, gender roles, LGBTQIA+ representation, or body types) to reflect, respond, and
advocate how the ballet world can address these issues. Please reference the class book or use the
internet to conduct further research. Post your assignment on the discussion board and cite
references. (Minimum of 150 words).

References
“History of Ballet.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, June 24, 2022. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
History_of_ballet.
Kassing, Gayle. Discovering Dance. Champaign: Human Kinetics, 2014.
“Ballez.” BALLEZ, www.ballez.org/.
BALLET | 71

Bried, Erin. “Stretching Beauty: Ballerina Misty Copeland on Her Body Struggles.” SELF. SELF, March 18,
2014. https://www.self.com/story/ballerina-misty-copeland-body-struggles.
Harlow, Poppy, and Dalila-Johari Paul. “Misty Copeland Says the Ballet World Still Has a Race Problem
and She Wants to Help Fix That.” CNN. Cable News Network, May 21, 2018. https://www.cnn.com/2018/
05/21/us/misty-copeland-ballet-race-boss-files/index.html.
Lihs, Harriet R. Appreciating Dance a Guide to the World’s Liveliest Art. Princeton Book Company, 2018.
Loring, Dawn Davis, and Julie L. Pentz. Dance Appreciation. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2022.
“Ballet.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, July 20, 2022. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballet.

Ambrosio, Nora. Learning about Dance: Dance as an Art Form & Entertainment. Dubuque, IA: Kendall
Hunt Publishing Company, 2018.
72 | MODERN DANCE

MODERN DANCE

Learning Objectives

• Explain the similarities and differences between ballet and modern dance.
• Identify key techniques and prominent figures in modern dance history
• Understand the history of western performance dance and summarize major events in the
course of its development

“Dance is the hidden language of the soul.”-Martha Graham

What is Modern Dance?

In the early twentieth century, choreographers broke away from the strict traditions of ballet to develop dance
as varied and rich as the American melting pot. Choreographers drew upon the styles of many cultures to
create a new dance form as diverse as the citizens and expressive of the independence of the American spirit.
Black dancers and choreographers explored their African and Caribbean roots and shaped their own form of
expressive modern dance. Others sought new movement to depict the human condition. Inevitably, dances
were shared, merged, and reimagined. No matter the case, early pioneers of modern dance explored new ways
to express themselves in more natural and free form while conveying the spirit of their times.
MODERN DANCE | 73

Modern Dance Characteristics

Modern dance technique is unlike ballet’s codified set of movements used worldwide. Modern dance styles are
individualized and, for the most part, named after the person who developed them; for instance, José Limón
created Limón Technique. Although modern dance techniques vary, movement concepts are embedded
throughout techniques, sharing overarching principles. Let’s take a look at the movement concepts in modern
dance.

DYNAMIC ALIGNMENT AND FLEXIBILITY

All dancers use dynamic alignment. However, in Modern dance, emphasis is given to the core along with the
pelvis, which is the center from which all movement originates. The core keeps the dancer grounded and stable.
Modern dancers also use freer or unrestrained movement of the torso that allows for flexibility in all directions.

Watch This

Graham Technique with dancers demonstrating contractions. The torso is in a concave shape
created by the core contracting (abdominals); as a result, the pelvis “tucks under,” and the chest
reacts by rounding forward.

GRAVITY

In modern dance, gravity is accepted, which acts as a partnership with the body utilizing the dancer’s weight
paired with momentum.
74 | MODERN DANCE

Watch This

An example of the Limón Technique called fall and recovery that uses the body’s weight with
momentum to surrender into gravity. The dancer is demonstrating arm swings, known as release
swings. In this action, the dancer begins with the body in a vertical position and the arms swing in
any direction. The dancer allows the momentum from the swing to propel the body in the direction
of the arm, giving in to gravity.

The Tanz Theater Münster company dancers interact with the floor. They can quickly move
between floor work and standing movement.

BREATH

The use of breath is a prominent component of modern dance. Dancers do not always attempt to hide their
MODERN DANCE | 75

breathing. The inhalation and expiration of breath provide a natural physical rhythm that assists in executing
movement.

BARE FEET, FLEXED FEET, AND PARALLEL FEET

Modern dance is often performed barefoot. Many exercises utilize the feet in a parallel position. Unlike
traditional ballet, modern dance can use a flexed foot instead of a pointed foot.

IMPROVISATION

Improvisation is the practice of unplanned movement. Many choreographers use improvisation as the basis for
generating movement ideas for choreography. Through active investigation, choreographers select and further
develop the movements explored from their improvisation to consider how they can be applied in their dance
concept.

Watch This

The dancer improvise movement that includes floor work and standing movement

The Pioneers: First and Second Generations

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Modern dance appeared in Germany and the United States in the early 20th century. In the late 19th century,
the second Industrial Revolution brought significant changes. The rise of people who lived and worked in
cities, mainly middle-class or white-collar workers, lived less active lifestyles resulting in the task of public
health officials to prevent the spread of diseases caused by sedentary lifestyles. Emphasis on the benefits of
maintaining a regular exercise regimen, such as dance, gymnastics, and sports, was highly praised. European
theorists Delsarte and Dalcroze introduced methods for understanding human movement that was presented
to colleges as “aesthetic dance.” These theorists made an impression on emerging modern dancers as they
provided new ways to uncover the expressive qualities of the body by responding to internal sensations with
greater freedom in movement possibilities.

Loie Fuller (1862-1928)

Loie Fuller was a former actress and skirt dancer, a

popular dance form in Europe and America, mainly
found in burlesque and vaudeville. Fuller is known for her
dramatic manipulation of fabrics and lighting designs,
creating visual effects such as butterfly wings and fire
images. She made these effects by shining light onto her
voluminous silk costumes. Loie also experimented with
electrical lighting, colored gels, and projections.
Fig 1 Loie Fuller Dancing – photograph by
Samuel Joshua Beckett (MET, 2005.100.952) CC
Public Domain

Watch This

Fuller debut as a dancer in Serpentine Dance.

MODERN DANCE | 77

Isadora Duncan (1877-1927)

Isadora Duncan rejected her early training in ballet technique feeling the movement and costumes were
restrictive and lacked personal expression. Instead, she explored more natural movements, such as walking,
running, skipping, and jumping. Instead of ballet attire, she emulated the Greeks when she wore tunics, danced
barefoot, and performed dances about nature. It gave her movement a sense of freedom and abandonment.
Historically, modern dance has been tied to cultural forces that reflect society. Duncan’s dances expressed
the human condition, especially women’s rights. She traveled throughout America and eventually settled in
Europe, where she founded her school. Duncan trained dancers and called them “Isadorables.”

Watch This

Duncan perform outdoors.

“Denishawn”

Ruth St. Denis (1879-1968)

Ruth St. Denis became fascinated with cultures worldwide when she saw an advertisement for Egyptian
Deities cigarettes. The image of the goddess on the cigarettes inspired her dances honoring goddesses and
deities based on her impressions of Indian, Egyptian, Spanish, and Javanese dance forms that weren’t culturally
accurate. Instead, they were a reflection of her aesthetics.

Watch This

Denis’ East Indian Nautch Dance inspired by the dance practiced by the nautch girls of India.

Ruth St. Denis married Ted Shawn; this also began a creative
partnership. Together they founded the Denishawn School, creating a
diverse curriculum that included ballet, Asian dances, and dance history.
They encouraged dancers to connect their dancing body to their mind
and spirit. Through their school emerged the first generation of modern
dancers.
Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn parted ways. St. Denis turned her
attention to religion and continued teaching South Asian dance forms.
Ted Shawn went on to found Jacob’s Pillow in Massachusetts, the
nation’s oldest dance festival.

Ted Shawn (1891-1972)

Fig 2. Ruth St. Denis and Ted
Shawn in an out-of-doors photo, Ted Shawn formed an all-male dance company called Ted Shawn and
in costume, for National
His Men Dancers, hoping to make modern dance a respected profession
Geographic Magazine, April 1916,
reprinted May 1951.. 1915. Notes: for male dancers.
National Endowment for the Arts
Millennium Project. CC Public
Domain

Watch This

Kinetic Molpai is a dance work in 12 parts; it features Ted’s all-male company who form a chorus. A
solitary man, the leader, joins them sporadically. Fun fact: Shawn recruited athletes from
Springfield College that had no experience in dance and trained them.

FIRST GENERATION: Discovering Personal Voices

Dancers from the Denishawn school began to branch out as they grew restless with the company’s artistic
vision, which focused on exotic themes that proved to be more so entertainment on the vaudeville circuit.
Instead, the first-generation dancers wanted to express their creative voice and push the art form’s boundaries,
resulting in various codified modern techniques.

Martha Graham (1894-1991)

Fig 3. Dancer
Martha Graham,
on page 54 of the
April 1922
Shadowland. CC
Public Domain

Martha Graham studied dance at Denishawn but left to form her own company and develop her own
technique. She believed that dance should show the struggle and pain that comes with life. She developed
“contract and release,” a technique that shows movement initiating from the center of the body meant to
embody conflict. This technique involves percussively tightening the body’s core muscles (centered on the
lower abdominals and pelvis), followed by a release of tension (the spine lengthens to return to an elongated
neutral posture). This technique utilizes breath to support the movement; the dancer begins with an inhale,
then an exhale, allowing the body to contract, lastly followed by an inhale to release and return the body in
vertical/neutral alignment.
Graham’s repertoire included dances based on Americana, such as Frontier and Appalachian Spring, she
also created dances based on Greek myths as in Night Journey, and emotional dances.
MODERN DANCE | 81

Watch This

Lamentation is a signature solo performed by Graham. Graham embodies grief as she contorts her
body within the stretchy fabric.

Humphrey-Weidman

Doris Humphrey (1895-1958) and Charles Weidman (1901-1975)

Doris Humphrey & Charles Weidman were former Denishawn students

and had a creative partnership and together founded the Humphrey-
Weidman company. In collaboration with Weidman, Humphrey created a
movement technique based on the body’s reaction to gravity and weight
called “fall and recovery.” Humphrey believed the body constantly moves in
between the “arc between two deaths,” in which the body moves in a
successive pattern responding to gravity.

Fig. 4 from “Doris Humphrey

Modern Pioneer” YouTube CC
Watch This By
82 | MODERN DANCE

Weidman discuss the concept behind “fall and recovery.”

Lester Horton (1906-1953)

Lester Horton became interested in dance when he saw

Native Americans doing indigenous dances. He is most
renowned for his technique, called the “Horton
Technique.” This technique embeds strength-building
and flexibility principles through fortification exercises
(set exercises designed to increase technical skills
underpinned with anatomy principles).
Horton also had a company that is credited with
founding the first racially integrated dance company in
America. His choreography drew inspiration from Native
American and African dance forms.

Fig 5 Lester Horton from ‘A tribute to Lester

Horton.” YouTube CC BY

Watch This
MODERN DANCE | 83

students perform Horton Technique, working on flat back series that aim to strengthen and stretch
the legs, core, and back.

(Osborne) Hemsley Winfield (1907-1934)

(Osborne) Hemsley Winfield was an African American modern dancer that

sought ways to create equitable opportunities for Black dancers. Winfield was
inspired by the Harlem Renaissance, a cultural movement that brought African
American artists to the forefront as changemakers. In 1931, he co-founded the
Bronze Ballet Plastique with the help of Edna Guy, later to be renamed The
New Negro Art Theatre Dance Group, which was the first African American
modern dance company in the United States. Winfield also established a dance
school to provide dance instruction. After Winfield passed away, The New
Negro Art Theatre Dance Group dissolved due to a lack of financial support.

Fig. 6 (Osborne) Hemsley

Winfield from “The
Unknown Pioneer of
Modern Dance.” YouTube
CC BY
84 | MODERN DANCE

Edna Guy (1907-1983)

In 1924, Edna Guy was the first African American to study with
Denishawn. However, due to the prevalent racial segregation, she was only
able to perform for in-house recitals. She later co-founded The New Negro
Art Theatre Dance Group alongside Hemsley Winfield. In 1937, Guy and
Allison Burroughs staged Negro Dance Evening, highlighting African
diaspora dances.

Fig 7. Edna Guy from “Black

Past” by Nelson Neal.
https://www.blackpast.org/ SECOND GENERATION: Expanding the
african-american-history/
edna-guy-mccully-1907-1983/
Horizons of Modern Dance
CC BY
The second-generation modern dancers either continued following their
predecessors’ work or went in a different direction by creating new dance techniques, styles, and unorthodox
choreographic approaches.

José Limón (1908-1972)

José Limón, originally from Mexico, danced with Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman. Eventually, Limón
would form his own company and ask his mentor, Humphrey, to be the artistic director. Limón expanded on
Humphrey’s “fall and recover” technique and emphasized fluid, sequential movement, and the use of breath
as the origin and facilitator for movement as a way to approach organic movement. Limón’s legacy is still alive
today. His company continues to perform, dancing the repertory of Limón along with new works from artists.
MODERN DANCE | 85

Fig. 8 Jose Limon

from “Jose Limon
Bio” YouTube CC
BY

Watch This

There is a Time, based on the historic poem from the Bible, “Ecclesiastes.” This dance contains
universal themes describing the human experience.

Katherine Dunham (1909-2006)

Fig 9 Photograph
shows Katherine
Dunham, dancer,
full-length portrait,
facing right,
wearing dance
costume. Alfredo
Valente
(1899-1973,
photographer).
CCPublic domain

Katherine Dunham was a dancer and trained anthropologist who studied the dances of Haiti and other
Caribbean islands. She performed and choreographed for Broadway musicals, movies, and concerts with the
company. Dunham developed her technique that drew on principles of the African dance movement, called
the “Dunham Technique.” Dunham sought to create dances that represented her African American heritage.
Her work extended outside of modern dance, where she choreographed for Hollywood films. She founded a
school of dance in New York City in the mid 1940’s.

Watch This

Katherine Dunham’s Carnival of Rhythm, 1941.

Students participate in Dunham Technique. Dunham Technique utilizes classical lines, free
movement of the torso that utilizes isolations and undulations, paired with a dynamic range of
tempos and rhythmical styles.

L’Ag’Ya. This was Dunham’s signature piece, a story-based folk ballet set in Martinique that
combines many dance styles.

Pearl Primus (1919-1994)

Pearl Primus was a trained anthropologist. She secured funding to study dance abroad in Africa and the
Caribbean. Primus became a strong voice of African American dance by addressing racism in the United States.
One of her most noted works is “Strange Fruit,” based on the poem by Lewis Allan about the lynching of
Black people. In 1979, she and her husband established the Pearl Primus Dance Language Institute, which
centered classes in various African dance styles. Primus also founded her company, “Earth Theatre,” which
toured nationally.
88 | MODERN DANCE

Fig 10 Pearl
Primus,Daniel
Rock. Barbra
Morgan Archives
CCBY 3.0

Watch This

Pearl Primus performing solo tabanka teach

Talley Beatty (1918-1995)

Talley Beatty is a Louisiana native born in Shreveport. He was initially a dancer and student of Katherine
Dunham and appeared in Broadway shows and films. In 1952, he established his company that toured in the
United States and Europe with a program called “Tropicana,” featuring African and Latin American dance
styles. Beatty’s choreography centered on themes of African American life. Renowned dance companies, like
the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Dance Theatre of Harlem, have restaged his works.
MODERN DANCE | 89

Fig 11 Talley Beatty

from “80 Faces
Talley Beatty”
YouTube CC BY

Watch This

In this video, former ADF scholarship student and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater member
Hope Boykin and choreographer and dancer Duane Cyrus speak about their pivotal experiences
working with Mr. Beatty on his classic piece Road of the Phoebe Snow (1959).

Donald McKayle (1930-2018)

Donald McKayle was one of the pioneering African American modern dancers to focus on socially conscious
works speaking to the experience of Black people in the United States. During the span of his career, McKayle
choreographed several masterworks, including “Rainbow Round My Shoulder,” exposing the harsh working
conditions of imprisoned Black men set to chain-gang songs. For his tireless contributions, he holds honorable
mentions as “one of America’s irreplaceable dance treasures” from the Dance Heritage Coalition.

Fig. 12 Portrait of
Donald McKayle in
1963. New York
Public Library.
CCSA 4.0

Watch This

This dance is a staging from the Labanotation score.

Alvin Ailey (1931-1989)

Alvin Ailey is another important Second Generation dance artist. He studied with Lestor Horton, Katherine
Dunham, and Martha Graham. His independent career began after the death of his mentor, Lester Horton.
In 1958, he formed The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, based in New York. Ailey became an influential
voice that brought awareness to the inequalities faced by African-Americans. Ailey was dedicated to
highlighting and preserving the African-American experience by drawing inspiration from his heritage,
including spirituals, blues, and jazz.

Fig 13 Portrait of
Alvin Ailey in 1955.
CREDIT: Carl Van
Vechten,
photographer. CC
Public Domain

Watch This

Sinner Man an excerpt from Revelations. Ailey used Lester Horton’s technique in many of his
dances.
92 | MODERN DANCE

Ailey sought out other African American choreographers to set dances for his company. In the video below,
you will see Wayne McGregor’s Chroma, Ronald K. Brown’s Grace, and Robert Battle’s Takademe. It also has
Alvin Ailey’s masterpiece Revelations. If you have not seen Revelations before, please watch that at the least.

Watch This

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre video online.

https://www.alvinailey.org/performances-tickets/ailey-all-access

Ailey choreographed myriad works. His work Revelations is an American classic. He received many honors
in his career for his work in the arts and in civil rights, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Watch This
MODERN DANCE | 93

By turns muscular and lyrical, ‘The River’ is a sweeping full-company work that suggests tumbling
rapids and meandering streams on a journey to the sea.

Erick Hawkins (1909-1994)

Erick Hawkins initially studied at the School of American Ballet, eventually meeting Martha Graham.
Hawkins was the first man invited to perform with Graham’s company. Hawkins created a dance technique
that integrated kinesiology principles coupled with what would be later known as somatic studies that connect
the body, mind, and soul. He was interested in the body’s natural movements and was inspired by Zen
principles, Native Americans, and the beliefs of Isadora Duncan.

Fig 14. Erick

Hawkins and
unknown dancer
from “Erick
Hawkins Here and
Now with
Watchers Like
Darling Clip”
YouTube CC BY

Watch This
94 | MODERN DANCE

Plains Daybreak, inspired by Native American dances and stories.

Paul Taylor (1930-2018)

Paul Taylor danced with Graham’s company for several years. In 1959, he formed the Paul Taylor Dance
Company. His choreographic works in modern dance ranged from abstract to satire themes. Eventually,
Paul Taylor found his niche in classical modern training with remnants of ballet or a lyrical dance style
underpinning the movement. His piece Esplanade has choreography couched in pedestrian movements
(plain, everyday movements like walking, skipping, running). You may remember seeing a sample of this in
Chapter 2: Elements of Dance.

Fig 15 Paul Taylor

photo taken by
Carl Van Vechten,
photographer Jan.
12, 1962 CC Public
Domain
MODERN DANCE | 95

Watch This

Taylor’s Airs.

Merce Cunningham (1919-2009)

Merce Cunningham initially danced with Martha Graham; however, he left to follow his own artistic vision.
He formed a creative collaboration with his life partner, John Cage. They experimented with avant-garde ideas
that emphasized dance could be independent of music and narrative or as a separate entity. Cunningham
developed “chance dance,” in which fragments of choreography were randomly shuffled to create new and
spontaneous dances determined by chance acts of rolling dice or flipping a coin. Cunningham also used
computer software to aid in generating movement.
96 | MODERN DANCE

Fig 16 Flickr: Merce

Cunningham April
16, 1919- July 26,
2009. CCSA 2.0

Watch This

the contributions Cunningham made in modern dance.

Merce Cunningham’s Work Process

MODERN DANCE | 97

Alwin Nikolais (1910-1993)

Alwin Nikolais explored the geometries of form and dance. He created painted glass slides to light his dances
like in this video of “Crucible.” He created his own costumes and props and most of the music for his dances,
thereby controlling the whole stage environment.

Fig 16 Alwin
Nikolais from
“ALWIN NIKOLAIS
“”HONOREE”” –
(COMPLETE) 10th
KENNEDY
CENTER HONORS,
1987″ YouTube CC
BY

Watch This
98 | MODERN DANCE

Excerpt from Crucible.

THIRD GENERATION: The Postmodern Movement

The Postmodern movement emerged during the early 1960s and reflected the revolutionary mood of the times.
Postmodern choreographers began to question the reasons for dance-making, who could dance (can untrained
people be performers?), what could be used as music (can silence be music?), and experimented with where
dance could occur. Performances began featuring ordinary movements with non-dancers and were done in
non-traditional settings such as art galleries, churches, outdoor settings, and even on the sides of buildings.
Another feature that emerged in the postmodern period was the rise of dance collectives with no one named
choreographer. Judson Dance Theater and Grand Union are great examples of this trend.

Robert Dunn (1928-1996)

MODERN DANCE | 99

Robert Dunn was a musician that played piano for Merce

Cunningham’s classes. Dunn was drawn to the radical principles of
John Cage and attended his classes on composition. Eventually, he
would use the concepts learned from Cage and apply them to dance
in choreography workshops attended by Yvonne Rainer, Steve
Paxton, and Tricia Brown, among others. Dunn encouraged them to
be risk-takers by encouraging ongoing experimentation.

Judson Dance Theater

Dunn’s dance composition classes found residency at Judson

Memorial Church and adopted the name of Judson Dance Theater
for their dance collective. The Judson Dance Theater dancers met
Fig. 17 Library of Congress. RED weekly and were given assignments, performed their choreographic
kneeling on the floor, wearing his works, and critiqued each other. The artists mainly used
signature sweater and tie. CC Public
improvisation as the source for generating movement. The Judson
Domain
Dance Theater eventually disbanded, and the Grand Union
emerged, created by several of the Judson Dance Theater dancers and new members.

Grand Union

The Grand Union was a collaborative effort with all

dancers contributing to the artistic process of the group.
They experimented with multimedia performance art and
improvisation. Their creative research encouraged artists
to expand their definitions of dance to include
pedestrian movement (ex: walking and running) and
task-oriented movement (ex: dancers must maintain
physical contact throughout the entire dance). These Fig 18 Photo of the Grand Union. A still image
allowed for the participation of both trained and from “Skirball TV: The Alchemy of Grand Union,
with Wendy Perron & Douglas Dunn” YouTube
untrained dancers to perform. In addition, the artists
CC BY
sought out alternative spaces for dancing, such as
warehouses and lofts. Choreographers made statements with their works rather than storytelling.
100 | MODERN DANCE

Yvonne Rainer (1934- )

Yvonne Rainer studied with Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham. Robert Dunn’s choreography
workshop influenced her work as a choreographer. She was interested in the use of repetition, games, tasks, and
partnering, which would become common choreographic practices employed in dance-making.

Fig 19 From What

is dance?
“Spontaneity” 6
November 2014,
Daniel Assayag,
photographer.
CCSA 4.0

Watch This

Rainer’s Trio A, a solo dance featuring pedestrian movement.

Steve Paxton (1939- )

Steve Paxton studied and performed with Limón and Cunningham. He was inspired by the improvisation
techniques explored during the Judson Dance Theater and Grand Union collaborations. Paxton developed
“contact improvisation,” which has principles based on weight-sharing, touch, and movement awareness”
paired with pedestrian movement.

Fig 20 Steve
Paxton in the
Grand Auditorium
of Culturgest
(Lisboa, Portugal)
talking about
dance at the
opening of his
retrospective
exhibition. March,
10 2019. Nos
Papillons. CCSA 4.0

Watch This

An example of contact improvisation. The dancers maintain a point of contact and trade-off
weight sharing.
102 | MODERN DANCE

Trisha Brown (1936-2017)

Trisha Brown studied with several notable teachers, including Merce Cunningham. In the early 1970s, she
founded the Trisha Brown Company, engaging in “site-specific” works. These are performance spaces outside
the conventional theater, such as dances on rooftops. She also explored avant-garde and postmodernist ideas to
experiment with pure movement and repetitive gestures in dance.

Fig 21 Trisha
Brown. Walking on
the Wall, 1971 Carol
Gooden. Creative
Commons
Attribution-NonCo
mmercial-ShareAli
ke 4.0
International
License.

Watch This
MODERN DANCE | 103

Brown’s Man Walking Down the Side of a Building.

FOURTH GENERATION: Contemporary Modern Dance

During the mid 1970s there was a shift back to more technical-based movements with a return to the
proscenium stage. We are using the term Contemporary Modern to refer to this current genre.
Remember that the term Modern refers to those early choreographers who broke away from old world
ballet and developed an original abstract modern point of view. After a while these early modern
choreographers codified their technique styles. At this time, modern refers to any of the choreographers who
studied with or were influenced by the first- or second-generation modern dancers and are now codifying their
own technique. Postmodern dance broke away from modern technique and used pedestrian movement
(everyday gestures or actions such as walking, sitting, opening a door).
Contemporary Dance is an expansive term meaning current, what’s happening now. It is a broader, more
individualistic, expressive style of dance.

Contextual Connections
104 | MODERN DANCE

Dance Magazine’s Victoria Looseleaf helps to define the

difference between Contemporary and Modern Dance.

https://www.dancemagazine.com/modern_vs_contemporary/

“Perhaps modern and contemporary genres have taken on new meanings because the global
village has created a melting pot of moves, a stew of blurred forms that not only break down
conventions and challenge definitions, but, in the process, create something wholly new, but as yet
unnamed.”

Looseleaf went on to speak with several dance professionals about their thoughts on the topic.

Contextual Connections

Mia Michaels, Choreographer for So You Think You Can

Dance and various pop stars and dance companies, Los
Angeles

“I’m a little responsible for So You Think You Can Dance co-opting the term ‘contemporary.’ When
we first started the show, Nigel [Lythgoe] was calling it lyrical. I said, ‘It’s not lyrical, it’s
contemporary.’ We’ve created a monster. Contemporary is an easy way out—it’s when you don’t
know what to call it, you call it contemporary. I feel like dance is fusing all the forms and that the
uniqueness of each genre is starting to be muddled. It feels regurgitated and I want it to change
desperately. I’m wanting to see where these new legends and voices—like Fosse, Robbins,
Graham—are going to pop up.”
MODERN DANCE | 105

Jennifer Archibald, Founder/Director, Arch Dance, New York

City

“Contemporary is a collection of methods that have been developed from modern and postmodern
dance. It’s also a cycle of shedding techniques we’ve learned in favor of personal expression of
movement. Where modern dance moved against the grain of ballet, contemporary moves against
the grain of classical modern techniques.

“Contemporary is not a technique, it’s a genre associated with a philosophy and exploration of
different natural energies and emotions. There’s a physicality that’s appealing today, but there’s a
spirituality of the contemporary movement that has been lost with the new generation in this free-
for-all of different methods.”

Twyla Tharp

Twyla Tharp trained with the American Ballet Theatre, modern dance artists Martha Graham and Merce
Cunningham, and Luigi and Matt Mattox jazz dance educators. Tharp began choreographing dances that
blend dance genres, such as modern dance, jazz, tap, and ballet. Tharp has choreographed “more than one
hundred sixty works: one hundred twenty-nine dances, twelve television specials, six Hollywood movies, four
full-length ballets, four Broadway shows and two figure skating routines. She received one Tony Award, two
Emmy Awards, nineteen honorary doctorates, the Vietnam Veterans of America President’s Award, the 2004
National Medal of the Arts, the 2008 Jerome Robbins Prize, and a 2008 Kennedy Center Honor.” Bio | twyla
tharp. (n.d.). Retrieved April 27, 2022, from https://www.twylatharp.org/bio
106 | MODERN DANCE

Fig. 22 The image

of American
dancer/
choreography
Twyla Tharp, 2004
National Medal of
Arts Recipient.
2004. CC Public
Domain

Watch This

Tharp’s Deuce Coup, danced to music by The Beach Boys and considered the first crossover
between ballet and modern dance.

Twyla Tharp’s Famous ‘Eight Jelly Roll’ Dance from Twyla Moves, American Masters, PBS

Garth Fagan

Garth Fagan developed the “Fagan Technique,” blending modern dance, Afro-Caribbean dance, and ballet.
He received his training from Limón, Ailey, and Graham. Fagan has created works for notable companies like
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and New York City Ballet.

Fig 23 This image

has been extracted
from another file:
Garth Fagan, NYS
Assemblyman
Joseph Morelle,
NYS Senator James
Alesi, and
Nazareth College
President Daan
Braveman.jpg.
2009 Creative
Commons
Attribution 2.0
Generic

Watch This

Fagan’s From Before, performed by the Alvin Ailey Dance Company.

108 | MODERN DANCE

Contextual Connections

Disney’s The Lion King

Fagan is perhaps best known for his legendary work on Disney’s Broadway musical The Lion King
(1997) in which he brought the animals to life by combining clever costume pieces with dance
evocative of the animals in the story. In this video you will get a glimpse of the man and his
choreography.

Pilobolus

Pilobolus is a dance collective created in the late 1970s by Dartmouth college-student athletes Robby Barnett,
Martha Clarke, Lee Harris, Moses Pendleton, Michael Tracey, and Jonathan Wolken, with the guidance of
MODERN DANCE | 109

their teacher Alison Chase. Pilobolus branched from a choreography class experimenting with gymnastics and
improvisation to create images by sculpting bodies.

Fig. 24 Pilobolus
Dance Theater.
Anselm Hook.
2007 CCBY 2.0

Watch This

Pilobolus perform Shadowland.

Mark Morris

In the early years of his career, Mark Morris performed with the companies of Lar Lubovitch, Hannah Kahn,
Laura Dean, Eliot Feld, and the Koleda Balkan Dance Ensemble. The Mark Morris Dance Group was formed
110 | MODERN DANCE

in 1980 when he was just 24. Since then Morris has created over 150 works for the company. In 1990, he
founded the White Oak Dance Project with Mikhail Baryshnikov.

Fig. 25 Mark
Morris, American
modern dancer,
choreographer and
director. Taken at
the San Francisco
Jewish Community
Center, September
24, 2006. Charles
Haynes CCBY SA
2.0

Watch This

Reporter Jeffrey Brown talks to the famed choreographer on his production of “L’Allegro” on PBS’
Great Performances.

Bill T. Jones
Bill T. Jones is known for blending controversial subjects into his modern dance choreography. Bill T. Jones
and his life partner, Arnie Zane, founded the Bill. T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company in the early 1980s. Their
creative works explored LGBTQIA+ themes of identity and racial tensions. Following the death of Zane, who
succumbed to AIDS, Jones continued their work with the company. Bill T. Jones uses his platform as socio-
political activism using dance, autobiographical elements with narrative, and theatrical components.

Fig 26
Choreographer Bill
T. Jones at the
Abraham Lincoln
Presidential
Library in
Springfield, Illinois.
2009. Russell
Jenkins. CC Public
Domain.

Watch This

An excerpt from D-Man in the Waters performed by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. D-
Man in the Waters is a political response to the AIDS epidemic honoring those who have
succumbed to the disease.
112 | MODERN DANCE

His piece What Problem? in which Bill T. Jones explores current events and questions racism,
equality, brutality, and change.

Jawole Willa Jo Zollar

In the early 1980s, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar founded Urban Bush Women. Her training began with the Dunham
technique and studying various African diaspora dance forms. Urban Bush Women started as an all-women
group and predominantly centered their work from women’s perspectives; however, the company has included
male dancers. The mission of Urban Bush Women is to raise the voices of people of color to advocate for social
change addressing issues of race and gender inequalities. Jawole Willa Jo Zollar blends personal testimonies
from the company members to create narratives (text) combined with African and contemporary dance forms.
MODERN DANCE | 113

From “Urban Bush

Women with
Jawole Willa Jo
Zollar Black
America.” YouTube.
2017. CC BY

Watch This

“Hair and Other Stories,” exploring body image, gender identity, and race through conversations
about hair care.

Lorenzo “Rennie” Harris

Lorezno “Rennie” Harris brings Hip-Hop to the concert stage, often telling stories of the human condition.
In 1992, Harris founded his company, Puremovement, located in Philadelphia, in an effort to preserve hip-
114 | MODERN DANCE

hop culture. Harris has choreographed contemporary dance works for modern companies, like the Alvin Ailey
American Dance Theatre. His works will be further discussed in Chapter 7.

Fig. 25 Photo of
Renie Harris.
Lugenbee. 2011 CC
BY SA 3.0

Watch This

The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre perform an excerpt from Harris’ Exodus.

Robert Battle

Robert Battle is the current Artistic Director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. He was a
choreographer for the Ailey company. A graduate of Juilliard, he joined the Parsons Dance Company and
MODERN DANCE | 115

founded his own company, Battleworks Dance. Battle has received numerous prestigious awards, such as being
honored in 2005 by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as one of the “Masters of African-American
Choreography.”

Fig 26 A still of
Robert Battle from
“Black History
Month: Robert
Battle ad The
History of Dance”
YouTube. 2021. CC
BY

Watch This

Takademe choreographed in 1999.

Sean Dorsey

Sean Dorsey is a transgender and queer choreographer. Dorsey founded the Sean Dorsey Dance Company
based in San Francisco, centering his work on LGBTQIA+ themes. In 2002, Dorsey established Fresh Meat
116 | MODERN DANCE

Production, a non-profit organization that advocates for equity in gender-nonconforming communities

through commissions of new dances and community engagement programs.

Watch This

An excerpt of Boys in Trouble, a social commentary on the rigid ideas of gender and masculinity.

AXIS Dance

In the late 1980s, AXIS Dance was co-founded by Thais Mazur, Bonnie Lewkowicz, and Judith Smith.
AXIS dance is one of the first dance companies to create inclusive spaces for dancers of all physical abilities.
Through collaborative efforts, the company developed dance known as physically integrated dance, which
aims to broaden the idea of dance and who a dancer is through movement that respects a “wide spectrum of
physical attributes and disabilities” (Axis dance company. (2022). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/
index.php?title=AXIS_Dance_Company&oldid=1074988620).
MODERN DANCE | 117

Fig 27 Demo
performance by
AXIS. At Ganei
Aviv Community
Center, Lod. 2016.
Creative Commons
Attribution 2.0

Watch This

AXIS Dance’s rehearsal process, featuring commentary by Artistic Director Marc Brew.

Camille A. Brown

Camille A. Brown blends African dance, social dances with vernacular jazz dance forms. In 2006, she founded
Camille A. Brown & Dancers with choreographic works speaking to issues of race, culture, and identity.
Brown’s creative works have been commissioned for renowned companies such as the Alvin Ailey Dance
Theater.
118 | MODERN DANCE

Fig 28 headshot of
Camille A Brown.
DarralynnHutson.
2016. Creative
Commons
Attribution-Share
Alike 4.0

Watch This

New Second Line, inspired by the events of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. A celebration of the culture
of New Orleans and the perseverance of Black people in the midst of devastation.

Victor Quijada

Victor Quijada is a Mexican-American contemporary choreographer from Los Angeles, CA. He began as a B-
Boy and further expanded his dance background as a student at the Los Angeles County High School for the
Arts, where he was introduced to modern dance and ballet. In 2002, Victor Quijada founded RUBBERBAND
blending Hip-Hop ideology with various dance forms and theatrical elements.

Fig 29 Victor
Quijada
photographed in
Montreal, Quebec,
Canada at the
Pauline-Julien
theatre.
Bull-Doser. 2016.
CC Public Domain

Watch This

Victor Quijada is a Mexican-American contemporary choreographer from Los Angeles, CA. He

began as a B-Boy and further expanded his dance background as a student at the Los Angeles
County High School for the Arts, where he was introduced to modern dance and ballet. In 2002,
Victor Quijada founded RUBBERBAND blending Hip-Hop ideology with various dance forms and
theatrical elements.
120 | MODERN DANCE

Louisiana Connection

Dianne Maroney-Grigsby performed with the Alvin Ailey American

Dance Theater for several years. She also served as the company’s
assistant artistic director and taught full-time at the Alvin Ailey
American Dance Center. Maroney-Grigsby later took the position of
Artistic Director of Grambling State University’s Orchesis Dance
Company. During her career, she has taught at Louisiana Dance
Foundation’s Summer Dance Festivals, where she has choreographed
for their resident dance company, Louisiana Dance Theatre (LDT).
Fig 30 A still of Dianne
Maroney-Grigsby from “The Some of her most noted works include “I Won’t Let Go of My Faith”
Choreographer’s Last Dance-April and “World Hunger.”
23, 2022” YouTube. 2021. CC BY

Contextual Connections
MODERN DANCE | 121

Other Notable Contemporary Modern Artists

• Dallas Black Theatre, based in Texas, was founded in 1976 by Ann Williams dedicated to
producing contemporary modern dance works that use a blend of modern, ballet, and jazz
dance styles.
• Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, based in Utah, was founded in 1968 with the intent
to raise more opportunities for people of color, with dances speaking to the African American
experience.
• Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, located in Colorado, is considered a cultural ambassador for
their work speaking to social injustices rooted in the African Diaspora.
• Doug Varone and Dancers was founded in 1986 and is based in New York, with
choreographic works that are musically driven.
• Stephen Petronio Company was founded in 1984 and is located in New York. The company
aims to preserve the postmodern dance lineage.
• Ohad Naharin is the artistic director of the Israeli Batsheva Dance Company and creator of
Gaga, a movement language responding to one’s internal sensations.
• Shen Wei is a Chinese-American choreographer and founder of Shen Wei Dance Arts, a
company using Western and Asian aesthetics, including dance, multimedia, and art.
• Akram Khan is an English choreographer that blends contemporary dance with Kathak, a
traditional Indian dance.
• Crystal Pite founded Kidd Pivot in 2002, intertwining contemporary dance and storytelling
with theatrical elements.
• Kyle Abraham founded his company in 2006, called A.I.M, by Kyle Abraham (formally known
as Abraham.In.Motion), blending ballet with other dance forms, like modern dance and hip-
hop, to speak to the human condition.
• Mia Michaels is primarily known for her choreography featured on So You Think You Can
Dance. In 1997, Michaels founded the company RAW (Reality at Work), choreographing
contemporary and jazz dance styles.
122 | MODERN DANCE

MODERN DANCE TIMELINE

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SUMMARY
Modern Dance emerged as a contrast or rejection of the rigid constraints of Ballet. From individual free
expressions to Contemporary Modern Dance, just like its beginnings, Modern Dance is forever changing.
Today, combining unifying elements of other genres of dance (African, Ballet, Jazz, Hip-Hop), Modern Dance
is interested in the communication of emotional experiences, through basic and uninhibited movement.
Currently, through all of its variations, it has become whatever the choreographer would like it to be according
to the artist’s background, teachings, technique, style, and imagination. Because it is so personal and
individualistic, this artform will remain popular and viable for years to come.

Check Your Understanding

Elements of Dance

DIRECTIONS: Using the Elements of Dance, select a ballet video from Chapter Two and a modern
dance video from Chapter Three. Compare and contrast its important qualities to reflect the
aesthetic values placed on ballet and modern dance (minimum 150 words).

H5p Dates timeline activity

MODERN DANCE | 123

DIRECTIONS: Select two videos from Chapter Four. Answer the

following prompts (minimum 150 words):

• Using the Elements of Dance, compare and contrast both videos’ important qualities to
reflect the aesthetic values placed by the modern dance choreographers.
• Reflect how the dance reflects the time it was choreographed and how the time influenced
the dance.

Modern dance Quiz 1:

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Modern dance Quiz 2:

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References
Humphrey, Doris, and Barbara Pollack. The Art of Making Dances. London: Dance Books, 1997.
Loring, Dawn Davis, and Julie L. Pentz. Dance Appreciation. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2022.
Lihs, Harriet R. Appreciating Dance a Guide to the World’s Liveliest Art. Princeton Book Company, 2018.
About Us.” Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Accessed August 1, 2021. https://www.alvinailey.org/
about-us.
e_flux, and PlutoCross. “Yvonne Rainer, ‘No Manifesto.’” e, April 24, 2015. https://conversations.e-
flux.com/t/yvonne-rainer-no-manifesto/1454.
124 | MODERN DANCE

“Axis Dance Company.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, March 3, 2022. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

AXIS_Dance_Company.
Neal, contributed by: Nelson. “Hemsley Winfield (1907-1934) •.” •, April 21, 2022.
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/people-african-american-history/hemsley-
winfield-1907-1934/.
“Edna Guy.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, June 23, 2022. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edna_Guy.
“Bio.” Twyla Tharp. Accessed July 12, 2022. https://www.twylatharp.org/bio.
“Pearl Primus.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, December 3, 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Pearl_Primus#:~:text=In%201979%2C%20she%20and%20her,modern%20dance%20and%20ballet%20techni
ques.
Mennenga, contributed by: Lacinda. “Pearl Primus (1919-1994) •.” •, February 6, 2020.
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/primus-pearl-1919-1994/.
“Talley Beatty.” Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, October 7, 2020. https://www.alvinailey.org/talley-
beatty.
Great performances: Free to dance – biographies – Talley Beatty. Accessed July 12, 2022.
https://www.thirteen.org/freetodance/biographies/beatty.html.
“Donald McKayle Endowment for Modern Dance.” Donald McKayle Endowment for Modern Dance |
Claire Trevor School of the Arts | UC Irvine. Accessed July 12, 2022. https://www.arts.uci.edu/mckayle.
Arnold, Tisha. “’The Choreographer’s Last Dance’ Performance to Honor Dianne Maroney-Grigsby.”
Grambling State University News, April 22, 2022. https://www.gram.edu/news/index.php/2022/04/22/the-
choreographers-last-dance-performance-to-honor-dianne-maroney-grigsby/.
TAP, JAZZ, MUSICAL THEATER, TELEVISION AND FILM | 125

TAP, JAZZ, MUSICAL THEATER, TELEVISION

AND FILM

The development of jazz and tap dance forms resulted

from West African dance forms that were eventually
blended with other cultures, beginning with the
transatlantic slave trade in the mid-late 16th century.
While slaves were transported to what we now know as
the United States, the ship’s captains wanted to keep their
cargo healthy. The enslaved people were brought on top
of the ship to actively perform what was called “dancing
the slaves.” They stayed shackled; however, they came up
with creative ways to exercise and mimicked the
percussive sounds derived from drums that were an
Fig. 1 Otterbein University Theatre & Dance integral part of their culture. The Africans used their
Class of 2021 Musical Theatre
bodies to maintain some of these sounds and rhythms,
MajorsAttribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC
BY-SA 2.0) such as hambone. From African, Spanish, Irish, and
other cultural dance roots, tap and jazz dance forms were
unstructured, and over time, became structured forms of dance that have blended and evolved over the years.
The American inventions of tap and jazz were built from African drumming rhythms mixed with other forms
of dance cultures and rhythms. It is important to note that jazz dance, tap dance, and jazz music are the only
forms of dance and music created in the United States by our enslaved African ancestors.
As the country changed, adding immigrants from Europe, the Middle East, the Caribbean, South America
and Africa, social dances absorbed all these flavors and produced exciting new forms. Minstrel shows of the
early 1800s were replaced by Vaudeville shows after the Civil War. Post World War I, ragtime music was
disappearing into jazz. Shows began incorporating jazz and swing music which called for a new style of
dancing. These shows, in turn, were replaced or supplemented by Broadway and Hollywood musicals and
eventually movies and television. In this chapter, we will look at how the dance forms continue to evolve in
television, film, and music videos.
126 | TAP, JAZZ, MUSICAL THEATER, TELEVISION AND FILM

Learning Objectives

1. Identify key techniques and prominent figures in tap, jazz and musical theater dance genres.
2. Understand the history of tap, jazz and musical theater dance and summarize major events
in the course of its development.
3. Demonstrate a culturally informed dance aesthetic.

“Sometimes dancing and music can describe a true image of the customs of a country better
than words in a newspaper. – Gene Kelly

TAP

TAP DANCE CHARACTERISTICS

• Dancers wear shoes that can be either flat-soled or heeled, usually with metal ‘taps’ attached, which strike
the floor to make [pb_glossary id="515"]percussive[/pb_glossary] sounds. Each part of the shoe
makes a particular beat and sound.
• Dance steps use quick polyrhythmic and syncopated sounds.
• Dancers often use improvisation to create their own rhythms.
• Some sub-styles include hoofing, soft shoe, flash act, Broadway tap, and rhythm tap.

When enslaved people were forbidden to play percussion instruments by plantation owners fearing an
uprising, they found other ways to communicate and keep their culture alive, mainly by slapping their thighs,
clapping hands, jawboning, stomping or tapping rhythms with their feet. The Juba dance or hambone,
originally known as Pattin’ Juba, is an African-American style of dance that involves stomping as well as
slapping and patting the arms, legs, chest, and cheeks. “Pattin’ Juba” would be used to keep time for other
TAP, JAZZ, MUSICAL THEATER, TELEVISION AND FILM | 127

dances during a walkaround, using tin cans under their feet as well as beating on bowls with spoons. Eventually
these dances merged with the clogging and jigs brought by Irish indentured servants to form American Tap.
Early tap dancers wore hard soled or wooden shoes. If they wore a soft soled shoe, they attached pennies, nails
or pieces of metal to the toes and heels to enhance the sound. Some young dancers in America today still attach
bottle caps or tin cans to their shoes to create an inexpensive tap shoe.

Watch This

This is a video of kids in homemade tap shoes dancing in the New Orleans French Quarter.

In the early 1830s, minstrel shows became popular and toured the land. Performances included songs,
dance, variety acts, and jokes that came at the expense of African Americans, as white men in blackface
appropriated Black culture by inappropriately mimicking and mischaracterizing African Americans. For
instance, the cakewalk was a popular dance tradition for slaves on plantations in the 19th century that was
adopted by white performers and presented in minstrel shows. The cakewalk was performed as a competitive
dance performed on plantations. In essence, the cakewalk was an exaggerated parody created by the slaves to
imitate the upper-class mannerisms of their white plantation owners—the main movement and steps derived
from European dances, such as the minuet.

Watch This
128 | TAP, JAZZ, MUSICAL THEATER, TELEVISION AND FILM

The Cakewalk

William Henry Lane, also known as Master Juba, was born a free
African American in 1825. He grew up learning to dance from “Uncle”
Jim Lowe, an African American jig-and-reel dancer. At a young age, Lane
became well-known for his talent. Master Juba is considered the first to
perform as an American tap dancer. His style combines Irish reel steps,
clogging with African rhythms. Eventually, white performers were
replaced by African American performers. Master Juba was featured in
minstrel shows as the best dancer in America.

Watch This
Fig. 2 Portrait of Boz’s Juba, from
an 1848 London playbill.
CC-Public Domain

The history of Master Juba.

TAP, JAZZ, MUSICAL THEATER, TELEVISION AND FILM | 129

In the 1870’s vaudeville began to replace minstrel shows, and for the next sixty years vaudeville ruled the
day. Touring groups crisscrossed the land bringing shows to the masses with wholesome entertainment that
ladies and children could attend. These were variety shows. Acts ranged from dance to acrobats, jugglers
to child performers, and comedy acts to kick lines of chorus ladies. Tap dance found an audience in vaudeville
and its performance flourished.
130 | TAP, JAZZ, MUSICAL THEATER, TELEVISION AND FILM

Bill “Bojangles” Robinson (1878-1949)

Bill “Bojangles” Robinson (1878-1949) began his dancing career in

vaudeville. He gained fame and popularity in the movies in which he
acted, sang and danced. He appeared in a number of movies with the
young actress Shirley Temple and was the first to break the color
barrier which had prevented mixed races from performing together.
He also appeared with Lena Horne, Cab Calloway, and Katherine
Dunham in Stormy Weather. He became the most popular and
highest paid African American performer of his time. In spite of this,
he died penniless and alone. After his death, his birthday, May 25,
became National Tap Dance Day in his honor.

Fig. 3 The Bill “Bojangles” Robinson

statue is a historic landmark in
Richmond, Virginia. It’s a great
representation of Mr. Robinson, who
was a famous tap dancer. The statue
is located in historic Jackson Ward.
Bojangles monument is a great
tourist attraction. Creative Commons Watch This
Attribution-Share Alike 4.0
International CC-SA

Bill Robinson: Performing his famous “Stair Dance” with Shirley Temple in “The Little Colonel”, 1935

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TAP, JAZZ, MUSICAL THEATER, TELEVISION AND FILM | 131

John W. Bubbles (1902-1986)

Fig. 4 Portrait of
John W. Bubbles,
as the original
Sporting Life in
George Gershwin’s
1935 opera Porgy
and Bess. Van
Vechten, Carl,
1880-1964,
photographer.
CC-Public Domain

John W. Bubbles is considered the “Father of Rhythm Tap.” Bubbles used heel drops to accent the offbeat
parts of the music. He was also known for his impressive improvisational skills. Bubbles also performed with
Ford Lee “Buck” Washington in Vaudeville shows and received acclaim for their talents.

Watch This

John W. Bubbles perform.

Charles “Honi” Coles (1911 – 1992)

American tap dancer and actor Charles “Honi” Coles and his
longtime partner, Charles “Cholly” Atkins popularized tap dance
enormously. They toured with Duke Ellington’s, Cab Calloway’s &
Count Basie’s big bands while making short films for TV. Honi Coles
earned a Tony Award in 1983 for his Broadway dancing and a National
Medal for his dancing contribution. He taught dance and dance history
at universities including Cornell, George Washington, Yale, and Duke
in the 1980s.

Fig. 5 A screenshot from Youtube

“Charles “Honi” Coles wins 1983
Tony Award for Best Featured
Actor in a Musical.” CC-By

Watch This

Charles “Honi” Coles

The Nicholas Brothers

Fig. 6 The Nicholas

Brothers – Fayard,
left, and Harold –
in 1943’s Stormy
Weather. Getty
Images CC-Public
Domain

Fayard Nicholas (1914-2006) and Harold Nicholas (1921-2001) At a very young age, the Nicholas brothers
were introduced to dance while watching the vaudeville acts for which their parents played in the orchestra.
They learned to be dancers, singers, and actors. Because they were so versatile, their career extended to
vaudeville, movies, nightclubs, concerts, Broadway, records, radio, and television. They performed a very
acrobatic style of tap that has been called “flash” tapping which included backflips and jump splits. Unlike
many Black performers of this period, they refused to wear service uniforms and almost always appeared in the
formal wear of white tie and tails.

Fred Astaire (1899-1987)

Fred Astaire (1899-1987) was famous for combining

tap with ballroom dance, creating an elegant, easy going
style of rhythmic tap. He had many different partners
including Ginger Rogers, his most renowned partner.
Astaire was known for surprising tricks such as dancing
up a wall or ceiling, dancing with a coat rack or a mop, and
dancing to firecrackers. He revolutionized how dance
scenes were filmed, insisting that his dances be filmed with
a single take and wide camera angle, instead of using
cutaways and close ups and multiple takes. This became
the norm for recording tap dancing in movies and
television for decades. He will be discussed further in the
Musical Theater section.
Fig. 7 Fred Astaire in Royal Wedding. CC-Public
Domain
134 | TAP, JAZZ, MUSICAL THEATER, TELEVISION AND FILM

Watch This

Fred Astaire in “Say It With Firecrackers” from Holiday Inn (1942)

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Gene Kelly (1912-1996)

Fig 8. Head Shot of

Gene Kelly
CC-Public Dmain
TAP, JAZZ, MUSICAL THEATER, TELEVISION AND FILM | 135

Gene Kelly is known for his athleticism, acrobatic abilities, charm, and insistence on perfection. He also
combined tap, ballroom, and ballet in his dancing. One of the most famous tap dance sequences known today
is in the movie Singin’ in the Rain. Gene Kelly also directed several films where he experimented with lighting,
camera techniques, and special effects to achieve proper integration of dance with film and was one of the first
to use split screens, double images, and live-action with animation.

Watch This

Gene Kelly Singing in the Rain, 1952

Contextual Connections

Other Notable Tap Dancers and Performances

Ruby Keeler (1910-1993)

American actress, dancer, and singer Ethel Ruby Keeler was known for her partnership with Dick
Powell in several successful musicals at Warner Bros., particularly 42nd Street.
136 | TAP, JAZZ, MUSICAL THEATER, TELEVISION AND FILM

Eleanor Powell (1919-1982)

Eleanor Powell initially performed in nightclubs as one of the few female tap dance soloists of the
time. By the 1930s, Powell became a well-known tap dancer in Hollywood musicals as one of the
top tap dancing stars. She became known for quick and complex footwork and acrobatic abilities.

Ginger Rogers (1911-1995)

American actress, dancer, and singer Ginger Rogers was famous in early Hollywood. She was a
favorite partner of Fred Astaire in the RKO musicals. Her starring role in Kitty Foyle (1940) Rogers
won an Academy Award for Best Actress.

Gregory Hines (1946-2003)

Hines was one of the most celebrated tap dancers of all time, famous for being an improviser of tap
steps, sounds, and rhythms. His improvisation was compared to that of a drummer, doing a solo
and coming up with exciting beats. Hines appeared on Broadway and starred in more than forty
films. In addition to numerous accolades, Gregory Hines won a Daytime Emmy Award, a Drama
Desk Award, and a Tony Award.

Savion Glover (1973-)

Savion Glover is an exciting tapper who studied with

Gregory Hines and found great success as a dancer. He
choreographed and performed in Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring
in ‘Da Funk, a 1996 Broadway show that is a history of the
black experience told in rap. He won a Tony award for that
choreography. Glover stated that his style is funk tap. When
asked to describe what funk is, he says it is the bass line.
“Funk is anything that gets one’s head on beat. It is riding
with the rhythm. It is a pulse that keeps one rolling with the
beat.” Gregory Hines stated that “Savion is possibly the best
tap dancer that ever lived.” Savion Glover is a contemporary
hoofer; he states that tap dance is a dance style, while
hoofing is a lifestyle. Fig. 9 A still of Savion Glover from Youtube
“Roots of a Tap Legend” CC-BY

Watch This

Savion Glover Bring in ‘da Noise.

Chloe Arnold (1980-)

TAP, JAZZ, MUSICAL THEATER, TELEVISION AND FILM | 139

Fig. 10 Image of
Chole Arnold from
Youtube
“Syncopated
Ladies.” CC-BY

Director, producer, Emmy-nominated choreographer, and actress Chloe Arnold is recognized globally for her
tap dancing. Her company won the 1st Crew Battle on Fox’s program, So You Think You Can Dance. Together
with her sister Maud Arnold, Chloe co-directs and produces DC Tap Festival, a critically acclaimed and
worldwide recognized festival. The US House of Representatives has acknowledged them as art ambassadors
and preservers. As a solo tap dancer, Chloe has delivered performances in more than 21 countries and 35 states.

Watch This

Chloe Arnold

Maud Arnold (19 )

Maud, the sister of Chloe Arnold, is a tap sensation. She has quickly
established herself as a desired performer, teacher, and judge in various
geographical locations, including the U.S., Brazil, Russia, Tokyo, and
Barcelona. Maud has collaborated with Beyoncé and was featured in the
national commercial of Toyota Corolla in 2014. Maud and her sister Chloe
founded the Syncopated Ladies to raise female status in a male-dominated
tap world. After releasing their first video in 2012, the Syncopated Ladies
have become iconic for tap dancing to pop music and hip-hop.

Fig 11. Still of Maud Arnold

from Youtube “Syncopated Watch This
ladies” CC-BY

Maud Arnold

Chloe and her sister Maud, founded the Syncopated Ladies to raise female status in a male-dominated tap
world. After releasing their first video in 2012, the Syncopated Ladies have become iconic for tap dancing to
pop music and hip-hop.
TAP, JAZZ, MUSICAL THEATER, TELEVISION AND FILM | 141

Watch This

Syncopated ladies

Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards (1976- )

Fig. 12 Dormeshia
Sumbry-Edwards
at Stockholm Tap
Festival 2013.
Image provided by
the artist. CC-SA

Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards (1976- ) began dancing at the age of 3 and earned recognition as a tap dance
prodigy by 12, appearing in Broadway productions, performing with legendary tap dancers Gregory Hines,
142 | TAP, JAZZ, MUSICAL THEATER, TELEVISION AND FILM

Jimmy Slyde, Buster Brown, and Savion Glover. Dormeshia is referred to as the “queen” by the New York
Times and “the mastress of her generation.”

Watch This

Dormeshia perform at the Stockholm Dance Tap Festival

Ayodele Casel (1975- )

Ayodele Casel combines tap dancing with inspiration from salsa music. She was
the only woman in Savion Glover’s company, Not Your Ordinary Tappers. Casel
choreographs for Broadway shows, such as the 2022 revival of “Funny Girl.” She co-
directs Operation Tap, an online educational platform. In 2021, she was featured on
the US Postal Service Forever Stamp.

Fig 13. Still image of

Ayodele Casel from
Youtube “Tap Dancer
Ayodele Casel Live at
Watch This 44 Charlton” CC-BY

an excerpt from Chasing Magic.

Michelle Dorrance (1979-)

Michelle Dorrance founded Dorrance Dance in 2011.

Dorrance received wide attention for keeping the traditions of
tap dance while expanding the art form’s boundaries. In 2015,
Dorrance received the MacArthur Fellowship for her creative
contributions to tap dance and for educating people about tap
dance history.

Fig. 14 still of Michelle Dorrance from

Youtube “Michelle Dorrance Performs Tap Watch This
With Jon Batise & and Stay Human” CC-BY

An excerpt from the Blues Project.

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JAZZ

JAZZ DANCE CHARACTERISTICS

TAP, JAZZ, MUSICAL THEATER, TELEVISION AND FILM | 145

Jazz dance often contains elements of social dance, but in a performance manner.
Dancers use isolations, accentuating one specific part of the body, such as the head, rib cage, or hip.
Dancers keep a low center of gravity, and often bend their knees for more freedom of movement.
Percussive or syncopated movements are used to accent offbeats or surprising aspects of the music.
Sensuality in jazz dance is emphasized more than in traditional styles.

During the Vaudeville era, New Orleans’ Congo Square became a pivotal location where various cultures
came together and shared their customs and traditions through music, song, and dance. The exchange of
cultural elements brought about jazz music combining blues and ragtime. It incorporates polyrhythms,
polycentrism, syncopation, and improvisation that dance mirrored as it developed alongside jazz music.
During the 1940s, when bebop music was introduced, jazz dance branched out to use other music genres.

As Hollywood became the new ground for entertainment, jazz dance forms and music continued to
evolve in jazz clubs. The Harlem Renaissance (1921-1933) was the cultural movement highlighting African-
American artists, authors, and philosophers in New York. Jazz clubs, such as the Cotton Club and Apollo
Ballroom, promoted African-American jazz musicians and dancers that attracted a broad audience, gaining
widespread attention to jazz.

As we saw in the Modern Dance section, Katherine Dunham is known as the Matriarch of Black Dance.
Dunham integrated the syncopated rhythms of Haiti, Cuba, Brazil, and the Caribbean into American dance.
She is credited with the technique of body isolationism and incorporating it into her dance style. Katherine
Dunham’s influence and dance technique had a huge impact on the world of jazz dance. Today almost all jazz
dancers use her technique in their dance.
146 | TAP, JAZZ, MUSICAL THEATER, TELEVISION AND FILM

Josephine Baker (1906-1975)

American-born Josephine Baker was a dancer, singer,

and actress who centered her career in Europe, mainly in
France. Siren of the Tropics (1927), directed by Mario
Nalpas and Henri Étiévant, gave her the distinction of
breaking the color barrier and being the first African
American woman to star in a major motion picture.

Fig. 15 Photo of Josephine Baker attributed to

Allison Marchant. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Watch This

Jack Cole (1911-1974)

Jack Cole has been called the “father of American jazz dance.”
He made his professional dance debut with Denishawn in August
1930. Cole was influenced by the pioneering modernists Doris
Humphrey and Charles Weidman, with whom he performed briefly.
His career spanned three significant arenas: nightclub, Broadway
stage, and Hollywood film. He was a pioneer for multiculturalism in
the musical comedy dance arena. Cole’s style of dancing is
innovative, acrobatic, and angular. He is known for using small
groups of dancers rather than a large company. Jack Cole is
remembered as the prime innovator of the theatrical jazz dance
heritage.

WATCH Jack Cole choreography https://youtu.be/

Fig. 16 Title: Portrait of Jack Cole bd_tuhzvsD8
Abstract: 1 photographic print : gelatin
silver. Library of Congress. CC-Public
Domain

Watch This

Jack Cole choreography

Bob Fosse (1927-1987)

Robert Louis Fosse followed in the footsteps of Jack Cole in his work on
Broadway. Fosse was an American actor, choreographer, dancer, director and
screenwriter.
He was a prolific director and choreographer, creating musical works on
stage and screen, including the stage musicals Damn Yankees (1955) and
Chicago (1975). His films include Cabaret (1972) and All That Jazz (1979).
Fosse’s distinctive style of choreography was known for “jazz hands” and
slouched turned-in positions. In 1973 he won an Oscar, Emmy, and Tony
awards all in the same year. Fosse won a record eight Tonys and was nominated
for several Academy Awards. He won Best Director for Cabaret and the Palme
D’Or in 1980 for All That Jazz. He also won an Academy Award for direction
for Pippin.

Fig. 17 Bob Fosse on the

verge of discovering jazz
hands. Attributed to
ricks.pics flickr. CC BY-NC-SA
2.0

Watch This

Bob Fosse and wife Gwen Verdon Who’s Got the Pain

Gwen Verdon (1925-2000)

American actress and dancer Gwyneth Evelyn “Gwen” Verdon was an

accomplished performer on Broadway and Hollywood. Not only did she win four
Tony Awards for her musical comedy performances, but she also served as an
uncredited choreographer’s assistant and specialty dance coach for theater and film.

Fig. 18 Still of Gwen

Verdon from Youtube
“Gwen Verdon in
Can-can” CC-BY
Watch This

Carmen de Lavallade (1931-)

Carmen de Lavallade, a native of New Orleans, worked with Lester

Horton and Alvin Ailey to create her signature style of jazz dance. She
was a member of the Lester Horton Dance Theater in 1949, where she
danced as a lead dancer until her departure for New York City with Alvin
Ailey in 1954 and made her Broadway debut with Alvin Ailey in the
musical House of Flowers. She staged musicals, plays, and operas and
eventually became a professor and member of the Yale Repertory
Theater. In December 2017, she received the Kennedy Center Honors
Award.

WATCH Carmen de Lavallade Dear Quincy 1968

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJuydDuAGHM

Fig. 20 Dancer Carmen de

Lavallade. Photograph by Carl
Van Vechten, 3 March 1955.From
the Carl Van Vechten Collection at
the Library of Congress. CC-BY
2.0
Watch This

Joe Tremaine (1938-)

Joe Tremaine, a native of New Orleans, studied with many of the great
dancers of the 1960s. Having appeared in many films and Broadway
shows, Tremaine was later cast by June Taylor as one of the eight male
dancers on the Jackie Gleason Show. He later became known as the dance
teacher of the stars, working with such names as Diana Ross, Goldie
Hawn, Barry Manilow, and Cameron Diaz.

Fig 21 Still of Joe Tremaine from

Youtube “Joe Tremaine Lifeime Watch This
Achievement Award KARtv
Dance Awards. CC-BY

Ann Reinking (1949-2020)

American dancer, actress, choreographer, and singer Ann Reinking

was Bob Fosse’s lead dancer and wife in the 1970s. She worked
extensively in musical theater. Reinking starred in Broadway
productions such as Coco, Over Here!, Goodtime Charley, Chicago,
Dancin’, and Sweet Charity.

Fig 22 Ann Reinking,

Watch This photographed in 1981 by Jack
Mitchell. CC-SA 4.0

Debbie Allen (1950-)

Fig 22 Thelonious Monk awards

October 26, 1997 Kennedy center
Wash. D.C. Attributed John
Mathew Smith 2001 CC-SA 2.0

Deborah Kaye Allen is a popular American actress, dancer, choreographer, director, and producer. She has
won five Tony Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Her
choreography in the television series Fame (1982-1987), where she portrayed dance teacher Lydia Grant
made her famous. Allen has directed more than 50 television and film productions. One of Allen’s notable
productions is the Hot Chocolate Nutcracker, a huge success for over 12 years.

Watch This
154 | TAP, JAZZ, MUSICAL THEATER, TELEVISION AND FILM

Codified Jazz Dance Technique

During the Integration of Concept Musicals, technically trained dancers became favored to convey the
storyline. To meet the demands required in the choreography, jazz dancers began forming techniques. These
techniques became the basis of studio training for dancers.

Eugene Louis Faccuito “Luigi” (1925-2015)

As an adult, Eugene Louis Faccuito, nicknamed “Luigi,” was

paralyzed on the right side of the body following a car accident.
Doctors were convinced he’d never walk again; however, Luigi was
unwilling to accept this and created a warm-up of set exercises that
helped him recover from paralysis. The warm-up included
classical ballet principles combined with parallel body positions
and isolations to encourage the body muscles to activate and build
strength appropriately. In 1956, Luigi founded the First World
Jazz Centre, where students trained in his techniques.

Fig. 23 Still image of Eugene Louis

Facciuto “Luigi” from Youtube “Roslyn
Kind interviews Eugene Louis Facciuto
“Luigi” dance world icon” CC-BY
TAP, JAZZ, MUSICAL THEATER, TELEVISION AND FILM | 155

Watch This

Luigi dance technique

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Matt Mattox (1921-2013)

Matt Mattox developed a technique called freestyle. Freestyle

is a technique that builds upon levels from beginner to
advanced, combining ballet with polyrhythmic body isolations
and the complex footwork often used in tap dance.

Fig 23 Still image of Matt Mattox from

Watch This
YouTube “The Jazz Dance of Matt Mattox”
CC-BY
156 | TAP, JAZZ, MUSICAL THEATER, TELEVISION AND FILM

Matt Mattox dance technique

Gus Giordano (1930-2008)

Gus Giordano used modern dance components in his

technique, such as contractions, hinges, and parallel leg
positions to develop muscular strength. The Giordano
Dance Center in the Chicago area was established in 1953
to elevate the appreciation of the dance form and provide
dancers training in Jazz. Later, he founded the Gus
Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago to bring jazz dance to the
concert stage. In 1990, Giordano established the Jazz
Dance World Congress as an annual event that brought
together master teachers, choreographers, and
professional jazz dance companies worldwide for classes
Fig. 23 An image of Gus Giordano from YouTube
“The Gus Giordano Jazz Legacy Foundation #2” and performances.
CC-BY

Watch This
TAP, JAZZ, MUSICAL THEATER, TELEVISION AND FILM | 157

Gus Giordano Steam Heat

Lynn Simonson (1943-)

Lynn Simonson created the famed Simonson Jazz Technique.

Taught in 16 countries, Simonson Jazz Technique trains dancers
regardless of their style. Her method is the official one taught at
Manhattan’s DanceSpace. Simonson’s jazz technique uses
anatomical awareness to help dancers move efficiently and easily
to reduce injuries.

Fig 24. Lynn Simonson from YouTube

“Lynn Simonson-Jazz Dance Class #1 Jazz
Art 1998” CC-BY

Watch This
158 | TAP, JAZZ, MUSICAL THEATER, TELEVISION AND FILM

Lynn Simonson teaching a dance class

JAZZ DANCE TODAY

Today, jazz dance includes a wide range of styles that branched from communal experiences of authentic jazz/
social dances to gain global attention. Jazz dance mirrors societal trends, resulting in various jazz dance styles,
including theatrical, lyrical, and commercial dance.

Pat Taylor

Fig. 24 A screen capture from YouTube “A

#GTMD20 Pump-Up From Pat Taylor of
jazzAntiqua Dance and Music Ensamble” CC-BY
TAP, JAZZ, MUSICAL THEATER, TELEVISION AND FILM | 159

In 1993, Pat Taylor founded JazzAntiqua Dance & Music Ensemble, celebrating African American jazz history
and traditions. The company is dedicated to educating, preserving, and creating an appreciation of jazz by
collaborating with artists in performances, classes, and community events.

WATCH JazzAntiqua Dance & Music Ensemble

Brian Swartz & the Gnu Sextet
Choreography: Pat Taylor, Artistic Director
https://youtu.be/nuMVL5a2YDg

Watch This

JazzAntiqua Dance & Music Ensemble Brian Swartz & the Gnu Sextet Choreography: Pat Taylor,
Artistic Director

Melanie George

In 2012 Melanie George founded the Jazz is… Dance

Project, showcasing a form she calls Neo-Jazz,
characterized by early jazz dance styles and aesthetics
combined with contemporary jazz techniques. George
centers her movements on West African elements, based
on eight key elements noted on her website,
https://www.melaniegeorge.org/neo-jazz: Groundedness
and weight sensing; Rhythm and syncopation; Isolations;
Weight shift from the pelvis to facilitate complex
footwork; Musicality and a deep relationship to jazz
music, and its related forms – blues and funk;
Improvisation; A Black American vernacular base for
Fig. 24 Still of Melanie George from YouTube movement vocabulary and composition;
“SummerStage Anywhere Culture Talk: Jawole
Acknowledgement of community, while honoring the
Willa Jo Zollar in Conversation With Melanie
George.” CC-BY individual.

MUSICAL THEATER

MUSICAL THEATER CHARACTERISTICS

The choreography furthers the storyline of a musical production and helps in character development.
The movements are often exaggerated to reach the audience in large theaters.
Many styles of dance can be utilized depending on the music and lyrics.
The dancing often showcases athleticism or unusual stunts.

Musical Theater dance grew out of Vaudeville shows when directors began stringing songs, dances, and
skits into a loose storyline. It took off in the 1940’s with Jack Cole’s fusion of jazz, ballet, and various global
dance forms combined in the musical Something for the Boys. It has gone through many changes in popularity
TAP, JAZZ, MUSICAL THEATER, TELEVISION AND FILM | 161

and styles, but remains popular today whether performed live on stage, on film, or on television. Musical
Theater dance embodies the collaboration between choreographers and writers as it combines choreography
and written text, and sung lyrics. It is less of a single dance style and more of a purpose for which dance is used
in a musical production.
Here are a few of the important musical theater works:
Shuffle Along, 1921, music composed by Eubie Blake, lyrics by Noble Sissle, was written, staged, and
performed in 1921 entirely by African Americans, Shuffle Along was the first show to make African-American
dance an integral part of American musical theater. The African-American musicals of this era, especially
Shuffle Along, are of great importance to the history of American musical theater.

Watch This

Shuffle Along historical overview

Contextual Connections
162 | TAP, JAZZ, MUSICAL THEATER, TELEVISION AND FILM

• In Oklahoma!, 1943, was the first musical written by the duo of Rodgers and Hammerstein.
Dance sequences are incorporated into the plot of the show. In this dream scene, the heroine
dreams about her romantic choices and their possible outcomes. WATCH Oklahoma!: Rogers
and Hammerstein, choreographer: Agnes DeMille https://youtu.be/2D1loAVwiMc
• West Side Story, 1957, is a concept musical choreographed by Jerome Robbins that is a
modernized adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, highlighting the tension
of rival street gangs. It was translated to film in 1961 and again in 2021.Watch the trailer for
the 2021 version directed by Steven Spielberg. https://youtu.be/A5GJLwWiYSg
• Mary Poppins, 1964, is a movie musical choreographed by Louisiana native Marc Breaux
and his wife Dee Dee Woods. The musical is about a magical nanny who arrives to care for
the children of a busy banker and his Suffragette wife. The original movie stars Julie Andrews
and Dick Van Dyke. This video shows the energetic chimney sweep dance “Step in Time.”
https://youtu.be/YSCdFVc6DoY
• The 1966 musical Cabaret, with music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and book by Joe
Masteroff, is set in 1929–1930 Berlin during the Jazz Age as the Nazis are coming into
authority. The musical unfolds in the decadent nightlife scene at the seedy Kit Kat Klub and
revolves around American writer Clifford Bradshaw’s relations with English cabaret
performer Sally Bowles. This video from the movie version, 1972, shows the title song and
dance. https://youtu.be/hBlB8RAJEEc
• A Chorus Line, 1975, looks at a Broadway dance audition. The dancers share revelations
about the life of a gypsy, a Broadway dancer. It was unusual in that it showed the behind-
the-scenes view of auditioning and developing a Broadway show. In 1985, it was adapted to
film. WATCH A Chorus Line: “One” (Finale) from the movie with choreography by Michael
Bennett.https://youtu.be/tyZeGOsR9IA
• Chicago, 1975, is a satire on the concept of the “celebrity criminal” set in the 1920s Jazz Age.
It features the stories of women who murdered husbands and lovers and the slick lawyer
who manipulates the media and the court to win their freedom. WATCH All That Jazz from
Chicago. Choreography by Bob Fosse. https://youtu.be/MnQKqtWT6nM
• Cats, opened in London in 1981 and opened on Broadway in 1982. It is a musical composed
by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on the 1939 poetry collection Old Possum’s Book of
Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot. It tells the story of a tribe of cats called the Jellicles and the night
they make the “Jellicle choice” by deciding which cat will ascend to the Heaviside layer and
come back to a new life. The choreography is by Gillian Lynne and brilliantly imitates the
movement and attitude of cats. https://youtu.be/GbpP3Sxp-1U
• The Lion King, 1997, unlike most musicals, began as a Disney Studios animated film in 1994.
TAP, JAZZ, MUSICAL THEATER, TELEVISION AND FILM | 163

Directed by sculptor and puppeteer Julie Taymor, the musical features actors in animal
costumes as well as giant, hollow puppets worn and operated by the actors and dancers.
Directed by sculptor and puppeteer Julie Taymor, the musical features actors in animal
costumes as well as giant, hollow puppets worn and operated by the actors and dancers. The
music is by Elton John, along with additional music and lyrics by Lebo M, Mark Mancina, Jay
Rifkin, Julie Taymor, and Hans Zimmer. Watch this promotional video from Disney on
Broadway. https://youtu.be/SjUG0M54dQc
• Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk (1996) Tap legend Savion Glover created the Tony
Award-winning “Bring In ‘Da Noise, Bring In ‘Da Funk” with a mission—to break down the
stereotypes of what tap dance could be.Watch this video which shows the Taxi Dance that
grew out of Glover’s experience of being ignored by cabs when he was trying to get to
rehearsal.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxlNOvMvLJA&t=7s
• The Producers, 2001, is a musical with music and lyrics by Mel Brooks, book by Brooks and
Thomas Meehan and choreography by Susan Stroman. It is adapted from Brooks’s 1967 film
of the same name. The story concerns a failing theatrical producer and his accountant who
scheme to produce the most notorious flop in history, thereby cheating their backers out of
millions of dollars. Unfortunately, the show is a hit. Mel Brooks draws on ridiculous accents,
caricatures of Nazis, and many show business in-jokes. Watch this trailer for the Broadway
show. https://youtu.be/VYwOcQ-c6f0
• Hairspray, 2002, is an American musical that follows teenage Tracy Turnblad’s journey as
she tries to dance on The Corny Collins Show, choreographed originally by Jerry Mitchell. The
show’s energy comes from the 1960s-style dance music and “downtown” rhythm and blues.
It is based on John Waters’s 1988 film of the same name. The video features a rousing song
and dance to “You Can’t Stop the Beat.” https://youtu.be/9VFw5pD3Z_8
• Hamilton, 2015, choreographed by Andy Blankenbuehler, is a groundbreaking rap musical
that tells the story of Alexander Hamilton. Written by and starring Lin-Manuel Miranda, the
show was sold out on Broadway far into the future before pandemic closings forced an end
to the show. Fortunately, a performance was filmed in 2016 and is now available to watch on
Disney Plus. Watch the official clip compilation for Hamilton, a musical movie starring Lin-
Manuel Miranda and Phillipa Soo. https://youtu.be/DSCKfXpAGHc

Assessement: Test your knowledge on tap, jazz, and musical theater.

164 | TAP, JAZZ, MUSICAL THEATER, TELEVISION AND FILM

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FILM AND TELEVISION

“Film and television have greatly expanded the dance audience and led to the new art form of dance films, while
video and computer technology are aiding in dance creation, preservation, education and marketing.” Feb 2,
2011 https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca ›

Watch This

Southern University Dancing Dolls.

Many of the popular Broadway or Off-Broadway musicals made the transition into the movies and
eventually into television. MGM (Metro Goldwyn Mayer) produced hundreds of movie musicals throughout
the 1930’s , 40’s, and 50’s. Performers like Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly were under contract to the film studio.
Movies like Singin’ in the Rain and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, had high production values and were
tremendous box office hits.
Here are a few musicals that were made for film:
TAP, JAZZ, MUSICAL THEATER, TELEVISION AND FILM | 165

Stormy Weather, the 1943 movie features the choreography of Katherine Dunham. It was filmed with an
all Black cast and tells the story of an ambitious song and dance man played by Bill Robinson and his on and
off relationship with a beautiful singer played by Lena Horne. In this excerpt, Ms. Dunham and her dancers
embody the storm, a metaphor for a stormy relationship.

Watch this

Royal Wedding, 1951, shows a clever innovation created by Fred Astaire in which the set rotates to create
the illusion of dancing up the walls and on the ceiling.

Examples

Singin’ in the Rain, 1952, starring Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, and Donald O’Connor was hugely
popular. It was a film about film history and the mishaps of the transition to sound for both actors and
technicians. This excerpt features Gene Kelly in the title song.

Examples

White Nights, 1985, stars ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov and tapper Gregory Hines and was
choreographed by Twyla Tharp. In this movie the Russian ballet dancer who wants to defect to America meets
an American tap dancer who defected to Russia to avoid serving in the Vietnam war. Together they plot ways
to defect back to the United States while competing with their dance forms.

Examples
TAP, JAZZ, MUSICAL THEATER, TELEVISION AND FILM | 167

Assessment: Chapter review.

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SUMMARY
Tap dance evolved out of a need when African percussion instruments were taken away from slaves; slaves
then turned to their bodies as percussive instruments to express themselves and retain their cultural identities.
Jazz dance evolved out of an extension of African movements of isolation, syncopation, and polyrhythmic
movements to interpret the sounds of Jazz music as an accompaniment. Tap and Jazz dance are currently
performance styles that were birthed in the United States in the early 19th century and mid 20th century
respectively. African and African descendants were at the heart of the unique dance forms that were created
in the US. They met at the crossroads of Irish, Spanish, and French dance and music forms. Musical Theater
evolved out of Vaudeville shows which involved singing, dance, music, and scripts with storylines. Musical
Theater is not a dance style, but a vehicle for which dance is used with songs to enhance the storyline in
the written text. Television and film have given dance more worldwide attention. With today’s computer
technology outlets, dance remains viable and essential.
168 | TAP, JAZZ, MUSICAL THEATER, TELEVISION AND FILM

Check Your Understanding

1. Try dancing along with the lesson in this video: https://youtu.be/y60nqyhwYoM . Make up your
own rhythm pattern using the basic moves you learned. Which elements of dance did you use?

2. Select two videos from this chapter, one from the early days and one from modern times.
Compare and contrast them using dance vocabulary

3. Chapter 5 Quiz.

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RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL DANCE | 169

RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL DANCE

Learning Objectives

• Demonstrate a culturally informed dance aesthetic.

• Recognize the elements of dance and apply that knowledge to analyze, create and perform
dance.
• Describe religious and social dances and illustrate how the dances fit into their world culture.

“The one thing that can solve most of our problems is dancing.” -James Brown

What is Religious Dance?

The earliest dances were likely tied to religion, using movement as part of rituals. Belief systems embraced dance
as a way to connect to higher powers that influenced everyday life. Other religions eschewed dance or banned
it for several different reasons. “Religious” can refer to a range of ecclesiastic-ism. Primitive imitative dances
and dances to the elements like the sun and rain appealed to nature and the spirits whose benevolence made
existence possible. Some dances are indigenous, but others have traveled, morphed, and adapted from earlier
roots. By studying religious dance, you gain insight into the worship of different cultures.
170 | RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL DANCE

Fig. 1 Mesolithic dancers at bhimbetka. Credited

to Nandanupadhyay, Wikimedia Commons. CC
BY-SA 3.0

Processionals and Round Dances

Ancient Greek dance was used to solidify the
community and was divinely inspired. Everyone
participated in religious ceremonies as cultivated amateurs
and well-rounded citizens. A big part of the program was
processions and circle dances. The realities of the cosmos
ruled the symbolism of the dances and references to the
sun, moon, and constellations figured into the movement.
In Greek Mythology, the nine Muses are goddesses of the
Fig 2. In ancient Egypt, dancers impersonated a Arts, born of Zeus and Mnemosyne, the goddess of
deity such as the goddess Hathor, taking on the memory. Of them, Terpsichore is the Muse of dance,
deity’s attributes and interpreting the divine
world for those watching. Screen capture from often represented holding a lyre.
YouTube “Ancient Egyptian Dance and Music” Dance in Ancient Greece can be divided into two types:
CC-BY
Dionysian dance and Apollonian dance. The god
Apollo was was the Patron of dance, music, philosophy,
and healing. He was associated with Light. Apollonian art is known for serene majesty and formal balance.
Dionysus, on the other hand, was the god of fertility, wine, and dance. His divine power induced cheerful
merriment and wildness. Dionysian art is known for unrestrained emotion and ecstasy.
The Dithyramb was a chorus that was incorporated into ritual festivals with choric song and dance,
accompanied by flute. They were an effort to control the wild dances of Dionysus. They evolved over time to
become “tragedies,” what we consider the origin of Western theater. Thespis was a dithyramb leader from the
RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL DANCE | 171

6th century BC who is credited as being the first actor in the Western world and to this day actors are known
as thespians.

Types of Religious Dance

Religious dances can be categorized by their purpose as:

1. Dances of Imitation
2. Medicine Dances
3. Commemorative Dances
4. Dances for Spiritual Connection

DANCES OF IMITATION
Particularly in primitive and indigenous cultures, dances of imitation are performed. The dances can serve all
kinds of purposes, often in search of fortunate outcomes like good weather and good hunting.

Watch This

Native American: Sioux Buffalo Dance. In this video filmed by Thomas Edison in 1894, men from a
Sioux tribe imitate a buffalo in tribute to its courage. They bend forward from the waist, performing
knee-raising steps as they move in a circle.

Native American: Eagle Dance

The Eagle Dance is performed to connect with a higher power for healing, rain, strength in war and general
divine intervention. It is often performed by two dancers with drummers surrounding them. The dancer dons
feathered wings that he spreads and flaps in imitation of the great eagle. He does a low skip, lifting his knees
high, moving in a serpentine pattern. Then he pauses, perches low, and folds his wings over his quivering leg.

Watch This

Sierra Leone: Ostrich Dance

A Jacob’s Pillow program note for this Ostrich Dance delineates its cultural importance: “Warriors imitate the
powerful graceful movement of the king of birds. Living close to nature, they observe the movements of the
ostrich, the largest and most powerful of the birds on the continent of Africa. This dance, from Sierra Leone,
was introduced in the United States by Asadata Dafora.”

Watch This
RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL DANCE | 173

Asadata Dafora was a privileged and well-educated Creole man from Sierra Leone. He was determined to
educate the rest of the world about African culture. He traveled Western Africa learning its dance, music and
stories, then shared these arts with the rest of the world. In the 1930’s he brought African performance arts to
the American theatrical stage.

Australian Aboriginal Dance

Australian Aboriginal dance commonly incorporates imitations of certain animals or birds to assist in
storytelling and to bring dreamtime to the people. Dreamtime refers to the ancestral beings associated with
life force and creative power who they believed could communicate important messages or life lessons though
one’s dreams.
Their traditional and ceremonial dances could be used as an initiation process or to celebrate a new stage of
life. Dances played an important role in the spirituality of Indigenous Australian tribes and each group had
different customs when it came to performing and orchestrating these dances.

Watch This

The Aboriginal Crane Dance

174 | RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL DANCE

Mexico: Yaqui Deer Dance

The Yaqui people of Sonora, Mexico and Arizona.

This hunters’ dance imitates the movements of the prey and
reenacts the hunt. Deer dancing is related to three of the nine
“worlds” that Yoemem (the Yaqui people) recognize. This
dance, like the religion, centers on balancing the worlds and
repairing harm done to them by humans. Catholicism was
introduced to the Yaqui by Jesuit missionaries, and today most
practice a syncretic religion that is a merger of the two.

Fig. 3 Yaqui Traditional dance mask in the

Tumacácori Museum. 20 September 2019.
Attributed Marine 69-71. CC-SA 4.0
Watch This
RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL DANCE | 175

MEDICINE DANCES
San Tribe of Africa (Bushmen Dance): The trance dance, which is still practiced by San communities in the
Kalahari region, is an indigenous ritual by which a state of altered consciousness is achieved through rhythmic
dancing and hyperventilation. It is used for healing sickness in individuals and healing negative aspects of the
community as a whole.

Watch This

Trance Dance

Amazon Indigenous People: Bullet Ant Coming of Age Ritual. Young men test their endurance by wearing
a glove full of stinging bullet ants. Men of the village join the young man in dance to help survive the pain.

Watch This

Mongolia: Shaman Dance

In Mongolia, Shamans serve as intermediaries between the human world and the spirit world. Both men and
women may be Shaman. The religion is animistic (attributes a spirit to all things), and rituals address medicine,
religion, a reverence for nature, and ancestor worship. On the summer solstice Shamans perform a fire ritual at
night. The Shaman drums carry the ancestral spirits of the Shaman.

Watch This

Mongolia: Shaman Dance, a performance at Ulan Bator’s Choijin Lama Temple Museum.
RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL DANCE | 177

COMMEMORATIVE DANCES
Dances are created to remember a special day, a special event, a meaningful moment. Some commemorative
dances are very old. Maypole dances have early pagan roots. It is a celebration of the rebirth of spring. Other
commemorative dances are more recent and more personal to our times.

China: Dragon Dance

In China, the dragon is a symbol of imperial power and good luck. It follows that the longer the dragon, the
better the luck. In particular the dragon dance is performed at festive occasions, especially the Chinese New
Year. Dragons are often about 100 feet long, although they also can be shorter or even twice as long. The
dragon is traditionally constructed with fabric laid over hoops that are lifted over the performers’ heads on
long poles. Performers must coordinate their movements to achieve the sinuous dance of the dragon. Nine is a
standard number of dragon dancers but it can be less or more. Some dragons even specialize with fancy patterns
and acrobatic feats.

Watch This
178 | RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL DANCE

United States: Table of Silence; choreographer Jacqulyn Buglisi

Ten years after the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were struck by a terrorist attack on September 11,
2001, this commemorative dance was created. Performed each year in the heart of New York City at Lincoln
Center, dancers from all over the city join together to remember those who lost their lives on that day and the
first responders who died in the days after.
Dancers from many different religions participate in this dance. It is for all to reflect and remember,
regardless of personal creed. Dancers from all over New York City audition to participate in this dance.
Rehearsals are held in a number of spots throughout the city beginning months in advance, then the groups
come together to dance on the day and time of the anniversary of the attack.
This dance is reminiscent of the style of Ancient Greek dance. It features a procession into the Lincoln
Center plaza. Dancers keep time with their strides, proceeding in a circle as they perform meaningful gestures
in unison. They position themselves in concentric circles and continue to dance together in unity. This is a
dance that brings the community together to remember a tragic time in American history.

Watch This
RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL DANCE | 179

Watch This

American Apache: Girl’s Rite of Passage

“Apache girls take part in ancient tests of strength, endurance and character that will make them
women and prepare them for the trials of womanhood.”

DANCES FOR SPIRITUAL CONNECTION

Christian Dance
The holy book of Christendom (and Judaism) is the Bible. References to dance can be found peppered
throughout, especially in the Old Testament, and dance was a part of early Christian ritual. However, the
Church came to equate dance with the desires of the flesh and loosening of mores, and dance was banned
180 | RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL DANCE

from church ritual. Some religious groups, Calvinists and Quakers, completely banned dance from their lives.
Christianity is the only major world religion that has forbidden dance to such an extent.
During the 1960’s the Catholic pope called the Second Vatican Counsel. At that time the liturgy, the rituals
of the church that parishioners participate in, was updated to reflect the times. Dance found its way back into
the church. Several other groups restored dance to their services. Some Protestant churches participated in
ecstatic worship in which worshipers would talk in tongues and shake or roll in the ecstasy of the holy spirit.
The Charismatic Movement of the 1970’s ushered the Christian church into contemporary times, and
dance found new purchase in the form of liturgical dance, or praise dance. Worshipers combine dance and
music to express the spirit of God.

Watch This

My Worship Is For Real | Anointed Praise Dance Ministry

The early Christian church developed the notion of the afterlife, which led to purity on earth. To achieve
that purity, a life of celibacy was ascribed. Dance, especially dance between sexes, was eschewed. The Catholic
church under Pope Gregory went further to banish dance. Even as citizens were dancing at festivals, guild
meetings, and court balls, the church of Rome denied dance.
In 1604 England also banned dance in the church. The “Shaking Quakers” incorporated ecstatic dance into
religious services. The sect moved to the United States as groups of “Shakers,” a religion restricting interaction
between men and women. The parishioners would dance, sing, and shake out the sins of the flesh in their
worship. In 1930, the first generation modern choreographer Doris Humphrey choreographed “The Shakers,”
depicting scenes of the Shaker worship experience. This clip shows a portion of the dance.
RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL DANCE | 181

Watch This

The Shakers

Cultural Connections

Gene Kim and faith based dance series on InstaGram.

https://dailynorthwestern.com/2022/04/17/ae/recent-alum-gene-kim-creates-faith-based-dance-
video-series-for-instagram/

Pursuit of Vitality.

Dancer Personifies Gospel Music.

182 | RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL DANCE

Damascus – Islam: Sufi “Whirling” Dervishes

The Mevlevi sect of Sufi Islam has practiced a dance for over seven hundred years based on the writings of
the poet Rumi. The dervishes spin faster and faster, chanting Allah, with the right palm lifted to heaven to
receive God’s blessing and the left hand pointing to the ground in a terrestrial connection, the Dervish existing
between two worlds. The dancers seek to suppress their ego to find oneness with God. The ceremony is called
a sema. It is especially practiced in Turkey.

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India: Bharatanatyam

Shiva is one of the principal gods of Hinduism. He is recognized

as the god of dance and creator of the world.
Bharata Natyam is a very old religious dance performed in India
by women. Early religious stories are told through hand gestures,
facial expressions, and rhythmic foot drumming. Young girls called
devadasis were committed to God and trained to perform the
Bharata Natyam in church, but they were exploited and ultimately
used as little more than prostitutes. Under the British colonial Raj
rule, the Bharata Natyam was banished. Some influential Indians
helped to preserve the dance.

Fig. 4 Chola dynasty statue depicting

Shiva dancing as Nataraja (Los
Angeles County Museum of Art)
CC-Public Domain
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Japan: Bugaku

Bugaku is a Japanese classical dance rooted in ancient Shinto ceremonies tied to the rituals of the Imperial
Court. Men perform it exclusively, telling stories, legends, or battles to educate people about religious beliefs.
The purpose of Bugaku is to appease the gods, purify evil spirits, and pray for favorable outcomes such as a
good harvest.
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The movement used in Bugaku is sacred and symbolic. One unique feature of Bugaku is the stylized
walking, known as “the art of walking.” Performers are trained to keep the feet connected to the earth through
slow, precise, and deliberate movement, known as Okisa. Okisa is the energy that generates and flows from
within the performer’s body for spiritual connection.

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Cambodia: Robam Boran

Cambodia’s Robam Boran, also known as Khmer classical dance, is one of Southeast Asia’s oldest court dance
traditions. Initially, the king’s lakhon lueng, sacred female dancers, ritualistically performed dances to pray to
ancestral spirits for favorable outcomes, such as rainfall.
Training in Roban Boran begins at an early age. Children’s bodies were manipulated by their teachers to
make them flexible. Performers’ fingers and toes curl back, and the elbows are hyperextended. Dancers also are
expected to hold their balance for an extended period. Robam Boran uses stylized movements and gestures to
convey a story. The gestures are called kbach and are symbolic of nature, such as a flower, leaf, fruit, or tendril.

Watch This
RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL DANCE | 185

The Magic of Khmer Classical Dance

Hawaii: Hula

The Hawaiian People practiced a polytheistic religion with four primary gods and numerous undergods and
spirits. There was a kinship between the gods and the ruling class, and indeed, all people were on a more equal
footing with their gods than in traditional Western religions. There was no written language for Hawaii, so
it was through the practice of the hula dance that the lore of the people was preserved and passed down to
following generations.

Watch This

Hula Is More Than a Dance—It’s the ‘Heartbeat’ of the Hawaiian People.

Ghana, West Africa: Voodoo Dance and Music Celebration

Voodoo primarily originated in Western Africa and was then transported west with the African diaspora to
take root at points in South America, the Caribbean Islands, and North America (New Orleans in particular).
Different versions of the practice emerged at these diverse locations, and syncretic versions (the blending of
different belief systems) of the original practices developed to incorporate ideas from the Catholic church.
Voodoo recognizes divine spirits that govern the Earth, its natural forces, and its people. These spirits are the
center of religious practice. Voodoo practices ancestor worship, and holds that the spirits of the dead are living
among us.

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What is Social Dance?

All over the world, people dance. Different social dances have different purposes and different values.
Sometimes they blend and merge with others to become new dances. But no matter what, we find a connection
to others in social dance.
The term folk dance refers to the secular, recreational, and celebratory dance expression of a past or present
culture. The term was coined in the 19th century by European scholars studying the culture and art forms
of different world regions. These academics viewed the simple, untrained “folk” carrying on their ancestors’
ancient traditions and often wrote condescending descriptions of these activities. The term folk dance was
RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL DANCE | 187

accepted until the mid-20th century, when it was replaced with the more respectful term traditional dance. It
can refer to dances of the people and often has a nationalistic purpose. Although they were original dances
done by and for the people in their own communities, they are sometimes adapted for performances and
performed by trained dancers. It should be noted that not all traditional dancers dropped the designation folk
dance; some use the term as a source of pride.

Indigenous, Ethnic or World Dance

These terms, often used interchangeably, describe many cultural or traditional dances. Reference is often made
to their ethnic, rather than their tribal, origins. A world dance is simply a dance characteristic of a particular
cultural group.
For our purposes, social dances are dances that have a social function and are intended for participation
rather than performance. These are dances found in social gatherings and, in their original form, not found on
a stage. They celebrate special occasions and reveal something about the dancers’ culture.
Social dances can be categorized by their purpose as:

1. Courtship Dances
2. Work Dances
3. War Dances
4. Communal Dances

COURTSHIP DANCES
In cultures where marriages are arranged, men and women do not engage in courtship dances. In other
cultures, dance may serve as a simple flirtation or involve a more complex ritual.

Niger: Guerewohl Festival, Wodaabe

In Western Africa, the Wodaabe cattle herders gather in the fall for the Guerewohl. During the week-long
festival, young men seek to attract women. They apply make-up that will help to make the white of their eyes
and teeth pop, wear festive dresses, and line up, linking arms and swaying up and down onto their toes. They
chant, call, and make rolling eyes and chattering teeth to attract women.

Watch This
188 | RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL DANCE

Spain: Flamenco

The Flamenco has its roots in Andalusia (southern Spain) and is thought to be an outgrowth of the mingling
of the southern Spaniards and the Romani people who settled there. The rhythms and structure of the music
developed alongside the dance. It is a relatively recent dance, with no record of it prior to the late 18th century.
The flirtation between the couple speaks to courtship and passion. The dance is popular around the world and
especially in Japan!

Watch This

Video courtesy of Ballet Nacional de España

Austria: Waltz

In old Europe, Austrian villagers practiced a waltz dance from the German word walzen (to turn). Dancers spin
around each other as they circle the room. The dance made its way into European ballrooms, where the closed
stance between the man and woman indicated a loosening of the strict rules of behavior between the sexes.
The waltz’s popularity spread throughout Europe with the invading armies of Napoleon, and then crossed the
Atlantic to find popularity in America. It has remained a mainstay of social dance around the world for over
two centuries.

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WORK DANCES
Some dances are centered around the work that groups perform. Movements imitative of work routines
engender unity and synchronization.

Japan: Ainu Fishermen’s Dance.

This is a performance of a dance imitating moves used in fishing. Dances that mimicked work routines were
used in past times to help build unity and continuity among the crew. The Ainu are indigenous people who
today live mostly in Hokkaidō in northern Japan. Traditional Ainu dance is performed at ceremonies and
banquets, as part of newly organized cultural festivals and privately in daily life; in its various forms, it is closely
connected to the lifestyle and religion of the Ainu.
190 | RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL DANCE

Watch This

Taiwan: Orchid Island Boat Launching Ceremony

On an island not far from Taiwan in the Philippine Sea, Tao, the indigenous people of Lan Yu, build long oared
boats to catch the flying fish that inhabit the surrounding coral reefs. The fish are a major staple of Orchid
Islanders. Groups of divers work together to wave fish into large nets suspended from the boat. For the Tao,
a boat equates to the ocean itself and the bounty that comes from it. The high prow and stern of the iconic
wooden canoes make them a recognizable cultural symbol for the island.
In the boat launching ceremony, men of the village surround the boat and shake their hands to ward off evil.
Then the group tosses the boat into the air several times – the higher the toss means the more good fortune.

Watch This
RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL DANCE | 191

WAR DANCES
Another purpose of social dance is the War Dance, a ceremonial dance performed before a battle or to celebrate
victory.

New Zealand: Māori Haka

The Haka is a traditional Māori dance. It was often used as a war dance to establish unity in the group and
to intimidate opposition with foot stomping, loud chanting, and fierce facial expressions. It can be performed
to chants that tell traditional Māori legends. There are other chants to use for celebrations like weddings and
birthdays. The Haka is danced not only in New Zealand, but also in other Pacific nations. The New Zealand
soccer team, the All Blacks, perform the Haka before every game.

Watch This

Here is a traditional rendering of the dance.

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Contextual Connections

Former LSU football player Breiden Fehoko, a Hawaii native, was known to perform the HAKA
before LSU games.

Brazil: Capoeira

Capoeira is a martial arts fighting style in Brazil combining dance, acrobatics, percussion, and songs. It began
during the 16th century when enslaved Africans were taken to Brazil. Its original purpose was to disguise
fighting as dancing. Hidden in the musical and rhythmic elements, kicks were masked as dance movements
RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL DANCE | 193

which saved it from being identified as the practice of martial arts. Today, Capoeira is practiced for competition
and entertainment. Two dancers battle inside a circle formed by the other players. They try to catch their
opponent off guard with acrobatics and spinning kicks.

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Great Britain: Morris Dance

It is believed that Morris Dance has primitive, pre-Christian fertility rite origins. Some aspects, such as
stamping the earth, waving handkerchiefs to ward off the winter, and jangling bells to awaken the spring
remain, but during the Crusades martial aspects were introduced. Staves and swords, weapons of combat at
the time, were added to the dances. The movements took on the look of a drill to prepare for battle. They
sometimes painted their faces for disguise and added dangling strips of fabric to represent making oneself fierce
for battle. Another reason for hiding one’s identity is that it was usually done in mid-winter when resources
were scarce and the townspeople would give them money or buy them drinks for their performance. This
vigorous dance was practiced as a means of keeping physically fit. Although in the early versions of Morris it
was performed solely by men, in the video below, you will see a group of both men and women performing.

Watch This
194 | RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL DANCE

Watch the Beltane Morris Dance

Watch This

Lucnica Recruitment Dance: Slovak National Folklore Ballet

In this video, a theatrical troupe demonstrates a dance that demonstrates the prowess and skills of
a soldier.

COMMUNAL DANCES
Communal dances are found in cultures that value cooperation over competition. Some require dancers
to have conformity within the group. Others feature long connected lines or circles to create a sense of
togetherness and community.
RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL DANCE | 195

England: Country Dance

English country dances were widely performed around Britain, as multiple generations joined together in
dance. These dances were transported to North America and transformed into dances like the square dance
and Virginia Reel.

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Romania and Israel: Hora

A Hora is a circular chain dance. Another version is danced by Jews world-wide. It signifies happiness and It
is danced at celebrations. Often, at weddings, or at bat and bar mitzvahs (coming of age rituals) the bride and
groom or honoree are lifted into the air on their chairs as the group dances.

Watch This
196 | RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL DANCE

Native American:

Many Native American tribes gather yearly for pow wows. A pow wow is
a great social event that features music, dance, food, crafts, and a sharing of
culture. It is a chance to celebrate the tribe’s heritage. Visitors are usually
welcome to attend the pow wow to appreciate the events.

China: Park Dancing

Older women in China congregate in parks, gymnasiums, and other public

places to dance. They call themselves the ‘Dancing Grannies.’ In the 1970’s,
the government encouraged the population to dance to stay physically and
socially active. Due to its popularity, complaints of loud music and noise
have caused the government to regulate this social activity.
Fig 5. 2008 New Orleans Jazz
& Heritage Festival: Native
American Pow Wow –
Carolina Tuscarora Stomp and
Watch This Smoke Dancers. Attributed to
Wally Gobetz. CC-BY-NC-ND
2.0
RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL DANCE | 197

INTERNATIONAL FOLK DANCE

Many ethnic and national groups have established professional folk dance companies. These companies tour
the world bringing the traditional dances of their culture to other countries. This is also a way to preserve the
dances of a people and develop new techniques.

Russia: Moiseyev Dance Company

Igor Moiseyev founded his company over a hundred years ago and it is still in existence today. In Russia, folk
dancing troupes developed alongside the great ballet companies. These dancers are highly trained to present
high quality performances to the world.

Watch This

México: Ballet Folklórico de México

Ballet Folklórico de México founded in 1952 by Amalia Hernandez, centers Méxican folklore from pre-
Columbian civilizations to contemporary times. The company has made an entire performance available on
YouTube. This performance features many types of dances from different regions of México.

Watch This

Ireland: Riverdance

This show from 1995 established River Dance as a top touring group. The upright posture, immobile arms,
and fancy footwork are hallmarks of Irish dance.
Riverdance was first introduced in 1994 as part of the Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin, Ireland. It
became a crowd favorite, and shortly after, a touring group was established. The dancers perform in unison
using upright posture, immobile arms, and fancy footwork.

Classical Chinese Dance

Classical Chinese dance has a 5000 year history. Its origins go back to dances in ancient imperial palaces and
folk traditions that were passed down through the generations. It is expressive, with meaning driving the
movement in the telling of a dance story. Dances in the Tang Dynasty fell into the two categories of martial and
civil, with the civil dance being soft and graceful, while the martial dance was vigorous and bold.

Watch This

Watch this video of a dance reminiscent of the Tang Dynasty period. This dance is based on the
2017 fantasy film, “Legend of the Demon Cat”. Watch closely for the cat to make a brief appearance
at the end!

Shen Yun Dance Company of China

Shen Yun, translating to “the beauty of divine beings dancing,” travels extensively in the United States. They
are credited with reviving the ancient Chinese classical dances with new life by adding modern production
values. There is usually an acrobatic component with flips and spins. Some of the moves appear to have
a martial arts component, but used in an expressive, dynamic way rather than as an offensive or defensive
manner. Watch this promotional video from Shen Yun Dance Company.
200 | RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL DANCE

Watch This

SOCIAL DANCE: THE AMERICAN MELTING POT

From points around the world, immigrants bring their dances to America. The dances then become modified
and merged, resulting in new American dances.

Dances of Colonial America

These dances have origins in the country dances of England, Scotland, and Ireland. There, couples danced in
formations that were circular, geometric, or in long lines, with men on one side facing women on the other.
Country dances have repeatable figures and a caller to alert dancers to each upcoming maneuver. They are
frequently performed across generations.

Virginia Reel

The Virginia Reel is an upbeat and lively long dance. Couples move down their lines alternately circling
partners. In a progressive reel, the lead couple changes as the dance proceeds. The Virginia Reel was danced in
ballrooms of American society.
RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL DANCE | 201

Watch This

Square Dance

The square dance sets four couples facing each other to form a square. A variety of simple moves engage the
dancers with their partners and other couples, moving about the square. Square dances also have a caller to
tell dancers when to change to a new maneuver.

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Dances of Cajun and Creole Louisiana

Cajuns are descendants of the Acadian people who arrived in South Louisiana after being exiled from Nova
Scotia in the mid-18th century. These Acadians were originally from the Celtic region of northern France and
brought traditional French songs and dances with them. These early dances were mostly rondes and branles
and included figure dances and contra dances, similar to square dances. Today’s Cajuns have popular social
dances called the Cajun Two-Step and the Cajun Waltz. The music is traditionally sung in Cajun French.

Watch This

Here is a video of the Cajun waltz at the Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival:

Cajuns dance the two-step and the waltz in an unusual tradition. It is the Courir de Mardi Gras, the
“runners of the Mardi Gras.” It is a tradition that occurs in the prairies of rural South Louisiana. Costumed
and masked participants, either on horseback or riding on trailers, go from house to house singing, dancing,
and begging for money or ingredients for a community gumbo. The highlight is when someone donates a
chicken which is thrown into the crowd of courirs, and the chase begins.

Watch This
RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL DANCE | 203

Watch this trailer for “Dance for a Chicken” by Pat Mire.

Zydeco Dance

Zydeco music and dance is a tradition of the Black Creole culture in South Louisiana. The word zydeco has
expanded to be a noun, an adjective, or a verb. It refers to the style of social dance, the style of music, and a term
for a social event. One could say, “Let’s go zydeco to the zydeco music at the zydeco.” The origin of the word
zydeco is believed to come from haricots, green beans. There is a famous song by legendary zydeco musician
Clifton Chenier called Les Haricots Sont Pas Salés. This translates to “the beans aren’t salty,” a phrase meaning
that times are tough. When the words les haricots are slurred together it sounds like zydeco. It is an energetic
partner dance with each couple adding their own flair to the dance.

Watch This

Watch this Creole couple performing their own zydeco variations.

204 | RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL DANCE

Latin America

Brazil: Samba

Samba is an Afro-Brazilian dance. The city of Rio de Janeiro celebrates Carnival (a Brazilian version of Mardi
Gras), a festival prior to the beginning of Lent. People parade in the streets dancing various styles of Samba.
The oldest form of Samba, the Samba de Roha, is still taught and practiced in the Bahia province of Brazil.

Watch This

Samba has also found a home in the professional ballroom dance circuit. Here dancers perform a
flirtatious choreographed competition piece.

Argentina: Tango

Toward the end of the 19th century, moves from the dance halls of Buenos Aires merged with the milonga, a
fast, sensual Argentinian dance, to create the tango. Originally the dance was considered too risque for society,
but the tango has since found great popularity around the world.

Watch This

African American Dance

The Black Code

The Code Noir, better known as the Black Code, was enforced under the governance of King Louis XIV. The
Black Code was extremely complicated and was introduced based on other codes in the French Caribbean
Colonies. The French were much more lenient in their laws toward African slaves than the British and Dutch.
Severe punishments of slaves were not prohibited. Being separated from their families was not allowed, and
they were able to marry. On the other hand, interracial marriage was not granted, and master’s could not
free slaves as they pleased. Freeing slaves was under the guise of the Superior Council’s approval and was not
generously given. An exceptional reason for freedom was required by Council. On Sundays, the Catholic King
ordered no work to be done.
In 1764, Spanish Governor Alejandro O’Reilly replaced French law and the Code noir with Spanish law.
These laws gave more rights to African slaves than French laws. Slaves were allowed to not only purchase their
freedom but do so over even if their master’s did not want to free them. Slaves also had the right to be freed
206 | RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL DANCE

from their masters if they were treating them inhumane through a petition from the courts. The code remained
in effect until the United States completed the Louisiana Purchase in 1804.

Congo Square

Congo Square started as a French market but later came to be a gathering spot for upwards of 500 souls. Folks,
enslaved and freed, came from four different regions:

• Enslaved Africans direct from the foreign slave trade

• Enslaved Africans from other parts of the U.S.
• New Orleans-born enslaved people
• Enslaved Africans from Haiti, Cuba, Caribbean (a large infusion of the Haiti population came to New
Orleans following its 1791-1804 revolution.)

Although gatherings were discouraged, in South Louisiana slaves were allowed to congregate in out of the way
spots on Sundays. In 1819, the mayor of New Orleans restricted gatherings to a single parcel of land on “the
back side” of New Orleans, situated along Bayou St. John (north of Rampart Street in Treme). It was known
as La Place Congo (Congo Square).
In 1893, city leaders changed the official name of Congo Square to honor the civil war Confederate General
Beauregard, in an effort to discourage African Americans from congregating there. But the name never really
“took.” In 2011, the city voted to return to the name Congo Square.

Dance in Congo Square

The dances of Congo Square reflected the many origins and influences of the enslaved people and freed men
who congregated in the square on Sundays. Dances featured include:

Bamboula

According to Merriam-Webster, the bamboula is a primitive drum used by inhabitants of western Africa and
the West Indies, especially in voodoo ceremonies and incantations; the dance performed to the beating of the
bamboula (drum). So the Bamboula dance is associated with a drum. This dance form came with the slaves
from West Africa when they first came to the Caribbean, and variations of this dance appear throughout the
Caribbean and eventually the US. The dance originally was done as a revolt against slavery, forward motion
with skirts moving the evil spirits out, backward motion with the skirts, bringing the good spirits in. These
revolts were said to be led by women who danced along with the drum.
Macislyn Bamboula Dance Company
RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL DANCE | 207

History of Bamboula https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVbobvIfaOA

Bamboula variation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVQsnNzXXy0

Calenda Dance

Caribbeans performed the calenda in lines of men and women. As the dance proceeded it became more
suggestive. Slave owners tried to banish the dance.
The Calinda is a voodoo dance brought to Louisiana by San Domingo and Antilles slaves. It is a martial
art, as well as folk music and dance forms from the Caribbean. Commonly seen practiced in Trinidad and
Tobago, it is a stick fighting seen at Carnival. Songs are known to have derived from calinda chants. The
Calinda was better known as a dance rather than a stick fight due to its violent nature. “The well-known Cajun
song “Allons dancer Colinda” is about a Cajun boy asking a girl named Colinda to do a risqué dance with him;
probably derived from the Calinda dance which was reported to have been performed in New Orleans by Afro-
Caribbean slaves brought to Louisiana.”

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The Second Line

The tradition of second-lining includes Western African influences that slaves sought to preserve in the 1700s
and 1800s and elements of American military funerals. Jazz music is a significant element; the event overall
demonstrates a mixture of order, spontaneity, and unification, making it a memorable celebration of life and
death.
A second-line parade is a celebration of life. The “first line” includes the brass band and members of the
208 | RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL DANCE

club, organization, or family being honored. The second line refers to the rest of the attendees, fellow revelers
or mourners, and onlookers who join in as it moves along the streets. Participants in these rituals twirl a parasol
or wave a handkerchief while strutting in formal attire or according to the event’s theme. This is a practice still
found in New Orleans today. The second line is performed every Sunday, especially at funeral processions.

AMERICAN SOCIAL DANCE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Popular New York dance clubs like the Cotton Club and the Apollo Ballroom were an important part of
the “Harlem Renaissance” that ran roughly from the 1910s to the 1930s. The Harlem Renaissance was a
golden age for African American artists, writers, musicians, stage performers and dancers. It gave these artists
pride in and control over how the Black experience was represented in American culture and set the stage for
the civil rights movement. Popular dances associated with this time period are tap and jazz dance which were
discussed in chapter 6, and the Charleston, just to name a few.

Charleston: danced by Josephine Baker

Watch This

Josephine Baker was an American born entertainer and dancer. She moved to France in the 1920’s and
became a naturalized citizen there. She appeared with Folie Bergere in Paris and was the first black woman to
star in a major motion picture, the silent film Siren of the Tropics. Baker enjoyed a long and successful career
in France where her costume of a skirt of bananas and a necklace became an iconic image of the Jazz Age of
the 1920’s. Baker also worked with the French resistance in WWII. She refused to dance in front of segregated
audiences.
Baker spoke at the civil rights March on Washington at the side of Martin Luther King, Jr. She said, ” I have
walked into the palaces of kings and queens and into the houses of presidents. And much more. But I could
not walk into a hotel in America and get a cup of coffee, and that made me mad. And when I get mad, you
know that I open my big mouth. And then look out, ’cause when Josephine opens her mouth, they hear it all
over the world.”

Castle Walk

Vernon and Irene Castle helped to make ballroom dancing popular in the early twentieth century. They
sometimes appeared in movies dancing their signature step “The Castle Walk.”

Watch This

This film is from 1915.

Foxtrot

“An overview of the Foxtrot in the Jazz Age (1920s-1930s) showing its infinite adaptability. All footage is from
the era. While dance teachers of the time liked to make distinctions, music publishers, bandleaders and dancers
lumped almost any dance in 4/4 or even 2/4 time under the title “Fox Trot” unless it was obviously a Tango.”

Lindy Hop

Lindy Hop is an African American dance, which originates from Harlem, New York City. It was danced first
in the famous Savoy Ballroom by African American dancers in 1928, and was danced throughout the 1930s
and 1940s. The Lindy Hop uses improvisation with acrobatic movements.

Watch This

Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers from the 1941 film Helzapoppin:

Twist

Chubby Checker introduced the dance with his song “Do the Twist” in 1960. It became a dance craze
popularized with the introduction of rock and roll music.
RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL DANCE | 211

Watch This

Dance Demonstration of The Twist (1961)

West Coast Swing:

Swing dances developed during the Big Band Era of the 1940’s. It grew out of the Lindy Hop. It is one of few
dances that emphasize improvisation. East Coast Swing, West Coast Swing and similar dances are as popular
today as ever.

Watch This

Victoria Henk and Ben McHenry Champions Jack and Jill

Cultural Connections

A VISUAL HISTORY OF SOCIAL DANCE IN 25 MOVES

Camille A Brown is a noted modern choreographer of today. In this TED talk she offers a quick
overview of social dance of today and the roots from which it grows.

Summary
Religious dance is the use of dance in spiritual ceremonies and rituals, present in most religions throughout
history and prehistory. Its connection with the human body and fertility has caused it to be forbidden by some
religions. The social institution of dance provides an arena for people to communicate with each other through
the use of non-verbal and culturally acceptable movements and gestures. Social dances have a social function
and are participation oriented rather than performance.
HIP HOP | 213

HIP HOP

Learning Objectives
Fig 1. Banksy Hip Hop Rat, London. March 11,
2008 Attributed to Tim fuller CC-BY 2.0

• Demonstrate a culturally informed dance aesthetic.

• Examine the origins of Hip-Hip
• Analyze the Hip-Hop cultural elements with pop culture
• Identify influential Hip-Hop artists

“Hip-Hop is the culture of oppressed Black and Latino people that has, I guess, kind of flipped
the political end of music and art on its head. Hip-Hop is the opposite of politics. Politics
separates people. Hip-Hop brings people together.”- Emilio “Buddha Stretch” Austin
214 | HIP HOP

What is Hip-Hop?
Hip-hop is an umbrella term that includes several dance styles that are highly energetic and athletic. Hip-
hop dance forms began as social dances that expanded to respond to socioeconomic conditions faced by
marginalized African-American and Latinx youth in inner cities. These dance styles hold the meaning and
values of the community, resulting in a cultural movement that gained widespread attention through media
that has led to its global popularity today.

Fig 2. DontHitMamasDanceParty_MichaelPremo. Don’t Hit

Mama’s DANCE PARTY CC-BY-NC-SA 2.0

Watch This

The History of Hip-Hop in the Bronx.

HIP HOP | 215

Hip-Hop Characteristics

Africanist Aesthetics
Hip-Hop dance forms are situated in Africanist aesthetics that communicate the culture’s traditions, values,
and heritage. Dance scholar E. Moncell Durden identifies the cultural characteristics as “individuality,
creativity, improvisation, originality, spirituality, stylization, dance posture (bending forward from the waist
with the knees bent and the spine slightly curved), vocalization, pantomime, percussion, competition,
polyrhythm, and polycentrism.”

Cultural Connections

For more information see the New World Encyclopedia entry for African Dance.

https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/african_dance
216 | HIP HOP

Fig. 3. Members of a Rwandan dance troupe perform

at the the Mountain Gorillas Nest lodge. Photo by Rob
Verhoeven. CC-BY-NC 2.0

The Components of Hip Hop Dance

Hip-Hop is a cultural expression characterized primarily by five foundational components: graffiti,
deejaying, emceeing, breaking, and knowledge.
Graffiti is“the visual language of the hip-hop community” (Durden). Graffiti gained attention in the late
1960s when political activists illegally “tagged” or marked public places in defiance of government policies.
Later, crews used graffiti to claim territories.
HIP HOP | 217

Deejays (DJs), or disc jockeys, emerged as “the

sounds and memories of the community” (Durden).
DJs initially hosted dance parties as part of social
events. Through their experimentation with
turntables and records, DJs found innovative ways to
manipulate, isolate, extend, and loop the musical
rhythms for dance.
Emcees (MCing) are also known as the Master of
Ceremonies. It was the emcees’ responsibility to
pump up the crowd during parties. They became the
Fig. 4. Queens, rear of five pointz. Attributed to
community’s voice, using improvised spoken words Vinnebar CC-BY-SA-3.0
and rhymes to tell the social conditions and
experiences of the community, often shedding light on social injustices. This is known as rap today. Rapping
has roots in West Africa, where griots, or storytellers, were responsible for preserving their people’s
“genealogies, historical narratives, and oral traditions” (Britannica).
Breaking is considered the original street dance
associated with the Hip-Hop subculture. Breaking is
improvisational and emphasizes the dancer’s style and
athleticism while responding to the musical
accompaniment, typically funk music.
Knowledge is the culmination of the Afro-diasporic
cultural components to recover power from oppressive
systems through spiritual and political awareness. This
refers to having gratitude for your heritage that will give
Fig 5. A performer at “Don’ t Hit mamas dance you insight into your future and self-understanding.
party.” Presented in partnership with Harlem
Stage. CC-BY-NC-SA 2.0

During the 1950s, residents living in the East Coast

boroughs of the Bronx, New York City, struggled to survive in dire socio-economic conditions caused by poor
city management. The community was plagued by the decay caused by the destruction of homes with the
Cross Bronx Expressway construction. Families lost their homes and left the city to move into the suburbs. As
people left, local businesses closed, and job opportunities became scarce, causing high unemployment rates.
Government-subsidized houses known as the projects were built to provide affordable housing to low-income
families. These became overrun by gangs and a rampant drug scene.
By the 1970s, poverty among residents had significantly increased. In the 1977 World Series between the
New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers, Howard Cosell announced, “the Bronx is burning” (Wikipedia).
“For a couple of years, fires had routinely erupted in the South Bronx” as people burned down buildings
218 | HIP HOP

hoping to collect insurance money (Wikipedia). From 1973 to 1966, the Bronx “lost 600,000 jobs, more than
5,000 families were displaced, and some 30,000 fires were set in the area” (Durden).
Hip-Hop emerged from this socio-economic turmoil in the early 1970’s. Marginalized inner-city African
American and Latinx youth found an outlet to release frustrations through a lifestyle informed by shared living
experiences that brought the community together.

Fig 6. Urban decay. Falsas Promesas Broken

Promises, John Fekner, Charlotte Street Stencils,
South Bronx, NY 1980 CC-BY-SA 3.0

Louisiana Connection
HIP HOP | 219

Terrance Michael Morgan: Born and raised in

Louisiana, he is on a mission to improve the
lives of today’s youth by promoting positive
youth development through the act of art,
dance, speaking and more. Morgan began as a
self-taught dancer doing mostly free-style
(improvisation) where he was introduced to
the hip hop dance style of B-Boying. This led to
him becoming an original member of a local
dance group Kabuki Kru. He began traveling

Fig 7. Terrance Morgan performing. Copyright Paul Kieu

throughout the U.S. to participate in
Photography. Used with permission. underground B-Boy Battles and continued
learning about a variety of dance styles. He
currently travels as a motivational and educational speaker/artist that performs in schools, libraries,
festivals, and more weekly to spread his message of positivity. He has been affiliated with the
Acadiana Center for the Arts since 2004 and is also currently a touring artist for Young Audiences
of Louisiana.

Terrance M Morgan Website

Clive Campbell

One of the earliest known DJs is Jamaican immigrant Clive

Campbell, known as DJ Kool Herc. Kool Herc is considered a
pioneer of Hip-Hop for developing a style of music that would
lay the foundation for hip-hop music, giving him credit as the
“Father of Hip-Hip.”
DJ Kool Herc hosted parties where he invented the “merry-go-
round” technique. Unlike other DJs, Kool Herc didn’t play
songs continuously; instead, using two turntables, he isolated the
instrumental break in the music and extended them by replaying
them continually on a loop. This musical innovation made the
songs danceable and encouraged people to dance at house
parties. Kool Herc would promote the interaction of dancers,
whom he called “breakers,” “b-boys,” and “b-girls.” The term
breaking meant “going off” on the dance floor, which he fig 8. DJ Kool Herc spins records in the
incorporated in the name of breakers. Breakers began practicing Hunts Point section of the Bronx at an
and honing their skills to battle or compete against one another event addressing “The West Indian Roots
of Hip-Hop,” February 28, 2009. CC-public
for bragging rights of “best dancer.” Domain

Universal Zulu Nation

Originally called the “Organization,” the Universal Zulu Nation was formed in the 1970s by reformed gang
members, discouraging youth from the lifestyle. Lance Taylor, also known as Afrika Bambaataa, is one of hip-
hop culture’s most influential pioneers who helped establish this organization. He used music to illustrate
hip-hop’s youth culture and its global potential. Universal Zulu Nation was founded on ideas of “peace, love,
unity, and having fun” to promote change in the community. The Universal Zulu Nation is credited with
establishing the five foundational components of Hip-Hop. Today, the organization has branches in several
world regions including, Japan, France, and South Africa.

Watch This
HIP HOP | 221

Original Hip-Hop pioneers discuss the house parties hosted by Kool Herc.

House parties became extremely popular and outgrew their spaces. They moved to the streets, where they
were called block parties. DJs plugged their sound systems into the street lamps, creating a greater interaction
among the neighborhood youth, Breakdancers began practicing their skills on the streets, and dance crews
emerged. Dance crews became a second family to the youth where older members acted as mentors helping
newer members with their dancing. The dance crews practiced for hours, perfecting their skills and styles and
developing new moves, and inadvertently stayed out of trouble because they did not have the time to engage in
other activities. Disputes were settled in dance battles rather than resorting to violence. These block parties laid
the foundations of Hip-Hop as a movement, and Hip-Hop dance forms were established.

Hip-Hop Dance Types

The Hip-Hop movement began on the East Coast of New York City; however, it was not isolated to this
location. Other street dances emerged on the West Coast in California.
222 | HIP HOP

EAST COAST
Breaking, also called breakdance by the media, is the
original street dance associated with Hip-Hop. This dance
form is generally performed as a solo and is highly
improvisational, emphasizing the dancer’s style and flair.
Breaking consists of four primary components:
toprocking, downrocking, power moves, and freezes.
Toprock refers to the movement that is performed
from a standing position. Toprock highlights quick,
Fig. 9. B-boy Pumba (Urban Force) dancing in percussive footwork paired with a relaxed upper body.
the cypher of Rock Steady crew 30th Breakers generally begin with toprock to enter the
Anniversary – Concrete Battle (The Bronx – July
cipher, a circle formation of people, where individual
2007). Attributed to NexusMoves. CC-BYSA 3.0
breakers take turns dancing.
Downrock or weight-bearing movement performed on the floor, where the dancers support their body
with their hands and feet.

Watch This

The 6-Step, a basic footskill sequence used in breaking.

Power moves are physically demanding acrobatic moves borrowed from gymnastics and martial arts
requiring strength and endurance, such as spins, floats, slides, and windmills.

Watch This

Floorwork and power moves were popularized by the Latinx community.

Freeze or a held position consists of the breaker halting the body from movement to achieve a challenging
body pose, such as a headstand.

Fig. 10. An individual executing a freeze.

Attributed to Cbshadley. CC-BY-SA 2.0
224 | HIP HOP

WEST COAST

Locking

Don “Campbellock” Campbell created a funk dance style called locking. Locking consists of briefly freezing
movement into a held position before continuing. Locking is highly performative, using comedic mine-like
actions by using large and exaggerated gestures. Dancers interact with the audience by giving high fives and
performing acrobatic moves like knee splits.
In the early 1970s, Campbell founded a group of dancers called the “The Campbellock Dancers,” later
shortening the name to the “Lockers.” The Lockers received wide attention as they performed on several
television shows, including The Tonight Show, The Carol Burnett Show, and Soul Train. Locking as a dance
style has been featured in films, music videos, and hip-hop competitions.

Watch This

Don Campbell explain the creation of Locking.

Boogaloo and Popping

Sam “Boogaloo Sam” Solomon created two dance styles, called boogaloo and popping. Boogaloo is an
HIP HOP | 225

improvisational street dance that uses a fluid upper body movement to give the illusion of the body not having
bones. Popping is a funk dance style involving contracting and releasing the muscles to cause a jerking effect.
These actions produce a robotic-like quality. Movements associated with popping include waving, ticking,
strobing, scarecrow, and tutting.
Solomon formed the dance crew the Electric Boogaloos and made television appearances on Soul Train that
further popularized the dance style.

Watch This

Electric Boogaloos perform on Soul Train.

OTHER HIP-HOP DANCE STYLES

Waacking

Waacking was created by the LGBTQIA+ community in the 1970s disco era. Waacking uses striking arm
movements, poses, and footwork, with “emphasis on expressiveness” (Wikipedia). The moves are inspired by
classic Hollywood film actors/actresses, 1960s comic book heroes, and 1970s martial art films. Waacking has
undergone several name changes throughout its development and was originally called “Posing.” The first
posers included Arthur Goff, Tinker Toy, Andrew Frank, and Lamont Peterson.
Waacking gained attention from the television show Soul Train featuring a battle between Tinker of the
Outrageous Waackers and Shabba-Doo from The Lockers. Waacking lost attention during the 1980s and
226 | HIP HOP

1990s and was revived in 2003. Brian “Footwork” Green began teaching Waacking as a formal dance style, and
in 2011, Kumari Surjai choreographed a Waacking routine on So You Think You Can Dance.

Watch This

Kumari Suraj discuss the history of Waacking.

Uprock
Uprock is known by several other names, such as Rocking or Brooklyn Rock. Uprock is considered a precursor
to breaking. It is an urban street dance with opposing dancers or crews facing off in a line formation to
challenge each other. The objective is to “undermine” their rival using movements that imitate fighting, such as
burns, gestures used to ridicule opponents typically mimicking weaponry, like the bow and arrow or shotgun,
and jerks, sudden body movements. In the early 1970s, Uprock was associated with gang culture as a way to
settle disputes, gain recognition, and bragging rights.

Stepping
Stepping, also spelled steppin’, also called blocking, is a complex synchronized dancelike performance that
blends African folk traditions with popular culture. Stepping involves clapping, body slapping, vocalizations,
and dramatic movements. The movements in this style of dance are discussed in chapter 5 and are related to
HIP HOP | 227

hambone. This form of dance became extremely popular in the 1980’s with African American fraternity and
sororities and has been fused with hip-hop and other forms of dance.

Watch This

Stepping examples featuring Omega, Alpha, Zeta, Delta, Sigma, Kappa, Phi Beta Sigma – Tribute for
Eddie Robinson NAACP Awards

Clowning
Thomas Johnson, “Tommy The Clown,” created clowning, a dance style of energetic and humorous
movements wearing a clown costume. Following the 1992 Los Angeles race riots when excessive force was
used in the arrest of Rodney King, Johnson wanted to do something positive for the youth in the community.
He attended birthday parties and encouraged the kids to take an interest in dance. Johnson founded his
dance crew called the Hip Hop Clowns, performing at parties. His motto is “No gangs, No drugs, Do well
in school (grades, attendance, and behavior) and be a role model by living a positive lifestyle at all times”
(https://www.tommytheclown.com/copy-of-home).
228 | HIP HOP

Watch This

See how Tommy The Clown and his squad of Clowns use this form of dance to express themselves
and invite in others to join in.

Krumping
Clowning is the predecessor of Krumping, created in the early 2000’s by Ceasare “Tight Eyez” Wills and
Jo’Artis “Big Mijo” Ratti, former members of Tommy the Clown’s dance crew. Krumping uses aggressive
improvised movements such as “stomps, jabs, chest pops, jumps, and arm swings” that mimic fighting
(Wikipedia). However, the dance form does not condone physical violence. Dancers challenge each other to
battles as an alternative to gang culture.

Watch This
HIP HOP | 229

Choreography from the Urban Dance Camp featuring Krumping.

Check Your Understanding

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it
online here:
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Mainstream Media and Globalization

In the 1980s into the early 1990s, Hip-Hop gained attention through mainstream media primarily due to the
rise of popularity of rap music. Two biopic films introduced Hip-Hop culture to the world. Style Wars and
Wild Style featured Bronx’s breakers, rappers, deejays, and graffiti artists. The Hollywood film Flashdance also
featured a brief scene of the Rock Steady Crew dancing on the streets.

Rock Steady Crew

The Rock Steady Crew was founded in 1977 by Joe Torres and Jimmy D. The crew is credited with creating
original breaking moves and helped popularize breaking. They became well-known in 1981 when they battled
the Dynamic Rockers at the Lincoln Center Outdoors Program, garnering media coverage from National
Geographic and 20/20.
230 | HIP HOP

Watch This

The Rock Steady Crew.

These films were the onset of what would become a global phenomenon. Companies began capitalizing
on the culture for monetary gains, selling instructional manuals and video tutorials on breaking. Breaking
soon declined in popularity as many felt the media was trying to “sell the culture they had created back to
them” (Durden, 2019). Around this time, music artists shifted the direction of Hip-Hip by using party
dances or social dance movements to associate with specific songs in their music videos, like the Cabbage
Patch and Running Man. As a result, Hip-Hop dance styles began appearing in commercials, television shows,
documentaries, and movies that drew national recognition.

Watch This

breakers discuss the influence the media had on breaking.

HIP HOP | 231

Hip-hop dance styles continue to be popularized through film and television shows. Competition-based
television shows like America’s Best Dance Crew and So You Think You Can Dance feature dancers competing
for the title of “best” dancer or crew.

Watch This

The Jabbawockeez perform on America’s Best Dance Crew.

Cultural Connections
232 | HIP HOP

INFLUENTIAL HIP-HOP ARTISTS

Lorenzo “Rennie” Harris

In 1992, Rennie Harris founded the professional Hip-Hop dance company Rennie Harris
Puremovement bringing street dance to the concert stage. To preserve the history and cultural
influences of the dance form, he founded the Rennie Harris Awe-Inspiring Works (RHAW), an
organization dedicated to providing educational opportunities, master classes, and mentorship to
youth in 2007.

Steffan “Mr. Wiggles” Clement

Steffan “Mr. Wiggles” Clemente is a member of the Rock Steady Crew and The Electric Boogaloos.
He has appeared in several music videos, dancing for Missy Elliot, Usher, and Madonna. Today, Mr.
Wiggles holds outreach programs to teach youth about Hip-Hop culture.

Fatima Robinson

Fatima Robinson was described in the New York Times as “one of the most sought-after hip-hop
and popular music choreographers in the world” and was once named by Entertainment weekly as
one of the 100 most creative people in the world of entertainment. She has choreographed for
Michael Jackson’s “Remember the Time,” NAACP Image Awards, VH1 Hip-Hop Honors, 2006 movie
Dreamgirls, Pepsi, Gap, Verizon, 2005 The Wiz Live! And the 2022 Super Bowl, just to name a few.

Emilio “Buddha Stretch” Austin

Emilio “Buddha Stretch” Austin created a Hip-Hop dance style called freestyle. He combines old-
school with new-school moves that were popularized in Hip-Hop music videos. Buddha Stretch has
choreographed and performed in several music videos in the 1990s, including Michael Jackson and
Will Smith.
HIP HOP | 233

Check Your Understanding

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it
online here:
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SUMMARY
Hip-Hop is an umbrella term encompassing several sub-genres. Breaking is considered the original form of
hip-hop dance. The Hip-Hop cultural movement of the 1970s was spawned from African-American and
Latinx youth in marginalized, inner-city neighborhoods. During the 1980s, the media helped increase hip-
hop’s popularity, gaining it widespread attention. In the 1990s, hip-hop culture, including dance, music,
art, fashion, speech, and behavior, became a component of rap music. Hip-hop dance forms are now taught
in dance studios and schools and have absorbed other dance influences like jazz dance, which incorporates
codified dance techniques. It is essential to recognize that these Hip-Hop dance styles may not be in their most
authentic form that respects the cultural values and traditions from which they emerge. For the people who
created Hip-Hop, it was a lifestyle.

Check Your Understanding

Directions: Please answer the following questions and cite any sources you use in your response.

1. Breaking began as a male-dominated dance form, causing B-Girls to advocate for equality.
Research a B-Girl and speak to their influences in hip-hop as a dancer. Here are a few
suggestions: Asia One, Momz-N-Da-Hood, B-Girl Firefly (Andrea Parker), Lady Jules (Julie
Ulrich), and Shana Busmente.
234 | HIP HOP

2. Select a Hip-Hop dance from today (from YouTube, Google, TikTok etc.) and reflect on
whether it holds the cultural aspects Hip-Hop is rooted in. Explain.
3. Hip-Hop is grounded in self-expression. Create a 30 second video representing your Hip-Hop
aesthetic informed by your individuality and upload. Please credit any artists that you use for
inspiration.

References
“About.” RHPM, 22 Feb. 2021, www.rhpm.org/about-2/.
“An Artist with a Mission.” Terrance Michael Morgan. Accessed July 8, 2022.
https://terrancemichaelmorgan.com/.
Durden, E. Moncell. Beginning Hip-Hop Dance. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2019.
“Fatima Robinson (1971–).” Encyclopedia of Arkansas, February 14, 2022.
https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/fatima-robinson-8213/.
Gosa, T. (2015). The fifth element: Knowledge. In J. Williams (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Hip-
Hop (Cambridge Companions to Music, pp. 56-70). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/
CCO9781139775298.007
“Griot.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. Accessed February 9, 2022.
https://www.britannica.com/art/griot.
“Hip-Hop: A Culture of Vision and Voice.” The Kennedy Center. Accessed May 26, 2022.
https://www.kennedy-center.org/education/resources-for-educators/classroom-resources/media-and-
interactives/media/hip-hop/hip-hop-a-culture-of-vision-and-voice/.
“Howard Cosell.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, May 16, 2022. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Howard_Cosell#%22The_Bronx_is_burning%22.
Kennedy, Lisa. “In L.A. Neighborhoods, Dancing Can Be Salvation.” The Denver Post. The Denver Post,
May 8, 2016. https://www.denverpost.com/2005/06/29/in-l-a-neighborhoods-dancing-can-be-salvation/.
“Krumping.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, May 7, 2022. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Krumping#:~:text=Krumping%20is%20a%20style%20of,exaggerated%2C%20and%20highly%20energetic%2
0movement.
“Locking (Dance).” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, October 15, 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Locking_(dance)#:~:text=Locking%20is%20a%20style%20of,the%20same%20speed%20as%20before.
HIP HOP | 235

“Meet Tommy.” Tommytheclown. Accessed May 26, 2022. https://www.tommytheclown.com/copy-of-

home.
“What Is Popping? (Popping Dance).” STEEZY Blog. Accessed February 11, 2022. https://www.steezy.co/
posts/what-is-popping-dance.
Shapiro, Peter, ed. (2000). Modulations: A History of Electronic Music. New York: Caipirinha Productions
Inc. p. 152. ISBN 978-1-891024-06-1.
“Stepping.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. Accessed May 25, 2022.
https://www.britannica.com/art/stepping.
“Universal Zulu Nation.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, March 9, 2022. https://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Universal_Zulu_Nation.
Afrika Bambaataa [Aasim, Kevin Donovan]”. Oxford Music Online. Archived from the original on March
9, 2014. Retrieved September 7, 2016.
“The True Mission Matters: Terrance M. Morgan.” The TMM Project. Accessed July 28, 2022.
https://terrancemichaelmorgan.com/.
“South Bronx.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, May 25, 2022. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
South_Bronx.
“Learn What Is Uprock and How the Street Dance Style Was Created.” Red Bull. Accessed July 28,
2022. https://www.redbull.com/in-hi/street-dance-style-uprock-rocking-rock-
dance#:~:text=03-,What%20are%20the%20fundamental%20moves%20in%20Uprock%3F,turns%2C%20shu
ffles%2C%20and%20freestyle.
236 | CURRENT TRENDS

CURRENT TRENDS

Fig 1. Social Media Abstract. Free for use at Pixaby.

Learning Objectives

• Discuss current trends in dance

• Analyze cultural elements in current dance trends
• Identify influential multimedia artists
CURRENT TRENDS | 237

“Dancemakers have naturally gravitated toward technological innovations that enable a deeper
understanding of the human body in motion. Through the use of portable computers, wearable
technologies, and software apps dancers may create, design, participate and move in new
modes of performance. Opportunities between dancers and choreographers inherently explore
new methods out of a desire to expand their imagination, talent, and intellect.” – Carl D.
Sanders, Jr.

Dance and Technology

Many changes have come about in the dance world since the COVID pandemic. Dancers have learned to
work remotely, taking classes online and even staging Zoom performances. Social media platforms were already
popular, but there was a surge in dance videos during the pandemic, as well.

Social Media:
What exactly is social media? Social media can be defined as the creation or sharing of content, such as photos,
videos, or written information through the use of websites or similar platforms that users post and share this
content for social networking, business, or just to be seen. This platform has increased visibility for everything,
but dance in particular. Because of the use of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, SnapChat, and TikTok
dance has received so much more press and viewership. If you want to get noticed or seen as a dancer by others,
if you have a dance studio and want others to see what you have to offer, or if you just want to showcase your
work for classes that you teach, social media, with the use of the platforms mentioned above is a great way to
do it. The majority of people use at least one or more of these social media platforms to gather information
on the latest dance craze (TikTok), to watch a dance class or participate in one (YouTube), or just simply to
be entertained without having to attend a dance concert or performance in person. Social Media has clearly
changed the way in which we have structured our lives, but more importantly, it has created a generation of
quicker accessibility to advertise, promote, and create dance on a much larger scale than ever before.
238 | CURRENT TRENDS

Dance Hybrids:
One way that dance teachers, studios, choreographers, and dance companies are surviving the changing times is
by making the crossover to a hybrid model. They might teach in person or on the internet. Instead of a studio,
they use a phone or tablet in their living room. They might create asynchronous material and sell the same class
on-demand over and over. Or, a dance company might offer a workshop or performance for online viewing
for a small fee. It is called omnichannel or integrated marketing, “a marketing approach that provides your
customers with integrated shopping experiences, such as by providing a seamless experience between desktop,
mobile, and brick-and-mortar.” In order to survive, dance entrepreneurs have to be flexible and create hybrid
forms to deliver their dance content to the public.

Louisiana Connection

Helanius J. Wilkins, a native of Lafayette,

Louisiana, is an award-winning choreographer,
performance artist, innovator, and educator.
Rooted in the interconnections of American
contemporary performance, cultural history,
and identities of Black men, Wilkins creative
Fig 2. Helanius J. Wilkins. Photography by Christopher research investigates the raced dancing body
Michael Carruth © 2019 Used with Permission
and the ways that ritual can access forms of
knowledge. Intrigued by ideas about
indeterminacy, he approaches performance-making and pedagogy as a means of re-framing
perspectives, creative practices, linking the arts and social justice, and blurring the lines between
performer and audience. As a choreographer for stage and as a filmmaker, he draws inspiration
from his upbringing in Lafayette, LA, one shaped by resilience, and his identity as a Black American
to create original works that allow for moments of recognition and transformation. In his inter
media collaborations he works with artists from a wide range of disciplines, including film, video,
and design.
CURRENT TRENDS | 239

Grounded in a belief that embodied practices give us ways of knowing ourselves and our
communities: Dance, for Wilkins, becomes a vehicle for understanding complex issues
around race, culture, and inclusivity. He embraces the fullness of his identity, including his
Creole heritage and being a Lafayette, LA native as rich resources for defining an
“American identity” shaped by hybridity, resilience and co-existence.

https://www.helaniusj.com/

Remote Work:
At the start of the pandemic in 2020, dance classes went online. Students used Zoom or other virtual mediums
to continue their training. Teachers equipped themselves with microphones and learned how to present class
online. Students found a space at home where they could dance. Thus, a new way to learn dance has opened
up, making it possible to study all forms of dance with teachers around the world. A lot of dance class videos
can be found on YouTube, Vimeo and Twitch. In addition, dance teachers, companies, and organizations offer
live fee-based virtual classes for anyone to take.

Technology:
The use of technology in the 21st century has been difficult to remove dance from it. It is so prevalent that
almost all forms of auditions for scholarships, dance companies, dance lines, and even dance studios will
require an uploaded video of your dance presentation. It has been made possible through technology for
the dancer to develop their artistry with various technological outlets to express themselves on a larger and
definitely a much more creative scale. The effects are limitless. Lighting, costuming, and special effects, along
with great editing techniques can make a dance performance or show very impressive and truly grab hold of a
viewing audience.
240 | CURRENT TRENDS

Screendance:
Screendance combines dance and filmmaking to create a cinematic experience. Screendance focuses on the
“dancing body as the primary subject of creative expression” (ACDA). The movements created are explicitly
devised with the camera in mind, and the camera captures the performance and directs the viewers’ eyes.
Through various editing techniques, the dance is further manipulated to bring an element of storytelling.
Close-ups of the dancers can provide a sense of intimacy, while speeding the time of a frame can give a sense of
urgency. Today, several dance film festivals occur worldwide, offering a platform for artists to share their works.

Watch This

The San Francisco Dance Film Festival trailer.

The Tik-Tok Era:

TikTok has become a viral social media platform in the 21st century, providing a way for people to create
and share dances. However, the app launched in 2016 became popular during the quarantine period of the
pandemic. People began participating in dance-challenge videos, learning short routines set to popular songs
and reposting. The dances used on the app have become dance crazes featuring hip-hop-inspired movements,
like the Dougie and the Dice Roll and Throw. TikTok dances are based on the premise that “everyone can do
it,” with movements being repetitive, “recognizable and easily reproducible” (Burke). This has allowed people
to come together to learn the dances providing a social aspect. It has also offered a space to connect with
CURRENT TRENDS | 241

people worldwide by enabling users to follow each other, share and download content, and make comments.
Popular TikTok users who have gone viral may have financial opportunities with companies endorsing them
to promote their products. Although TikTok has become an accessible way for people to engage with dance,
issues concerning choreography and intellectual copyrights have become increasingly important in protecting
artists’ work.

Contextual Connections

https://www.dancemagazine.com/popular-tiktok-dances/

Additional Trends:

The Trend of Dance as Competition

Prior to the twentieth century, most dance was a social activity or was performance based. Dance as a
competitive sport is fairly new. Competition dance today is a lucrative business for traveling dance competition
companies. It is a widespread sport in which competitive teams from different dance studios or schools
perform in styles such as tap, jazz, ballet, modern, lyrical, contemporary, hip hop, acro, and musical theater
before a common group of judges. Dance competition events bring dancers together to showcase their talents,
receive feedback from judges, and compete to earn recognition, typically by awards. The number of national
competitions has ballooned into the hundreds since the 1980s. For individual competitors, the costs can easily
top $1,000 per month.
In 2005, a dance competition reality show called “So You Think You Can Dance” premiered and spurred
a number of dance-themed competition reality shows such as “Dance Moms,” “Dancing With the Stars” and
“World of Dance.” Shows like this were highly influential in both the dance industry and with aspiring dancers
as well.
Dance as competition has changed the way many young dancers see dance. Dance as an art form or for
personal expression is not as valued in the competition world which stresses dazzling technical feats, group
242 | CURRENT TRENDS

precision, high energy, and over the top facial expressions to catch the eye of the judges. It is not until these
dancers enter a college dance program or begin to audition for professional concert dance companies that they
begin to understand the complexities of dance aesthetics. Fortunately, there seems to be a trend merging the
two seemingly opposite camps. Dancers who understand the commercial world as well as the concert world
and who are trained in a wide variety of styles are increasingly sought after by film directors, music artists, TV
productions, Broadway shows, as well as by professional dance companies.

Dance Health and Wellness

Dance is beneficial to our health and fitness. The exercise it provides leads to a strong and toned body, the
endorphins it releases contribute to an improved mental outlook, and the socialization of shared dancing offers
us support and community. Public dance classes are available in traditional genres. In addition, new hybrid
dance classes aimed specifically at fitness have developed. Zumba uses salsa steps and rhythms in a dance class
of non-stop movement. Jazzercise is a dance franchise that uses jazz dance in its fitness program. Other dance
fitness trends emerge continually.
Around the globe there are organizations aimed at developing community dance programs. People Dancing,
a UK group, supports dance programs for all across the country, including therapeutic dance, like dance for
People with Parkinson’s. Similar programs exist world-wide including the US.

Dance and Movement Therapy

There are a variety of ways that dance and movement therapy can be used to enhance the quality of life among
people. The American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA) describes these techniques as “psychotherapeutic
use of movement to promote emotional, social, cognitive, and physical integration to improve a person’s
overall well-being (ADTA). Dance therapists work in a wide variety of settings, from hospitals, clinics,
rehabilitation centers, and drug treatment facilities to schools, nursing homes, community centers, and
prisons. They can also work as freelancers or by founding private practices.

Contextual Connections
CURRENT TRENDS | 243

https://www.headway.org.uk/about-brain-injury/individuals/brain-injury-and-me/dancing-after-
brain-injury/

An article in Headway, a journal for brain injury, quoted research fellow, Dr Gemma-Collard Stokes.
She said, “What we have in dance is a uniquely rich sensorial experience that combines physical,
cognitive and socially stimulating activities…“Stimulating our sensory systems through dance can
assist in the process of rebuilding the pathways between cognition and our motor skills…”

https://www.dancemagazine.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-becoming-a-dance-
therapist/

Watch This

Dance/Movement Therapy Video

Dance for Parkinson’s Disease

Parkinson’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that affects a person’s ability to move, causing
freezing, unintended, or uncontrollable movement of the muscles. Several programs offer specialized classes to
aid people with Parkinson’s, helping to improve aspects such as balance, flexibility, coordination, and forming
a mind-body connection.
Dance for Parkinson’s classes empower participants to explore movement and music in ways that are
stimulating, refreshing and creative. The classes are designed for people with PD and their companions,
offering a fun and creative outlet to them in the form of dance.
The Dance for PD® program was developed and implemented by the Mark Morris Dance Group of
Brooklyn, NY. Dance for PD is internationally active and acknowledged as an effective way to manage
symptoms of Parkinson’s through movement, music, imagery, and socialization. Extensive information on the
program and its effectiveness, along with scientific research to support the work, can be found on the Dance
for PD website. People suffering from other complaints like neuropathy, dementia, and traumatic brain injury
also find benefit in attending these dance classes.

Watch This

Meet members of Brooklyn’s flagship Dance for PD® class and learn why the program has become
such an important part of their lives–and why you belong here too.

People Dancing is “the UK development organization and membership body for community and
CURRENT TRENDS | 245

participatory dance.” They promote dance as a fun and healthy activity for all people by engaging “the general
public in creating and performing dance with friends and families.”

National and Global Dance Initiatives

Through various initiatives, national and global dance events have allowed people to connect to the broader
dance community. These events include celebrating dance as an art form, honoring dance artists, fundraising,
and spreading awareness on important issues.

• International Dance Day was established in 1982 by The Dance Committee of the International
Theatre Institute (ITI). This event occurs annually on April 29, the birth date of Jean-Georges Noverre,
in honor of his early contributions to ballet. International Dance Day aims to promote dance worldwide
to heighten awareness and value in society.
• In the United States, National Dance Day celebrates all dance forms and is held on the third Saturday in
September. Established in 2010 by Nigel Lythgoe and Adam Shankman of the dance competition show
So You Think You Can Dance, with support from American congresswoman Eleanor Holmes. Every
year, the Dizzy Feet Foundation creates a dance tutorial and uploads it online, encouraging people to
learn the movement to support dance’s artistic expression and health benefits.
• Global Water Dances emerged from a 2008 Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies (LIMS)
conference, addressing the theme “Dance and the Environment.” In 2011, Global Water Dances held its
first event with 57 locations over 24 hours. Participants join a Movement Choir, “events that use
community dance to create social cohesion through non-verbal communication,” dancing near a body
of water to address local water issues for environmental and social change (Global Water Dances).
• National Water Dance is held annually, using dance as a platform for social change. Advocating for
awareness of water-related environmental issues in participants’ respective geographic areas, like
cleanliness, accessibility, and sustainability. Through the medium of dance and site-specific performance,
participants begin their dance with the same opening and beginning movements to acknowledge the
“shared movements link all of us together, which is the spirit and power of a movement choir” from
National Water Dance Project (NWDP). Performances are held virtually, and all are invited to
participate.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)

The concepts of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion emerged in response to the 1960s civil rights movement as
246 | CURRENT TRENDS

people of color protested for fair treatment as citizens. Social changes began in education and workplaces to
increase awareness and respect for racial differences. In a society encompassing people of varying backgrounds,
consideration of diversity to include representation of people came underway to embrace individual
differences. This led to the implementation of creating equity, equal opportunities and resources for all
persons, and inclusion to ensure people feel valued. In recent years, issues surrounding Diversity, Equity, and
Inclusion (DEI) have surfaced in the dance field. Historically, dance has drawn from Euro-centric values and
traditions that have caused barriers in the profession in areas like hiring and casting. Discriminatory factors
of ethnicity, race, gender, age, body weight, sexuality, or disability have left dancers marginalized in the dance
profession. Today, dance artists and educators strive to increase awareness of these issues to improve all realms
of DEI.

Summary
There is no doubt that the world of dance has been changing rapidly and will continue to adapt in response
to new circumstances in our social, political, economic situations as well as with advancements in technology.
Dance and technology have partnered to create new ways of choreographing, performing, teaching, and
dancing. Dancers around the world are more connected than ever before and this sharing means that the dance
community is more diverse and inclusive than ever. Whether it’s through Zoom, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter,
YouTube, Twitch, Vimeo, TikTok, Pinterest, Reddit, Tumblr, or a new app that’s yet to be invented, dancers
will continue to share their passion for the artform and to explore new ideas inspired by what they see.
National and global dance events have also allowed people to connect to the broader dance community. The
world is learning that dance is not just fun, but beneficial to our health and fitness. The exercise it provides
leads to a strong and toned body, the endorphins it releases contribute to an improved mental outlook, and the
socialization of shared dancing offers us support and community.

References
Roque, Noel. “5 Trends That Will Change the Future of Dance.” worlddancegroup.com. Accessed July 28,
2022. https://worlddancegroup.com/blog/f/5-trends-the-will-change-the-dance-industry.
National Water Dance Project. Dancing Out of Time. Facebook, 25, January 2022, Accessed 7, June 2022.
https://www.proquest.com/openview/34554a3e2e38a343aad969f155e90851/1?pq-
origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y
“Parkinson’s Disease: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatments.” National Institute on Aging. U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services. Accessed June 2, 2022. https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/parkinsons-disease .
“Jazzercise.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, May 21, 2022. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazzercise.
CURRENT TRENDS | 247

“Zumba.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, May 30, 2022. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zumba.

Johnson, Ali. “Copyrighting Tiktok Dances: Choreography in the Internet Age.” UW Law Digital
Commons. Accessed June 4, 2022. https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/wlr/vol96/iss3/12/.
Burke, Siobhan. “What Makes a Tiktok Dance Go Viral?” Dance Magazine, December 22, 2021.
https://www.dancemagazine.com/popular-tiktok-dances/.
“International Dance Day – April 29.” National Today, August 5, 2021. https://nationaltoday.com/
international-dance-day/.
“National Dance Day.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, October 5, 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/National_Dance_Day.
Admin. “National Dance Day.” American Dance Movement, January 6, 2022.
http://americandancemovement.org/national-dance-day/.
“Home.” Global Water Dances. Accessed June 7, 2022. https://globalwaterdances.org/about/.
“About.” NDEO. Accessed June 7, 2022. https://www.ndeo.org/About/Thank-A-Dance-Teacher-Day.
Love, Alexandria. “When Did We Add the ‘Equity’ to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion?” Berrett-Koehler
Publishers Blog. Accessed June 15, 2022. https://ideas.bkconnection.com/when-did-we-add-the-equity-to-
diversity-equity-and-inclusion.
“Project PLIE – ABT: Membership & Support.” ABT. Accessed June 14, 2022. https://support.abt.org/
projectplie.
Schupp, K. (2016). Dance Competition Culture and Capitalism. Congress on Research in Dance
Conference Proceedings, 2016, 361-368. doi:10.1017/cor.2016.48
Friscia, Suzannah. “Is the Line between Concert and Commercial Dance Finally Fading?” Dance Magazine,
December 9, 2021. https://www.dancemagazine.com/concert-dance-vs-commercial-dance/.
248 | SUMMARY

SUMMARY

Summary from Chapter 1: Overview

People have different ideas about how to define dance. One way to understand dance is to analyze its movement
elements: body, energy, space, and time. We can also study dance in terms of its purpose. Religious dances serve
to imitate animals or natural elements, to achieve healing, to commemorate an occasion, or to reach spiritual
connection. Social dances can serve in courtship, to find unity in work, unity in war, or camaraderie in the
community. Performance dance is created and practiced for presentation to an audience. Western performance
dance forms that have developed include ballet, modern, tap, jazz, musical theater, and hip hop. Protest dance
can be created to effect social change. One’s dance aesthetic is shaped and influenced by numerous factors.
Family, media, personal response, and kinesthetic response are all contributors to a personal aesthetic.

Summary from Chapter 2: Elements of Dance

All dance forms share foundational concepts known as the Elements of Dance. The Elements of Dance are
overarching concepts and terminology that are useful when observing, creating, analyzing, and discussing
dance. Dance can be broken down into its primary elements : Body, Energy, Space, and Time. It can be easily
recalled through the acronym B.E.S.T.
The Body is the mobile instrument of the dancer and helps inform us what is moving. The Body category
includes shapes, actions, whole body, and part body movements. Energy is how the body moves. When
speaking about energy, we can refer to effort or movement qualities. Space is where movement occurs and
includes personal and general space, levels, directions, pathways and floor patterns, various sizes of movements,
range of movement, and relationships. Time is when the dancers move. The Time category includes pulse,
speed, rhythmic patterns, natural rhythm, and syncopation.
As an observer of dance, it can be easy to allow our biases to influence how we perceive dance. By using
dance vocabulary and stating what we observe, we can be more objective in our discussions of dance. Using the
Elements of Dance, we can view dance through an unbiased lens to consider its structural elements to deepen
our understanding and appreciation of dance as an art form.
SUMMARY | 249

Summary from Chapter 3: Ballet

Ballet is a Western classical dance form with a rich history—beginning in the Renaissance as a royal court
entertainment infused with social and political purposes, eventually developing into a codified technique. Over
time, ballet transformed, experiencing costume changes in the Enlightenment that led to dancers being able to
express themselves without being confined to restrictive clothing. In the Romantic era, ballet d’action emerged,
emphasizing emotions over logic to help communicate the ballet’s story. There were also technical elements
such as flying machines that gave the impression of dancers floating onstage. The unique theater effects led to
female dancers beginning to dance en pointe. During the Classical period, Russia became the leader of ballet,
with government support to establish ballet schools. Ballet shifted in pursuit of virtuosity, demanding greater
technique from dancers. The Ballet Russes made a significant impact by modernizing ballets, bringing ballet to
other world regions, helping establish ballet in America, and a new ballet style was formed, neoclassical. Today,
choreographers challenge the ballet traditions and embrace various dance genres to blend with ballet, known
as contemporary dance.

Summary for Chapter 4: Modern

Modern Dance emerged as a contrast or rejection of the rigid constraints of Ballet. From individual free
expressions to Contemporary Modern Dance, just like its beginnings, Modern Dance is forever changing.
Today, combining unifying elements of other genres of dance (African, Ballet, Jazz, Hip-Hop), Modern Dance
is interested in the communication of emotional experiences, through basic and uninhibited movement.
Currently, through all of its variations, it has become whatever the choreographer would like it to be according
to the artist’s background, teachings, technique, style, and imagination. Because it is so personal and
individualistic, this artform will remain popular and viable for years to come.

Summary for Chapter 5: Tap, Jazz, Musical Theater

From their early rhythmic roots in Africa, to the transformations imposed by slavery, Jazz and Tap dance grew
into some of the first uniquely American performance styles. As the country changed, adding immigrants from
Europe, the Middle East, the Caribbean, South America, Ireland, Spain, and France, social dances absorbed
all these flavors and produced exciting new blended forms in early Tap and Jazz. We see these performing art
dance forms evolve through early Minstrel shows to Vaudeville to nightclub entertainment to Broadway and
Hollywood musicals. The Musical Theater style was designed to further the storyline of a musical production
and help in character development with exaggerated to reach the audience in large theaters. Eventually movies
250 | SUMMARY

and television gave these dance forms more worldwide attention. With today’s computer technology outlets,
Tap, Jazz, and Musical Theater dance remains viable, evolving, and essential.

Summary for Chapter 6: Religious and Social Dance

Religious dance is the use of dance in spiritual ceremonies and rituals, present in most religions throughout
history and prehistory. Its connection with the human body and fertility has caused it to be forbidden by some
religions. The social institution of dance provides an arena for people to communicate with each other through
the use of non-verbal and culturally acceptable movements and gestures. Social dances have a social function
and are participation oriented rather than performance.

Summary for Chapter 7: Hip-Hop

Hip-Hop is an energetic dance form that includes several sub-genres. Breaking, locking, and popping are the
authentic forms of hip-hop dance created by marginalized African American and Latinx youth during the
1970s in response to socio-economic conditions. Hip-Hop gained media attention in the 1980s, appearing
on television, music videos, and in movies. By the 1990s, Hip-Hop culture was popularized alongside rap
music. Today, hip-hop dance forms continue evolving and blending with other styles that may use codified
techniques. Through its progression, it is important to remember that hip-hop’s root lies in a cultural
expression and lifestyle informed by shared living experiences.

Summary for Chapter 8: Current Trends

Dance has gained popularity through the lucrative business of dance competitions. Studios enter their
students/dances into categories of age, dance style, and group size to compete with other dance studios.
Dancers are judged by their technical merits. The top-scoring dancers can receive prizes. In this respect, dance
as competition can be viewed as a competitive sport. It is important to differentiate this type of dance from
non-competitive or concert dance that seeks to promote dance as an art form for personal expression rather
than technical excellence.
Dance is used in various settings to promote health. Emphasis is given to improving people’s physical,
cognitive, social, and emotional well-being. Today, fitness classes use dance-inspired movement to exercise
while creating a fun and social environment for participants. Dance is also used in therapy and therapeutic
settings to enhance people’s quality of life.
National and global dance events have connected people to the greater dance community. These initiatives
SUMMARY | 251

seek ways to celebrate dance as an art form, honoring dance artists, fundraising, and spreading awareness on
important issues.
Living in a multicultural world, embracing and celebrating the individual differences that make us unique
is essential. Historically, dance has been rooted in Euro-centric values and traditions that have caused barriers
in the profession. Dance educators, scholars, and artists are using their platforms to support Diversity, Equity,
and Inclusion (DEI) in the dance field.
252 | SUMMARY
APPENDIX A | 253
254 | APPENDIX A

Glossary Terms
APPENDIX A | 255

Académie Royal de Musique et Danse

Adagio is slow and sustained movements that focus on strength,

balance, and control.

Apollonian: An artistic style of balance, light, serenity. This is an

eponym for the Greek god of light, dance, and knowledge, Apollo.

Asymmetrical body designs use different shapes from one side of

the body to the other, creating an unbalanced look.

Ballet a entrée describes a series of independent episodes linked by a

common theme.

Ballet blanc or “white ballet” refers to the corps de ballet wearing

white tutus or dresses, typically representing supernatural characters.

Ballet Comique de la Reine is the first recognized ballet.

Ballet d’action or dramatic ballets rely purely on movement without

the aid of speech or songs to convey the story.
Ballet de cour (court ballet) featured independent acts of dancing,
music, and poetry unified by overarching themes. Court ballets
adhered to principles of hierarchy that mirrored status in the royal
courts.
Ballet Master describes a person who instructs ballet classes for a
ballet company and assists in the rehearsals for performances.
Barre is a stationary handrail that supports dancers to hold while
working on balance, allowing them to focus on placement and
alignment and coordination to prepare for center combinations.

Body: The body is the dancer’s instrument of expression and is the

first element of dance. The Body is the mobile instrument of the
dancer and helps inform us what is moving.

Boogaloo-uses a fluid upper body movement to give the illusion of

the body not having bones
Breaking-a style of street dancing that incorporates coordination,
acrobatic and intricate body movements, style, and aesthetics.

Broadway tap: This style combines both traditional tap dancing

with musical theater style dancing. There is an emphasis on using the
upper body and arms, not just the feet. Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire
exemplified this style.

Burns-while in a line, dancers will use hand gestures mimicking

weaponry

Cajun Two-Step: A partner dance done to Cajun music consisting

of two steps to one side, then two steps to the other.
256 | APPENDIX A

Cakewalk: The cakewalk was a pre-Civil War dance originally

performed by slaves on as a competitive dance. It was an exaggerated
parody created by the slaves to imitate the upper-class mannerisms of
their white plantation owners. Since the prize for this competition
was an elaborately decorated cake, it is the source for the phrase
“takes the cake.”

Castle Walk: Developed by Vernon and Irene Castle, the Castle

Walk is a smooth walking step of direct advance and retreat with the
couple in a closed position.

Character dances are folk dances that depict various cultures to

show national identity.

Charleston: Popular in the 1920’s, its origins are believed to be from

dances in Trinidad, Nigeria, and Ghana. It came to be synonymous
with The Roaring Twenties.

Cipher-circle formation of people, where individual breakers take

turns dancing
Classical Ballets are a ballet style established in the 19th century that
uses formalized ballet vocabulary.
Classical Dance forms are structured, and stylized techniques
developed and evolved throughout centuries requiring rigorous
formal training.

Clowning-energetic and humorous dance moves adapted from

various urban dance forms
Codified Technique describes dance forms that are ordered
systematically.
Collapsed is a release of energy from the body.

Comique are exaggerated, caricatured characters.

Competition-solo or groups of dancers battle or perform against
other soloist or group performers
Contact improvisation, developed by Steve Paxton, is based on
weight-sharing, touch, and movement awareness often paired with
pedestrian movement.

Contemporary ballet is a dance genre that uses classical techniques

(French terminology) that choreographers manipulate and blend
with other dance forms.

Contemporary dance is an expansive term meaning current, what’s

happening now. It is a broader, more individualistic, expressive style
of dance.

Contract and Release is a technique developed by Martha

Graham to show movement that initiates by tightening the body’s
core muscles followed by a release of tension.
APPENDIX A | 257

Corps de ballet refers to the lowest-ranking members of a ballet

company. These ensemble dancers perform unison movements and
act as a backdrop that helps feature the principal dancers and soloists.

Creativity-the use of the imagination or original ideas, especially in

the production of an artistic work

Dance crew– describes a group of street dancers who develop and

hone their skills to battle other crews.

Dance notation uses symbolic representation to document

choreographed dances.

Danse d’ecole is a French term, referring to dance schools founded

on the principles led by Beauchamps.

Danse Noble are characters in ballets that display a regal presentation

suitable for roles of royalty.

Deejays-better known as DJ’s, plays music at parties

Demi-charactere portray lively, everyday people; “the girl next

door.”

Dionysian: An artistic style of passion, emotion, and abandon. This

is an eponym for the Greek god of wine, Dionysus.

Directions describe the facing of a performer as they dance or pose.

It can be forward, backward, right, left, up, down, or they can also
change directions by turning.
Divertissements or diversions are short dances incorporated in
ballets that aren’t directly related to the story.
Downrock-weight-bearing movement performed on the floor, where
the dancers support their body with their hands and feet.
Efforts are a term coined by dancer and movement analyst Rudolf
Laban to describe the Movement Qualities or Energy of movement.
Emcees-pumps up the crowd at parties

En pointe describes the action of dancers rising to the tips of the

toes.

Energy: The element of Energy is an exploration of how a movement

is done rather than what it is, and gives us a richer sense of dance as an
expressive art. When speaking about energy, we can refer to effort or
movement qualities.

Fall and Recovery is the process of surrendering to gravity and

returning to equilibrium, a technique originated by Doris
Humphrey.
Five Moons references the five Native American dancers who were
foundational in the development of Oklahoma dance institutions.
258 | APPENDIX A

Flamenco: a courtship dance which mingled the southern Spaniards

and the Romani people who settled there. It is a vigorous, rhythmic
dance with percussive beats clapped or stamped.

Flash tap: Sometimes called swing tap or classical tap, flash tap
consists of a combination of jazz dance and acrobatics. The Nicholas
Brothers were great examples of this style.

Floor work refers to movements performed on the floor. It is often

used in Modern dance technique.

Foxtrot: Popular in the early 1900’s, the foxtrot was a smooth simple
ballroom dance done in 2/4 or 4/4 time signature.

Freestyle-is based on improvisation rather than the choreography

seen in other dance varieties

Freeze-a held position consists of the breaker halting the body from
movement to achieve a challenging body pose

Funk tap: This is a younger, contemporary tap form which

combines both hip hop and funk. Savion Glover created this new
form of tap.
General Space is the defined space in which the dancer can move.

Graffiti-writing or drawings scribbled, scratched, or sprayed illicitly

on a wall or other surface in a public place

Grand Allegro contains vigorous movement, such as large jumps,

hops, and leaps.

Grand pas de deux refers to a duet for the principal dancers. The
grand pas de deux has four sections: adagio, man’s variation, woman’s
variation, and coda.
Gypsy: This the term for a Broadway dancer who is a member of the
chorus or ensemble, and who frequently travels from show to one
show to the next.
Hambone: The hambone was originally known as Pattin’ Juba,
hambone is an African-American style of dance that involves
stomping as well as various types of body percussion.

Harlem Renaissance: an intellectual and cultural revival of African

American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics and
scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City,
spanning the 1920s and 1930s.

Hip-Hop Dance posture-bending forward from the waist with the

knees bent and the spine slightly curved

Hip-hop-an umbrella term that includes several dance styles that are
highly energetic and acrobatic
Hiplet is a fusion of ballet movement and hip-hop.
APPENDIX A | 259

Hoofing: Hoofing means dancing into the floor with emphasis

placed on stomps and stamps in addition to rhythmic percussion of
the sounds, music, and syncopations. Gregory Hines made this style
of tap popular.

Hora: a round dance that is danced at celebrations by Jews

world-wide.

Improvisation-the process of spontaneously creating movement

Indigenous: First peoples; the earliest known inhabitants of a region.

Individuality-the quality or character of a person that stands out

from others of the same kind

Isolations: Often done as a warmup in a jazz class, isolations involve

moving only one part of the body while holding the rest of the body
still.

Jazz dance: Jazz dance is a performance dance style that arose in the
United States in the mid 20th century. Jazz dance had its roots in
African dance and can refer to social dance forms of jazz as well as
Broadway or dramatic jazz.
Jerks-sudden body movements

Kinesphere is the immediate area surrounding the body and is

described as a three-dimensional volume of space.

Krumping-rapid, exaggerated movements of the arms and legs; these

movements are done aggressively

Latinx Hip-Hop influences– introduced acrobatic moves like head

spins and hand glides

Levels describe the various heights movement can occur in space.

LGBTQIA+ is an abbreviation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,
Transgender, Questioning and/or Queer, Intersex, and Asexual.
Lindy Hop: The Lindy Hop is a type of Swing Dance that
originated in the African American New York dance scene in 1928
and was inspired by aviator Charles Lindbergh who ‘hopped’ the
Atlantic Ocean in 1927.

Locking-briefly freezing movement into a held position before

continuing

Locomotor movements are movements that travel in space.

Minstrel show: This was a show which included songs, dance,

variety acts, and jokes that came at the expense of African Americans,
as white men in blackface appropriated Black culture by
inappropriately mimicking and mischaracterizing African
Americans. It developed in the US in the early and mid 19th century
and was widely performed until the mid 20th century but is now
regarded as highly offensive.
260 | APPENDIX A

Modern Dance refers to a style of dance which broke away from old
world ballet and developed an original abstract modern point of view.

Movement Qualities are energy released during various time spans to

portray distinct qualities.

Musical Theater: Musical theater is less of a single dance style and

more of a purpose for which dance is used in a musical production.
The dancing is designed to further the storyline of a musical
production and help in character development. The movements are
often exaggerated to reach the audience in large theaters.
Natural Rhythms are timing that comes from the rhythms of the
breath, the heartbeat, or natural sources like the wind or the ocean.
Negative Space is the empty area around the dancers’ bodies.

Neoclassical ballets utilize traditional ballet vocabulary, but pieces

are often abstract and have no narrative.

Nonlocomotor movements are those performed in place.

Originality-power of independent thought or constructive

imagination

Pantomime uses movement and gestures to convey meaning and aid

in narrating the story of a ballet.
Pantomime-any of various dramatic or dancing performances in
which a story is told by expressive bodily or facial movements of the
performers

Party dances-social dance movements incorporated with hip-hop

dance moves

Pathways are sometimes called Floor Patterns and describe where the
dancer goes through space, i.e., curved, straight, circular, diagonal,
etc.

Pedestrian movement uses basic movement (everyday gestures or

actions such as walking, sitting, opening a door).

Percussion-refers to movements that are performed in a sudden,

abrupt or sharp way. They have a strong quality as the dancer
produces staccato like moves with their body.

Percussive movements use sharp, sudden, or abrupt movements

that give a strong quality

Percussive: refers to movements that are performed in a sudden,

abrupt or sharp way. They have a strong quality as the dancer
produces staccato like moves with their body.
Personal Space is the space around the dancer’s body

Petit Allegro are small, brisk jumps that emphasize speed and
precision.
APPENDIX A | 261

Polycentrism-is the idea that movement can initiate from any part of
the body

Polyrhythm-a polyrhythm refers to two or more rhythms within a

tempo. Polyrhythmic patterns are featured in African dance, music,
and drumming

Polyrhythmic: a polyrhythm refers to two or more rhythms within a

tempo. Polyrhythmic patterns are featured in African dance, music,
and drumming.

Popping-involves contracting and releasing the muscles to cause a

jerking effect. These actions produce a robotic-like quality.

Positive Space is the area of space the dancers’ bodies occupy.

Postmodern dance broke away from modern technique and used

pedestrian movement and unconventional performing spaces with
both skilled and unskilled dancers.

Pow Wow: A yearly gathering of Native American tribes at a great

social event that features music, dance, food, crafts and a sharing of
culture.
Power moves-physically demanding acrobatic moves requiring
strength and endurance
Principal dancers are the highest rank in companies. They have
leading roles and are the primary focus of ballets.
Proscenium refers to a stage with a frame or arch.

Pulse is the basic pulse or underlying beat of movement and/or

music.

Range of motion refers to how much or how little personal space is

used when dancing or posing.

Relationship refers to the proximity of the dancer to others or to

objects in the dance space (in front, behind, over, under, connected,
apart).

Rhythm tap: In rhythm tap the shoes themselves are

instruments.Sounds are made by striking the heel, toe, or whole foot.
It is often performed with no musical accompaniment. John W.
Bubbles was known for this tap style.

Rhythmic Patterns are the musical grouping of long or short beats,

accents, or silences.

Romantic Ballets references a ballet style from the early 19th

century that emphasized self-expression and emotions.
Samba: A courtship dance from Brazil, it became popular in western
Europe and the United States in the early 1940s. It is danced to music
in 4/4 time signature with syncopated rhythm.
262 | APPENDIX A

Soft shoe: Soft shoe is a form of tap dancing that does not require
special shoes. Rhythms can be made by tapping of the feet or sliding
the feet, sometimes using scattered sand on the stage to enhance the
sound. Clayton “Peg Leg” Bates made this style popular although
Minstrel George H. Primrose began doing this style in his shows.

Soloists are ranked in the middle and have minor roles to perform
solos.
Space: The element of Space refers to where movement occurs and
includes personal and general space, levels, directions, pathways and
floor patterns, various sizes of movements, range of movement, and
relationships.

Speed or also known as tempo, describes the pace of the music or

movement.

Spirituality– the fastest, most direct route to the truth; the get
down and personal kind, the what’s-happening-in-me-right-now
kind of truth
Square Dance: an American courtship dance with four couples in a
square.
Stepping-a complex synchronized dancelike performance that blends
African folk traditions with popular culture. It involves clapping,
body slapping, vocalizations, and dramatic movements.

Stylization-the qualities in which a dance genre is performed

Suspended movements occur at the peak of a movement defying
gravity before succumbing to it.

Sustained movements occur continuously, creating a smooth and

even motion.

Swing Dance: Swing dance refers to a number of energetic,

fast-paced social dances that developed with the swing style of jazz
music in the 1920-1950s.

Swinging movements have a pendular or circular-like quality.

Symmetrical refers to body designs that use the same shape on both
sides of the body, creating balance.

Synchronization: the coordination of events to operate a system in

unison.

Syncopation: Syncopation is the accenting of a note which would

usually not be accented. It is often described as being off beat. The
time signature of a piece of music has a regular pattern of strong and
weak beats. A syncopated rhythm goes against this pattern by putting
the accent on weak beats.

Tango: A courtship dance from Argentina, its movement is stealthy,

almost cat-like and has an unmistakable staccato feel and major
dramatic attitude.
APPENDIX A | 263

Tap dance: Tap is a dance form that is performed wearing shoes

fitted with metal taps, characterized by rhythmical tapping of the toes
and heels.

Terpsichore: The Greek muse of dance.

Thespian: An actor. This is an eponym for the Ancient Greek

credited as the first actor.

Time: The element of Time refers to when the dancers move and
how the movement uses time. The Time category includes pulse,
speed, rhythmic patterns, natural rhythm, and syncopation.

Toprock-movement that is performed from a standing position;

quick, percussive footwork paired with a relaxed upper body

Turnout is an outward rotation of the legs in the hip socket.

Twist: A popular dance craze from the 1960’s that involves swiveling
one’s hips. It is believed to have its roots in African dance.

Uprock-a precursor to breaking; an urban street dance with

opposing dancers or crews facing off in a line formation

Vaudeville: A Vaudeville show was a type of entertainment popular

chiefly in the US in the early 20th century, featuring a mixture of
specialty acts such as burlesque comedy and song and dance.
Vibratory movements use rapid and repeated bursts of energy.

Vocalization– syllables in a series produced with prosodically

coherent contours, as required by the logic of the dance moves

Waacking-uses striking arm movements, poses, and footwork; the

emphasis is the expression

Waltz: a courtship dance that was developed in the courts of Europe.

The waltz is performed in a 3/4 time signature, by a couple who turns
rhythmically around the dance floor in an elegant motion.
Zydeco: An energetic partner dance done to zydeco music. It has
elements of swing dance, with each couple adding their own flair to
the dance.
264 | APPENDIX B: CHECKLIST FOR ACCESSIBILITY

APPENDIX B: CHECKLIST FOR

ACCESSIBILITY

Organizing Content
• Content is organized under headings and subheadings.
• Headings and subheadings are used sequentially (e.g., Heading 1, Heading 2).

Images
• Images that convey information include alternative text (alt text) descriptions of the image’s content or
function.
• Graphs, charts, and maps also include contextual or supporting details in the text surrounding the
image.
• Images do not rely on color to convey information.
• Images that are purely decorative do not have alt text descriptions. (Descriptive text is unnecessary if the
image doesn’t convey contextual content information).

Links
• The link text describes the destination of the link and does not use generic text such as “click here” or
“read more.”
• If a link will open or download a file (like a PDF or Excel file), a textual reference is included in the link
information (e.g., [PDF]).
• Links do not open in new windows or tabs.
• If a link must open in a new window or tab, a textual reference is included in the link information (e.g.,
[NewTab]).
• For citations and references, the title of the resource is hyperlinked, and the full URL is not hyperlinked.

Tables
• Tables are used to structure information and not for layout.
APPENDIX B: CHECKLIST FOR ACCESSIBILITY | 265

• Tables include row and column headers.

• Row and column headers have the correct scope assigned.
• Tables include a caption.
• Tables avoid merged or split cells.
• Tables have adequate cell padding.

Multimedia
• All audio content includes a transcript. The transcript includes all speech content and relevant
descriptions of non-speech audio and speaker names/headings where necessary.
• Videos have captions of all speech content and relevant non-speech content that has been edited by a
human for accuracy..
• All videos with contextual visuals (graphs, charts, etc.) are described audibly in the video.

Formulas
• Equations written in plain text use proper symbols (i.e., −, ×, ÷).1
• For complex equations, one of the following is true:
◦ They were written using LaTeX and are rendered with MathJax (Pressbooks).
◦ They were written using Microsoft Word’s equation editor.
◦ They are presented as images with alternative text descriptions.
• Written equations are properly interpreted by text-to-speech tools.2

Font Size
• Font size is 12 point or higher for body text in Word and PDF documents.
• Font size is 9 point for footnotes or endnotes in Word and PDF documents.
• Font size can be enlarged by 200 percent in webbook or ebook formats without needing to scroll side to
side.

Learn more about Pressbooks’ commitment to Accessibility.

1. For example, a hyphen (-) may look like a minus sign (−), but it will not be read out correctly by text-to-speech tools.
2. Written equations should prioritize semantic markup over visual markup so text-to-speech tools will read out an equation in a way that makes
sense to auditory learners. This applies to both equations written in LaTeX and equations written in Microsoft Word’s equation editor.
266 | APPENDIX B: CHECKLIST FOR ACCESSIBILITY

“Checklist for Accessibility” by BCcampus is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

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