PHYSICAL
and contact. The origins of the dance are
EDUCATION AND
HEALTH 3
LESSON 1: BRIEF HISTORY
AND NATURE OF DANCE
DANCE
- Is an activity which can take many forms
and fill many different needs. It can be
recreation, entertainment, education,
therapy, and religion. In its purest and most
basic form, dance is art, the art of body
movement. (Barbara Mettler, 1980)
- Dance differs from athletics or other daily
activities because it focuses primarily on
“an aesthetic or even entertaining
experience” (Myers, 2005)
- Dance can be defined from various
perspective.
- Historically, it was described as “ a product
of the utmost intellectual effort, appraised
according to aesthetic criteria and
communicated meanings.” (Loutzaki, 2019)
WHY DO PEOPLE DANCE?
- According to Myers, 2005; Gronek, 2021
1. To please the gods
2. To please others
3. To please themselves - Self expression
4. To build community within an ethnic group -
Social Interaction
DO YOU KNOW WHERE DANCES COME
FROM?
- Dance can be seen among all the people
and civilizations of the world. Dances
thrived at different periods of history, and
most resulted from intellectual exchange
rooted in the prehistoric past. Various
artistic, religious, and social forces started
incorporating and developing dance.
(Alejandro & Santos-gana, 2002)
- Dance has been a significant form of
religious ritual and social expression within
primitive cultures. It was used to express
and reinforce tribal unity and strength, as
an approach to courtship and mating, and
as means of worship, communication, and
therapeutic experience. It was said that the
first use of dance was a gesture to
communicate. People from the prehistoric
era moved in ways they hope would
appease the forces of nature or give them
new powers of their own.
- Nevertheless, the dance during prehistoric
times have not yet been fully recorded.
During the pre-christian era, the actual
knowledge of dance came about within the
great mediterranean and middle eastern
civilizations. Dance became full-blown and
was richly recorded in ancient Egypt. It was
reflected in their wall paintings, reliefs, and
in the literary record in hieroglyphs. Most of
the dances in this era were chiefly a
medium of religious expression.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF DANCING?
- Dancing is one of the oldest and most
popular forms of exercise. Several forms of
dancing are considered aerobic since they
entail about an hour of “continuous
exercises, choreographed to music.”
1. PHYSICAL
● Develops cardiovascular and
muscular endurance
● Improves coordination, balance,
flexibility, and body composition
● Lowers risk of cardiovascular
diseases
● Lowers body mass index
● Lowers resting heart rate
● Improves lipid metabolism
● Enables joint mobility (hip motion
and spine flexibility)
 ●Helps improve and maintain bone
density, thus helping prevent
osteoporosis
● Helps recover coordination and
neuromuscular skills after injury
2. MENTAL/EMOTIONAL
● Helps keep brain sharp
● Decrease incidence of dementia
and Alzheimer’s Disease
● Decreases depressive symptoms
● Increases self-esteem and
improves body image
● Aids in releasing emotional and
physical tension
3. SOCIAL
● Gives a sense of togetherness
within a group
● Encourages positive social
interaction and interpersonal
relationship in a group
● Contributes to the individual’s
potential for self-actualization in
society
4. CULTURAL
● Promotes a place or a country’s rich
culture through showcasing the
different cultural dances
● Brings people around the word to a
closer understanding of the lives of
the people represented.
LESSON 2: ELEMENTS OF
DANCE
KEEP THIS IN MIND!
- Dance entails a lot of movements. It uses
the very same elements, space, time,
and energy. These elements are
beneficial to anyone interested in
recognizing, analyzing, or creating
movements.
ELEMENTS OF DANCE
1. Space
- It is the area that the performers
occupy and where they move in and
around. It can be divided into four
aspects also known as spatial
elements.
- Spatial Elements:
● Direction
- Dance movements can
travel in any direction. The
performers can go forward,
sideward, backward,
diagonal, circular, and so on.
They may also face any
direction while executing a
single movement or several
phases.
● Size
- Movements can be varied
by doing a larger or smaller
actions
● Level
- Movements can be done in
a high, medium, or low level
● Focus
- Performers may change
their focus by looking in
different directions.
2. Timing
- The Movements may be executed
at varying tempos (speed).
Performers move with the tempo of
an underlying sound, known as beat
or pulse. The timing can be altered
by moving faster or slower than the
regular beat. When a sequence of
movement or group of phrases is
done varying tempos, it generates
patterns. The addition of silences or
pauses also adds to the rhythmic
pattern.
3. Dance Energies
- Dance Movements are propelled by
energy or force. A force can either
initiate or stop an action. Dance
uses different energies, and varied
 use of these minimizes the
monotony of the movements in
performances.
- Six Dynamics of Dance:
1. Sustained
- Movements are done
smoothly, continuously, and
with flow and control. They
do not have a clear
beginning and ending.
2. Percussive
- Movements are explosive
or sharp in contrast with
sustained movements. They
are accented with a thrust of
energy. They have a clear
beginning and ending.
3. Swinging
- Movements traced a curve
line or an arc in space. The
movements are relaxed and
giving in to gravity on the
downward part of the
motion, followed by an
upward application of
energy.
4. Suspended
- Movements are perched in
space or hanging in air.
Holding a raised leg in any
direction is an example of
suspended movement.
5. Vibratory
- Movements consist of
trembling or shaking. They
are faster version of
percussive movements that
produce jittery effect.
6. Collapsing
- Movements are released in
tension and gradually or
abruptly giving in to gravity,
letting the body descend to
the floor. A slow collapse
can be described as a
melting or oozing action in
downward direction.
4. Bodily Shapes
- They refer to how the entire body is
molded in space or the
configuration of body parts. The
body can be rounded, angular, or a
combination of two. Other body
shapes can be wide to narrow and
high to low. They can be
symmetrical and asymmetrical.
- Symmetrical: Balanced shape,
movements are practically identical
or similar on both sides.
- Asymmetrical: Unbalanced shape,
movements of two sides of the body
do not match or are completely
different from one another.
5. Group Shapes
- A group of dancers performs
movements in different group
shapes. They are arranges in wide,
narrow, rounded, angular,
symmetrical, or asymmetrical ways
and are viewed together as a total
picture or arrangement within a
picture frame.
LESSON 3: OLDEST FORMS
OF DANCE
WHAT IS THE OLDEST FORM OF DANCE?
BELLY DANCING
- Even though the modern belly dance has
many negative connotations and is
considered to be seductive, it had a totally
different purpose in ancient times.
- Originally, it was performed only by women.
- For Women, sometimes as a part of
Goddess Worship and sometimes to
celebrate womanhood. Its practical
purpose was to exercise the abdominal
muscles of women so that they could go
through pregnancy and childbirth
successfully.

CLASSICAL DANCE
- Is historic and takes many years to learn.
- Western Classical Dance is Called Ballet.
- Choreography is used to create classical
dance.
- Choreography is the arrangement of dance
steps and movements into an organized
sequence. This means that every dancer
knows exactly what steps to perform
throughout the performance. Dance is
usually choreographed to music.
IMPROVISATION
- Unlike Classical Dance, improvised dance
has no formal steps, although it can be
choreographed. Improvisation is the basis
of contemporary or modern dance. In it,
dancers express their feelings in their
movements to create a highly personal,
natural, performance.
CONTEMPORARY DANCE
- Contemporary Dance began at the start of
20th Century when U.S Dancer Isadora
Duncan (1878-1927) broke away from
Ballet and developed her own more natural
style.
- Contemporary dance has many different
styles, some of them closely linked to
music, such as: Jazz, Rock and Roll, and
Hip-Hop.
● Square Dancing
- A type of folk dancing where four
couples dance in a square pattern,
moving around each other and
changing partners.
● Pole Dancing
- Has become increasingly popular
as a form of exercise. It involves
sensual dancing with a vertical pole,
and requires muscle endurance,
coordination, and upper-lower body
strength.
● Jazz
- A high energy dance style involving
kicks, leaps, and turns to the beat of
the music.
● Tap Dancing
- Focuses on timing and beats. The
name originates from the tapping
sounds made when small metal
plates on the dancer’s shoes touch
the ground.

TYPES OF DANCES

● Ballet
- Mostly performed to classical
music. This dance style focuses on
Strength, Technique, and Flexibility.
● Ballroom Dancing
- This involves a number of partner
dancing styles such as the Waltz,
Swing, Foxtrot, Rumba, and Tango.
● Hip-Hop
- Performed mostly to Hip-Hop
music, this urban dance style can
involve breaking, popping, locking,
and freestyling.