PRACTICE

AND
MOVEMENT
(DANCE)
OBJECTIVES:
• Define dance and its types
• Define the elements of
dance; and
• Define rhythm and
the types of rhythm.
DANCE
- the movement of the body in a rhythmic way,
usually to music and within a given space, for
the purpose of expressing an idea or emotion,
releasing energy, or simply taking delight in
the movement itself.
TYPES
OF
DANCE
BALLET
‐ Ballet is an art form created by the movement of the
human body.
- Ballet productions vary between using elaborate
costumes and staging and using minimal costuming
and bare staging.
‐ Ballet is now a widespread, highly technical form of
dance with many subgenres including classic,
romantic, neoclassical and contemporary.
- Ballet dance developed during the Italian
Renaissance, before evolving in France and Russia
into a concert dance meant for public performance.
EXAMPLE :
BALLROOM
– Is a type of partner dance originating at the end of the
sixteenth century in France. Commonly used as shorthand
for any partner dance, ballroom has today evolved into two
main subgenres:
1.Standard
2.Latin
EXAMPLE :

LATIN STANDARD
CONTEMPORARY
– Known for its emphasis on strong torso and legwork,
contract and release, fall and recovery and floor
work, it is often known for unpredictable and
disordered changes in speed and rhythm throughout a
performance.
EXAMPLE :
HIP-HOP
– Hip-hop dancing refers to a range of street dances that
developed in relation to hip hop music and culture.
– Main styles of hip-hop dancing include Breaking, Locking
and Popping, with derivative styles emerging out of these
including Memphis Jookin’, Turfing, Jerkin’ and
Krumping.
EXAMPLE :
JAZZ
– Known for its improvisational and dramatic
body movements, the jazz dancing grew in
popularity in early twentieth-century jazz
clubs.
EXAMPLE :
TAP DANCE
– Is a type of percussive dance characterised by
the “tap” of shoes hitting the floor as the person
dances. Tap dancers often wear metal “taps” on
the heel and toe of a shoe to accentuate the
sound.
EXAMPLE :
FOLK DANCE
– Folk dancing is celebrated worldwide with
people of different cultures and religions using
various forms of folk dance to portray emotions,
stories, historical events or even aspects of daily
life.
– Some well known types of folk dance include:
Bharatanatyam (India), Samba (Brazil) and Hula
(Hawaii). Some cultures may even perform multiple
variations of folk dances, with countries like South
Korea performing individual dances for key events
such as victories in war, farming, music and religion.
EXAMPLE :
IRISH DANCE
– Originating in Ireland, this form of traditional dance has
been popular for hundreds of years amongst Irish
people and other countries worldwide.
– Irish dancing is famously known for its fabulous
display of footwork and dance formations.
EXAMPLE :
MODERN DANCE
– Considered as being a broad genre of dance, modern
dance primarily arose from western countries such as
the USA and Germany during the late 1900s.
– the purpose of modern dance is to rely on the dancer’s
interpretation of the music and feeling to guide
movements.
- Dancers can choose a piece of music
and use unconventional movements to
convey emotions or to tell a meaningful
story.
EXAMPLE :
SWING DANCE
– Swing is a variation of jazz dance which developed
between the 1920s to the 1940s as a response to the
growing popularity of swing jazz in America. With the
evolution of music that occurred during the Jazz era,
dance also began to change with the likes of swing
music encouraging faster, more rigorous movements.
- Swing dancing would commonly
be accompanied by Big Band
musicians who often played upbeat
melodies which were smooth and
easy to listen.
EXAMPLE :
ELEMENTS
OF
DANCE
BODY
– Dancers use their bodies to take internal ideas,
emotions, and intentions and express them in an
outward manner, sharing them with others. Dance
can communicate this internal world, or it can be
abstract, focusing on shapes and patterns.
ACTION
– Action includes small movements like facial
expressions or gestures, as well as larger movements
like lifts, carries, or catches done with a partner or in
a group. “Action” is also considered the movement
executed as the pauses or stillness between
movements.
SPACE
– It is where the action of dance takes place. Dance
moves through space in an endless variety of ways.
To better explain, here are some ways a choreographer
or dancer thinks about space:
• Level: Is the movement on the floor or
reaching upward? Are they performed high,
medium, or low?
• Direction: Does the movement go forward,
backward, sideways, right, left, or on a
diagonal?
• Place: Is the movement done on the spot (personal
space) or does it move through space (general
space, downstage, upstage)?
• Orientation: Which way are the dancers facing?
• Pathway: Is the path through space made by the
dancers curved, straight, or zigzagged? Or is it
random?
Size: Does the movement take up a small, narrow space,
or a big, wide space?
Relationships: How are the dancers positioned in space
in relationship to one another? Are they close together or
far apart? Are they in front of, beside, behind, over,
under, alone, or connected to one another?
TIME
–Time refers to the movement of
dancers through time, and specifically
within relationship to the music,
tempo, meter, or rhythm.
ENERGY
– Energy is about how the movement happens. Choices
about energy include variations in movement flow and the
use of force, tension, and weight. An arm gesture might be
free flowing or easily stopped, and it may be powerful or
gentle, tight or loose, heavy or light.
RHYTHM
- in dance, rhythm comes from three (3)
sources:
1. movement
2. music
3. emotions
- helps the dancer organize motion by
providing structure.
- sets as pulse for a dancer, supports,
contrasts, and accents the movements.
TYPES
OF
RHYTHM
Flowing
-the power of feminine energy, fluid, and continuous.
-the impulse to follow the flow of one’s energy, to be
true to oneself, listen and attend to one’s needs, be
receptive to one’s inner and
outer world.
-when we open up to the flow of our
physical beings, all other possibilities
open.
EXAMPLE :
Staccato
-the power of masculine energy.
-it is percussive and strong, promotes connectio
with the rest of the world.
-gateway to the heart.
-shows on how to step out into the world
connected to our feet and feelings.
-the part of us that stands up for what we
care about and who/what we love.
EXAMPLE :
Chaos
-wild, abandon, and welcoming the unknown.
-breaks us free from our illusions.
-takes us on a journey from “I can’t” to “I can”.
-brings us back to our bodies to the moment.
- liberates us from all ideas about who
we are and gives us a real experience
of being total, free, intuitive, and
creative
EXAMPLE :
Lyrical
-airy, light, playful, harmony flows after
touching the deepest and most painful
places within.
-expansive and connects us to our
humanity, timeless rhythms,
repetitions, patterns, and cycles.
-more of a state of being than a
rhythm.
EXAMPLE :
Stillness
-gateway to the soul, no separation, and
everything becomes one.
-moves both within and all around us.
-our challenge is to be a vessel that
keeps moving and changing.
-we practice the art of making humble
and mindful endings.
EXAMPLE :
THANK
YOU!