WHAT IS DANCE

Dance is a performing art form consisting of purposefully selected sequences of human movement. This movement has aestheticand symbolic value, and is acknowledged as dance by performers and observers within a particular culture.^{[nb 1]} Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoire of movements, or by its historical period or place of origin.

An important distinction is to be drawn between the contexts of theatrical and participatory dance,^[4] although these two categories are not always completely separate; both may have special functions, whether social, ceremonial, competitive, erotic, martial, orsacred/liturgical. Other forms of human movement are sometimes said to have a dance-like quality, including martial arts, gymnastics,cheerleading, figure skating, synchronized swimming, marching bands, and many other forms of athletics.

Performance and participation

Members of an American jazz dance company perform a formal group routine in a concert dance setting

Theatrical dance, also called performance or concert dance, is intended primarily as a spectacle, usually a performance upon a stage by virtuoso dancers. It often tells a story, perhaps using mime, costume and scenery, or else it may simply interpret the musical accompaniment, which is often specially composed. Examples are western ballet and modern dance, Classical Indian dance and Chinese and Japanese song and dance dramas. Most classical forms are centred upon dance alone, but performance dance may also appear in opera and other forms of musical theatre.

Participatory dance, on the other hand, whether it be a folk dance, a social dance, a group dance such as a line, circle, chainor square dance, or a partner dance such as is common in western Western ballroom dancing, is undertaken primarily for a common purpose, such as social interaction or exercise, of participants rather than onlookers. Such dance seldom has any narrative. A group dance and a corps de ballet, a social partner dance and a pas de deux, differ profoundly. Even a solo dance may be undertaken solely for the satisfaction of the dancer. Participatory dancers often all employ the same movements and steps but, for example, in the rave culture of electronic dance music, vast crowds may engage in free dance, uncoordinated with those around them. On the other hand, some cultures lay down strict rules as to the particular dances in which, for example, men, women and children may or must participate.

Origins

Mesolithic dancers at Bhimbetka

Archeological evidence for early dance includes 9,000-year-old paintings in India at the Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka, and Egyptian tomb paintings depicting dancing figures, dated c. 3300 BC. It has been proposed that before the invention of written languages, dance was an important part of the oral and performance methods of passing stories down from generation to generation.^[5] The use of dance in ecstatictrance states and healing rituals (as observed today in many contemporary "primitive" cultures, from the Brazilian rainforest to the Kalahari Desert) is thought to have been another early factor in the social development of dance.^[6]

Greek bronze statuette of a veiled and masked dancer, 3rd-2nd century BC, Alexandria, Egypt.

References to dance can be found in very early recorded history; Greek dance (horos) is referred to byPlato, Aristotle, Plutarch and Lucian.^[7] The Bible and Talmud refer to many events related to dance, and contain over 30 different dance terms.^[8] In Chinese pottery as early as the Neolithic period, groups of people are depicted dancing in a line holding hands,^[9] and the earliest Chinese word for "dance" is found written in the oracle bones.^[10] Dance is further described in the Lüshi Chunqiu.^[11][12] Primitive dance in ancient China was associated with sorcery and shamanic rituals.

During the first millennium BCE in India, many texts were composed which attempted to codify aspects of daily life. Bharata Muni's Natyashastra(literally "the text of dramaturgy") is one of the earlier texts. It mainly deals with drama, in which dance plays an important part in Indian culture. It categorizes dance into four types - secular, ritual, abstract, and, interpretive - and into four regional varieties. The text elaborates various hand-gestures (mudras) and classifies movements of the various limbs, steps and so on. A strong continuous tradition of dance has since continued in India, through to modern times, where it continues to play a role in culture, ritual, and, notably, the Bollywood entertainment industry. Many other contemporary dance forms can likewise be traced back to historical, traditional, ceremonial, and ethnic dance.

Dance and music

Main article: Dance music

Dance is generally, though not exclusively, performed with the accompaniment of music and may or may not be performed in time to such music. Some dance (such as tap dance) may provide its own audible accompaniment in place of (or in addition to) music. Many early forms of music and dance were created for each other and are frequently performed together. Notable examples of traditional dance/music couplings include the jig, waltz, tango, disco, and salsa. Some musical genres have a parallel dance form such as baroque music and baroque dance; other varieties of dance and music may share nomenclature but developed separately, such as classical music and classical ballet.

Dance and rhythm

Rhythm and dance are deeply linked in history and practice. The American dancer Ted Shawn wrote; "The conception of rhythm which underlies all studies of the dance is something about which we could talk forever, and still not finish."^[13] A musical rhythm requires two main elements; first, a regularly-repeating pulse (also called the "beat" or "tactus") that establishes the tempo and, second, a pattern of accents and rests that establishes the character of the metre or basic rhythmic pattern. The basic pulse is roughly equal in duration to a simple step or gesture.

A basic tango rhythm

Dances generally have a characteristic tempo and rhythmic pattern. The tango, for example, is usually danced in 2
4 time at approximately 66 beats per minute. The basic slow step, called a "slow", lasts for one beat, so that a full "right–left" step is equal to one 2
4 measure. The basic forward and backward walk of the dance is so counted - "slow-slow" - while many additional figures are counted "slow - quick-quick.^[14]

Just as musical rhythms are defined by a pattern of strong and weak beats, so repetitive body movements often depends on alternating "strong" and "weak" muscular movements.^[15] Given this alternation of left-right, of forward-backward and rise-fall, along with the bilateral symmetry of the human body, it is natural that many dances and much music are in duple and quadruple meter. However, since some such movements require more time in one phase than the other - such as the longer time required to lift a hammer than to strike - some dance rhythms fall equally naturally into triple metre.^[16] Occasionally, as in the folk dances of the Balkans, dance traditions depend heavily on more complex rhythms. Further, complex dances composed of a fixed sequence of steps always require phrases and melodies of a certain fixed length to accompany that sequence.

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