Dance - Social, Ritual, Performance

dance

Table of Contents

Introduction
The aesthetics of dance
- Basic motives: self-expression and physical release
- Problems in defining dance
  - Defining according to function
  - Distinguishing dance from other patterned movement
  - Defining according to intent
- Dance as dramatic expression or abstract form
  - The debate in the West
  - Dance as a nonverbal language
- Changes in attitude toward dance
Components of the dance
- The dancer
  - Physical requirements
  - The importance of training
  - Differences among dancers
  - From amateur to professional
- Basic steps and formations
  - Ballet and modern dance
  - Folk dance
  - Social dance
- Choreography
  - Choreographers’ motives and methods
  - The three-phase choreographic process
    - Gathering the movement material
    - Developing movements into phrases
    - Creating the final structure
- Dance notation
  - Prominent notation methods
  - Difficulties of notation
- Theatrical elements
  - Rhythm
  - Music
  - Set and design
  - Costume and stage sets in Western theatre dance
  - Drama
    - Cultural distinction between dramatic and formal dance
    - Drama in Western theatre dance
Types of dance
- Theatre dance
  - Ballet
    - Basic characteristics
    - Innovations in the 20th century
  - Modern dance
    - Expressionism
    - Merce Cunningham
    - Postmodernism
    - The musical
  - Indian classical dance
- Tribal and world dance
  - Tribal dance
  - World dance
- Folk dance
- Social dance

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When the early European folk dances—particularly the courtship forms—were incorporated into court dances, they lost many of their boisterous and pantomimic elements. The man no longer thrust forward to embrace the woman or lifted her vigorously into the air, but simply knelt and took her hand. The woman’s earlier violent resistance dwindled into a coquettish turn of the head, and energetic strides and runs gave way to simple gliding steps, often forming intricate patterns that were punctuated with small poses, bows, and curtsies. The social, as opposed to the theatrical, forms that these early court dances inspired gradually became more ...(100 of 23177 words)

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