The Elements of Dance

What is Dance? Dance is the art form in which human movement becomes the medium for sensing, understanding, and communicating ideas, feelings, and experiences. Dance provides a way of learning—one that develops communication abilities, problem solving techniques, and creative and critical thinking skills along with kinesthetic abilities. At its core, the goal of dance education is to engage students in artistic experiences through the processes of creation, performance and response. 

The Elements of DanceDance has its own content, vocabulary, skills, and techniques, which must be understood and applied to be proficient in the art. The elements of dance are the foundational concepts and vocabulary for developing movement skills as well as understanding dance as an art form. All these elements are simultaneously present in a dance or even in a short movement phrase.

1. Body

The art of dance takes place in and through the human body.  In dance, the body is the mobile figure or shape, felt by the dancer, seen by others. The body is sometimes relatively still and sometimes changing as the dancer moves in place or travels through the dance area. Dancers may emphasize specific parts of their body in a dance phrase or their whole body. 

2. Action

Action is any human movement included in the act of dancing—it can include dance steps, facial movements, lifts, carries, and catches, and even everyday movements such as walking.  Dancers may choose movement that has been done before, or they may add their own original movements to the existing dance movement vocabulary. Dancers may also revise or embellish movement they have learned from others. Dance is made up of streams of movement and pauses, so action refers not only to steps and sequences, but also to pauses and moments of relative stillness. Movement that travels through space is broadly called locomotor movement in contrast to axial movement, which occurs in one spot.  

3. Space

There are countless variations and combinations of ways that movement can occur in space.Dancers interact with space in myriad ways. They may stay in one place and move parts of their body or their whole body, or they may travel from one place to another. They may alter the direction, level, size, and pathways of their movements. Dancers may focus their movement and attention outwardly to the space or inwardly, into themselves. 

4. Time

The keyword for the element of time is when. Human movement is naturally rhythmic in the broad sense that we alternate activity and rest. Breath and waves are examples of rhythms in nature that repeat, but not as consistently as in a meter.Time may also be organized in other ways including clock time, sensed time, and event-sequence. Dancers may take sight cues from each other to start the next phrase or use a shared sense of sensed time to end a dance.  They may even take cues from an event such as a train whistle during an outdoor dance performance. The inherent rhythms in our movement and our aural landscape are a rich source of variation in dance.

5. Energy

Energy is about how—it refers to the force of an action and can mean both the physical and psychic energy that drives and characterizes movement. 

Choices about energy include variations in movement flow and use of force, tension, and weight. A run might be free flowing or easily stopped, and it may be powerful or gentle, tight or loose, heavy or light. A dancer may step into an arabesque position with a sharp, percussive attack or with light, flowing ease. Energy may change in an instant, and several types of energy may be concurrently in play.  

Types of Dance

BalletBallet serves as a backbone for many other styles of dance, as many other dance genres are based on ballet. Ballet is based on techniques that have been developed over centuries. Ballet uses music and dance to tell stories. Ballet dancers have the ability to transport an audience to another world.

JazzJazz is a fun dance style that relies heavily on originality and improvisation. Many jazz dancers mix different styles into their dancing, incorporating their own expression. Jazz dancing often uses bold, dramatic body movements, including body isolations and contractions.

TapTap dancing is an exciting form of dance in which dancers wear special shoes equipped with metal taps. Tap dancers use their feet like drums to create rhythmic patterns and timely beats.

Hip-HopHip-hop is a dance style, usually danced to hip-hop music, that evolved from the hip-hop culture. Hip-hop includes various moves such as breaking, popping, locking and krumping, and even house dance. Improvisation and personal interpretation are essential to hip-hop dancing.

ModernModern dance is a dance style that rejects many of the strict rules of classical ballet, focusing instead on the expression of inner feelings. Modern dance was created as a rebellion against classical ballet, emphasizing creativity in choreography and performance.

SwingSwing dance is a lively dance style in which couples swing, spin and jump together. Swing dancing is a general term that means dancing to swing music, or music that "swings." How can you tell if a song swings? Swing dancers know when a song swings because when they hear it, they can't stand still.

Contra DanceContra dance is a form of American folk dance in which the dancers form two parallel lines and perform a sequence of dance movements with different partners down the length of the line. Contra dances are relaxed with family-like atmospheres. The dancing is excellent exercise, and dancers can set their own pace. Contra dancers are usually friendly, active people with a love of dance.

Country and WesternCountry and western dance includes several dance forms, usually danced to country-western music. If you've ever been to a country and western club or tavern, you've probably seen a few cowboy boot-wearing dancers twirling around the dance floor with big smiles on their faces.

Belly DanceBelly dance is a unique form of dance characterized by sharp, rolling movements of the hips and abdomen. The true origins of belly dancing are debated among enthusiasts.

FlamencoFlamenco dance is an expressive dance form that mixes percussive footwork with intricate hand, arm and body movements. Flamenco is a Spanish art consisting of three forms: Cante, the song, Baile, the dance, and Guitarra, guitar playing. .

Latin DanceLatin dance is a fast-paced, often sensual, partner dance characterized by sexy hip movements. However, hip movements are not intentional in any of the Latin dances. The hip motion is a natural consequence of changing weight from one foot to the other.

Folk DanceFolk dance refers to a variety of dances developed by groups or communities, as opposed to being made up by a choreographer. There are several types of folk dance including clogging, English country dance, international folk dance, Irish dance, Maypole dance, Morris dance,

Nordic polska dance, square dance, and many more. Folk dances are often performed at social events.

Ballroom Dance: Ballroom dancing is one of the most entertaining and elite styles of dancing. In the earlier days, ballroom dance was only for the privileged class of people, the socialites if you must. This style of dancing with a partner, originated in Germany, but is now a popular act followed in varied dance styles. Today, the popularity of ballroom dance is evident, given the innumerable shows and competitions worldwide that revere dance, in all its form.