Friday, September 11, 2009

The Performing Art Form Of Dance

By Peggy Ryersen

Dance is commonly considered to be a form of art. This is a fact acknowledged by civilizations around the world, both in ancient and modern times. Dance is a form of emotional expression that is highly sophisticated and technical.

A dance may just be a rhythmic swaying of your body, to the music or it might be a violent and passionate communication form of what cannot be seen, but has to be felt. If you understand this sort of feeling, you will be able to express yourself in dance wordlessly.

Dance starts off with a gathering of people. They come together to express emotions like joy, hurt or sorrow, but these dance forms then turn into trends. Dancing trends do not have to be classical in nature, but they can evolve into a new form that is a reflection of the traditional, cultural or social views of the time.

In earlier times, the waltz was considered to be a "hot" dance just because the man puts his arm around his dance partner's waist. Things have changed since then. Now nobody thinks twice about a couple dancing erotically, such as is the case with the tango.

Many people consider dance forms to be in 2 different types of schools. One belief that dance should be Traditional, especially those sorts of dances which have come down to us unchanged through the ages. One would not presume to start dancing hip hop to the stately music of a waltz. On the other hand, one cannot waltz to a jazz trombone. Nevertheless, as many dance forms are spontaneous, many people believe that both the classical forms and the spontaneous forms can come together in really marvelous and inspirational creations and performances.

The belief that dance and music are dependent upon each other is not new and the fact that they can be put together to appear as one only proves that. Without one, the other would not exist. However, when it comes to a performance it is possible to have just music being played or a dance being performed without music, such as tap dancing. As long as the dancer can keep a rhythm without music it is possible to put on a good performance for the audience.

New forms of music are definitely going to inspire spontaneous and new forms of dance. So one cannot say that dance is limited to one era or age and cannot evolve into a stately new form, mayhap the Elizabethan Gaillard, the Georgian Cotillion or the Roger Coverley coming back again in another form, which would be recognizable to our ancestors, but come under the category of modern dance.

So it does not matter if people consider you to have 2 left feet. If the music sways you enough to want to stand up and move your feet, repeat those moments again, then move your head, and the rest of your body, you are dancing. Perhaps you are making the same movements your ancestors did more than 5000 years ago, and who were considered bewitching dancers to enthrall the public! Whatever the reason, dance as an art form is going to be around in some form or the other through time eternal.

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