DANCE Basics

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DANCE Basics

• Created for
• A Walk Through the Arts Website
• Created by
• Laura B. Dedic
• Humanities Instructor
• Madison Central High School

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Essential Questions

• What is DANCE?
• Why do people DANCE?
• What are the basics of DANCE?

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What is DANCE?

• DANCE is
• the ART of HUMAN MOVEMENT.

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Why People DANCE?

• People dance for MANY reasons.
• Fun
• Fitness
• Competition
• Celebration
• Performances
• Religion

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3 Categories of DANCE

• All dances can be classified into 3 categories of
  DANCE.
• The categories are
• Artistic
• Ceremonial
• Recreational

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3 Categories of DANCE

• Artistic DANCE
• Performed for Entertainment
• There is a clear separation between
  the dancers and the audience.
• Examples include
• ballet, modern, tap

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3 Categories of DANCE

• Ceremonial DANCE
• Dance performed as part of ritual
• Examples included
• Shakers, celebration, ritual,
  Native American Eagle Dance,
  Rain Dance

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3 Categories of DANCE

• Recreational DANCE
• Dancing for FUN!
• A.K.A. Social Dance
• Examples include folk, social dancing,
  aerobic dance
• How many dances can you name?

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DANCE Basics or ELEMENTS

• Space
• Time
• Force

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SPACE

• Pathways
• curved lines, straight lines, zigzags, circles,
  figure-eights, and many more
• Shape
• large, small, rounded, and angular
• Body shapes
• What SHAPE
• do you
• see here? ?

• Level
• -vertical distance from the floor
• -high, medium, low or on the floor
• What is the LEVEL of this dancer? ?
• Direction
• forward, backwards, diagonally, sideways

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TIME

• TEMPO
• The speed of the dance
• -fast, slow, moderate
• ACCENT
• a movement or shape performed in such a way as
  to give emphasis
• DURATION
• the length of the dance or a dance phrase
• BEAT
• - pulse of the music

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FORCE

• Force is the use of ENERGY while moving.
• Heavy/Light,
• Sharp/Smooth,
• Tension/Relaxation,
• Bound/Flowing
• QUALITY
• -smooth, sharp, round,
• free, flowing
• ENERGY
• -weak, strong
• WEIGHT
• -heavy, light, suspended,
• collapsed

• What type of FORCE is used by the following
  dances?
• Ballet
• Break dancing
• Hula dancing
• Flamenco
• Swing dancing

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Movements

• Locomotor
• Motions created moving across SPACE
• Dancers using locomotor movements may
• walk, run, skip, hop, jump, slide, leap, or
  gallop.
• Non-Locomotor
• Motions made while staying in one SPACE
• Dancers using non-locomotor movements may
• bend, stretch, twist, or swing their body.