Rotational Interia

Many different types of movements are performed during ballet dancing. One of the most common types of move is a turn, commonly referred to as a pirouette. A pirouette is a french term that was started around the seventeen hundreds to mean a dancer turning (Lim, 2015). Pirouette is a general description of a turn. Some detailed examples of pirouettes are en dedans, en dehors, attitudes, arabesque turns, grande pirouettes, fouettés, and vertical pirouettes (Law, 2014). During the Renaissance era in sixteenth century Italy, vertical pirouettes were developed for ballets. When a dancer begins dance classes a vertical pirouette, it is one the first movements that they will learn.

The space, time and usage of dynamics were powerful yet elegant-elements that added to the overall quality and tone of the work. The solo dancer used her body to perform various movements with specific ranges of motion, showing her ability to control, express and properly connect to the audience through her performance. In this performance, there seems to be a spiritual side when the dancer, Marilyn Banks, sits on the bench and starts to swing her arms in wide semi-circles to show looks of anguish and despair. Ms. Banks also varied movement by quivering her hands-movements such as a shaking or slight trembling with her hands when reaching outwards. She also used a lot of ornamentation or embellishment through her movements. Her body and her path of movement embellished her gestures since she was performing spins across the stage.

Understanding how the muscles inside your body move and the mechanics of how your body moves is incredibly important in dance. If you understand how something needs to move to create a certain you are sure to recreate that shape with the same precision every time. I also find the human body fascinating. How we as dancers come across injuries and how we should go about mending them. Dance is so powerful that understanding the mechanics of the body greatly assists how you move. I have an anatomy coloring book that I use frequently to find how muscles connect and how to make something move. I would love it if one day I became a special physical therapist/ kinesiologist for dancers and helped them understand how they

a) Many ask, “How can dance be a sport? You can't judge on time and the scoring is subjective!” Just like figure skaters, competitive dancers are judged on many criteria: technique, posture, timing, line, hold, poise, togetherness, expression, presentation, power, and foot or leg action. Dancers have a lot on their minds while performing. They are constantly asking themselves, am I extending correctly? Is my technique right? Is my head facing the right direction?

Mrs. Farrell’s book is quite technical when it comes to the lengthy descriptions of the dances she rehearses and performs; from a dancer’s view these varied conclusions of the types of movements she was dancing is quite astonishing. In fact, it adds a whole new level to the imagination that can come alive in a person’s thoughts when they read an expressive book. Although the technical explanations will excited, astound, and reveal how much passion and deep meaning ballet had in Suzanne Farrell’s life, but a reader, who may not be involved in the arts will be unfamiliar with the ballet and musical terms in

As a revolutionary contemporary ballet choreographer, Kings’ dance pieces are often put together without restrictions and the moves are often modern. For example, the dance move at 0:17 to 0:27 consists moves that are traditional and contemporary and conveys a message of struggle and breaking free. The female dancer first bends one of her knees while straightening the other knee while making a big circle with her arms. Then, she straightens up her body while bringing her arms together to her chest with her

Dance began as a form of communication and storytelling. Thousands of years ago dancing served as a way for people to tell a story and helped distract themselves of the hardships they faced. Furthermore, dance was a form of storytelling through communication, which then turned into using storytelling through dance as entertainment. According to the History World, many dancers during the BC time danced in front of only a few people to get a story across. That later turned into hundreds of thousands of people as dance was used by many. Today, dance is also a form of entertainment and storytelling, but in a modern sense. However, today perfection and technique are stressed more than they were in the past. Yet, the passion for dance has not changed. Many dancers who share this passion also have many of the same qualities. Among a discourse community of trained dancers, one expects to find individuals who are healthy and active athletes, expect perfection from themselves through competition, and religiously attend dance performances.

Another common feature of all the dances is that the music is an irregular rhythm, creating suspense and standing out as individual. Kylian’s choreography uses the ability to isolate and coordinate different body parts as well as the use of hands to communicate meaning in all of his dances. Humor is often created as a result in over the top facial expressions like in ‘six dances’. Kylian as a contemporary choreographer uses stillness as a choreographic device in all of his dances. Another unique element to his dance style is the entrances and exits of the performers. He explores space’s limitations and capabilities making the entrances and exits part of the dance. In all of Jiri Kylian’s dances, the dancers enter and exit the stage into darkness rather than through wings. The dancers in all Jiri Kylian’s Black and white ballets, dance predominately in a large group, with individuals or pairs breaking off to do their individual movements before soon joining back in with the group.

The directors endlessly drilled their individual pieces down to the very move in order to make sure that every dancer picked up the essentials. Like engine components, everybody was required to work together seamlessly and undergo maintenance in order to produce the greatest visual effect. To achieve the desired image, our directors casted us into their designed formations, deciding which part of the machine we would be. From there, it was a matter of repetition in order to ensure that the overall choreographic set kept its fluidity and would not rust over

A lone performer begins a phrase facing left in a standing position with legs apart, head toward the ceiling, and the left arm extended to the sky. She swings the lone arm with her torso in a circle (clockwise to the observer, counter-clockwise to her); touching the ground and coming back up and around, like the swing of a heavy elephant trunk. The momentum of the swing causes her body to spin clockwise in place with her right leg extended to the rear, but quickly pulled in to a pirouette position as she finishes the turn (an eighth of turn short of facing the audience). The ballet posture quickly disappears as she crouches down, facing the floor with both arms hanging down between her legs. Her head pops up like she’s alerted to danger, followed by a sudden turn of the torso to her left (our right) in a dipping motion. Her right leg is lifted (bent) forward as her arms windmills backwards (like a swimmer’s backstroke) with elbows bent; it looks like a port de bras pinwheel. Her arms pause as her lifted foot lands. She repeats the short torso dip and arm pinwheel motion, but this time her right foot kicks forward to spin her 180 degrees (now facing our left). With her right arm hanging down emulating an elephant trunk again, she turns on the ball of her right foot 3/4 of a turn clockwise (now facing the audience) to swing her “trunk” above her head. This performer was clearly channeling a baby elephant.

1.1.1 Before starting this chapter it might be useful for you to write out your definition of dance. Let’s pretend for a moment that aliens landed on earth looking for intelligent life. Obviously they ended up at your apartment and asked

Scope: Dance Research Journal, Vol. 21, No. 2, (1989), pp. 15-24 Published by Congress on Research in Dance

Dance demands the same physical skills that are required in other sports. Flexibility, strength, and endurance are key characteristics that most dancers need to posses. As with other “athletes,” most dancers are not born with these abilities but must establish them through practice and repetitive training. Similar to traditional sports practices, dance rehearsals are extensive and require diligence, dedication, and patience from the dancers as they will have to repeat exercises and stretches to perfect their technique and stay on

Less pressured is applied in your grip which can help you increase consistency and control as you dance.

Also, injuries are less common. Therefore, dance should not be considered a sport. "Dance is not a sport because there are no winners or losers, also there are no limitations or rules" (Guarino). These people are mistaken because, dance competition judges score each performance based on Technique (1-25 points), Style and Execution (1-25 points), Showmanship (1-20 points), Costume (1-10 points), Choreography (1-10 points), Degree of Difficulty (1-5 points) and Age Appropriate Performance (1-5 points) for a maximum possible 100 points. A final adjudicated score is determined by an average of all judges scores. After this all dancers are put on stage and awarded with trophies 1st-10th place depending on the 1-100 average scoring from the judges. Therefore, dancers do have a set of rules and scoring just like any other athlete. Regarding injuries, they do occur. Most dance injuries are long-term because of the physical stress constantly being put on a dancers body. There are also instant injuries that happen while dancing, most commonly occurring in the knees, ankles, back, neck or hips. "The physical ability and discipline expected of a dancer can be easily related to those of an athlete and increasingly, dance critics are describing dancers as athletes" (Ailey). Ultimately, dancers are consistently proving, even to the critics, that they obtain the skill needed to be considered an