Sensual Dance Research Paper

The quotes “For most people, social dancing begins in pleasure,” and “Of course, people sometimes feel pressure to dance in ways that are otherwise associated with pleasure; social dancing can serve many functions in a society,” from Chapter 4 of Dancing: The Pleasure, Power, and Art of Movement (Jonas 2003), peaked interest in me when thinking of all the various dance forms that we have talked of in class and even those outside of class. One in particular that has interested me the most is swing dance. With family member involvement in the past and having multiple friends take part in the Swing Dance Club here on the Wayne State University Campus for pleasure, enjoyment and social interaction has made me want to go more in depth about it. With the help from academic sources and knowledge from class lectures I will be researching the history of swing dancing, the forms of swing dancing, and what gender roles take place within these movements.

From the Ballroom Dancing community we come to recognize that certain groups find a sense of belonging through similar dress and appearance, conformity to certain rules and regulations and all under a hierarchy of leaders. Although, this sense of belonging is not for everyone. People within the group may gain a strong sense of identity and feelings of importance.

In this documentary of “Mad Hot Ballroom” showed students in 5th grade dancing with their peers. In the beginning of this film, students were really shy and immature dancing with their partners. They were embarrassed and they couldn’t keep that awkward smile off their face, but they still had fun. They were mentioned that the best of dancers will be chosen to compete in a yearly competition, but it was much more than just a competition. Each student probably didn’t notice it but they were maturing throughout each practice. Each day in practice students tried their best, even when they were tired the instructor put on a catchy music and immediately the students were dancing and laughing. Dancing was their escape of reality. It was like a dream for them. They had a really nice opportunity. While they danced you can see every blood, sweat, and tears they put into practice. Throughout the documentary you see them mature every dance move they made. They matured by boys dancing with girls and they got out of that awkward stage. They weren’t afraid or shy to talk to a boy or girl. The ballroom dancing had a much greater purpose than just dancing and having fun. “You are going to learn from this experience” (Argelo). Every student probably didn’t earn a medal but they all won. They came out more than what they had as they walked in. Some students also learned what they wanted to do for the rest of their lives, they want to become an actor,

Dance is the focus of Strictly Ballroom as the film follows young ballroom dancer Scott Hastings who is going through a personal struggle to stick to regulation steps, and therefore dance is integral to the plot. Dance is the focus of the film it explores the characters, for instance Scott uses dance to advance as a character. In the beginning, he tries to break free through dance, then as he dances on the rooftop with Fran he breaks free to an extent. Dance is used to as a device for characters to use to help set them free form their troubles as this is used the plot is advanced. Dance is the characters’ lives the different styles in the movie represent different emotional states they are in and this further continues the plot as they face their personal struggles.

Dancing is, to an extent, yet another reiteration of the music. The music that the DJ creates spontaneously is a text. The dancer then in turn re-interprets this text through movements of the body. The "reader" therefore, whether in the role of dancer, DJ, or user of sampling technology contributes a mind set that is culturally specific and productive in itself. Rave dancing can be highly stylistic, or extremely vulgar. The beat is the driving force. Whether one is doing highly choreographed dance moves or simply thrusting their body back and forth ceases to matter. It is losing oneself to the beat, becoming one with the music by letting the music control your movements.

Dance is a very unique entity to study that comes with many benefits. It is a way of connecting to culture. Dance has a sense of history and community being portrayed throughout the movement. Some of the popular dances from the Caribbean include the Merengue, Rumba, and Cha Cha. Not only are these dances upbeat and fun, but they offer the opportunity to embody the culture instead of just learning about it through a passive manner.

When you dance a piece, you become one with it and it changes your perspective and you feel like you are actually living the part you are dancing to. Everyone that has danced has been infected and overwhelmed with emotion at some point. Think about the first dance you had with your husband at your wedding, or a father daughter dance, or your first dance in middle school. All of those are just two person dances, but sometime people dance alone or in a big group as a performance, and in order to be a hit, the dancers must become one with the dance. They have to let go and let their bodies take

One of the most egregious communication theories displayed heavily throughout the film is the idea of symbolic convergence. The very root of this theory rests on the idea that humans connect with one another through shared meaning of an event, object, or otherwise stated “thing”. There are countless displays of this theory throughout the film, both for the characters in the movie and the viewers on the outside alike. For the characters within the movie, symbolic convergence happens when they are dancing. Even though these

There are so many dance but there is one that's the best and it's called Watch me whip it's the hottest dance ever.

In this argument, it is important to distinguish what type of dancing is being discussed, as there are many different types of varying levels of difficulty. Paige Abrams puts it this way: “You can dance at a club for fun, as a hobby, as a serious passion, or you can dance as a career” (2). Just as a person can play catch, which has some of the basic components as baseball, it is not considered a

Dancing as a genre is part of the oldest culture in humanity. It is an act related to shamanism that exhibits all sorts of human emotions and can also contain political messages. Thus, even though dancing has been with our community for a long time, acts of entertainment that are more visually exciting such as concerts and movies have been more popular; only the passionate fans showed interest in pure art of dancing and street culture. Dancers were able to put on a show while releasing emotion in their movements and expressing their feelings. Krump dance, and all social dance of today, are danced for essentially the same reasons. Dancers are able to release anger, fight hardships, and overcome class struggles by simply moving their bodies

The traditional view of ballroom is how a man is seen as powerful and strong , leading and deciding which steps to take whereas the woman responds and follows along in a beautiful and expressive way. Gender plays a big role in ballroom dancing, and behaving in a sex-consistent way is reinforced. Those dance movements is shown quite well in Strictly ballroom, as how the main characters were dancing in a heteronormative manner.

In the films, Strictly Ballroom (SB) by Baz Luhrmann (1992) and Mad Hot Ballroom (MHB) by Marilyn Agrelo (2005) both examine ballroom dancing but in different ways that define a distinctive meaning. In SB and MHB the spectator sees distinctive characters and their goals that are similar and that is to do the dances right and ultimately win. In both films there is a powerful dynamic within the beginning of how the characters are portrayed and towards the end where the characters have developed through dance. Dancing becomes a great part of Scott’s life in SB because that is what he’s been taught. In SB Scott shows his new moves at the competition with his partner and faces the consequences for stepping out of the conformity he’s been taught.

Why do human beings dance? I am pretty sure that people were dancing way before the word ‘dance’ was even invented. Dance has become more than just moving your body to a beat and praying that it doesn’t look as strange as it feels. Dancing is as natural as breathing, you may not be a coordinated person but anybody can dance.

First, dancing is one of my favorites hobbies. For centuries, dance manuals and other writings have lauded the health benefits of dancing, usually as physical exercise. We've