Short Story : ' Dance ' By Elisha Cooper

When I was four years old I was introduced to a tall, petite, beautiful ballerina who spun around the room with elegance, and effortlessly captured the crowd with her stunning abilities. As a little girl, I sparkled with admiration and was inspired to be all she was, it was from that point on, that I ventured into an unknown world of art, strength and expression. Now being eighteen years old with about fourteen years of experience in the dance world, I have learned and developed the norms, values and practices of the culture, and the conflicting theory within it.

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.

In 1938 Jerome Robbins stated that the dance industry is “plagued with difficulties” after his poor experiences with the Dance Centre, linking to this I will be discussing whether these difficulties have been addressed or if they are still prominent in the life of a dancer today. To do this I will be comparing the lifestyles of performers from a range of different styles, to see what boundaries they face and how they differentiate to one another.

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

Watching a video of a dance piece called “The Moroccan Project,” choreographed by Alonzo King was quite impressive. Living in San Francisco and taking dance classes brought me to Lines Ballet which is King’s dance studio. I have seen a great deal of different types of dance at the studio waiting for my Ballet classes and there are some great dancers. It comes as no surprise that Alonzo would have such great dancers. It appears that Alonzo King is exploring different cultures in dance in Contemporary Ballet. His near-perfect choreography is articulate, passionate, and graceful- he brings diversity in dance to San Francisco and other parts of the world. This piece articulates the expression of the two dancers coming together yet dancing apart at times- it is a fusion of several different types of dances into one using video editing to create a story about the coming together of two individuals.

Dancing is a recreational activity that has been enjoyed by millions of people for centuries. There have been countless styles of dance and thousands of memorized steps that have been performed in front of people or even just simply enjoyed alone without and audience. When a handful those thousands of steps come together, it creates a routine. Even though there are countless dancers that are breathtaking when they perform the routine in front of and audience, most dancers cannot be proficient without someone to assemble those countless steps together to create something awe inspiring, beautiful, and entertaining to watch. Dance is a world of constant change due to the want of awe, the need to produce something unique, and the necessity to catch the audience’s attention. Although many people believe some dance styles have not changed for centuries, innovative choreographers flip dance styles upside down with their unique approaches.

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

This week's reading's, lectures, along with the live dance session has helped further the little prior knowledge I had on the details and components that are necessary to create a dance performance. In particular, DeFrantz does a great job listing the aspects behind Alvin Ailey's dance performances. The foundation of these performances was predetermined in Ailey's notebook of thematic sketches, descriptions of each individual character, sketches of desired settings and costumes, along with an outline of the counts to the music (DeFrantz 2). Together all of these details help make a dance that reflects a story or message or that allows the audience to formulate their own interpretation based on what they saw. Besides the actual choreography/

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

The history of modern dance has seen many great dancers and pioneers alike, as well as changes that continues to shape the art of dance form that is seen today. From being an art form of spectacle that focused more on the dancers’ clothing rather than the dance itself, to going through a time where narrative was emphasized, and to incredible athleticism achieved both by men and women, dance has evolved into something that is so much more powerful and diverse than centuries ago. As dance continued to be more prominent, some great choreographers utilized it to achieve greater goals that related to the issues of that current time. The pioneer Martha Graham created dances that contained uncommon

Artists today seem more attached to form than perhaps ever before—wedded to concept, abstraction, gymnastic moves and external appearance” (Robb, Paragraph 4). Dance, for many, is starting to become more and more about technique. With that, dance is going to start (and according to Jennifer, has started) to become more about the hard work, and less about the feeling, leading to a higher amount of workout in every practice. During one practice, not including the actual dancing, a ballerina must warm up with a six minute plank, three hundred sit ups, fifty burpees, running laps, and that’s not even all of it.

The choreography of Danielsen’s life goes far beyond the corners of dance. Ever since the day she stepped foot into a dance studio, she has had big dreams and lets nothing stand in her way of accomplishing them. “I saw myself as a prima ballerina, but when I actually started to dance, my dream turned into being able to execute well and being able to perform in any

To begin with, dancing is an artistic and absolutely creative form of physical activity to express personal emotions to audience through the exciting and breathtaking performances based on standard vocabulary of movements. Ballet and street dance are still remained the most controversial dancing styles among the professional dancers. Though a proper performance of both dancing styles requires hard, strong and disciplined training, in fact they do have a major number of differences in other comparative

When thinking of a specific type of dance, the vast majorities of the time people generally relate and direct the art form to a certain type of culture or race. As times develop and cultures start to merge, people tend to try and get to understand other diversities. This happens especially when we look at various forms of dance, where the people of origin are no longer the only ones who strictly perform it. Shown in the movies “Save the Last Dance” and “Take the Lead” both show a great deal of racial status and stereotypes involving dance, where the minorities try their best to fit in. Proving themselves by showing how they can adapt to other cultures by the flow and movement of their bodies. Both show a great understanding on how people of different races can be brought together by something most people can relate to, dance. To what extent does race inform the dancing as portrayed in the films “Save the Last Dance” (2001) and “Take the Lead” (2006)? To support the following argument stated above, there are several sources that will be implemented throughout the essay found within the dance community (journals, articles and books).

The author of this article challenges preconceived notion that ballet is the primary technical dance practice that every dancer should know in order to become successful in the art of dance. She believes that West African dance is also a technique that students should practice in class and not be a requirement per say but become aware that by not introducing the class to students the institution continues to fortify an inequality of cultures. There is no right technique, instead there are multiple dance practices that help American dancing bodies to expand their dance tool box and become stronger dancers in the near future; ballet is just one form of bossy dance technique brought from Eurocentrism.