Styles of Dance

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The Chinese culture also has a rich history of Folk Dancing. The Chinese folk dances are a part of the Chinese traditional culture and have a close connection with the common peoples’ ideas, labor, and daily life in general, thus formulating a strong connection with the people. The history of the Chinese Dragon Dance dates back to the Han Dynasty (180-230 AD) in ancient China and plays an important part in Chinese culture. This dance symbolizes the end of the year and represents a new start for the Chinese people. The Dragon itself has a regard as a sacred creature, symbolizing power, courage, righteousness, and dignity among others. For this reason, the Chinese show much respect toward the dragon and always referred to themselves as Descendants of the Dragon as a sign of ethnic identity. A Dragon Dance requires many dancers because of its sheer size and length. The number of dancers can vary depending on a number of factors, including human resources, financial power, skills, and the space available. The size can range from the recommended 112 feet, (nine people) or more. For a Dragon Dance to be successful and entertaining, the dancers must properly coordinate their movements with each other, thus correct timing is crucial to avoid tangling up or falling over. A mistake from any person can disrupt other dancers as this creates a "ripple effect," which would spoil the performance (Dragon Dance, 2006).

Jazz Dance

Jazz Music has its’ roots in Africa, before slavery started, it then spread to America as the African slaves were brought to the country. Music as with most everything else has changed through time. America’s large immigrant population had an impact on Jazz; music composers would add Jazz music to the types of music they were familiar. Jazz dancing has no formal steps like ballet and is freer moving like modern dance. Dancing jazz, defined as “your pulse, your heartbeat, your breathing, it's the rhythm of your life; the expression in time and movement, in happiness, joy, sadness and envy” (D'ambroise, 2010). A Jazz dance may have several repetitious movements or none. Jazz line and form could be similar to that of repetition. One dance may have several lines and form, but another dance may have one or two different movements. Because most of Jazz dance is improvisation, each dance could be different, making it difficult to generalize with other dance forms.

An example of Jazz dance introduced when Jazz dance came to America is the Minstrel Show. The Minstrel show is white entertainers with black paint on their faces, and they would dance to themes of racism. The performers of the minstrel show would jazz dance, mocking the black community (Kendrick, 2003). Mixes of jazz and other music emerged with music and dance such as ragtime, where jazz music stretched, giving the notes of the music longer beats. As times changed, jazz moved from southern areas such as Louisiana, to large cities such as Chicago. The main change that took place to Jazz dance in Chicago was the people dancing. Young women called “flappers” started jazz dancing. During the depression and World War II, jazz dancing popularity took a hit, but came back in the 1950s. Jazz dancing has a strong history in America but not as long a history as ballet.

The differences between Jazz and formalized dance such as ballet are vast, though both allow expression of thoughts and emotions, and both have a history in the theaters. Jazz is similar to other dances because jazz dance has many feelings and emotions involved. When people Jazz dance they use their feelings to create movements, this type of dance is a very freeing dance. This ability to express ones emotions freely in dance, may be what lead to the popularity of Jazz music.

Conclusion

In retrospect, it appears as though all five forms of dance examined here are relative to each other, although there are many distinct differences between each of the styles. Ballet, modern dance, world/ritual dance, folk, and jazz, may have distinctive characteristic differences in the portrayal, and some share the same basic movements, they all share the same commonality; the goal to convey a story. The dancer’s objective is to tell a story through dance expression while internalizing the music and creating an atmosphere in which the audience can share in the experience to understand and become a part of the story.

References

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