Dance - an Art or Sport - Term Paper Example

Choreography The definition of dance depends on the cultural context of where it takes place. However, in the general sense, dance constitutes body movements that are often rhythmic and normally made in response to music. In most societies, dance is performed for various purposes. These include emotional expression purposes, entertainment, social interaction, spiritual purposes or just as a sport. This means that a dance plays an integral role in many societies and cultures. Dance, rhythmic music and body painting came into being as a result of natural selection (Hanna 64). Dance has been around in the human society since before the emergence of the earliest civilizations. According to archaeological evidence, dance used to be an important part of human rituals, ceremonies and celebrations during the pre-historic times (Ambrosio 5-8). The issue of whether dance is a sport or art has ensured into a serious debate (Catona 87). All in all, based on how and why it is performed, dance can be said to be both a sport and an art. On the one hand, dance can be considered as an art form because it involves physical body movements. Dance normally involves some important gestures that can be used for artistic communication. The expressions have agreed that dance affects the behavior of the performers in that movement is seen. They also agree that dance is a work of art with specifiable characteristics and that dance possesses material identity that may be sensed only in human movement. They also agree that dance is an important element of the human culture (Ambrosio 15-18). Dancing expressions differ on whether can be used as an instrument of gesture and symbolism. As a result, some argue that they tend to be used for religious, ritual and ceremonial purposes. The expressions have differed in the way they define the cultural sequences of the body movement. The emotional expressions are also different as some explain that a person can dance without expressing emotions and that many groups do not just dance to music but rhythms in their minds. The expression does not inclusively compare dance to everyday movement, but they agree that it is repetitive (Ambrosio 58). Modern dance is a kind of theatrical dancing that is not as limited as classical ballet. In modern dance movements express the feelings. Around the 1900s some American dancers started to rebel against the strict and confining style of Classical Ballet. Modern dance is very vivid, ever changing and full of expression. Dancer’s like Alvin Ailey helped upgrade modern dance as we now see it. Art is basically one’s way of seeing them and expressing emotions. Because modern dance is without restriction deeper feelings and a stronger understanding is obtained. It is done easily due to this non-conforming way of dance. Urban dance or “street dance” describes any dance that has not come from formal beginnings like break dancing. This style is much improvised and can evolve without warning due the individual. The beginnings of this style can be traced as far as West African cultures. Dancing also plays an important role in culture. The rituals, dances, arts, music and beliefs of a population are passed down from generation to generation. As previously discussed street dance is a modern take on old dance styles from older cultures. Some of the movements mimicked in modern times have come from Western Africa. Dances of celebration, acts of war, religious ceremony and been spread all over the world, but more so in the Caribbean and South American countries due to the old world slave trade. In Brazil the African slaves that were shipped there also brought with them their culture of song and dance (Ambrosio 61). The slave masters would take their farming tools away and they wouldn’t allow them to have weapons. The slaves would communicate through song and dance. Without weapons they figured out that the slave masters didn’t understand their culture so the slaves ended up creating fighting techniques from traditional dances. Soon after that the slaves started to rebel and free themselves. This style of dancing became as the martial art Capoeira. Dance has always been around since the beginning of time. The dance styles of ballet, break dancing and etc. Dancing not only allows humans to express themselves, but it also exists in the animal kingdom as they too express themselves. Dancing can also tell stories and share information and cultural history of past and present. Dancing can also be used as a martial art and aide in time of war and strife. By looking at the many dance styles we can take a better look into great cultures other than our own. Contemporary dancers employed all of their body more than the classical ballet performers. The contemporary performers used their bodies in creating different shapes. At the beginning of dances, the males created an M shape while approaching the females. Most performances were Pas De Deux with no groupings. Their movements involved in the contemporary performance were non-locomotor movements, especially in the very beginning, and the pirouettes performed by the classical ballet dancers were also non-locomotor. Most of the locomotor motions were seen during the fleeing and chasing game the classical ballet performers were portraying, and while the contemporary dancers were moving about, most of their performance was non-locomotor movements. Although, in both performance, the relationship between the dancers seemed to be romantic, the contemporary dancers added more sensuality and chemistry than the classical ballet performers. In both performances, one can observe that the majority of the movements made were large in size. Although the contemporary dancers used high, medium and low levels, the classical ballet dancers only used high and low medium levels. During their performance the contemporary dancers used the middle of the stage most of the time, they hardly ever moved away from the area in the center, where the light was located. The classical ballet dancers, however, used most, if not all, of the stage, they did not have any symmetry in their performance but rather followed a certain pattern and included no symmetry. As the performances progressed it was easy to see that the classical ballet dancers acted more aware of the audience and thus focused most of their head movements on them. On the other hand, the contemporary performers barely acknowledged the audience and focused on their chemistry with each other. The speed exhibited in the performances alternated depending on the tempo of the music. For example, at the beginning of the contemporary performance the male dancer made very slow fluid movements, followed by rapid, sharp, heavy ones. There was only one moment of stillness during the contemporary performance and two or three in the classical. Many of the movements performed by the classical ballet dancers were in accordance to the rhythm of the music, rather than just spontaneous. An example of this would be the pirouettes performed along with the instrumentation. Besides the use of different levels, speed, and rhythm, the classical ballet exhibited more repetition than the contemporary performers. During the classical performance there were many movements that were free and unbound, while the movements in the contemporary were bound to a certain portion of the stage. The expression I support according to my understanding “What is dance? Dance is entertainment. Experiencing the movement. Feeling the beat. Following the rhythm. Balancing the steps. Practicing on stage. That is Dance.” This is because the styles of dancing tend to focus on the link between body and mind. Another characteristic of dance is that it is based theatrical elements and literary and pictorial devices (Franklin3-4). Dance can be said to be an art due to its aesthetic nature. Like any other form of art, dance is beautiful, and it seems to be more appealing. Like other pieces of art such as song, dance can be used for expression of thought and feelings. Dance serves this function better when it is performed in combination with a song. In some situations, dance is classified as a performance art. I agree with Nora Ambrosio that dance is entertainment where one experiences the movements and feels the beat and rhythm. Works Cited Ambrosio, Nora. Learning About Dance: Dance As an Art Form & Entertainment. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt, 2010. Print. Catona, Gary. Thinking As Sport and Dance: Learn the Power of Creative Thinking. New York: iUniverse, 2007. Cruz, Barbara. Alvin Ailey: Celebrating African-American Culture in Dance. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers, 2004. Print. Franklin, Eric N. Conditioning for Dance: [training for Peak Performance in All Dance Forms]. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2004. Print. Hanna, Judith. To Dance Is Human: A Theory of Nonverbal Communication. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987. Read More