Dance in the United States
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There is great variety in dance in the United States of America, it is the home of the Lindy Hop and its derivative Rock and Roll, and modern square dance (associated with the United States of America due to its historic development in that country--nineteen U.S. states have designated it as their official state dance) and one of the major centers for modern dance. There is a variety of social dance and concert or performance dance forms with also a range of traditions of Native American dances.
The reality shows and competitions So You Think You Can Dance[1] and Dancing with the Stars have broadened the audience for dance.
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[edit] African American dance
- See also: Lindy hop and Hip hop dance
African American dances are those vernacular dances which have developed within African American communities in everyday spaces, rather than in dance studios, schools or companies. African American vernacular dances are usually centered on social dance practice, though performance dance and concert dance often supply complementary aspects to social dancing.
Placing great value on improvisation, African American vernacular dances are characterised by ongoing change and development. Because they exist in social spaces and their main 'purpose' is self-expression, they are continually changing to reflect the needs, interests and personalities of their participants. They are also often characterised by their 'stealing' or 'borrowing' from other dance traditions and any particular African American vernacular dance shows clear evidence of its relationship to other, earlier dances.
Alvin Ailey and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is an important example of African American involvement in performance or concert dance.
[edit] Swing dance
- See also: Lindy hop
The term "swing dance" is commonly used to refer to a group of dances that developed concurrently with the style of jazz music in the 1920s, 30s and 40s. The most well known of which is lindy hop, a popular partner dance the originated in Harlem and is still danced today. While the majority of swing dances began in African American communities as vernacular African American dances[citation needed], there were a number of forms which developed within Anglo-American or other ethnic group communities. Balboa is one of the most commonly cited examples.
Dances such as the Black Bottom, charleston and tap dance travelled north with Dixieland jazz to New York, Kansas City, and Chicago in the Great Migration (African American) of the 1920s, where rural blacks travelled to escape persecution, Jim Crow laws, lynching and unemployment in the South (during the Great Depression).
Swinging jazz music features the syncopated timing associated with African American and West African music and dance — a combination of crotchets and quavers which many swing dancers interpret as 'triple steps' and 'steps' — yet also introduces changes in the way these rhythms were played — a distinct delay or 'relaxed' approach to timing.
Swing dance is now found globally, with great variety in their preferences for particular dances, although Lindy hop is often the most popular.
[edit] Ballet
In the early 20th century U.S. audiences also were introduced to classical ballet by touring companies of European dancers. With the move of the Ballets Russes to France, ballet began to have a broader influence, particularly in the United States of America.
After disagreements with Sergei Diaghilev at Ballets Russes, Michel Fokine went from Paris to Sweden and in 1919 to New York City. He believed that traditional ballet offered little more than prettiness and athletic display. Fokine choreographed Sheherazade and Cleopatra. He also reworked Petrouchka and The Firebird. One of his most famous works was The Dying Swan, performed by Anna Pavlova.
The first American ballet troupes were founded in the 1930s, when dancers and choreographers teamed up with visionary lovers of ballet such as Lincoln Kirstein (1907-1996). Kirstein invited Russian choreographer George Balanchine (1904-1983) to the United States in 1933, and the two established the School of American Ballet, which became the New York City Ballet in 1948. Ballet manager and publicity agent Richard Pleasant (1909-1961) founded America's second leading ballet organization, American Ballet Theatre, with dancer and patron Lucia Chase (1907-1986) in 1940.
Paradoxically, native-born directors like Pleasant included Russian classics in their repertoires, while Balanchine announced that his new American company was predicated on distinguished music and new works in the classical idiom, not the standard repertory of the past.
George Balanchine developed state-of-the-art technique in America by opening a school in Chicago and more importantly, in New York. He adapted ballet to the new media, movies and television.[2] A prolific worker, Balanchine rechoreographed classics such as Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty as well as creating new ballets. He produced original interpretations of the dramas of William Shakespeare such as Romeo and Juliet, The Merry Widow and A Midsummer Night's Dream. In Jewels Balanchine broke with the narrative tradition and dramatized a theme rather than a plot. He started what is now known as neoclassical ballet.
Barbara Karinska was a Russian emigree and a skilled seamstress who collaborated with Balanchine to elevate the art of costume design from a secondary role to an integral part of a ballet performance. She introduced the bias cut and a simplified classic tutu that allowed the dancer more freedom of movement. With meticulous attention to detail, she decorated her tutus with beadwork, embroidery, crochet and appliqué.
The American ballet scene has been a mix of classic revivals and original works, choreographed by such talented former dancers as Jerome Robbins (1918-1998), Robert Joffrey (1930-1988), Eliot Feld (1942- ), Arthur Mitchell (1934- ), and Mikhail Baryshnikov (1948- ).
[edit] Modern dance
American modern dance developed in the early 20th century alongside American music. . Among the early innovators were Isadora Duncan, the dance company of Ruth St. Denis and her husband-partner, Ted Shawn, her pupils Doris Humphrey, Martha Graham. Modern dance is more of a way to express your feelings and emotions in a deep dance. Sometimes it can be choreographed and other times it can be your freedom of expression. Many of Graham's most popular works were produced in collaboration with leading American composers -- "Appalachian Spring" with Aaron Copland, for example.
Later choreographers, Merce Cunningham introduced chance procedures and composition by field, and Alvin Ailey incorporated African dance elements and black music into his works. Recently, Mark Morris and Liz Lerman have shown that graceful, exciting movement is not restricted by age or body type.
[edit] American folk dance
[edit] Dancers
- Bill "Bojangles" Robinson
- Fred Astaire
- Ginger Rogers
- Gene Kelly
- Donald O'Connor
- Gregory Hines
- Savion Glover
- Mr. Wiggles
[edit] Ballet companies
- Alameda Ballet Academy
- Alameda Civic Ballet
- American Ballet Theatre
- American Ballet
- American Chamber Ballet
- Ballet Magnificat!
- Ballet Rejoice
- Ballet San Jose
- Carolina Ballet
- Chicago Festival Ballet
- Folsom Lake Civic Ballet
- New York City Ballet
- New York City Center
- New York Theatre Ballet
- Placer Theatre Ballet
- San Francisco Ballet
- The Mendocino Ballet
- The Sacramento Ballet
[edit] Dance companies
- Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
- American Indian Dance Theatre
- Columbia City Jazz Dance Company
- Dance Theater Workshop
- Dance Theatre of Harlem (not performing since 2004[3]) however its Dancing Through Barriers Ensemble continues to perform
- Rock Steady Crew
- Royal Academy of Dance, London England.
- Duquesne University Tamburitzans
- Ice Theatre of New York
- Judson Dance Theater
- Pacific Northwest Ballet
- Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company
- Snappy Dance Theater
- Martha Graham Dance Company
- The Rockettes
[edit] Dance education
[edit] Festivals
- American Dance Festival
- Jacob's Pillow is a home for dance in the United States founded by Ted Shawn and Ruth St. Denis, were America’s leading dance couple. It is a National Historic Landmark located in the town of Becket, Massachusetts, in the Berkshires. It encompasses an internationally acclaimed summer dance festival (the first and longest-running in the United States), a professional school, rare and extensive archives, an intern program, and year-round community programs.
- Fall for Dance Festival
- DanceAfrica
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ Fox Renews So You Think You Can Dance and Hell's Kitchen, Movieweb.com. (Accessed July 28, 2006)
- ^ George Balanchine
- ^ Where Are All the Black Swans?, New York Times, published: May 6, 2007 (accessed May 6,2007)
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