Transcript dance - hum1020

DANCE
• Dance communicates ideas
• Dance focuses on the human form in
time and space
DANCE
Scholars maintain that theatre in
ancient Greece developed from
ancient tribal dances
• Dance also represents a social
activity
• In this context we limit ourselves to
performance
Theatre Dance
Dance as an art form involves:
*performer
*performance
*audience
Dance focuses on the human form in
time and space
What is it?
• This discussion treats five directions
or genres in dance:
*Ballet
*Modern
*Ritual
*Folk
*Jazz
BALLET
• Reduction of human gesture to bare
essentials, heightened & developed into
meaningful patterns
• Great choreographer, George Balanchine,
saw single steps of a ballet as analogous to
single frames in film
• Ballet is a set of formalized movements• All emanate from five basic leg, foot, and
arm positions
Five Positions
MODERN DANCE
• Revolt against the stylized & traditionbound elements of ballet
• Exploration of natural, spontaneous, &
uninhibited movement
• Narrative elements are less emphasized
• Rejected conventions of ballet: feet are
bare
• There is a pronounced use of the floor in
the choreography, whereas in ballet it is
merely a springboard for leaps and jumps
RITUAL DANCE
• Dances have ceremonial functions
• With formal characteristics
• Particular prescribed procedures passed
from generation to generation
• Center around topics important to single
cultures
• Sacred- never performed for others
• Theatrical- involves cultural communication
FOLK DANCE
• Does not spring from the action of an
artist or group
• Developed over period of years, passed
from one generation to next
• Exist more to involve participants than to
entertain an audience
• Members of the group experience a sense
of oneness, whether in conscious strength,
purpose, or heightened power through
collective dancing
JAZZ DANCE
• Arise from jazz music & AfricanAmerican tradition
• Improvisation
• Syncopation
• Fusion with modern & Broadway style
• Jazz tap
MOVING IMAGES
• Line:
- horizontal- calm, repose
-vertical- grandeur, elegance,
strength
-diagonal- action, movement
Moving Image
• Form- 3-dimensional moving form
• Repetition- dancers move through
time
• Rhythm- relationship to music/
dynamics
Mime & Pantomime
• Mime: bodily movement that suggests
the kinds of movement we associate
with people or animals
• Pantomime- narrative elements
appear in dance, and the dancer
actually portrays a character in the
theatrical sense
THEME / PURPOSE
Dance communicates ideas
1) Narrative elements, tells story
2) Abstract ideas- relating to human
emotion or the human condition (psychology
and behavior; social themes; impressions of
poetry or novels; religious or folk themes)
3) “Divertissement”- communicates no
story or idea
COSTUME
• Costume, as in theatre
-can represent the story line or be
neutral
-must allow dancer to accomplish the
choreography
-can be an integral part of the piece
Footwear- on point, tap, ballet slippers,
street shoes, bare feet
Mis-En-Scene
• The complete visual environment of
the production
• Includes: costume, scenery, lighting
SIGN LANGUAGE
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Human communication
Set of symbols
Conventions of sign language
Universal set of body language
symbols exist (gestures)
• Dancers employ universal symbols
that appeal to our senses