Afrobeat: A fun and diverse style of dance originating predominantly from Sub-Saharan Africa. It is an evolution from traditional African dance styles following the creation of Afrobeats music. Afrobeats music is anchored in West African music styles, particularly Nigerian Afrobeat and Ghanaian highlife, with American jazz, funk, reggae and dancehall added to the mix, creating a hybrid sound from across continents.
Friday Fun: The evolution of dance
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Dance Evolution had mixed reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic.[7] IGN was disappointed in their review of the game saying, "DanceMasters is fun enough, especially if you enjoy Dance Dance Revolution and you want a similar Japanese take on the dance genre...but the niche soundtrack and the lack of a proper practice mode make this game difficult to get into...it's also a shame that the move recognition seems unusually lenient at times, but unnecessarily fickle at others...I would recommend Dance Central over DanceMasters any day of the week.[8]
This stage of dance development coincided with the beginnings of the modern age and globalization, which dramatically influenced the evolution of dance. Humankind began to travel and communicate like never before. Social and political structures became more organized around the world, and ideas and customs were shared and spread and blended, which is reflected in the development of dancing.
This is a very broad overview of the Africa-Americas dance history that can be regarded as an example of a major aspect of dance history internationally. Similar evolution of dance, alongside massive social and demographic movements, has always happened in other parts of the world. Dance is a mirror of civilizations and societies, whether in the Americas, or the Far East, or the Russian Empire, or the Arab world, or India or Australasia. Dance grows and spreads and blends with the changing world, especially when people are forced to live in very basic ways.
Interestingly the origins of the word dance via Latin through French became confused because there was a religious ban on dancing in the Middle Ages, which affected the evolution of the word. Significant in 'dance word history' is that dance was such a powerful concept that religious authorities in France decided to ban dancing altogether. English culture and language is substantially influenced by French (about 50% of English language is basically from French), mainly due to the Norman Conquest invasion (1066) and subsequent French governance, and widescale occupation and conversion of English society and national identity. The word dance is heavily influenced by this aspect of Anglo-French history. We 'dance' because the French (notably the Norman French) invaded and colonized England. Had the Romans or Vikings been similarly colonial, and left more of their culture after invading England, then our word for dance might be 'danza' (Italian) or similar, or 'danzleikr' (old Norse) or similar. Or if the Normans had not invaded, then given the prevalence of Germanic words in English, conceivably 'dance' would today instead be closer to the German dance noun/verb 'tanz' and 'tenzen'.
Kirov/Maryinsky Ballet - The Kirov/Maryinsky (or Mariinsky) ballet of St Petersburg is one of the most influential ballet schools/companies in history. Like the Bolshoi Ballet of Moscow, the Kirov/Maryinsky of St Petersburg was fundamental for ballet and dance in Russia, and with the major early ballet schools and companies of France, Italy, and the UK, helped define and standardize ballet, and provide a platform for the development of concert dance and other classical forms of theatre dance around the world. The beginnings of the Kirov Ballet were the Russian court dancers trained at the Empress Anna Ivanovna's dance school, which evolved initially into the Russian Imperial Ballet, reflecting its royal patronage. After the Russian Revolution it became the Soviet Ballet, and then Kirov Ballet (named after the assassination of Bolshevik revolutionary Sergey Kirov in 1934). The Kirov/Maryinsky Ballet has been through many changes since its 1773 origins in the Russian royal court. In more recent times the Mariinsky Ballet is the official name, linked to the school, now known as the Vaganova Ballet Academy.
Pirouette - A pirouette (French originally meaning a 'spinning top') is a dance turn on one foot that is common in many forms of dance, and gymnastics too, with variations according to dance type. In Classical Ballet the pirouette pose and movement resembles the 'spinning top' meaning. The dancer is turned by the partner, standing on one leg tip-toe, with the other leg bent, with the foot fixed at the supporting knee. In ballet a pirouette is en pointe (on tip-toe) with legs rotated outward at hips (called 'turnout'). Generally in other dance forms and gymnastics the legs are not turned out at the hips, and the turn would not usually be on tip-toe, and would commonly be a solo move, which obviously enables fewer revolutions before repeating propulsion. In Ice Dance, a pirouette, aided by much-reduced friction, and a technique of retracting the extending leg, and arms, a pirouette can attain seriously dizzying acceleration and speeds.
Saturday Night Fever - The 1977 film Saturday Night Fever changed popular dancing more than any other film. It changed lots else too: music, the entertainment industry, market-design, an entire generation of people, etc). Saturday Night Fever starred John Travolta as Tony Manero, a young man in Brooklyn NYC, and Karen Lynn Gorney as Stephanie Mangano his dance partner. Both have a passionate ability for Disco Dance. Travolta's character especially regards dance as an utterly crucial escape; his quest for purpose, value, recognition, etc., beyond the desperate difficulties of his day-to-day life. Millions of young people could identify with what dance means to Travolta's character - a way to be brilliant as a person, and to find meaning. To achieve and be the best. You will see illustrations of most classical motivational theory in Travolta's character (see Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs , for example). The film revolutionized Disco Dance and also provided the foundations on which wider Freestyle Dance was developed, defined, taught, and adopted globally. This is explained in the sections about Disco Dance and Freestyle Dance. The broad Freestyle Dance category, and the Freestyle Dance form itself, grew from the Disco Dance that the music and choreography in Saturday Night Fever inspired. Specifically the film Saturday Night Fever was the catalyst for Disco Dancing to be standardized and choreographed using a system of steps, movements, principles, in ways that already applied to traditional formal genres of dance such as Ballroom, Latin, Ballet and Tap, etc. Before Saturday Night Fever, Disco Dancing was not considered a serious structured dance form. Disco Dance was not taught in dance academies, nor were there any teaching qualifications for Disco Dance, or standards, or competitions, or famous dancers who were noted for dancing in the Disco Dance style. The film Saturday Night Fever was an enormous global success. The soundtrack album, and many Disco singles from it - largely featuring Disco songs written by the Gibbs brothers (The Bee-Gees) - became massively successful in their own right, and effectively defined the standard for Disco music in the late 1970s, and into the 1980s and beyond this too. Disco music became absolutely integral to Disco Dance and Disco lifestyle and fashion. Disco music also became totally oriented for discotheques and nightclubs - designed to promote dancing in a very different way from the much looser and ill-defined 'beat' dancing of the 1960s and early-mid 1970s. Disco music was/is characterized by: 'hooky' (accessible, unforgettable) melodies and choruses, slick smooth production, a big emphasis on hypnotic repetitive powerful bass, and percussion (bass drum/snare/high-hat) beat , multi-layered electric guitars and synthesizers/keyboards, usually with highly acrobatic and clinically clean vocals, usually multi-tracked and given lots of compression treatment. The sound of Disco music is radically more polished and sumptuous than other popular rougher and earthier styles of the times, for example rock, punk, blues, soul, reggae, ska, etc. Disco was a new lifestyle, as well as a fundamentally new dance form, and it was embraced globally - more enthusiastically and widely than any other dance/lifestyle genre in history. As such, Disco was the first dance style to benefit from mass media and rampant consumerism, enabling a new approach to market-design by the big entertainment corporations, so that they could successfully 'manufacture' a music and dance concept, to a sophisticated formula, and which was quickly supported and sustained by a heavily commercialised industry of discotheques and related lifestyle products (drinks, fashionwear notably). Saturday Night Fever was the start of all this - the globalization of entertainment and lifestyle - which grows ever more powerful, and continues to re-invent itself into the 21st century, and likely indefinitely beyond. 2ff7e9595c
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