The earliest precursors to ballets were lavish entertainments given in the courts of Renaissance Italy. These elaborate spectacles, which united painting, poetry, music, and dancing, took place in large halls that were used also for banquets and balls. A dance performance given in 1489 actually was performed between the courses of a banquet, and the action was closely related to the menu: For instance, the story of Jason and the Golden Fleece preceded the roast lamb. The dancers based their performance on the social dances of the day.
The Italian court ballets were further developed in France. Le Ballet Comique de la Reine (The Queen's Ballet Comedy), the first ballet for which a complete score survived, was performed in Paris in 1581. It was staged by Balthazar de Beaujoyeux, a violinist and dancing master at the court of Queen Catherine de M‚dicis. It was danced by aristocratic amateurs in a hall with the royal family on a dais at one end and spectators in galleries on three sides. Since much of the audience saw the ballet from above, the choreography emphasized the elaborate floor patterns created by lines and groups of dancers. Poetry and songs accompanied the dances.
Most French court ballets consisted of dance scenes linked by a minimum of plot. Because they were designed principally for the entertainment of the aristocracy, rich costumes, scenery, and elaborate stage effects were emphasized. The proscenium stage (see Theater Production) was first adopted in France in the mid-1600s, and professional dancers made their first appearance, although they were not permitted to dance in the grand ballet that concluded the performance; this was still reserved for the king and courtiers.
The court ballet reached its peak during the reign (1643-1715) of Louis XIV, whose title the Sun King was derived from a role he danced in a ballet. Many of the ballets presented at his court were created by the Italian-French composer Jean Baptiste Lully and the French choreographer Pierre Beauchamp, who is said to have defined the five positions of the feet. Also during this time, the playwright MoliŠre invented the com‚die-ballet, in which danced interludes alternated with spoken scenes.
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Tap Dance, style of American theatrical dance, distinguished by percussive footwork, that marks out precise rhythmic patterns on the floor. Some descriptive step names are brush, flap, shuffle, ball change, and cramp roll.
The sources of tap dancing include the Irish solo step dance, the English clog dance, and African dance movements. Among the slaves in the southern United States, these merged by the early 19th century into folk styles, the modern descendants of which include buck-and-wing dancing and southern United States clogging (both done in leather-sole shoes). The slave dances were adapted theatrically in 1828 in the first blackface minstrel show, in the dancing of Thomas "Daddy" Rice. In late 19th-century minstrel shows and showboat routines, two techniques were popularized: a fast style in wooden-sole shoes, also called buck-and-wing, exemplified by the duo of Jimmy Doyle and Harland Dixon; and soft-shoe, a smooth, leather-sole style made famous by George Primrose. These styles gradually coalesced, and by the 1920s metal plates, or taps, had been added to leather-soled shoes. In the 1920s and 1930s black dancers contributed to the development of new styles of tap dance, and black dance teams became popular for their acrobatic, often satirical acts. John Bubbles popularized a slower, more syncopated style of tap dance. Prominent dance teams of the era included Slap and Happy (Harold Daniels and Leslie Irvin) and Stump and Stumpy (James Cross and Harold Cromer). Jazz provided further rhythmic complexity, and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson became America's most famous tap dancer. The style was further expanded in the 1930s and 1940s, when dancers such as Fred Astaire, Paul Draper, Ray Bolger, and, in the late 1950s, Gene Kelly added movements from ballet and modern dance. In the late 1970s and early 1980s interest in tap dance underwent a resurgence.
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The History of Jazz Dance |
The term “Jazz Dance” has been used to describe a forever-changing form of popular and creative dance movement ever since the 19th Century. It represents our popular culture, and as the culture changes, so does the appearance of jazz dance. Jazz dance has a character and the ability to make changes as a main fragment. It’s this element that allows itself to shed it’s skin and take up another for every passing era.
Jazz dance in the European circuit originated in black social dances around 1910 with a barrage of dances inspired by African animal dances. The vernacular inspired dances such as Turkey Trot, Monkey Glide, Chicken Scratch & Bunny Hug swept through white ballrooms setting the stage for the same process in white Broadway.
In 1913 J. Leubrie Hill produced “Darktown Follies” in Harlem which introduced social dances in a theatrical setting. It’s popularity affected the way white people produced their shows and marked the beginning of nightly migration by whites to Harlem.
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In the early 1970’s, following the “funk” era, the unnamed culture know today as “hip-hop” was forming in New York City’s Ghettos. The South Bronx of New York is recognised as the birthplace of this incomparable musical masterpiece. It became the Urban voice of Urban America in 4 distinct different forms, but all with the common pulse of hip hop rhythm.
Kool DJ Herc, originally from Jamaica, is crediting with forming the style he coined “Breakers”. The term “break” referred to the section of music where the percussive rhythms were most aggressive and hard driving. DJ Herc re-cued these beats from one turntable to there other, giving dancers time to enjoy the break and react with their most impressive steps and moves. The tension mounted when the music was played and it was time to “go-off”, thus forming the creation of the dance style “Breakers”.
The style “Top-Rockin” was formed by dancers dancing upright and was influenced by various African and Native American dances. It had an identifiable structure but given it’s highly competitive nature it wasn’t long before top rockers extended to the ground with “foot work”, later defined as “Floor-Rocking”. “Top-Rockin” wasn’t replaced by “Floor-Rocking”, they were added together, both making key points in the execution of this dance style. Later on moves such as swipes, dips and corkscrews were added to this style pushing it in a new direction of the so-called “power moves” era in the early 80’s. “Power moves” brought about a series of spins including knee spins, butt spins, floats and freezes, but all these moves contributed to the make up of the unique style identified as “Top-Rockin”.
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