![]() This increased interest in dance provides an opportunity to offer dance sessions for older people in community centres, carehomes, village halls and hospitals across the country. In December 2019 the BBC reported that over 11.3 million viewers tuned in to watch the final of Strictly Come Dancing. Dance, on the other hand, is an enjoyable and sociable form of exercise where participants report very high levels of motivation.ĭance is also increasingly catching the public imagination. Exercise programmes for older people commonly experience high drop-outrates. The Centre for Policy on Aging has published a report which reviews the international evidence for the health benefits of dancing for older people. This article from the Neuroscience Institute at Harvard University discusses how dancing has a positive impact on brain function. Why dancing is a great way to keep you activeĦ reasons to dance your way back to health We call them folkloric dances.All forms of dance are a wonderful way to exercise! The British Heart Foundation tells us that dancing offers a great cardio workout. Some of them have been going for hundreds of years. But all these types of dance have music.Īt the same time, round the world there are many traditional dances. Some people dance as individuals, separately as they please. Now, once again, new dance styles have arrived. They did not dance in formation, but moved round the room as they pleased (but anti-clockwise). In the waltz, and later dances, people danced in couples, but they did so separately. After the invention of the waltz, around 1800, another style of dancing developed. The music played for a set time, and then stopped. Everyone moved at the same time, and finished at the same time. These formations were usually lines or squares. The way people moved was planned in set formation. Until the 20th century, most ballroom dances were sequence dances. Ballroom dances such as the waltz are done by couples. Ballroom dances are forms of modern dance. The great dancer Nijinsky used some of these ideas in his choreography for the ballet Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring), a ballet about the sacrifice of a girl during a primitive celebration of Spring.Ĭoming to more recent times, the first dance school we know about was opened in 1661 in Paris. The two styles of dance may be joined together. ![]() The dance type which is used in image dances is mime. They really believe the image dances work. Sachs points out that societies of this kind do not really understand the connection between cause and effect. This is the kind of thinking behind an image dance. To dance in imitation of the animal which is going to be hunted is to become one with them. By imitating an animal or object, the dancer believes he can capture a power and make it useful. The 'image dances', according to Sachs, are to do with the world outside the dancer. They are found in all early ('primitive') societies. These dances are done on certain occasions: marriage, war, famine, illness or death, and so on. In this state the dancer(s) seem changed, in a trance, and are often thought of (by their society) as being 'possessed by spirits'. By 'imageless dances' he meant dances which have no set form, but aim at getting the dancers into a state of ecstasy. ![]() Sachs divides early dances into 'Imageless dances' and 'Image dances'. We have pictures, on pottery and stone, which show dances from several thousand years ago, in Egypt and Greece. Other dances need a whole group of people together to make it work. One style is the couple dance, where (usually) a man and a woman dance together. However, most dancing does follow some general style or pattern. ![]() Dances may be planned in detail, or they may be whatever dancers feel like doing. ![]() Often this goes with music, and fits into a certain style. To plan a dance is called choreography, done by a choreographer. It may take years of practice to become an experienced and flexible dancer. People who want to learn to dance can go to dance schools. In some societies, dance goes with song as well as music. Some people dance to express their feelings and emotions. There are many kinds of dance, and every human society has its dances.ĭancing is not a sport, although it does have sporting aspects. The dance may be informal play, part of a ritual, or part of a professional performance. Dance is when people move to a musical rhythm. ![]()
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