Essay On Dance In America

On the first day of Dance 101 we were asked to write down what dance meant to us, my response was that dance was a personal expression through movement and a way to honor, and keep traditions alive. When I registered for this course I knew I would enjoy it because I love dance but what I got was an amazing journey without going anywhere that has increased my desire to travel the world and explore for myself. While taking this course my view of what dance is has expanded from my initial response to include a way to celebrate, release, entertain, and share you culture with others.
Learning the history of dance has increased my appreciation of it because when I watch dancing now I can see the influences from the past and sometimes from other cultures. …show more content…
The early influence that surprised me was the influence of Native Americans. Burlesque is a style of dance I love and enjoyed learning more about it in class like that it began in the 1840’s and spanned 80 years. The changes in dancing in American history is probably the most interesting since in most countries the influences are limited to local or conquering influences in contrast to America where so many people from others countries have come to build a new life bring with them their music and dances which expands outside their cultural circle much more easily here. Dance in America has many influences from all around the world with some of these cultures keeping their dance forms pure, and some getting their dance transformed to create new dance forms. I also learned of the struggles people had to go through in America for dance to evolve into the many forms there are today and the freedoms of being able to dance with who you want to without repercussions, or to dance by yourself in a crowd. I also learned that not all of what I thought was hip hop was actually hip hop and that moves differed from East and West Coast or that there are hip hop