Tap dance

British Dance: Influential Black Dancers Made an Impact on Britain “Like Britain itself, British dance has been informed by different waves of immigration”, says dance history professor Ramsay Burt (Roy). Ballet “took root” through a determined Polish woman, Marie Rambert, and Irishwoman, Ninette de Valois (Roy). Modern dance was arranged by exiles form Germany in the 1930s and visitors from America in the 1950s and 1960s (Roy). The stories and history of black British dancers however, tends to…

Dance is just like an essay. In order to get better, each individual needs to practice. The biggest difference, at least for me, is that most of the time dance is fun and an essay is not. Well, enough of comparing. Lets go back 4 years ago when I first entered Woodrow Wilson High School. I remember myself being very nervous, but exited at the same time. Wondering if I was going to like my classes and my teachers. Every day when it was time to go to dance class, my mood changed from lazy and…

said that “The one thing that can solve most of our problems is dancing”. Personally I think that swing dance is one of the most fun forms of dancing. While learning this unit my two favorite dance forms were- West Coast Swing and the Lindy Hop. Both the dance forms are successfully able to combine elegance with speed and more of a jazzy rhythm. West coast swing happens to be the state dance of California.Some sources say that the west coast swing has roots in the Lindy Hop. The first ever…

experience another type of culture – a culture that we all see today: Hip Hop. These competitions, primarily held in Southern California, bring in Hip Hop teams far and wide and form together what we call today – the Dance Community of SoCal. Although the teams change and the venues vary, the Dance Community of SoCal tends to follow the same trend. Regardless if you dislike or approve the culture of Hip Hop, you cannot…

for about a year when the reality TV show Dance Moms aired. I remember constantly hearing different forms of the question; “Is it like dance moms?”, or “Is your teacher like Abby Lee?”. Of course I shot it down because I always thought that the show was a bad thing...partially because my mom never wanted me to watch it. But, now that I am looking at it in a different light, they are similar in some perspective. Competition dancing and the reality show Dance Moms are built upon the same idea, but…

Bunny Briggs always said that he was born dancing and “When [he] finally faced the world [his] legs were kickin’. Bunny was a prodigy who performed all over Harlem then on Television and Broadway. He started dancing after seeing his aunt perform with Bill Robinson. He was able to reproduce the steps that Robinson had performed with ease. Bunny said he “couldn't believe how graceful [Robinson] was, and how calm. To move like that and smile. That's when [Bunny] decided.” He began performing with…

Dancing Dreams is a ballet dance program for young girls that face special challenges. Being a part of this program had an effect on my outlook on life where I transitioned from a child to an adult mentally. Each of the young girls I had worked with were different in their own way and each had an impact on me. The first day of the program I was a bit nervous. Kaity, my dance partner, had a difficult time walking and getting around the studio. Despite this, my dance partner will always have a…

For our jazz choreography project, my group based our choreography on the style of jazz dance from the 1920’s and the 1950’s. We did not base our choreography on a specific dancer instead we based our piece off of the style of the flappers. In our choreography, we tried to emulate the upbeat, sassy, and cheeky nature of the flapper's style of dancing. We accomplished this by incorporating the Charleston and some elements of the swing dancing and the jitterbug. In the creation of our piece, we…

figures that helped break traditional representations. She was known as the “Matriarch and Queen Mother of Black Dance.” She was the director and founder of Katherine Dunham Dance Company that opened in 1932. Dunham thought that black dance should be equal in status with white European dance. She changed American dance by going back to the roots of black dance and making choreography. Her dance techniques represent and reflect…

his life as an actor and tap dancer until he died in New York in 1949, from heart disease. Bill began his dancing career at the age of 7, when he quit school so he could become a dancer. This must have worked out for him, because by the end of his life he was referred as the greatest tap dancer to ever live. He also invented the stair dance, which is a form of tap dancing, in which you tap up and down a flight of stairs. Lastly, his birthday was named National Tap Dancing Day by…