Character dancing

Character dancing

Character dancing is performing a dance of ethnic origin generally used in the context of ballet training.

All classical ballets contain slow graceful difficult steps, but often there are interludes in the story where some peasants will enter to perform an exuberant dance. In Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker" the toys perform a waltz and a polka. In "Sleeping Beauty" there is a mazurka and a polonaise. Ballet students therefore need to master these dances. In competitions and exams, especially at the junior level, points will be given for capuring the essential character of these folk dances, and for being able to move gracefully in contrasting time-signatures. Modern ballets almost always have jazz dances instead of character dances.

To a lesser extent the term 'character dance' can describe movements which indicate psychological states - fear, excitement, drunkenness and so on. While classical ballet shoes are soft, flesh-coloured and tight-fitting, so-called "character shoes" have a hard sole, possibly with a buckle and are often black. Female ballet students will also own a "character skirt". These do not indicate any specific ethnic original, but are somewhat generic. For example the official Royal Academy of Dance character skirt is black with three horizontal pastel stripes at the bottom.

References

Table of ballets with ethnic dances in them:
* http://www.jsmusic.org.uk/articles/dance_rhythms.html

Royal Academy of Dance dress code
*http://www.thedanceacademy.org/RADDressCode.html


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Dancing with the Stars (Albania) — Dancing with the Stars Albania Format Dance competition Presented by Alketa Vejsiu, Genti Zotaj (Season 1) Amarda Toska, Ermal Mamaqi (Season 2) Judges Ilir Shaqiri Iva Tiço Arian Çani (Season 1 2) Country of origin …   Wikipedia

  • Dancing in the Street — Single by Martha and the Vandellas from the album Dance Party …   Wikipedia

  • Dancing — • The origin of dancing is from the natural tendency to employ gesture either to supplement or to replace speech Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006. Dancing     Dancing      …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • Dancing Stage EuroMix 2 — Developer(s) Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH Publisher(s) KDE GmbH Distributor(s) KDE GmbH Designer(s) …   Wikipedia

  • Dancing with the Stars (video game) — Dancing With The Stars North American PS2 boxart Developer(s) Zoë Mode(PS2/Wii) Aurona (PC version) n Space Publisher(s) …   Wikipedia

  • Dancing Sushi — Format Animated series Comedy Created by Larry Schwarz Directed by John Holt Country of origin USA No. of episodes …   Wikipedia

  • Dancing Beijing — Simplified Chinese 舞动的北京 Traditional Chinese 舞 …   Wikipedia

  • Dancing in Water — English language theatrical poster Directed by Jovan Aćin Produced by Drago …   Wikipedia

  • Dancing baby — The shipped cha cha dancing motion file assigned to the Baby model data The Dancing Baby, also called Baby Cha Cha, refers to an animated 3D model of a baby and 3D rendered video animations of that baby dancing a sort of cha cha style of dance… …   Wikipedia

  • Dancing at Lughnasa — For the film, see Dancing at Lughnasa (film). Dancing at Lughnasa Faber and Faber 1990 cover Written by Brian Friel D …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”