Dance

Meanings
Involves a successive group of body motions and steps
rhythmically performed and timed to music
Said to be the oldest of the arts
The dancing body has inspired the musician, the sculptor and the
painter
The drama of most countries started in their dances
The beginnings of music have been traced to the dance
Has been called the MOTHER OF THE ARTS

Dance can be categorized as
1. Art
a. May tell a story
b. Set a mood
c. Express an emotion
2. Recreation
a. Fun
b. Relaxation
c. Companionship

Dances may be performed for different purposes
1. Religious
2. Magical
3. Commemorative
4. Ceremonial
5. Recreational
6. Entertainment

Why people dance
1. Worship
2. Courtship
3. Enjoyment
4. Magical Powers
5. Victory in war
6. Health Restoration
7. Companionship
8. Relief from the monotony of having the same activity in their daily life
9. Entertainment
10. Beauty and Inspiration
11. Releasing Tension

Kinds of Dancing
1. Ethnological (Folk Dancing)
a. Tinikling
b. Alcamfor
c. Banga
d. Bilaan
e. Itik-itik
f. Jota cavitea
g. Pandanggo sa Sambalilo
h. Sayaw Ed Tapew na Bangko
i. Singkil
j. The Ifugao Dance
2. Social or Ballroom Dances
a. Waltz
b. Foxtrot
c. Swing
d. Cha-cha
e. Boogie
f. Tango
g. Rumba
h. Cheek to cheek
3. Theatrical or Spectacular Dance (performed for the entertainment of
spectators)
a. Ballet
Staging
Scenery
Costumes
Dancing
Music but no dialogue
The Ballet Dancer performs on:
o Paintworks
o Pirouettes
o elevation
b. Modern dance (contemporary/ interpretative)
Natural and free
Doesnt stick to conventions
Has varied styles of movements and are vitally precise,
spontaneous, free and natural
Usually based on the current trends
Also called EXPRESSIONAL DANCE
Developed in the early 1900s
The dance comes from within the performer
The themes of the modern dances are taken from the ups
and downs of real life in its tragic as well as its humorous
aspects
Have dynamic tempo and are vitally precise, spontaneous,
free and natural
The modern dancer
o Stretches
o Drops
o Exaggerates
o Distorts
o Intensifies movements for the art sake
c. Musical comedy dances
Performed by
o Soloist
o Groups
o Choruses
In theaters
In nightclubs
In motion picture
In television
Combines various forms of
o Ballet
o Modern
o Tap
o Acrobatic
o Soft shoe dancing
d. Tap dancing


Elements of dance
1. Theme (message)
2. Design (pattern of movements in time and space)
3. Movement (action of dancers as they use their bodies to create
organized patterns)
a. Steps
b. Gestures of arms and hands
c. Facial expression
4. Technique (skill in executing movements)
5. Music (accompaniment)
6. Costumes and properties
7. Choreography
8. Scenery (setting/ background)

Reasons for dancing
1. Ifugaos
To celebrate the victory of the warriors after a fight with their
enemies.
2. Bagobos
To show gratitude to the spirits for success in war or domestic
affairs
3. Indians
To give thanks for a harvest
4. Mexicans
To celebrate a religious festival
DANCE
Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body,
usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social
interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting.
Dance may also be regarded as a form of nonverbal communication
between humans, and is also performed by other animals (bee
dance, patterns of behavior such as a mating dance). Gymnastics, figure
skating and synchronized swimming are sports that incorporate dance,
while martial arts kata are often compared to dances. Motion in ordinarily
inanimate objects may also be described as dances (the leaves danced in
the wind).
Definitions of what constitutes dance are dependent on social,
cultural, aesthetic, artistic and moral constraints and range from functional
movement (such as folk dance) to virtuoso techniques such as ballet. Dance
can be participatory, social or performed for an audience. It can also
be ceremonial, competitive or erotic. Dance movements may be without
significance in themselves, such as in ballet or European folk dance, or have
a gestural vocabulary/symbolic system as in many Asian dances. Dance can
embody or express ideas, emotions or tell a story.
Dancing has evolved many styles. Break dancing and Cramping are
related to the hip hop culture. African dance is interpretative. Ballet,
Ballroom, Waltz, and Tango are classical styles of dance while Square and
the Electric Slide are forms of step dances.
Every dance, no matter what style, has something in common. It not
only involves flexibility and body movement, but also physics. If the proper
physics is not taken into consideration, injuries may occur.
Choreography is the art of creating dances. The person who creates
(i.e., choreographs) a dance is known as the choreographer.
Philippine Dances
Most Philippine dances were originally patterned after European dances
during the Spanish regime. Pandango Sa Ilaw, Cariosa, Rigodon and Balitao
are examples of these dances Filipinos are known for. Aside from these
western-influenced dances, ethnic-created dances such as Tinikling made its
way to nationwide recognition. Despite its apparent adaptation to western
dances, still Filipinos pay tribute to their cultural roots. Every district in the
islands has its own folk dance, interpreted attractively in festivals and local
shows, which have added to the countrys reputed contribution to worlds
illustration of traditional arts.
The following are examples of popular Philippine folk dances :
Binasuan - Originated in Pangasinan Province meaning with the use of
drinking glasses, this vibrant dance basically shows off balancing skill of
the performers. Glasses filled with rice wine are placed on the head and
on each hand carefully maneuvered with graceful movements. This dance
is common in weddings, fiestas and special occasions.
Rigodon - Originated from Spain, this dance is commonly performed at
formal affairs like inaugural balls where prominent members of the
government participate and enjoy.
Pandanggo sa Ilaw - The word pandanggo comes from the Spanish dance
fandangocharacterized with lively steps and clapping while following a
varying beat. Pandanggo requires excellent balancing skill to maintain
the stability of three tinggoy, or oil lamps, placed on head and at the back
of each hand. This famous dance of grace and balance originated from
Lubang Island, Mindoro.
Sublian - The term subli is from two tagalog words subsub meaning
falling on head and bali, which means broken. Hence, the dancers
appear to be lame and crooked throughout the dance. This version is
originally a ritual dance of the natives of Bauan, Batangas, which is
shown during fiestas as a ceremonial worship dance to the towns icon,
the holy cross.
Kuratsa - Commonly performed during festivals in Bohol and other Visayan
towns, this dance portrays a young playful couples attempt to get each
others attention. It is performed in a moderate waltz style.
Itik-itik - According to history of this dance, a young woman named Kanang
(short for Cayetana) happened to be the best performer in the province of
Surigao del Norte. At one baptismal reception, she was asked to dance
the Sibay, and began improvising her steps in the middle of her
performance imitating the movements of an itik, a duck, as it walks
with choppy steps and splashes water on its back while attracting its
mate. Because of its unusual steps and fascinating interpretation, the
audience began imitating her.
Tinikling - Tinikling is considered the national folkdance with a pair of
dancers hopping between two bamboo poles held just above the ground
and struck together in time to music. Originated from Leyte Province, this
dance is in fact a mimic movement of tikling birds hopping over trees,
grass stems or over bamboo traps set by farmers. Dancers perform this
dance with remarkable grace and speed jumping between bamboo poles.
Maglalatik - Originally performed in Binan, Laguna as a mock-war dance
that demonstrates a fight between the Moros and the Christians over the
prized latik or coconut meat during the Spanish rule, this dance is also
shown to pay tribute to the towns patron saint, San Isidro Labrador. It
has a four-part performance such as the palipasan and the baligtaran
showing the intense battle, the paseo and the escaramusa- the
reconciliation. Moro dancers wear read trousers while the Christian
dancers show up in blue. All dancers are male ; with harnesses of coconut
shells attached on their chests, backs, thighs and hips.
Maria Clara - Maria Clara is the main female character in Jose Rizals Noli
Me Tangere -a literary piece that features the colonial situation of the
Filipinos during the Spanish regime. She was characterized as a Filipina
woman of virtue and nobility. This dance is a mix of Spanish gracefulness
and customized native props, such as bamboo castanets and Asian fan.
Female dancers wear Maria Clara dress that typifies the European style,
while men are in barong tagalog, a traditional Filipino embroidered long-
sleeve shirt made of pineapple fiber.
Cariosa - Cariosa is a word that describes an affectionate, friendly and
lovable woman. This dance is performed in flirtatious manner with fans
and handkerchiefs to assist the dancers hide-and-seek movements.
La Jota Manilea - It is a dance named after the capital city of the
Philippines, Manila, where an adaptation of Castilian Jota afloats with the
clacking of bamboo castanets played by the dancers themselves. The
costume and the graceful movements of the performers noticeably
inspired by Spanish Culture.
Sakuting - Originated in Abra, this dance interprets a mock fight between
Ilokano Christians and non- Christians with training sticks as props. It is
traditionally performed during Christmas at the town plaza or from house-
to-house as a caroling show. As a return, the dancers receive presents or
money locally known as aguinaldo.
Pantomina - Meaning "Dance of the Doves", this dance is the highlight of
Sorsogons Kasanggayahan Festival every third week of October. Groups
of participants, mainly elderly in colourful costumes, dance to the tune of
Pantomina song. It is a courtship dance originated from immitating the
courtship and lovemaking of doves that then showed during the dance
where men attempt to please the women.
Other Philippine Ethnic Dances:
Banog - Cordillera In this dance, performers portray hunters shielding their
chickens from the famishing hawk. The hawk ends up entrapped and dies
in the hands of hunters.
Salisid - Kalinga, Cordillera This is a courtship dance that symbolizes a
rooster trying to attract the attention of a hen. This is performed and
portrayed by both male and female dancers as the rooster and hen
respectively. The dance starts when each of them are given a piece of
cloth known as "ayob" or "allap".
Palok - Kalinga, Cordillera - A tribal dance. The natives of Kalinga perform
this dance in most of their social events. Male dancers hold gangsa or
gong- a percussion instrument made of copper, and beat it with wooden
stick.
Lumagen - Kalinga, Cordillera A tribal dance. This is a traditional
thanksgiving dance by the Kalinga tribe performed to celebrate good
harvest and events such as birth of first-born child, victory in battles and
weddings.
Idudu- Abra, Cordillera A tribal dance. This dance stages a common family
life in the Itneg or Tinguian society. It illustrates the family as the main
foundation of the tribes community. Several traits of an ordinary family
are shown. It depicts a father plowing the field while the mother caring
for the children. But as soon as the father finishes work, the mother takes
over on planting, sowing and all the remaining chores to do in the field.
At this time the father is left to take care of the kids. During the dance a
Local singer breaks into an Idudu or lullaby to put the baby to sleep.
Idudu, a dance taken from Idudu lullaby, obviously portrays the different
roles in a Tinguian family
Dinuyya - Cordillera Ifugao dance Famous in the Ifugao region, this dance
is regularly staged during festivals in Lagawe. Three kinds of gong
instruments such as, ordinary gongs, tobtob- a brass gong played by
beating with open palms and, hibat, a kind of gong played by beating the
inner surface with a softwood are used in this dance.
Bendayan - Benguet This dance, which is more known as Bendian, is
performed to commemorate the arrival of headhunters in their district.
Performers dance in a circle and show off their lively traditional steps.
Binaylan - Agusan This is a ritual dance, which originated from the Bagobo
tribe living in the central uplands of Mindanao, imitating the movements
of a hen, her banog or baby chicks, and a hawk. The hawk is sacred and
is believed that it has the power over the well being of the tribe. The
hawk tries to capture one of the baby chicks and is killed by the hunters.
Malakas at maganda - Leyte A Tribal dance. This dance depicts the birth of
the first man and woman who came out of a bamboo tree. It has been
said that the woman named maganda (beautiful) and the first man
malakas (strong) are the parents of the whole community in the island.
The dance demonstrates how a bird discovered the noise coming from the
inside of the bamboo and perched until it opened. A man and a woman
came out of the big bamboo tree and, the birth of this legendary couple is
amusingly interpreted in this dance.
Burung-Talo - Sulu The dance is a unique fighting dance in a form of
martial arts by the Tausug tribe. Performers demonstrate a battle
between hawk and a cat. With their acrobatic movements and tough
facial expressions, this dance is highlighted with the accompanying
energetic beat of drums and gongs.
Kadal-Blelah- South Cotabato A tribal dance where in the dancers perform
simulation of movements of birds.
Kadal Tahaw - Tiboli dance- south cotabato A tribal dance performed by
Tiboli tribe, this dance that mimics the hopping and flying behavior of
Tahaw bird is performed to celebrate good harvest.
Sayaw sa Cuyo - Palawan Cuyo is a small island and capital of Palawan.
There, the feast day of St. Augustin is traditionally celebrated with
parades, processions and small performances by groups coming from all
over Cuyo Island and the nearby islets. Island dances, blended with
strong Old Cuyo ethnicity and Spanish-influenced steps, are all brought
out when Cuyo celebrates its festivals. Today, pretty young girls daintily
swirl hats to the waltz and other European steps designed to bring out
the freshness and glow of the performers.
Karatong - Palawan A Muslim dance. During the festival of San Agustine in
the island of Cuyo, the celebration also includes the blossoming of mango
trees. The parade starts from the church patio and ends at the town plaza
with ladies waving their colorful props Bunga mangga that symbolize
the flowers of mango tree, while men lively strike their karatong
instruments ; creating a scene of joy among reveling towns folk.
Dugso - Bukidnon A thanksgiving dance from the talaindig tribe.
Gayong-gayong - Capiz -A Muslim dance. In rural gatherings, this dance
offers much fun. Gayong is a pet name for Leodegario. According to the
legend and to the words of the song, Gayong and Masiong (pet name for
Dalmacio) once attended a feast commemorating the death of a
townsman. While eating, Masiong choked on a piece of Adobo so he
called, "Gayong ! Gayong !" to ask for help to dislodge a bone from the
Adobo meal from his throat. In this dance, Masiongs liking for feasts and
the consequence of his gluttony are held up to playful ridicule.
Kapa Malong-Malong - Cotabato A Muslim dance. This Maranao dance is
performed with women wearing malong and shawl, mantle or head piece,
whereas men wear sash or waist band, shorts or bahag and head gear or
turban traditionally worn in the fields.
Pagapir - Lanao del Sur This dance is usually performed to commence an
important affair. Dancers of this dance are usually from the royal court or
high society group of Lanao Province. They use apir or fan to coordinate
with their small steps called kini-kini, which symbolizes their good
manners and prominent family background.
Pangalay- Zamboanga Del Sur A muslim dance. Originally performed by
wealthy families during a wedding celebration, this fingernail dance is
now a popular festival dance in Sulu.
Types of Dances and Different Dancing Styles:

Ballroom Dance

The Ballroom dance is one of the most entertaining and elite styles of
dancing. In the earlier days, Ballroom dance was only for the privileged class
of people. This style of partner dance originated in Germany but is popular
all over the world. Today, the popularity of Ballroom dance has spread to
many corners! This dance includes many other dance styles. There are many
dance techniques that have been developed especially in America. The
International Standard recognizes around 10 styles that belong to the
category of Ballroom dance where as the American style has few forms that
are different from those included under the International Standard.

Different Styles that belong to International Standard

Tango: It definitely does take two to tango and this dance also belongs to
the American Style category. Like all Ballroom dancers, the male has to give
the lead to the female. The various moves used all make the dance look
even more beautiful to the onlooker. This International Standard varies from
the American Style in terms of movement.

Waltz: The Waltz is danced to slow beats and is an equally beautiful dance
form. The Waltz dance is one of the slow and most attractive and rhythmic
styles ever. When danced by the International Standard norms, this dance is
performed more closely towards each other as compared to the American
Style.

Foxtrot: Foxtrot, as a dance style, gives a dancer flexibility to combine the
slow and fast movements together. This social dance was named after the
actor Harry Fox.

Viennese Waltz: This style of Ballroom dance is based on the original form
of the Waltz dance. There are many versions of this style of dance. This
dance originated in the latter period of the 18th century.

Quickstep: This style belongs to the International Style of Ballroom dancing
which originated in the 1920s. This dance includes many steps with quick
momentum.

Cha-Cha-Cha: The Cha-cha-cha simply called the cha-cha is a type of Latin
American dance which is very rhythmic in its appeal. This dance is energetic
with slow movements as well.

Rumba: This sensual dance is based on slow hip movement. Rumba belongs
to the International Standard as well as the American style. This dance is
known for the beauty of the steps that are co-ordinated on a slow rhythm.

Samba: This beautiful and energetic dance also has many forms. The steps
may differ in Samba that is danced as per the Ballroom style and the
traditional style Samba.

Jive: This is yet another lively form of Ballroom dance. This dance is also
amongst the five dances that belong to the Latin American dance styles.

Paso Doble: This lively dance is also an International Latin dance style with
less emphasis on the hip movement. The basic structure of this Latin dance
is based on the sounds and the movements used in Spanish bullfights.

Different Types of Dances that belong to American Style

Bolero: This type of dance style is basically slow and has originated in
Spain. It can be danced solely or as even as a couple.

Mambo: Mambo is a Latin dance that makes the use of many steps which
are considered complex in origin. Mambo is also known as the base of Salsa
dance.

East Coast Swing: This type of partner dance is based on the Lindy Hop.
East Coast Swing dance consists of many simple steps that follow the basics
of Lindy Hop.

The Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot, Cha-Cha, Rumba and Viennese Waltz also belong
to the American Style of dances.

Other Styles of Ballroom Dances

Salsa: Salsa has its base in areas of Cuba and Puerto Rico and Latin
America. This partner dance is a very sensual form that is known for the
flirtatious and lively steps. While dancing the salsa, the couples can even
perform on one spot without traveling all over the floor. The dance steps of
this very beautiful dance show many influences from other dances such as
the Mambo, Changui, Palo, Rumba etc. There are many other various forms
of the Salsa such as the Cuban style, New York style, Colombian style and
the Los Angeles style.

Merengue: This type of dance requires the partners to be together in a
close position. The steps are often in circular movements or away from each
other in a sideway fashion. There are many intricate steps to this dance. The
various handholds are an indication of the same.

Bachata: This is a romantic style of dance that finds its origins in the
Dominican Republic. The Bachata is on the similar lines of the Merengue.

Lambada: Sexy and stylish, Lambada is a Brazilian dance that is performed
in partners or even groups. This dance was particularly in the limelight
because of the famous track Lambada by a music group, Kaoma.

Polka: This is a style of dance that also refers to a type of music. The Polka
is a fast dance, which is also present in various styles.

Hustle: The Hustle is performed as a Ballroom dance and is very popular in
the nightclubs as well. The Hustle was particularly popular due to the movie,
Saturday Night Fever where one could notice two types of this dance form.

Swing Dance: The Swing dance style originated in the 1920s 1930s.
There are many versions of the Swing dance such as the Lindy Hop,
Jitterbug, Boogie Woogie, West Coast Swing, Rock and Roll etc. Rock n Roll
is a very sporty form of dance that is extremely popular as well. Boogie
Woogie is another dance style that is seen mainly in Europe. This dance is
also seen in competitions.

Ballet Dance: The Ballet dance is a very beautiful form of dance with a
formal look. This dance was developed in France and Russia. There are many
ballet schools around the world that teach all about the various technical
terminologies in relation to classical ballet. The classical Ballet is the most
formal style of ballet. Apart from this, there is the Neoclassical ballet and
Contemporary Ballet.

Breakdance: Michael Jackson popularized Breakdance to a huge extent.
Breakdance is actually a form of street dance that was a part of the hip-hop
culture. The many movies based on Breakdance have also been an indication
of its popularity. Breakdance is relatively a male dominated type of dance
style. This type of dance is characterized with the typical battles between
groups. The Downrock and the Freeze are some of the typical forms of
Breakdance. The various clothing styles used while performing Breakdance is
a distinctive part of this form of dance.

Hip Hop Dance: This style is actually a street dance style and is a
combination of dance moves combined with loads of attitude as well as
colorful dancewear. In the early days, this style was generally seen in
breaking and from there on, one could witness many innovations in this
dance style. There are various other styles used with hip-hop dance, which
includes popping and locking. The hip-hop outfits have to be selected with
care, which helps to add to the overall appeal of the dance form.

Step Dance: This category includes dances that make use of footwork.
These types of dances generally require one to have a rigid stance with more
movement of the feet. Step dances are basically social dances. A good
example of this dance would be the Irish dance.

Tap Dance: Tap dance is an extremely popular form of dance. Here the
emphasis is on the movements of the feet and steps that create a tapping
sound. This dance finds its origins in the United States. The tapping sound is
due to the presence of metal plates on the soles of the shoes.

Flamenco Dance: The Flamenco dance and music is very much a major
part of the culture of Spain. The beautiful songs play a major role for this
type of dance style. This beautiful style is also particularly noticeable due to
the gorgeous costumes. The music always includes the Flamenco guitar.

Fandango: This dance style is one of the main dances in Portugal. It
involves the tapping of the feet and quick changes of the position. This is a
folk dance, which has its origins in Southern Spain. However, there are
many theories about the origins of the same.

Jazz Dance: Jazz dance finds its origins in the African American culture.
From the olden days till date, there are many influences that have added a
variety to this dance form. One can see many overlapping of steps in Jazz
dance, which are similar to various other styles. The common steps in Jazz
dance are the ball change, the pivot step, the toe rise, the pirouettes, Jazz
walk etc. Jazz dance is basically an energetic form that is equally graceful
like other dances. This type of dance can also incorporate various styles.

Folk Dance: Folk dances are always performed in groups at social events.
This does not mean the dancers need to be professionally trained. A folk
dance can be attempted by all types of common folk. Every country and
region has its own unique style of folk dance. There are various forms of folk
dances one can see all over the world. From the energetic Indian folk dances
to the Scottish Country dances, folk dances have their own beauty and
charm.

Modern Dance: Modern dance involves the use of many dance steps that
are unusual and often interpret a dancers emotions and moods. The dancer
in this case typically performs on bare feet. In Modern dance, its not only
the choreography that speaks about the emotions to be conveyed. The
lighting, costumes and props are used with great creativity to create
interesting and unusual dance sequences.

Country/Western Dances: These types of dances are performed on
country music. These social dances follow the typical pattern where the male
leads in the dance and the partner follows. Therefore, this dance style
includes both, the partner as well as the group dances. The country/western
dances, which are partner based, include the Two Step, Waltz, Polka, Cotton
Eyed Joe etc. The group dances include the Line dance, the Square dance,
traditional Square dance, modern Western square dance etc.

Contra Dance: This dance is a form of folk dancing. Here, the couples have
to dance in two lines. These couples also have to face each other. There are
various sequences, which couples need to perform. This social dance is a
very fun form and also very easy to learn.

Belly Dance: There are many theories about the origins of this form of
dance. Some say this dance originated in ancient Upper Egypt were as few
say its basics were developed in Uzbekistan and then were passed on to
India. Belly dance is more particularly danced in nightclubs and is now also
emerging as a new way to remain fit, especially for the ladies! The basic
steps involve the use of circular movements by the hips with a shimmy for
the shoulders. Belly dancing would require one to be really flexible. The
costumes are rather bold for the ladies. This is often combined with face
veils and hip belts.

Traditional Indian Dances: India is a land of great mix of cultures, which
witnessed in the wide variety of dances that can range from folk to the
classical style. The Indian dances all vary as per the region it originates from
and each have a distinct style from the steps to the kind of costumes worn.
Besides, these dances also represent a particular culture. The steps are
based around a strict style that is followed by all the students.
Improvisations come in later. The dance also makes the use of Natya or
acting to portray the story being told. Many of the dances are based on
religious mythologies.

Kathak: Kathak is characterized with the fast footwork and the many
numerous chakkars or spins used in the compositions. This dance
originated from the Northern part of India. The name is actually a Sanskrit
word which means katha-to tell a story. Kathak, like all other traditional
dances of India follow the pattern where the Guru passes on the knowledge
to the student, also known as the shishya. Kathak is also performed in
various styles or Gharanas, such as the Lucknow Gharana, Jaipur Gharana,
Rajgarh Gharana and the Banaras Gharana. Today, with the popularity of
fusion, Kathak is used in combination with modern steps to create a fine
blend of beautiful compositions!

Kathakali: The main feature about Kathakali is the striking costumes and
makeup. This is a form of dance drama that originated in the Southern state
of Kerela. The make up used is one of the most interesting features of this
dance. This is an elaborate procedure, which is combined with a large
headgear.

Mohiniattam: This dance has its origins in Kerela. A very graceful dance,
the performance in this case is generally solo and mainly by women. This
type of dance includes very rhythmic movements with elaborate mudras.
Mudras are hand gestures used to express a particular meaning.

Bharatnatyam: One of the popular dances in India along with Kathak,
Bharatnatyam dance has its origins in Tamil Nadu. This dance uses the base
of story telling combined with pure dance movements. The dance is also
distinctive due to the particular styles of dressing and make up. The origins
of this dance go back to the Natya Shastra. In the ancient days, this dance
was performed only by the Devdasis. However, in the recent times, this
dance is not only popular in India, it has traveled across the globe as well.

Odissi: This type of classical dance is also amongst the most popular types
of dances seen in India today. This classical dance has its origins in Orissa,
India and can be distinguished from other styles of Indian dance due to the
specific movements of the body. Like all other forms of Indian classical
dance, the knowledge is passed on from the teacher to the student (Guru to
Shishya).

Kuchipudi: This classical Indian dance has its roots in Andhra Pradesh.
Danced on the accompaniment of Carnatic music, this dance is also gaining
popularity outside India. The style may be a little similar to Bharatnatyam,
however, there are many unique steps that belong purely to this dance.

Manipuri: Manipuri is quite different from other forms of Indian dance in
terms of the costume as well as the dance steps. The dancer uses subtle
movements and the costumes are quite different in appearance. Basically, a
dancer uses many rhythmic movements that gives a very soft appearance
overall. The costume can be distinguished easily due to the stiff cylindrical
skirt.

Sattriya: This traditional style of dance originated from Assam. This style of
dance was the creation of Sankardeva. As per the records, its observed only
males performed this dance style. Initially, there was a delay in the inclusion
of this style of dance as a traditional Indian dance. However, since 2000, it
received the recognition by the Sangeet Natak Academy.

Some of the Popular Folk Dances in India

Bhangra:
A very lively dance, the Bhangra has its origins in Punjab. The energetic
movements, particularly of the men, accompanied by the beating of the
drums are a sight to behold! The costumes are colorful and add to the
liveliness of the atmosphere. Bhangra music and dance is now incorporated
even in pop music and has spread to many areas around the world.

Lavani:
This folk dance is very popular and was first seen during the Peshwa rule.
This dance is accompanied by typical music where the lead dancer is
accompanied by a group of other dancers in the background. This dance has
its origins in Maharashtra.

Garba:
This Indian dance is often compared to the social dances that are seen in the
West. Garba is danced in a circular format amongst groups and has its
origins in Gujarat. Like any other Indian classical dance, this dance is
performed also for religious purposes. In the modern times, Garba also sees
influences from Raas- another traditional dance. The Dandiya Raas is very
popular and is performed with sticks.

Dekhni:
Dekhni is one of the popular folk dances of Goa. This dance has an
interesting combination of Western as well as Indian music and is always
centered on a girl. The theme is based on a girl who wants to cross the river
and needs to persuade the boatman to help her cross the same. The other
dancers carry small lit clay lamps.

Bollywood Dance:
The Indian film industry Bollywood is known for its inclusion of the song and
dance routine in all the movies. Form the olden days till date; there has
been a massive change in the styles that are presented. The dances in the
olden days were subtle and often incorporated folk dances as well. However,
in the recent times, women especially have been given a bold look and there
is the inclusion of discotheque sequences and steps that are very typical of
Bollywood. The craze for this song and dance routine is such that there are
special shows designed for the fans abroad so that they can get a glimpse of
their favorite stars grooving to all hit numbers!

Famous Dancers
1. Anna Pavlova (1881-1931)
A famous Russian ballet dancer, Anna Pavlova is best known for
changing the ideals for ballet dancers, as she was small and thin, not the
preferred body of a ballerina during her time. She is also credited for
creating the modern pointe shoe.
2. Mikhail Baryshnikov (1948-present)
Known as the best living male ballet dancer, Mikhail Baryshnikov is a
famous Russian dancer. He has had roles in film, as he starred in the last
season of Sex and the City.
3. Rudolf Nureyev (1938-1993)
Russian ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev is often regarded as the greatest
ballet dancer of the 1960s and 1970s.
4. Michael Jackson (1958-2009)
Pop star of the 1980s, Michael Jackson wowed audiences with eye-
popping dance moves, notably one called the "moonwalk." Michael displayed
an amazing talent for rhythm and dance at a very young age.
5. Sammy Davis, Jr, (1925-1990)
An American dancer, Sammy Davis, Jr. was an entertainer
remembered mostly for his tap dancing ability. He began tap dancing at the
age of four.



6. Martha Graham (1894-1991)
Martha Graham was an American dancer and choreographer. She is known
as the pioneer of modern dance. She dared to introduce new, modern dance
moves to the world.
7. Fred Astaire (1899-1987)
Fred Astaire was a famous American film and Broadway dancer. He is
well-known for starring with Ginger Rogers in musical films.
8. Gregory Hines (1946-2003)
Gregory Hines was an American dancer mostly known for his
outstanding tap dancing abilities. He appeared in several dance movies,
including White Nights and Tap.
9. Gene Kelly (1912-1996)
An American dancer, Gene Kelly is remembered for his highly
energetic and athletic dancing style. He is well-known for his performance
in Singin' in the Rain.
10. Patrick Swayze (1952-2009)
Patrick Swayze was a well-known American dancer and actor. He
starred as a dance instructor in the popular movie Dirty Dancing.
Other Famous Dancers
Aaliyah (January 16, 1979 August 25, 2001) was an American R&B
recording artist, dancer and actress. She is famous for her heavy R&B
themed music, such as her final single "Try Again", but also for her
professional dancing capabilities. Aaliyah's already famous career was
abruptly ended when she was killed in a plane crash on August 25,
2001, shortly after filming a music video, on her return to the United
States from the Bahamas. Along with fellow recording artists, Brandy,
and Monica, Aaliyah was given the nickname, Princess of R&B.
Aaron Libfeld is a Canadian award winning dancer.
Paula Abdul (June 19, 1962) is an American Pop/R&B singer, dancer and
choreographer. She is famous for "creating" her own style of dancing
that involves Pop, Hip Hop and R&B influenced movements. She often
improvises dancing, giving her an air of agility and speed. In the music
video for her hit single "Opposites Attract", she portrays the ability to
tap dance at incredible speeds. Paula Abdul is also internationally
recognized as being a former judge on the hit television reality talent
competition, American Idol. According to sources, including the
introduction on her new CBS show Live to Dance, Abdul has sold about
60 million records worldwide to date.[1][2][3][4]
Christina Aguilera (December 18, 1980) is an American recording artist,
dancer and actress. Along with being famous for her vocal technicality,
range and power, she is also noted for her unique dancing skills. Her
dance moves are often viewed as simple but agile, as in the music
videos for her hit singles "What a Girl Wants" and "Genie in a Bottle",
but can also be viewed as sexual and entertaining, as in the music
video for her hit single "Come On Over Baby (All I Want Is You)". Her
dance abilities are often compared to those of fellow
entertainers, Madonna and Britney Spears, with whom she has also
once shared the title "Princess of Pop".
Rozeta Ahalyea was one of the earliest professional belly dancers in
Australia with a performance career that spanned four decades. During
her times in Australia she also taught belly dancing privately. Two
notable students were Amera Eid who eventually set up Amera's
Palace, the first belly dance boutique in Australia, and Terezka
Drnzik who started Sydney's first full time belly dance school.
Rukmini Devi Arundale (February 29, 1904 - February 24, 1986 ) was an
Indian theosophist, dancer and choreographer in Indian classical
dancer form of Bharatnatyam. She is considered the most important
revivalist in the Indian classical dance form of Bharatnatyam from its
original 'sadhir style, prevalent amongst the temple dancers,
Devadasis, she also worked for the re-establishment of traditional
Indian arts and crafts.
Fred Astaire (May 10, 1899 June 22, 1987), was an Academy Award-
winning American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer,
singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total
of seventy-six years, during which he made thirty-one musical films.
He is particularly associated with Ginger Rogers, with whom he made
ten films. George Balanchine and Rudolph Nureyev rated him the
greatest dancer of the twentieth century, and he is generally
acknowledged to have been the most influential dancer in the history
of film and television musicals .He was named the fifth Greatest Male
Star of All Time by the American Film Institute.
George Balanchine (January 22, 1904 April 30, 1983), was a
Georgian ballet choreographer. He is one of the 20th century's
foremost choreographers, and one of the founders of American ballet.
His work formed a bridge between classical and modern ballet. Apollo
is Balanchine's oldest surviving ballet and his first great public success.
It marked the beginning of his significant and enduring collaboration
with Stravinsky and featured the neoclassical style which Balanchine
was to become renowned for. It premiered on June 12, 1928 by Les
Ballets Russes de Serge Diaghilev at the Thtre Sarah Bernhart in
Paris. Balanchine looked upon Apollo as the turning point of his life, "in
its sustained oneness of tone and feeling". The story centers around
Apollo, the god of music, who is visited by three muses: Terpsichore,
muse of dance and song; Polyhymnia, muse of mime; and Calliope,
muse of poetry. Balanchine created ballet sequences for Ravel's
opera L'enfant et les sortilges to Colette's libretto with what Ravel
described as "Russian dancers", presumably from the Ballets Russes
for the 1925 Monte Carlo premiere, although this is not listed as a
Ballets Russes production.
Sara Baras (born in 1971) is a female Flamenco Dancer, born in the port of
Cadiz. She is internationally famous and regularly tours the world.She
has won a number of awards including the Madroo Flamenco of
Montellano (Seville) in 1993,and in 1999 and 2001, she received a
prize for the Best Female Spanish Dance Performer and was raped
when she was 13 years old.
Matt Barber is a dancer, teacher, author, columnist, and dance coach in
the ballroom dance world. Matt first encountered ballroom dancing as
choreographed routines onstage for musicals and began ballroom
dance lessons in high school. At eighteen years of age, Matt started
training to become a ballroom dance instructor with National Dance
Clubs as a side job in college; he went on to teach in the independent
world, for Arthur Murray International, and for Fred Astaire Dance
Studios. Concurrently, Matt graduated from the American Musical and
Dramatic Academy in Manhattan and acquired an SB from Fordham
University, his MS, and his business management and leadership
training from University of Notre Dames Mendoza College of Business.
Matt Barber's books on ballroom dancing changed the way ballroom
studios conduct business.
Mikhail Baryshnikov (January 28, 1948) is a Soviet-born Russian
American dancer, choreographer, and actor, often cited
alongside Vaslav Nijinsky and Rudolf Nureyev as one of the
greatest ballet dancers of the 20th century. After a promising start in
the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad, he defected to Canada in 1974 and went
on to become a principal dancer and artistic director with the American
Ballet Theatre and the New York City Ballet in New York City. He has
spearheaded many of his own artistic projects and has been associated
in particular with promoting modern dance, premiering dozens of new
works, including many of his own. His success as a dramatic actor on
stage, cinema and television has helped him become probably the
most widely recognized contemporary dancer.
Joshua Berger (August 20th 1998 - August 11th 2010) was a Canadian
break dancer. He has won multiple competitions including the yu13
world championship which took place in Niagra falls,Ontario,and. he
also go's in break dance shows in ,Canada's
wonderland(Vaughan.Ontario),Vaughan mills (mall in vaughan,ontario)
and much more ..
Vytautas Beliajus (February 26, 1908, September 1994) is considered the
father of international folk dancing in the United States. He specialized
in Lithuanian dance, but performed and taught many other types of
dance as well. He published multiple books on the subjects of dance
and ethnicity, and also started the folklore magazine Viltis. Beliajus
was born in Lithuania and emigrated to the U.S. when he was 14 years
old. He had two younger brothers, Leonas and Julius, and a sister,
Gyte Jekentes.
Carlo Blasis (4 November 1797- 15 January 1878) was an Italian dancer,
choreographer and dance theoretician. He is well known for his very
rigorous dance classes, sometimes lasting four hours long.He was the
first who published an analysis on the ballet techniques in 1820, in a
work named Trait lmentaire, thorique, et pratique de l'art de la
danse (Elementary Treaty on the Art of the Dance, theory and
practice). He is most known for the pose "Attitude" derived from the
famous statue Mercury by Giovanni da Bologna. He taught Enrico
Cecchetti, who expanded his technique.
James Brown or James Joseph Brown, Jr. (May 3, 1933 December 25,
2006), commonly referred to as "The Godfather of Soul", "Mr.
Dynamite", the "King of Funk", "Soul Brother #1" and "The Hardest
Working Man in Show Business", was an American entertainer (singer
and dancer). He is recognized as one of the most influential figures in
20th century popular music and was renowned for his vocals and
feverish dancing. As a prolific singer, songwriter and bandleader,
Brown was a pivotal force in the music industry. He left his mark on
numerous artists. Brown's music also left its mark on the rhythms of
African popular music, such as afrobeat, jj and mbalax, and
provided a template for go-go music. Brown began his professional
music career in 1953 and rose to fame during the late 1950s and early
1960s on the strength of his thrilling live performances and string of
smash hits. During the early 1980s, Brown's music helped to shape
the rhythms of early hip-hop music, with numerous groups looping or
sampling his funk grooves and turning them into what became hip hop
classics and the foundations of the music and dance genre. Brown
danced vigorously as he sang, working popular dance steps such as
the Mashed Potatointo his routine along with dramatic leaps, splits and
slides. In addition, his horn players and backup singers (The Famous
Flames) typically performed choreographed dance routines, and later
incarnations of the Revue included backup dancers. Male performers in
the Revue were required to wear tuxedoes and cummerbunds long
after more casual concert wear became the norm among the younger
musical acts. Brown's own extravagant outfits and his elaborate
processed hairdo completed the visual impression.
Jean Butler (born March 14, 1971)is an Irish step dancer. She began
training in Irish dance at the age of four with the widely respected
teacher Donny Golden. She also participated in tap and ballet classes,
but step dance became her focus. Her talent was clear from a young
age, and she competed in regional, national and international
championships. She and her sister, Cara Butler, both went on to win
numerous national titles and regional titles, and placing well in
international competitions. Jean has performed with Green Fields of
America and Cherish the Ladies. She debuted with The Chieftains at
Carnegie Hall at the age of seventeen, and toured with them on three
continents.
Don Campbell is an American dancer born in 1951 who invented the
dance locking, as Campbellocking. In 1969 Campbell began making
the dance popular around Los Angeles. Shortly thereafter he put out a
record called "Do the Campbellock" and started a dance group called
the Lockers.
Enrico Cecchetti (21 June 1850, Rome - 13 November 1928, Milan) was an
Italian ballet dancer, founder of the Cecchetti method. The son of two
dancers, he was born in the costuming room of the Teatro Tordinonia
in Rome. After an illustrious career as a dancer in Europe, he went to
dance for the Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia where he
further honed his skills. By 1888, he was widely accepted as the
greatest ballet virtuoso in the world. The general populace was not
aware that he could only turn in one direction and in fact, had to have
all his choreography tailored especially to accommodate this
weakness.
Vernon and Irene Castle was a husband-and-wife team of ballroom
dancers of the early 20th century. They are credited with invigorating
the popularity of modern dancing. Vernon Castle (May 2, 1887 -
February 15, 1918) was born William Vernon Blyth in England. Irene
Castle (April 17, 1893 - January 25, 1969) was born New York.
Jack Cole (19111974) was an American dancer, choreographer, and
theatre director known as the father of theatrical dance. Cole is credited
with choreographing and/or directing the stage musicals Alive and
Kicking, Magdalena, Carnival in Flanders, Zenda, Foxy, Kismet, A
Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the
Forum, Kean, Donnybrook!, Jamaica and Man of La Mancha. His film
work includes Moon Over Miami, Cover Girl, Tonight and Every
Night, Gilda, The Merry Widow, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, There's No
Business Like Show Business, The I Dont Care Girl, Thrill of
Brazil, Down to Earth, Kismet, Les Girls, and many others. He was
most famous in Hollywood for his work with Rita Hayworth and Marilyn
Monroe. Cole's unmistakable style endures in the work of Gwen
Verdon, Bob Fosse, Jerome Robbins, Gower Champion, Peter Gennaro,
Michael Bennett, Tommy Tune, and countless other dancers and
choreographers.
Dean Collins (May 29, 1917 June 1, 1984) was an American dancer,
instructor, choreographer, and innovator of swing. He is often credited
with bringing swing dance, or Lindy Hop, from New York to Southern
California. He is undoubtedly the most filmed Lindy Hopper in history
with over 30 movie and short credits to his name.
Jean Coralli (17791854), was a French dancer and choreographer and
later held the esteemed post of First Ballet master of the Paris Opera
Ballet. He is best known for the creation of the Romantic ballet
Giselle which he choreographed in tandem with another French
dancer, Jules Perrot.
Eduardo Corrochio (18691912) was a Spanish-born dancer who won the
first Tap Dancing Championship in New York City in 1890. Corrochio
entered the Tap Dancing Championship in New York City. The only
non-American in a field of two hundred invited participants, he
defeated Henry Rogers to become the first tap dancing champion of
the world .in 1894 Corrochio successfully defended his title at another
tap dancing championship in Chicago, Illinois. Three hundred
participants gather this time, twenty of them non-Americans, mostly
from Britain and Germany.
Joaqun Corts (born February 22, 1969) is a classically
trained ballet and flamenco dancer from Spain of Roma origin. Corts
formed the Joaqun Corts Flamenco Ballet Company and launched his
first international tour Cibay in 1992. The formations of Corts own
company allowed him diverge from purist ballet and create his own
fusion of flamenco, ballet and modern dance. On May 15, 2007 he
performed as a guest dancer in a high-profile semi-final segment on
ABC's Dancing with the Stars.
Merce Cunningham (born April 16, 1919) is an American dancer
and choreographer. Cunningham was born in Centralia, Washington,
and received his first formal dance and theater training at the Cornish
School (now Cornish College of the Arts) in Seattle. Merce
Cunningham Dance Company was formed at Black Mountain College in
the summer of 1953. Since that time Cunningham has choreographed
nearly 200 works for his company. In 1973 he choreographed Un jour
ou deux for the Ballet of the Paris Opra, with music by Cage and set
design by Jasper Johns. The Ballet of the Paris Opra also performed a
revival of his Points in Space in 1990. His work has also been
presented by New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Boston
Ballet, White Oak Dance Project, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Pennsylvania
Ballet, Zurich Ballet, and Rambert Dance Company (London), among
others. Cunningham's interest in contemporary technology has led him
to work with the computer program Dance Forms, which he has used
in making all his dances since Trackers (1991).Another of
Cunningham's innovations was the development of what might be
called "non-representative" dance which simply emphasizes
movement: in Cunningham's choreography, dancers do not necessarily
represent any historical figure, emotional situation, or idea.
Tabitha and Napoleon D'umo, also known as Nappytabs,
is choreographers and creative directors who are credited with
developing the new style of hip-hop dance known as lyrical hip-hop.
They have been supervising choreographers on America's Best Dance
Crew since season one and recurring guest judges and
choreographers Fox's So You Think You Can Dance since season four.
They currently teach dance classes at The Edge performing Arts Center
in Hollywood and travel around the country with Monsters of Hip Hop
and Shock the Intensive dance conventions.
Alex Da Silva is a dancer and choreographer, specializing in Salsa dancing.
Da Silva is also known for being a recurring guest choreographer on
the Fox TV show So You Think You Can Dance.Da Silva was born in Rio
de Janeiro, Brazil. He discovered Salsa dancing at the age of 20. He is
credited with contributing to the "LA Style" of Salsa dancing. Currently,
he resides in Southern California.
Astad Deboo, (1947) is an Indian dancer-choreographer, who has mixed
a modern and contemporary dance styles, with Indian classical
dance forms of Kathak and Kathakali in which he has trained, to create
style unique to him.
Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev, also referred to as Serge, (March 31, 1872
August 19, 1929) was a Russian art critic, patron, ballet impresario
and founder of the Ballets Russes from which many famous dancers
and choreographers would later arise.Diaghilev
staged Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty in London in 1921; it was a
production of remarkable magnificence both in settings and costumes,
but despite being well received by the public it was a financial disaster
for Diaghilev and Oswald Stoll, the theatre-owner, who had backed it.
The first cast included the legendary ballerina Olga Spessivtseva.
Diaghilev insisted on calling the ballet The Sleeping Princess. When
asked why, he quipped, "Because I have no beauties!" The later years
of the Ballets Russes were often considered too "intellectual", too
"stylish" and seldom had the unconditional success of the first few
seasons, although younger choreographers like George Balanchine hit
their stride with the Ballet Russes.
Charles-Louis Didelot (27 March 1767 - 7 November 1837) was a French
dancer and choreographer. The son of Charles Didelot, the dance
maestro of the King of Sweden, he studied dance with his father, who
were instructor in dance at the Swedish Opera, and dubuted as dancer
in the theatre of Bollhuset in Stockholm 1786. Didelot taught dance,
having an important influence over the development of ballet.
Isadora Duncan (May 27, 1877 September 14, 1927) was an American
dancer. She was born Angela Isadora Duncan in San Francisco,
California and is considered by many to be the mother of Modern
Dance. Although never very popular in the United States, she
entertained throughout Europe.
Lucinda Dickey (born August 14, 1960) is an American dancer and actress
who is best known for her role as Kelly in the 1984 cult film Breakin
and the 1984 sequel, Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo. Dickey was born
and raised in Hutchinson, Kansas, where at the age of four, she began
dancing. While attending college at Kansas State University, she
majored in dance and competed in the Miss Kansas pageant, where
she won the talent division and finished third runner-up.After college,
Dickey moved to Los Angeles and won a dance scholarship with the
Roland DuPree Dance Academy. After 10 months, she auditioned for
the movie Grease 2, winning a role as one of film's lead dancers. That
same year (1982) she landed a stint as a dancer on Solid Gold.
Doctor Ice influenced Hip-Hop dancing to a new form. His influence can be
noted by the dance moves in videos done by artists such as Kid N Play,
Scrap Lover and Scoop Lover (dancers for Big Daddy Kane) and G-Wiz
and the late Trouble T-Roy (from Heavy D & The Boyz). The
commercial world fashioned their dance moves after Michael Jackson
but the black community embraced Doc Ice because his dancing was
reflective of the type of dance moves done at a house/block party or in
the nightclub. He left UTFO in the late 80s before the group's breakup
in 1991 to go on a solo career. His first album, The Mic Stalker in
1989, produced by R&B group Full Force, had the singles 'Word To The
Wise', 'Love Jones', and 'Sue Me'. Ice also collaborated with Dino
(singer), for his 1990 song 'Romeo' (charting at #6) on the album
"Swingin'". His second album, "Rely On Self" appeared in 1994.
Katherine Mary Dunham (June 22, 1909 May 21, 2006) was an
American dancer, choreographer, songwriter, author, educator and
activist who was trained as an anthropologist. Dunham had one of the
most successful dance careers in American and European theater of
the 20th century and has been called the Matriarch and Queen Mother
of Black Dance. During her heyday in the 1940s, 50s and 60s, she was
renowned throughout Europe and Latin America as La Grande
Katherine, and the Washington Post called her "Dance's Katherine the
Great." For more than 30 years she maintained the Katherine Dunham
Dance Company, the only permanent, self-subsidized American black
dance troupe at that time, and over her long career she
choreographed more than 90 individual dances. Dunham was an
innovator in African-American modern dance as well as a leader in the
field of dance anthropology, or ethnochoreology (see also dance
studies). She died in her sleep in New York City on 21 May 2006.
Shabba Doo (May 11, 1955) is an American actor, dancer, choreographer,
and director. He has appeared in film and television. He became one of
the founders of hip hop dancing as a member of The Original Lockers.
He is one of the pioneers the dance style commonly known as
"locking".Besides his work in film and television he has served as a
choreographer to many singers such as Lionel Richie, Madonna,
andLuther Vandross to name a few. Presently he serves as
choreographer for Jamie Kennedy's new MTV sitcom, Blowin Up. He is
also well remembered for his choreography of Three Six Mafia's
performance on the 78th Annual Academy Awards.
Amera Eid is an Australian belly dancer and owner of an Australian belly
dance school, Amera's Palace. Amera is of Egyptian and European
background and was introduced to belly dancing at the age of twelve.
She began her professional training with Rozeta Ahalyea in Sydney in
1983 and worked the Sydney restaurant and Arabic nightclub circuit.
Eid opened Amera's Palace belly dance boutique in 1987, which
included one of the first belly dance schools in Sydney. She also hosts
the annual Bellydancer's Ball which has been running since 1998.
Fanny Elssler (23 June 1810 - 27 November 1884), was an Austrian
dancer. Ballerinas such as Marie Taglioni and Fanny Elssler pioneered
new techniques such as pointework that rocketed the ballerina into
prominence as the ideal stage figure, professional librettists began
crafting the stories in ballets, and teachers like Carlo Blasis codified
ballet technique in the basic form that is still used today. The ballet
slipper was invented to support pointe work.
Norberto Esbrez (born November 22, 1966) is an
Argentinian tango dancer, choreographer, and teacher. Innovative
dancer and teacher of tango nuevo. He is known as El Pulpo or octopus
for his fluid and intricate leg moves. Esbrez created and named several
tango movements including: ocho loco, sentada girada, elevador, or el
elstico. He explored the concept of trap sacadas (sacadas con agarre)
and enganches into innovative variations. His style is so notorious that
when the dancer starts combining several leg moves that look like
Pulpo's it is being called pulpeadas. Developed the concept of
suspension as a tool to generate the control and fluidity that is part of
his dance.
Michael Ryan Flatley (born July 16, 1958) is an Irish step dancer from the
south side of the country. As a child, he moved to Chicago - the city
which he considers his home town. He began dancing lessons at 11
and, in 1975, became the first non-European to win the All-Ireland
World Championship for Irish dance. As a trained boxer he won the
Chicago Golden Gloves Championship in 1975. Flatley is also known as
being a proficient flautist, having twice won the All-Ireland
Competition. His first dance teachers were his mother and his
grandmother Hannah Ryan, an Irish dancing champion. After high
school graduation, he opened a dance school.
Flying Steps is a German breakdance crew, founded in 1993. They have
won many breakdancing competitions and also released some singles
and albums. Flying Steps has also appeared in some videos of an
electro music project Music Instructor. The members of Flying Steps
are: "Amigo" - Kadir Memis,"Benny" - Benny Kimoto,"KC-1 - Khaled
Chaabi,"LilCeng" - Gengis Ademoski, "LilSteph" - Stephanie
Nguyen,"Mikel" - Michael Rosemann,"Vartan" - Vartan Bassil.
Michel Fokine (April 23, 1880 August 22, 1942) was a groundbreaking
Russian choreographer and dancer .Fokine staged more than 70
ballets in Europe and the United States. His best known works were
Chopiniana (later revised as Les Sylphides), Le Carnaval and Le
Pavillon d'Armide. Among his works for the Ballets Russes were The
Firebird, Petrushka, and Le Spectre de la Rose. For the Ballets Russes
he created a ballet out of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade
William Forsythe (born December 30, 1949 in New York City) is an
American dancer and choreographer resident in Dresden in Saxony. He
is known internationally for his work with the Frankfurt Ballet and his
reorientation of classical ballet .Forsythe trained at the Joffrey Ballet,
and the American Ballet Theatre in New York City (taking additional
classes with Maggie Black, Finis Jung, Jonathan Watts, Meredith Baylis,
William Griffith, Leon Danelion, Mme. Periaslavic, Mme. Boskovitch,
Nolan Dingman, Pat Wilde, and Christa Long). After, he studied at the
Jacksonville University, Florida (where he studied George Balanchine's
and Martha Graham's techniques). In 1971, he joined the Joffrey
Ballet, but when invited by the Stuttgart Ballet three years later, he
left the Joffrey and moved to Europe when he was twenty-three as a
dancer, and later became Resident Choreographer of the Stuttgart
Ballet. This position he held until 1981, when he began pursuing an
independent career. He also created works for ballet companies in
Munich, The Hague, London, Basel, Berlin, Frankfurt am Main, Paris,
New York and San Francisco. He choreographed "France/Dance"
for Rudolf Nureyev at the Paris Opera Ballet during his career as
Resident Choreographer.
Joe Frisco was an American vaudeville performer who first made his name
on stage as a jazz dancer, but later incorporated his stuttering voice to
his act and became a popular comedian. Frisco was a mainstay on the
vaudeville circuit in the 1920s and 1930s. He made his Broadway
debut in the Florenz Ziegfeld Follies in 1918. His popular jazz dance
act (called by some the "Jewish Charleston") was a choreographed
series of shuffles, camel walks and turns. It was usually performed to
"Darktown Strutters Ball." He typically wore a derby hat, and had a
king-sized cigar in his mouth as he danced.
Chicho Frumboli is one of the most famous Argentine Tango dancers. His
real name is Mariano Frumboli. He is best known for his improvisation
skills. He is regarded as one of the founders of Tango nuevo. He
usually dances in this open style but is equally at ease when dancing
close. Rather his embrace is fluid in most cases. He performed among
others with Gotan Project, Tanghetto and Narcotango.
Loie Fuller (January 15, 1862 January 1, 1928) was a pioneer of
both modern dance and theatrical lighting techniques. Fuller's work
has been experiencing a resurgence of artistic and public interest.
Sally R. Sommer has written extensively about Fuller's life and times
Marcia and Richard Current published a biography entitled Loie Fuller,
Goddess of Light in 1997. And Giovanni Lista compiled a 680-page
book of Fuller-inspired art work and texts in Loe Fuller, Danseuse de
la Belle Epoque, 1994. Fuller continues to be an influence on
contemporary choreographers. Among these are Jody Sperling and
TimeLapse Dance, who began creating Loie Fuller-style solos with live
piano accompaniment for New York City audiences in 2000.
Antonio Gades (November 14, 1936 - July 20, 2004) was a
Spanish flamenco dancer and choreographer. He helped to popularize
the art form on the international stage. His most notable works
included dance adaptations of Prosper Mrime's Carmen and Federico
Garca Lorca's Blood Wedding, as well as a feature-length adaptation
of Manuel de Falla's 23-minute ballet El Amor Brujo. Gades has also
co-founded and became the artistic director of the Spanish National
Ballet.
Samia Gamal (1924 - December 1, 1994) was an Egyptian belly dancer and
film actress. In 1949, Egypt's King Farouk proclaimed Samia Gamal
"The National Dancer of Egypt", which brought US attention to the
dancer.In 1950, Samia came to the US and was photographed by G.
John Mili. She also performed in The Latin Quarter, New York's trendy
nightclub. She later married so-called "Texas millionaire" Shepherd
King III (who, it was later reported, actually only had about $50,000).
All this brought her to star proportions in the US.
Pavel Andreyevich Gerdt, also known as Paul Gerdt (near St. Peterburg,
Russia, 22 November 1844 Vamaloki, Finland 12 August 1917), was
the Premier Danseur Noble of the Imperial Ballet, the Bolshoi Kamenny
Theatre, and the Mariinsky Theatre for 56 years, making his debut in
1860, and retiring in 1916. His daughter Elisaveta Gerdt was also a
prominent ballerina and teacher.Gerdt studied under Alexander
Pimenov, a pupil of the legendary Charles Didelot.Among his pupils at
the Imperial Ballet School were Michel Fokine, Vaslav Nijinsky, Tamara
Karsavina, George Balanchine, and Anna Pavlova, to whom he taught
the soaring leap of Marie Taglioni and Carlotta Grisi.
Gus Giordano (1923 March 9, 2008) was an American jazz dancer. He
was a performer on and off Broadway, in television, film and stage,
and he is a master teacher, a gifted choreographer, founder of his
company, creator of the Jazz Dance World Congress and the author of
Anthology of American Jazz Dance, the first book on jazz dance. He
has taught world-renowned dancers in schools such as the American
Ballet Theater, and he has choreographed award winning numbers for
television, film, stage, commercials and industrials. Giordano is
considered one of the founders of jazz dance, and his influence in jazz
dance is still felt.
Savion Glover (born November 19, 1973) is an American actor, tap
dancer and choreographer. Glover is a graduate of the Newark Arts
High School. His most recent credit is as the motion-capture dancer for
Mumble, the penguin in the animated release Happy Feet. He is now in
a production called Classical Savion, where he taps to classical pieces
played by a chamber string group. The show jazzes and blues it up a
bit towards the end adding drums and a pianist. Glover recently
appeared on ABC's Dancing with the Stars, on the September 26, 2007
results show.
Martha Graham (May 11, 1894 April 1, 1991) was an American dancer
and choreographer regarded as one of the foremost pioneers
of modern dance, and is widely considered one of the greatest artists
of the 20th century. Graham invented a new language of movement,
and used it to reveal the passion, the rage and the ecstasy common to
human experience. She danced and choreographed for over seventy
years, and during that time was the first dancer ever to perform at The
White House, the first dancer ever to travel abroad as a cultural
ambassador, and the first dancer ever to receive the highest civilian
award, the Medal of Freedom. In her lifetime she received honors
ranging from the key to the City of Paris to Japan's Imperial Order of
the Precious Crown. She said "I have spent all my life with dance and
being a dancer. It's permitting life to use you in a very intense way.
Sometimes it is not pleasant. Sometimes it is fearful. But nevertheless
it is inevitable."
Carlotta Grisi, was an Italian ballet dancer. She was born on June 28, 1819
in Visinada, Istria and died on May 20, 1899 in Saint-Jean,
Switzerland. She was trained at the ballet school of Teatro alla Scala in
Milan and later with dancer/balletmaster Jules Perrot.Her greatest role
however was that of Giselle. The world premire of this two-act ballet
was on June 28, 1841 at the Thtre de l'Acadmie Royale de
Musique, Paris. One of the Giselle's creators, Thophile Gautier,
described her dancing as having a childlike artlessness, a happy and
infectious gaiety. He is famous for coining the phrase, "Art for art's
sake".
Omari Ishmael Grandberry - known as Omarion (born November 12,
1984), is an American Grammy-nominated R&B singer, dancer, actor,
songwriter and record producer. Omarion currently holds light as one
of the best dancers in his generation in music. He is best known for his
tutting, popping, locking and waving, (along with intricate
choreography). Omarion claimed to have learnt more about break
dancing(during the making of his first movie You Got Served) and can
tap dance, he is also friends with the originators of krumping.
Hrithik Roshan (Hindi: [rtk ron]; born 10 January 1974)[1]
is an Indian actor who appears in Bollywood films. He is considered as
one of the finest dancers in the world, he is even called the mj of
india. He has been an inspiration to the people across the board,
Hrithik's dance style includes from hip-hop to indian bagara. What
attracts to his moves are that it is so clear and flexible. He is even
judging an international dance show in star plus, which is called just
dance.
MC Hammer (Stanley Kirk Burrell born March 30, 1962) is an
American MC and hip-hop dancer, most popular during the late 1980s
to mid-1990s. His flamboyant dance style, which was a significant part
of his performances, influenced the development of Hyphy. Hammer's
dance style included elements popularized by James Brown and The
Nicholas Brothers such as splits, leaps and slides. Dances such as
"Hammer Dance" (or the "Typewriter" Dance) and the use of "The
Running Man" dance were unlike any others at the time. He won many
awards and award nominations for his dancing and choreography.
Erick Hawkins (April 23, 1909 in November 23, 1994) was an American
dancer and choreographer. He was a graduate of Harvard. Erick was
inspired by the dancing of Harald Kreutzber and Yvonne Georgi. In the
1930s he was the first American student of George Balanchine. He
became a soloist and the first male dancer in Martha Graham's dance
company. Hawkins and Graham lived together for eight years, but
soon after marrying the relationship fell apart. The influence of her
work on Hawkins is legendary. Erick Hawkins is known as one of the
revolutionary pioneers of radical modern dance through his original
choreography and evolution of a new theory and technique of modern
dance. "Dance is the most beautiful metaphor of existence in the
world." is one of Erick's beautiful quotes.
Tatsumi Hijikata (March 9, 1928 - January 21, 1986) was a Japanese
choreographer, and the founder of a genre of dance performance art
called Butoh. By the late 1960s, he had begun to develop this dance
form, which is highly choreographed with stylized gestures drawn from
his childhood memories of his northern Japan home. It is this style
which is most often associated with Butoh by Westerners. Hijikata was
an innovator in movement technique. He was a master of the use of
energy qualities in constructing expressive movement. He would use
sounds, paintings, sculptures, and words to construct movement, not
exclusively in a formal or literal memetic application, but by
integrating these elements via visualization into the nervous system to
produce movement qualities that could be very subtle, light, angelic
and ghost-like, or demonic, heavy, dark, grotesque, violent and
extreme.
Gregory Oliver Hines (February 14, 1946 August 9, 2003) was an
American actor, singer, dancer and choreographer.
Hong 10 (16 February 1985 in South Korea) is a male South Korean B-Boy.
As of 2007, he has won more than 20 competitions as an individual or
as a member of a crew, and has been termed "the best B-Boy in the
world". His accomplishments include both a Red Bull BC One individual
title (2006) and a Battle of the Year crew title (2002). He also was a
judge at the 2007 Battle of the Year world finals. Hong 10 is
recognized as a superb all-around B-boy able to dynamically hit beats
with floorwork, freezes, uprock/toprock and powermoves - not to
mention the rare ability to mix all of them in a set.
His breakdancingfeatures bridge-like floor work, sharp execution, and
an arsenal of signature moves. These all showcase not only the
complex nature of his dance, but also his creativity.
Lester Horton (January 23, 1906 - November 2, 1953) was an American
dancer, choreographer, and teacher. Lester Horton was born in
Indianapolis, Indiana. Choosing to work in California (three thousand
miles away from the center of modern dance - New York City), Horton
developed his own approach that incorporated diverse elements
including Native American dances and modern Jazz. Horton's dance
technique (Lester Horton Technique) emphasises a whole body
approach including flexibility, strength, coordination, and body
awareness to allow freedom of expression. Horton trained a number of
the mid-twentieth century's best-known modern dancers, including
Alvin Ailey, Carmen de Lavallade, and Bella Lewitzky, as well as dance
teacher James Truitte, Broadway dancer James Mitchell, and the gay
activist Harry Hay.
Doris Batcheller Humphrey (October 17, 1895 December 29, 1958) was
a dancer of the early twentieth century. In Chicago, she both studied
and taught dance, opening her own dance school in 1913 at the age of
18.In 1917, she moved to California and entered the Denishawn
School of Dancing and Related Arts, where she studied, performed,
taught classes, and learned choreography. Her creations from this era,
"Valse Caprice" ("Scarf Dance"), "Soaring", and "Scherzo Waltz"
("Hoop Dance") are all still performed today. Humphrey toured the
Orient for two years, followed by a successful career in American
vaudeville theaters.One of her last pieces, "Dawn in New York",
featured the strengths she demonstrated throughout her career her
mastery of the intricacies of large groups, and her emphasis on
sculptural shapes.
Michael Jackson (August 29, 1958 June 25, 2009), often referred to as
MJ and The King of Pop, was an American musician and entertainer.
Among the most celebrated aspects of Jackson's career were his
dance, fashion, and vocal styles, which have given rise to
impersonators all over the world. The "moonwalk" followed by a
tornado spin and then balancing up on his toes have since gone on to
become Jackson's trademark dance piece, and is virtually synonymous
with the song. The performance sealed his position as a dance legend
up against the likes of Fred Astaire (who actually called Jackson the
next day to congratulate him). After one of his performances The New
York Times stated "The moonwalk that he made famous is an apt
metaphor for his dance style. How does he do it? As a technician, he is
a great illusionist, a genuine mime. His ability to keep one leg straight
as he glides while the other bends and seems to walk requires perfect
timing"
Robert Joffrey (19301988) was an American dancer, teacher, producer,
and choreographer, known for his highly imaginative modern ballets.
Of Afghan parentage, he was born in Seattle, Washington, and
originally named Abdulla Jaffa Anver Bey Khan. Joffrey
studied ballet and modern dance in New York City and made his debut
in 1949 with the French choreographer Roland Petit and his Ballets de
Paris. From 1950 to 1955, he taught at the New York High School for
the Performing Arts, where he staged his earliest ballets.In 1954, he
formed his own company, which premiered Le bal masqu (The
Masked Ball, 1954; music by French composer Francis Poulenc) and
Pierrot Lunaire (1955; music by Austrian composer Arnold
Schoenberg). Joffrey's other works include Gamelan (1962)
and Astarte (1967; to rock music with special lighting and motion-
picture effects).
Sabra Elise Johnson (born July 29, 1987) is a dancer from Roy, Utah and
the most recent champion of the Fox reality television show So You
Think You Can Dance. She has the distinction of being the first female
and person of African-American descent to win the title. Johnson
started formal dance training at the age of 16 at Dance Impressions in
Bountiful, Utah, under the direction of mother-daughter team Kandee
Allen and Vivian Colobella and before training in dance, Johnson had a
previous background in gymnastics.. She has been a fast-learner being
able to win "America's Favorite Dancer" name in So You Think You Can
Dance just in her fourth year of being a dancer. Her dance training
consists of jazz, ballet, contemporary, and gymnastics, with some
experience in hip hop, modern dance, tap dancing, and theater.
Johnson's favorite style of dancing is contemporary.
Thomas Johnson (better known as Tommy the Clown) is an American
dancer, best known as the inventor of the "clowning" style of dance,
which evolved into the popular "krumping" style. Johnson invented the
style in 1992, to enhance birthday party clown acts, thereby creating
the concept of "hip-hop clowns". Johnson and his followers have
performed at birthday parties ranging from inner city communities to
celebrities like Madonna, Pamela Anderson, and Cedric the Entertainer.
Kurt Jooss (12 January 1901 22 May 1979) was a German modern
dancer and choreographer mixing classical ballet with theatre; he is
also widely regarded as the founder of Dance Theatre or Tanztheater.
Jooss is noted for establishing several dance companies, including
most notably, the Folkwang Tanztheater, in Essen. Kurt Jooss works
are still performed today especially The Green Table. Anna Markard,
(Jooss daughter) supervises companies that perform his works,
conserving authenticity of the author of Dance Theatre.
Malika (Mazol) Yashuvayevna Kolontarova (September 5, 1950 - ) is a
legendary Tajik Bukharian Jewish dancer. She earned the titles
of People's Artist of USSR, People's Artist of Tajikistan, and Honored
Artist of Tajikistanthe highest titles given in her native nation. Her
dance moves were completely in sync with the music and she
conquered the world with her fiery dancing. She is married to Ishkak
Gulkarov, a famous doira player and Honored Artist of Tajikistan and
the two were Tajikistan's biggest supercouple. Since her move to the
United States in the early 1990s, Kalontarova founded the "Malika
International Dance School."
Tamara Platonovna Karsavina (March 10, 1885 May 26, 1978) was a
famous Russian ballerina who eventually settled in England, where she
helped found the Royal Academy of Dance in 1920 Karsavina was born
in St. Petersburg, Russia, the daughter of the dancer Platon Karsavin.
Beautiful and talented from an early age, Karsavina quickly moved
through the ranks of professional ballet.Her most famous roles were
Lise in La Fille Mal Garde, Medora in Le Corsaire, and the Tsar Maiden
in The Little Humpbacked Horse. She was the first Ballerina to dance in
the so-called Le Corsaire Pas de Deux in 1915.The
choreographer George Balanchine said he had fond memories of
watching her when he was a student at the Imperial Ballet School.
Eugene Curran Kelly (August 23, 1912 February 2, 1996), better known
as Gene Kelly, was an Academy Award-winning American dancer,
actor, singer, director, producer, and choreographer .Kelly was a
major exponent of 20th century filmed dance, known for his energetic
and athletic dancing style, his good looks and the likeable characters
that he played on screen. Although he is probably best known today
for his performance in Singin in the Rain, he dominated the Hollywood
musical film from the mid 1940s until its demise in the late 1950s. In
1999, the American Film Institute named Kelly among the Greatest
Male Stars of All Time, ranking at No. 15.
Alonzo King is an American dancer and choreographer working in San
Francisco, California. He is known for founding a contemporary ballet
company, Alonzo King's LINES Ballet, in 1982.Alonzo King began
his ballet training in Santa Barbara, California with June Lane and
moved to New York City to continue his artistic development. He
trained at the Harkness School of Ballet and the Alvin Ailey dance
school. While attending the American Ballet Theatre School on full
scholarship, he studied with Patricia Wilde and Leon Danelian; he was
also on full scholarship at the School of American Ballet where he
trained with Stanley Williams and Richard Rapp. In New York, King
performed with the Harkness Youth Company, apprenticed with Alvin
Ailey American Dance Theatre, and danced with Dance Theatre of
Harlem, Donald McKayle, Lucas Hoving, and a number of European
companies. After returning from New York, he danced with Bella
Lewitzky in Los Angeles before moving to San Francisco.
Beyonc Knowles (September 4, 1981 - ), more commonly known by her
first name Beyonc,is an African-American female singer-songwriter,
dancer, choreographer and actress. She is a former member of the
now separated girl singing group Destiny's Child, later called DC3. She
is famous for her vocal talents and abilities, and also for her iconic and
influential dancing. Her dance abilities are seen in her music videos for
her anthemic singles "Crazy in Love", "Single Ladies" and "Sweet
Dreams". Beyonc is often seen dancing to songs around
the R&B, Pop and "Hip Hop". Audiences around the world recognize
Beyonc for her unique dancing techniques.
Ji Kylin (born 1947) is a Czech dance choreographer .Kylin studied in
Prague, as well as at the Royal Ballet School in London. He joined the
Stuttgart Ballet in 1968 and worked under John Cranko, where he
began to choreograph. Kylin became Artistic Director of Nederlands
Dans Theatre in 1976. His style is very energetic and contemporary
and his best known works include Symphony of Psalms (1978).
Maria Kochetkova (born 1984 in Moscow) is a Principal Dancer with the
San Francisco Ballet. Kochetkova studied at the Bolshoi School in
Moscow, and danced with the Royal Ballet and English National Ballet.
Akshay Koparkar He started his dancing at the age of 11.He famous
in nagpur, India for his break dance.He is famous for his
amazing Moonwalk And Breakdance.Also he is famous for his break
moves like biggest entertainer Michael Jackson.He completed his 28
dance shows.His style include Hip-Hop, Locking And
Popping, Freestyles
Rudolf Laban (December 15, 1879- July 1, 1958) was a notable, central
European dance artist and theorist, whose work laid the foundations
for Laban Movement Analysis, and other more specific
developments.He moved to Munich at age 30 and under the influence
of seminal dancer/choreographer Heidi Dzinkowska began to
concentrate on the movement arts .Laban established the
Choreographic Institute in Zrich in 1915, and later founded branches
in Italy, France, and central Europe. One of his great contribution to
dance was his 1928 publication of Kinetographie Laban, a dance
notation system that came to be called Labanotation and is still used
as one of the primary movement notation systems in dance. His
theories of choreography and movement served as one of the central
foundations of modern European dance. Nowadays, Laban's theories
are applied in diverse fields, such as Cultural Studies, Leadership
development, Non-Verbal Communication, and more.
Walter Laird (26 July 1920 30 May 2002) Dancesport World Champion in
Professional Latin. Author of the Technique of Latin American Dancing,
and coached many successful dancers including Allan Tornsberg,
Vibeke Toft, Espen Salberg, Jukka Haapalainen and Sirpa Suutari.
Last For One is a break dancing crew that formed in 1997. With their win in
the 2005 Battle of the Year, they have been recognized as a worldwide
known name and a contributor to the Korean wave, their fans
respectively calling them the Dancing Taeguk Warriors. Their love for
dancing started 7 to 8 years ago when they saw Seotaiji and Boys
dancing on television or, like fate, came across a video featuring break
dancing. Many of their families had to endure poverty which drove
their parents to strongly disagree with their passion for dancing. They
danced while others looked on with pity and anger, only keeping one
dream in mind: to become a b-boy. In the day, they were busy
running around doing any kind of job they could find, and by night,
they met together to dance. Living in a small one room apartment did
not bother them for they had an outlet called dance. One member said
that "All of this was nothing to us because it was happiness in itself
that we were able to dance."
Nick Lazzarini (born c. 1984) was the first season winner of the Fox reality
show So You Think You Can Dance. He is from Sunnyvale, California
and is a trained dancer in jazz, lyrical, hip hop, ballet andmodern
dance styles. Lazzarini spent two years at the Dance Company of San
Francisco and also toured Europe with the RAW dance company, which
was founded by choreographer Mia Michaels. He has also taught at
conventions for chapters of DANCE MASTERS OF AMERICA, and is a
faculty member of 2006 JUMP Alternative Convention.
Nikolai Legat (18691937), was a dancer with the Russian Imperial Ballet
from 1888 to 1914 and was the main successor to the roles of the
great ballet dancer, Pavel Gerdt. Legat later held duties of a
balletmaster in Russia, teaching and passing on the legacy of the
repertoire of that company, namely the work of the prolific
choreographer and great balletmaster, Marius Petipa .Nikolai had a
younger brother, Sergei Legat, who was also a dancer with the
Imperial Russian Ballet from 1894 to 1905 when he died at age thirty.
He originated the role of the Nutcracker (at age 17) at the premiere of
the famous Ivanov/Tchaikovsky ballet, The Nutcracker at the Theatre
Mariinsky in St. Peterburg, Russia, on December 6, 1892.
Lawrence Leritz (September 26, 1962) is an American dancer and
choreographer. Lawrence's international dance career included working
with George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Alvin Ailey, Robert
Joffrey,Ruth Page, John Neumeier, Lee Theodore, Tommy Tune and
Sir Frederick Ashton, with such major dance companies as Hamburg
Ballet, Chicago Ballet, Israel's Bat-Dor Dance Company, Paris
Opera and as guest artist throughout the world, including Plcido
Domingo's Los Angeles Music Center Opera. Leritz also directed the
company Dance Celebration, which he toured worldwide. Leritz was
the producer and choreographer of the Off-Broadway hit Boobs! The
Musical, during the 2003-2004 season and was nominated for the
2004 Mac Awards for Best Musical Revue.
Mris Liepa (27 July 1936, Riga 26 March 1989, Moscow) was a
Latvian ballet dancer. He graduated from Riga Choreography School
where he was taught by Valentns Binovs. He performed in Moscow for
the first time in 1950. He has performed on stages of Europe and USA.
Liepa has played roles in movies and TV, in Hamlet and Spartacus. A
book, I Want to Dance for Hundred Years, was published in Riga in
1981. Liepa is a winner of many distinguished Soviet Union awards,
prizes and bestowals, including the Konstsantin Stanislavsky medal,
Paris Ballet Academy Vaslav Nijinsky award and Marius Petipa Prize.
Latvian National Opera hosts the annual Mris Liepa memorial concerts
that are organized by his children - son Andris and daughters Ilze
(ballet dancer) and Maria (actress and singer).
Lil' C (born Christopher A. Toler in January 1983) is an American dancer
and choreographer. He has choreographed for So You Think You Can
Dance, along with many top music icons.
Jos Arcadio Limn (19081972) was a pioneering modern dancer and
choreographer. He was born in Culiacn Mexico and the eldest of 12
children. He moved to New York City in 1928 where he studied
underDoris Humphrey and Charles Weidman. In 1946, Limn founded
the Jos Limn Dance Company. His most famous dance is The Moor's
Pavane (1949), based on Shakespeare's Othello.
Jennifer Lopez (July 24, 1969), often referred to as J. Lo, is an American
actress, singer-songwriter and dancer. Jennifer Lopez is known for her
upbeat pop songs and latin-pop influenced dancing abilities.
Antonia Merc y Luque (September 4, 1890 July 18, 1936), known by
her stage name as La Argentina, was a flamenco dancer. She
originated and helped to establish the neoclassical style of Spanish
dance as a theatrical art. prior to World War I, La Argentina was
extremely admired in Paris, where she accepted invitations to dance at
the Moulin Rouge and other important locations. In her career she
made six transcontinental tours in North America, sometimes
accompanied by flamenco guitarist Carlos Montoya. She received
several awards, including the French Lgion d'honneur and the
Spanish Orden de Honor Isabel La Catlica.
Madonna (August 16, 1958 - ) is an American recording artist, actress and
dancer. Her controversially successful career has made her one of the
Best Selling Artists of All Time and one of the world's most influential
dancers. Madonna's dancing abilities are often viewed as improvised,
entertaining and agile. Madonna has a very lengthily career of singles,
albums and dance sequences and has been nicknamed the Princess of
Pop and later, the Queen of Pop, along with fellow entertainers Britney
Spears, Christina Aguilera, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey and Whitney
Houston.
Frankie Manning or Musclehead (born on May 26, 1914) is an American
dancer, instructor and choreographer. Manning is considered to be one
of the founding fathers of Lindy Hop. In recent years, Frankie
Manning's annual birthday celebrations have drawn together dancers
and instructors from all over the world. His 80th birthday was
commemorated by a weekend long celebration in New York City; his
85th culminated in a sold out party at New York's Roseland Ballroom,
where a pair of his dance shoes were placed in a showcase along with
those of dancers such as Fred Astaire.
Mario Maya is recognized as one of the greatest flamenco dancers and
choreographers of all times. He was born in Crdoba in 1937, but grew
up in the Sacromonte of Granada. Some of his most important works
include Camelamos Naquerar (1976), Ay!
Jondo (1977), Amargo (1986), El Amor Brujo (1987) and Requiem
Flamenco. He is the father of Belen Maya, one of the main figures of
contemporary flamenco dance.
Norma Miller (born December 2, 1919 in Harlem, New York) is an
American swing dancer known to many people as The Queen of Swing.
She was interviewed along with dance partner Frankie Manning in Ken
Burns' documentary Jazz. Discussing the early days of swing dancing,
Norma describes the start of her dancing career at the Savoy
Ballroom (which was just across street from where she lived) during
the early 30s in Harlem. Discovered at the age of twelve by the Savoy
Ballroom's legendary dancer Twist Mouth George, Ms. Miller has been
in show business ever since.
Mata Hari was the stage name of Margaretha Geertruida Zelle (7 August
1876 15 October 1917), a Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan who
was executed by firing squad for espionage during World War I. Many
books have been written about Mata Hari, some of them serious
historical and biographical accounts, but many of them highly
speculative.
Ann Miller (April 12, 1923[1] January 22, 2004) was an American dancer,
singer and actress.Miller was born in eastern Texas, the daughter of
Clara Emma (ne Birdwell) and John Alfred Collier, a criminal lawyer.
She took up dancing to exercise her legs to help her rickets. She was
considered a child dance prodigy. Miller was famed for her speed in tap
dancing; she claimed to be able to tap 500 times per minute. She was
known as well, especially later in her career, for her distinctive
appearance, which reflected a studio-era ideal of glamour: massive
black bouffant hair, heavy makeup with a slash of crimson lipstick, and
fashions that emphasized her lithe figure and long dancer's legs.
Jewel McGowan was a dancer of Lindy Hop, a form of swing dance, in the
1940s and 1950s. She is known among dance aficionados as the
frequent partner of dancer Dean Collins. Jewel was considered by her
fellow Los Angeles dancers to be the best female swing dancer who
ever lived. In addition to their social dancing, Dean and Jewel
appeared together as dancers in films of the era. They were partners
for 11 years and they were often called the Fred and Ginger of Lindy
Hop. Jewel is especially known for her hip swivels, which remain
admired and unrivaled to this day.
Alex Moore (19011991) was a pioneer of modern ballroom dancing, a
dancer, dance teacher and author of classical ballroom dancing books.
His Ballroom Dancing is considered to be the "Bible" of International-
style ballroom dancing. His dancing career started at the age of 6. In
1926 he placed second in a World Championship of ballroom dancing.
In 1932 he partnered with Pat Kilpatrick, who would become his wife.
In his teaching he travelled all over the world: European countries,
North America, Japan, Australia and South Africa.
Mary Murphy (born March 9) is a ballroom dance champion, accredited
dance judge, and a regular judge and choreographer on the FOX dance
competition-reality show So You Think You Can Dance. Mary Murphy is
a former U.S. champion ballroom dancer and TV personality. She was
born in Lancaster, Ohio, the only daughter in an Irish family of four
children. She graduated from Northwest High School in Canal Fulton,
Ohio.
The Nicholas Brothers were a famous African-American team of dancing
brothers, Fayard Nicholas (19142006) and Harold Nicholas (1921
2000). With their highly acrobatic technique, high level of artistry and
daring innovations, they were considered by many the greatest tap
dancers of their day. Growing up surrounded by Vaudeville acts as
children, they became stars of the jazz circuit during the heyday of the
Harlem Renaissance and went on to have successful careers
performing on stage, film, and television well into the 1990s.
Vaslav Fomich Nijinsky (March 12, 1889 April 8, 1950) was a
Polish ballet dancer and choreographer. Nijinsky was one of the most
gifted male dancers in history, and he became celebrated for his
virtuosity and for the depth and intensity of his characterizations. He
could perform en pointe, a rare skill among male dancers at the time
(Albright, 2004) and his ability to perform seemingly gravity-defying
leaps was also legendary.
Rudolf Nureyev (March 17, 1938 January 6, 1993), is regarded as one of
the greatest male ballet dancers of the 20th century, alongside Maris
Liepa, Vaslav Nijinsky, Alexander Godunov and Mikhail
Baryshnikov.Despite his late start, he was soon recognized as an
incredibly gifted dancer. Nureyev pushed himself hard, rehearsing for
hours in order to make up for the years of training he missed. Under
the tutelage of a great teacher, Alexander Pushkin, he blossomed.
Pushkin not only took an interest in him professionally, but also
allowed the younger dancer to live with him and his wife, with the
latter of whom, at 21, he had an affair. Upon graduation, the Kirov and
the Bolshoi both wanted to sign him. He continued with the Kirov and
went on to become a soloist - extremely unusual for someone of his
age and experience .His grave, at a Russian cemetery in Sainte-
Genevive-des-Bois near Paris, features a tomb draped in a mosaic of
an oriental Turkic-style carpet. Nureyev was an avid collector of
beautiful carpets and antique textiles.
Donald O'Connor (born August 28, 1925 died September 27, 2003) was
a famous American tap dancer. He appeared alongside Peggy Ryan in
several Universal Studios musicals throughout the 1940s. Several
years later, he appeared with Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds in the
1952 film classic Singin' in the Rain. His film career ended in 1997, but
he was making public appearances well into 2003. He died at the age
of 73 from congestive heart failure, due to his lifelong smoking habit
and a near fatal addiction to alcohol.
Simona Orinska (born August 18, 1978) is the only butoh artist in Latvia
and a multidisciplinary artist: contemporary dancer, poet, director and
choreographer of many art projects. She is also a Dance Therapy or
Dance Movement Therapy practitioner.
Cristian Oviedo (born November 19, 1979) is a professional dancer, dance
instructor, and choreographer. He offers lessons in Los Angeles-
style salsa, New York-style Salsa, Casino Rueda and InternationalLatin
Dance (which include Cha-Cha-Cha, Rumba, Jive, Paso
Doble, Samba and Argentine Tango). Believing that practice makes
the master and in order to become a better dancer one must be
willing to dance, he recommended dance classes of any type. In his
words, "Dont ever give up. I wouldnt be here if I would have given
up". For choreographing a great salsa show he begins with the ladies
stylistic moves, partnered salsa dancing into the individual mens
footwork and shines, ending with a spectacular dip.
Anna Pavlovna Pavlova (12 February 1881 23 January 1931) was a
famous Russian ballerina of the late 19th and the early 20th century.
Her name along with that of Nijinsky is synonymous with the art
ofballet. Pavlova is a legend largely remembered for her famous dance
The Dying Swan and because she was the first ballerina to travel
around the world and bring ballet to people who had never seen it.
Jules-Joseph Perrot (August 18, 1810 August 18, 1892) was a dancer
and choreographer who later became Balletmaster of the Imperial
Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia. He created some of the most famous
ballets of the 19th century including Pas de Quatre, La Esmeralda,
Ondine, and Giselle with Jean Coralli. Perrot danced often with the
great Romantic ballerina, Marie Taglioni but their partnership was
short-lived. She eventually refused to dance with him fearing that he
would outshine her. Jules Perrot died on holiday in Param August 29,
1892.
Arlene Phillips OBE, English choreographer and former dancer. Has staged
numerous musicals in the West End and Broadway; winning or being
nominated for a number of prestigious awards including theLaurence
Olivier Award and the Tony Award. Is most noted as a television dance
expert, judging shows such as Strictly Come Dancing and So You Think
You Can Dance.
Physicx (23 August 1984 in South Korea) is a South Korean B-boy, who has
countless titles that put his name as one of the best b-boys in the
world. He is currently a member of one of the best Korean crews called
Rivers Crew and was formerly a member of the Korean all-star crew,
Project Soul. Physicx has been a champion of many international-level
tournaments both as a member of a crew and as an individual. His
most notable crew achievements include a R-16 Korea title with Rivers
in 2007, and UK B-Boy Championship titles with Project Soul in 2002
and 2004. As an individual, he won the solo title at UK B-Boy
Championship in 2004. He was also selected for the 2005 Red Bull BC
One individual tournament involving 1 on 1 battles between the top 16
b-boys in the world.
Maya Plisetskaya is a Russian ballet dancer.
Eleanor Torrey Powell (November 21, 1912 February 11, 1982) was
born in Springfield, Massachusetts. A dancer since childhood, she was
discovered at the age of 11 by the head of the Vaudeville Kiddie revue,
Gus Edwards. When she was 17, she brought her graceful, athletic
style to Broadway, where she starred in various revues and musicals.
During this time, she was dubbed "the world's greatest tap dancer"
due to her machine-gun footwork, and in the early 1930s appeared as
a chorus girl in a couple of early, inconsequential musical films.
Dame Marie Rambert (20 February 1888 12 June 1982) was a Polish-
Jewish dancer and dance pedagogue who exerted a great influence on
British ballet, both as a dancer and teacher.Born Cyvia or Miriam
Ramberg in Warsaw, Poland, she also used a number of other names,
including Rambach, Rambam. Between 1912 and 1913 she
collaborated with Les Ballets Russes led by Sergei Diaghilev. In 1918
she moved to the United Kingdom, where in 1920 she founded her
own ballet school. In 1926 she created her own ballet company
called Marie Rambert Dancers. Currently named Ballet Rambert, it is
the oldest still active ballet company on British Isles.
Wade Robson (born September 17, 1982) is an Australian dancer,
choreographer, producer and songwriter. He began performing as a
dancer at the age of five, and as a child worked as a back-up dancer
forMichael Jackson. He is also an award-winning choreographer and
has directed music videos and world tours for music artists, most
notably for 'N Sync and Britney Spears. Robson has found success as a
competition judge, both for his own MTV show, The Wade Robson
Project, and the televised competition So You Think You Can Dance.
He won an Emmy for his choreography on the latter show in 2007.
Pierre Rameau (16741748) was the French dancing master to Elisabetta
Farnese, and the author of two books that now provide us with
valuable information about Baroque dance. Rameau's first book, Le
Matre Danser (1725, Paris), was a dance manual giving instruction
on formal ballroom dancing in the French style. The first part covers
posture, reverences, steps, and the ballroom minuet, while the second
part is concerned entirely with the use of the arms. His second
book, Abbreg de la Nouvelle Methode (c1725, Paris), described a
modified version of Beauchamp-Feuillet notation and included several
choreographies by Pcour in the new notation. While Rameau's
notation was not generally adopted, his information about the
shortcomings of Beauchamp-Feuillet notation provides dance historians
with clarifications about the execution of the steps.
Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (May 25, 1878 November 25, 1949) was a
pioneer and pre-eminent African-American tap dance performer .At the
age of six, he began dancing for a living appearing as a "hoofer" or
song-and-dance man in local beer gardens. At seven, Bill dropped out
of school to pursue dancing. Robinson died of a chronic heart condition
at Columbia Presbyterian Center in New York City in 1949.
Peggy Ryan (August 29, 1924 - October 30, 2004) was an American dancer
and starred in several Universal Studios musicals in
the 1940's with Donald O'Connor, such as Mister Big, What's Cookin'?,
and Patrick the Great, their last film together. Ironically, her and
Donald shared their birthdays, Peggy being a year older. She died at
the age of 80 from the effects of two strokes.
Adam G. Sevani (born on June 29, 1992) is an actor as well as a dancer.
Known as Moose from Step Up 2: The Streets and it's new
sequel, Step Up 3D. Adam and director of Step Up 2, Jon Chu and
their dance group, ACDC or Adam/Chu Dance Crew, had challenged
pop star Miley Cyrus to a highly publicized dance battle. Adam is set to
star in the new sitcom "LOL" with Miley in 2011.
Ruth St. Denis (January 20, 1879 July 21, 1968) was an early modern
dance pioneer.Ruth St. Denis founded Adelphi University's dance
program in 1938 which was the one of the first dance departments in
an American university. It has since become a cornerstone of Adelphi's
Department of Performing Arts .Her early works are indicative of her
interests in exotic mysticism and spirituality. Many companies
currently include a collection of her signature solos in their repertoires,
including the programme, "The Art of the Solo", a showcase of famous
solos of modern dance pioneers. Several early St. Denis solos
(including "Incense" and "The Legend of the Peacock") were presented
on September 29, 2006, at the Baltimore Museum of Art. A centennial
salute was scheduled with the revival premiere of St. Denis "Radha",
commissioned by Countess Anastasia Thamakis of Greece. The
program's director, Mino Nicolas, has been instrumental in the revival
of these key solos.
Benjiman "Benji" Daniel Schwimmer (born on January 18, 1984)[1] is
an American professional swing dancer. On August 16, 2006 he was
crowned "America's Favorite Dancer", as the winner of the second
season of So You Think You Can Dance. Benji Schwimmer and his
older cousin, Heidi Groskreutz (herself a top-4 finalist on the same
season of So You Think You Can Dance), are also U.S. Open Showcase
Swing champions in West Coast Swing style. Schwimmer left the
dancing scene at the top of his game to serve a two-year mission for
the LDS Church in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. He has subsequently
founded the non-profit charity organization "Dancers Everywhere
Making a Needed Difference" (D.E.M.A.N.D.) for helping orphans in
southern Mexico and Africa and providing healthcare for dancers with
HIV/AIDS, and is a co-owner of 5678 Dance Studio in Redlands,
California.
Lloyd Shaw (18901958), also known as Dr. Lloyd "Pappy" Shaw, was an
educator, and is generally credited with bringing about the broad
revival of square dancing in America. He was
superintendent/principal/teacher/coach for Cheyenne Mountain
Schools, Colorado Springs, Colorado from 19161951, and taught folk
dancing .Shaw traveled the country, and compiled instructions for
traditional square dances from different callers all over the country. He
documented them, and tried them out on the students he taught. He
formed the Cheyenne Mountain Dancers, a high-school exhibition
team, which toured the United States in the 1930s and 1940s,
appearing in more than 50 major cities .As the popularity of square
dancing grew, square dance callers began extracting individual calls
from these dances, and attempts at standardised lists were developed.
These lists were later adopted by callers, and organizations such as
Callerlab and later the American Callers Association formed to manage
and promote a universal list and the type of dance leadership that
Shaw envisioned.
Jimmy Slyde (born 1927), who is known as the King of Slides, is a world-
renowned tap dancer, especially famous for his innovative tap style
mixed with jazz. Slyde's profile in the United States revived noticeably
in the 1980s. He danced in the films The Cotton Club, Tap and Round
Midnight, as well as a number of television specials. He collaborated
with Steve Condos on a program of jazz tap improvisation at the
Smithsonian Institution and performed across the United States and in
South America. In 1989, Slyde received a Tony Award nomination for
his Broadway debut in the musical Black and Blue.In recent years,
Slyde has received a number of significant honors, including the NEA
National Heritage Fellowship Award (1999), the Charles "Honi" Coles
Award (2001), a Guggenheim Fellowship for Choreography (2003),
and an honorary Doctorate of Performing Arts from Oklahoma City
University. Slyde is still performing and teaching today throughout the
United States. He continues to stress the importance of mastering the
basics and using sliding cascades of taps close to the floor.
"Shorty" George Snowden was an African American dancer in Harlem
during the 1920s and 1930s. He is popularly credited with coining the
name "Lindy Hop" for a popular partner swing dance of the day. He is
also often credited with inventing the dance, though this is
unsubstantiated and unlikely. Snowden was a popular dancer at
the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, New York, in the United States and
appears in the film After Seben (1929), in which he performs the
breakaway, a variation on the Charleston, which later developed into
the Lindy Hop. He can also be seen in the film Ask Uncle Sol (1937),
dancing with his most famous partner Big Bea.
Britney Spears (December 2, 1981 - ) is an American singer, songwriter
and dancer. Apart from being famous for her hit singles ...Baby One
More Time and Oops!...I Did It Again, she is also internationally
renowned for her unique outfits and her entertaining and freestyle
dancing. Her debut single,...Baby One More Time, features Spears
dancing in a formal yet somewhat revealing catholic school girl
uniform, which brought both success and extreme controversy to her
iconic career. Britney Spears is often compared to fellow singers and
dancers Madonna and Christina Aguilera.
John William Sublett (February 19, 1902 May 18, 1986), known by his
stage name John W. Bubbles, was an American vaudeville performer,
singer and entertainer .Sublett is known as the father of "rhythm tap",
a form of tap dance. As opposed to the tap dancing of Bill Robinson
(Bojangles) who emphasized clean phrases and toe taps, Sublett
brought in percussive heel stomps and played with the traditional
eight-bar phrase, slowing it down to allow for more rhythmic freedom.
He thus merged the art of tap dancing with the new improvisitory style
of jazz, reinventing the tap artform.
Sylvia Sykes is a swing dance instructor, judge and choreographer. In
particular she is considered by most to be the leading authority on the
dance Balboa. She also represented the U.S. in the World Boogie
Woogie Championships in Grenoble, France with her original partner
Jonathan Bixby. She is best known for reviving Balboa, which is rapidly
gaining popularity around the world, and is a regular guest at the
balboa dance camps.
Uday Shankar (December 8, 1900 September 26, 1977) (Bengali:
), the pioneer of modern dance in India, and a world renowned
Indian dancer and choreographer, was most known for adapting
Western theatrical techniques to traditional Indian classical dance,
imbued with elements of Indian classical, folk, and tribal dance, thus
laying the roots of modern Indian dance, which he later popularized in
India, Europe, and the United States in 1920s and 1930s.
Marie Taglioni (April 23, 1804 April 24, 1884) was a famous Italian
ballerina of the Romantic ballet era, a central figure in the history of
European dance. Marie Taglioni was born in Stockholm, Sweden, to the
Italian cheoreographer Filippo Taglioni and the Swedish dancer Sophie
Karsten (daughter of the Swedish opera singer Christoffer Christian
Karsten and the Polish actor Sophie Stebnowska). Marie Taglioni rose
to fame as a dancer when her father (and teacher) created the ballet
La Sylphide (1832) for her. Marie retired from performing in
1847.Later she taught social dance to children and society ladies; she
also took a limited number of ballet pupils. Her only choreographic
work was Le Papillon (1860) for her student Emma Livry, who is
remembered for dying in 1863 when her costume was set alight by a
gas lamp (limelight) used for stage lighting. Marie lived much longer,
dying in Marseilles in 1884.
Twyla Tharp (born July 1, 1941) is a leading American dancer and
choreographer. She has won Emmy and Tony awards, and currently
works as a choreographer in New York City .Twyla Tharp Dance
merged with American Ballet Theatre in 1988, where Tharp created
more than a dozen works. Since that time Tharp has choreographed
dances for many companies including The Paris Opera Ballet, The
Royal Ballet, New York City Ballet, The Boston Ballet, The Joffrey
Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance and The Martha Graham Dance
Company.
Danny Tidwell (born August 1, 1984 in Norfolk, Virginia) is an American
contemporary and ballet dancer and choreographer, best known for
being the runner-up on Fox's third season of So You Think You Can
Dance in 2007. Tidwell began dancing as a child, at first focusing
on jazz before changing to ballet while attending Kirov Academy of
Ballet at the age of fifteen. He has worked in elite companies,
including the American Ballet Theater. He has also performed the
works of renowned choreographers, including Debbie Allen, William
Forsythe and Mia Michaels. He is Travis Wall's brother, also a runner-
up, of the second season of So You Think You Can Dance.
Eddie Torres (born on July 3, 1950) is one of the most famous salsa
dance instructors in the world. He has trained thousands of dancers,
including some of the most well known contemporary dancers.
Through his dance school, he has taught thousands of people how to
dance salsa in his own distinctive style. He also has a children's dance
program that teaches approximately three hundred students a year.
Antony Tudor (4 April 1908 - 19 April 1987), born William Cook, highly
influential twentieth-century English ballet choreographer, teacher and
dancer. Antony Tudor is generally accepted to be one of the great
originals of modern dance forms. Along with George Balanchine, he is
seen as a principal transformer of ballet into a modern art, but of a
genius that uses, rather than proceeds from, ballet forms. His work is
usually considered as modern "psychological" expression, butlike
their creatorof austerity, elegance and nobility.
Agrippina Yakovlevna Vaganova (July 6, 1879 - November 5, 1951) was
an outstanding Russian ballet teacher who developed the Vaganova
method - the technique which derived from the teaching methods of
the old Imperial Ballet School (today the Vaganova Academy of
Russian Ballet) under the Premier Matre de Ballet Marius Petipa
throughout the mid to late 19th century, though mostly throughout
the 1880s and 1890s. It was Vaganova who perfected and cultivated
this form of teaching the art of classical ballet into a workable syllabus.
Her Fundamentals of the Classical Dance (1934) remains a standard
textbook for the instruction of ballet technique.
John Weaver (July 21, 1673 September 24, 1760) was a dancer
and choreographer and is commonly known as the father of
English pantomime. Weaver was born in Shrewsbury. His father, a
dance teacher, suggested he go to London and become a ballet
master. Weaver soon became a specialist in comic roles and created
the first pantomime ballet, the burlesque Tavern Bilkers (1702). His
more serious work, The Loves of Mars and Venus dealt with themes
from classical literature and required a significant amount of gestures
due to the story not being expressed in any spoken form. Because
Weaver attempted to use plot and emotion in replacement of more
sophisticated technical and speech methods, he is considered a major
influence on subsequent choreographers, including Jean-Georges
Noverre and Gasparo Angiolini.
Charles Edward Weidman, Jr. (1901 in Lincoln, Nebraska 1975) was a
modern dancer, choreographer and teacher. He studied and performed
with Denishawn before leaving to form the Humphrey-Weidmanschool
and company with Doris Humphrey and Pauline Lawrence. Like his
partner Humphrey, Weidman worked from principles of fall and
recovery and also experimented with a form of linking unrelated
movements that he called "kinetic pantomime." During the 1930s,
Weidman taught at the Bennington School of the Dance in Vermont
and presented choreography including his popular Candide (1937)
through the Federal Dance Theatre of the WPA.
Mary Wigman (18861973) was a German dancer, choreographer, and
instructor of dance. Credited for innovation of expressionist dance, and
pioneer of modern dance in Germany. Mary Wigman's choreographies
often employed non-Western instrumentation: fifes, bells, gongs, and
drums from India, Thailand, Africa, and China. However, the primary
musical accompaniment for her most well known dances was
percussion, which contrasted greatly with her use of silence. Mary
would often employ masks in her pieces, influenced again by non-
western/tribal motifs, as well as ecstatic spinning.

Filipino Dancers
Cheryl Burke (born May 3, 1984) is a professional dancer. She is best
known for being the first two-time champion
of ABC's American version of Dancing with the Stars.
Lisa Teresita Pacheco Macuja-Elizalde (born on October 3, 1964) is a
Prima Ballerina. She is the first Philippine ballerina, and first foreign
soloist who ever joined the Kirov Ballet in 1984. In the Philippines,
she is the Artistic Director of Ballet Manila and Vice-Chairman of the
Philippine UNESCO National Commission. She was also the
Commissioner of the National Commission on the Role of Filipino
Women. Macuja-Elizalde is also Directress and faculty member of
the Ballet Manila School a training center for ballet professionals
who are steeped in the Russian Vaganova method.
Leonor Orosa Goquinco (July 24, 1917 - July 15, 2005) was a Filipino
national artist in creative dance. She could play the piano, draw,
design scenery and costumes, sculpt, act, direct, dance and
choreograph. Her pen name was Cristina Luna and she was known
as Trailblazer, Mother of Philippine Theater Dance and Dean of
Filipino Performing Arts Critics. She died on July 15 2005 of "cardiac
arrest secondary to cerebro-vascular accident" at the age of 87.
SexBomb Dancers (or also known as SexBomb Dancers) are an all-
female singing, dancing, and acting group from the Philippines.
They are known for the novelty songs "Spaghetti," "Bakit Papa"
("Why Father") and "Bilog na Hugis Itlog" ("Egg-shaped Circle")
that were certified platinum in the Philippines. The music video of
"Bilog na Hugis Itlog" aimed to educate Filipino voters on the new
election procedure implemented on the 2010 Philippine general
election.
They are also well known for the grunt "Get, Get Aww!" They were
once mainstay dancers for the longest noontime show in the
Philippines Eat Bulaga. However, the SexBomb Dancers can no
longer be seen in Eat Bulaga. They are currently freelancers: they
can appear in any channel and guest in any TV show except Eat
Bulaga due to some misunderstandings. They can be seen in Party
Pilipinas every Sunday or in Happy Yipee Yehey during guestings.

JabbaWockeeZ is Bay Area based Urban dance group formed initially by
members Kevin " KB" Brewer, Phil "Swagger Boy" Tayag, & Joe
"Punkee" larot under the name "3 Muskee". They were the winners
of season 1 of the show America's Best Dance Crew. Other
members include Ben "B-Tek" Chung, Chris Gatdula & Phi Nguyen
Super Cr3w (pronounced "Super Crew" and also spelled "Super CR3W")
is a breakdance crew from Las Vegas, Nevada who won the 2nd
season of America's Best Dance Crew.
SoReal Cru is a hip-hop dance crew from Houston, Texas who gained
fame as the runner-up on the second season of America's Best
Dance Crew (ABDC). Before ABDC, they won first place in the World
of Dance competition in 2008.[1] After the second season
of America's Best Dance Crew was over, they returned to MTV for a
two part ABDC special, Battle of the VMA's. In the spin-off, popular
crews from seasons one and two competed for an opportunity to
win $25,000 for charity and to present the 2008 VMA for Best
Dancing in a Video.[2] Alumni crews BreakSk8, Fanny Pak, Kaba
Modern, Status Quo, and SoReal Cru participated in the
event.[3]SoReal Cru danced to Forever by Chris Brown and made
the cut in the preliminary rounds while BreakSk8 and Status Quo
were eliminated. After the public voted, SoReal Cru was declared
runners-up for having the least amount of votes. After a dance off
at the VMA Preshow,[2][4] the public voted again, and it was
announced during the VMA's that Fanny Pak won.
Zaira Cosico is a ballerina from the Philippines.[1] She is one of a few
successful scholars of Liza Macuja's dance company, Ballet Manila.
She first learned to dance at the Halili Cruz School of Dance. Cosico
has been instructed in the Vaganova method by Tatiana A.
Udalenkova of the Academy of Russia Ballet (Vaganova
Choreographic Institute). She has also worked with Viktor Savaliev,
Sergey Vikulov and Evgeny Scherbakov.
Quest Crew is an Asian-American hip-hop dance crew from Los
Angeles, California who were declared winners of the third
season of America's Best Dance Crew.[1]They made their first few
appearances individually on shows like So You Think You Can
Dance and at events such as Kollaboration 8 and World of Dance.
Philippine All Stars is a Philippine hip-hop dance group. They won the
2006 and 2008 World Hip Hop Dance Championships.[1] They were
formed on 2005 by twelve individuals that were working in
the Manilaunderground Hip-hop scene.[2] They also joined the
Artists Revolution: 365 days to change campaign which asks the
Filipino voters to be more critical in choosing their political leaders
in the coming 2010 elections.[3]
Poreotix also known as Poreotix, is an American all-male dance crew
from Westminster, California. The crew was formed in 2007 by
"Dumbo" Nguyen and specializes
in popping, choreography and robotics, hence the name Po-reo-tics.
They have performed in numerous hip hop dance competitions,
most notably coming in 1st place in the USA division of the 2009
and 2010 Hip-Hop Internationals[1] and in other dance programs
and competitions including the Vibe 15, FUSION X, Body Rock, and
World Of Dance. On April 8, 2010, they were crowned the
champions on the fifth season of America's Best Dance Crew.[2] On
January 14, 2011 they were crowned as Team of the Year at the
World of Dance awards.
Massive Monkeys is a 28 member[1] B-boy group from Seattle,
Washington that won the 2004 World B-boy Championships
in London and appeared on season 4 ofMTV's America's Best Dance
Crew.
Jennifer Olayvar is a contemporary ballerina[1] from the Philippines.
She has been a dancer for Ballet Manila since 2000. She had been
the special assistant toLisa Macuja-Elizalde from 2004 to 2007.
Olayvar has taken minor and intermediate examinations in
the Royal Academy of Dance in London, England.
Kaba Modern is a dance group originating from Irvine, California. Kaba
Modern is a spin-off of the University of California, Irvine Filipino
cultural club, Kababayan, which means "countrymen" in Tagalog.
Created by Arnel Calvario in 1992,[1] Kaba Modern began as
dancers that performed the hip-hop portion or the "Modern Suite"
of Kababayan's annual Pilipino Cultural Night (PCN) at UCI. Since
then, Kaba Modern has entered multinational competitions and
gained recognition in the media. For instance, few Kaba Modern
members helped choreograph the "dance battle" scene in The
Debut in 1997 while 3 members were shown onscreen during the
Making of Featurette of the DVD.
Cris Judd (born August 15, 1969) is an American actor and
choreographer known for his brief marriage to Jennifer Lopez. He
hails from Abilene, Texas.
Charles Klapow (born July 5, 1980) is an American choreographer and
dance instructor who has performed and choreographed for various
performers and several television and stage productions. He is also
known for his teachings of the mental approach to dance. Klapow's
mother is Filipino and his father is Russian American.
Tadd Gaduang
Marko Germar
Supreme Soul
G-Force