Dance is the movement of the body in a rhythmic way alongside music in a given space for various reasons, whether to express an emotion, releasing an energy, or simply enjoying the movement. Dance is a powerful impulse, but the art of dance is that impulse channeled by skillful performers into something that becomes intensely expressive and that may delight spectators who feel no wish to dance themselves. Those two concepts are the most important connecting ideas running through any consideration of the subject. In dance, these two concepts are a package deal and neither can exist without the other.
ELEMENTS OF DANCE
There are 5 elements of dance that are foundational concepts to help students develop their movement skills and understand dance as an artistic practice known by BASTE: Body, Action, Space, Time, and Energy. This framework is present in all types of dances, while different dance styles call for different skill sets, these elements are visible in any form of dance.
BODY
Imagine a body moving with rhythmic purpose and motion performing to music. That’s dance to the core. According to dance critic Walter Terry “No paints nor brushes, marbles nor chisels, pianos or violins are needed to make this art, for we are the stuff that dance is made of. It is born in our body and dies in our body. Dance, then, is the most personal of all the arts, it springs from the very breath of life.”. The body is the figure or the shape that is tangible and visible, the body can be still or constantly moving through the dance. Specific parts of the body may be emphasized during the dance or the whole body may be used at once. Just as some colors in a painting may appear more vibrant that others, there are also dancers with exceptional body control. They have worked hard to train their bodies to achieve superior balance, strength, and agility. As dance is also a form of expression, they use their bodies to take internal ideas, emotions, and intentions and express them in an outward manner.
ACTION
Action is any human movement involved in the act of dancing, dance steps, facial expressions, lifts, gestures, even everyday movements like walking. Dance is a string of these movements and even pauses and moments of stillness are still action. Dancers work together with a choreographer to practice and refine the action of the dance. When the action has been “set,” or finalized, the dancers must memorize their movement sequences to be able to perform them.
SPACE
Space is the area the dancers interact with, their position in time. They may stay in one place or move from one place to another. They may alter the direction, level, size, and pathway of their movements. A dancer thinks about space in many ways, here are some examples: Level, how high the movement is performed, is it upward or to the floor. Direction, does it go forward, backward, sideways, right, left, or even a diagonal. Place, is the movement done in a single spot or does it move through space. Orientation, where are the dancers facing. Pathway, how will the dancers move through space, is it curved, zigzagged, straight, or plain random. And size, does the movement take a small, narrow space, or a big, wide space. These examples help us understand how to think about movement through space. Imagine the many ways you can perform a singular, simple movement like clapping your hands if ran through the different concepts of space.
TIME
If time is discussed, the question in mind is always “when?”. Human activity is rhythmic in the large scale of things when we alternate between activity and rest. Breathing and heartbeat is one of the rhythmic things in nature that repeat, but not as consistent as a metered rhythm. Choreographers always make decisions about timing. Are their movements quick or slow? Are certain steps repeated in different speeds? There are several ways because, namely: Clock time, how long in a unit of time is a dance. Timing relationships, how quickly or slowly in succession are dance steps performed. Metered time, in what time signature or beat is the dance done. Is it on a 2/4 time? 3/4 time? This speed of the pattern is called tempo. And finally free rhythm where dancers rely on cues from one another to perform the dance. No music, no tempo, no nothing, just dancer’s instinct.
ENERGY
Energy is about how the movement happens. Choices about energy include variations in movement flow and the use of force, tension, and weight. An arm gesture might be free flowing or easily stopped, and it may be powerful or gentle, tight or loose, heavy or light. A dancer may step into an arabesque position with a sharp, percussive attack or with light, flowing ease. Energy may change in an instant, and several types of energy may be concurrently in play. The effort the dancers use can communicate meaning, depending on the energy involved. A touch between two dancers may be gentle and light, perhaps indicating concern or affection; or it may be sudden and forceful, indicating anger or playfulness. Energy is crucial in bringing the inner expression of emotion out to the stage performance.
DANCE GENRES
Dance indeed has expanded into many, many, genres. There is more into dance than formal attire and fancy dance steps. Namely Ballet, Contemporary, Modern, Jazz, Tap, Street, Ballroom, Philippine Folk, Neo-Ethnic, Foreign Folk, Cheer.
There is ballet where one must be flexible, graceful, and elegant. Contemporary dance that combines all the elements of the old and turns it into the new. Modern dance is a free, expressive style of dancing that challenges the structure of classical ballet, nowadays there are non-dance elements integrated into it as well such as speech and film. Tap dance where dancers wear shoes with metal taps so when they tap the floor, a tapping sound is created alongside the beat. There comes street dance, the king of hip hop dancing. Boomboxes, cardboard boxes, fancy shoes, street drip (drip = attire), and famous breakdancing moves known for the dancers’ extreme sense of balance. You’ll always find these dancers well… on the street. Ballroom dance, fancy gowns, classy suits, proms, weddings. The kind of dance gentlemen perform to impress the ladies. The tinikling, the itik-itik, the maglalatik, the cariñosa, do they sound familiar to you? If yes, then those are the Philippines’ folk dances students dance till they’re dead. Neo-ethnic dance is the fusion of the tradition and pride of the ethnic tribes and the elegance and gracefulness of ballet. When the dance that challenges mainstream and the mainstream dance come together, that’s neo-ethnic dance. If the Philippines has folk dance, then any other country has their own folk dances as well which are special and exclusive to their country, that’s basically foreign folk dance. Cheer dance is seemingly the flashiest dance genre with human stacking, high jumps, backflips, and other dangerous stunts. The University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) even held a competition amongst universities solely for cheer dance.
JAZZ DANCE
Now let’s focus on jazz dance. Now what exactly is jazz dance? You might think of fan kicks and shimmies, but jazz is no longer limited to those. Jazz today incorporates a broad range of dance styles. Before the 1950s, jazz dance was a style that originated from African American dance in the 1950s, “modern jazz dance” emerged, with roots in Caribbean traditional dance. Every individual style of jazz dance traces back to these two distinct origins. In the 1930s to the 1960s, jazz was considered a high skill dance and it’s not amateur friendly.
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