Dance Studies: The Basics

Jo Butterworth

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2011
• eBook ISBN: 9781136584060
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Performing Arts

A concise introduction to the study of dance ranging from the practical aspects such as technique and choreography to more theoretical considerations such as aesthetic appreciation and the place of dance in different cultures. This book answers questions such as:

• Exactly how do we define dance?
• What kinds of people dance and what kind of training is necessary?
• How are dances made?
• What do we know about dance history?

Featuring a glossary, chronology of dance history and list of useful websites, this book is the ideal starting point for anyone interested in the study of dance.

Training for Dance

Today, in the twenty-first century, there is a great sense of interdisciplinarity and hybridity about the ways in which young people begin the process of preparation for studying Dance at university or college or commencing professional dance training. Through extensive travel and the internet, so much is being shared globally. Of course, in almost every country of the world, schools and academies offer professional training in chosen genres and styles, for those who have the talent, the physical acumen and the mental and creative capacity to join a company and dance professionally. Ballet and jazz dance are taught in almost every country of the world; one can learn modern dance Graham technique in Java, Chinese and South Asian dance in the UK or Singapore, Egyptian belly dancing in the USA or Australia, tango and flamenco in Israel and indeed in most countries of the world.

For those who choose to enter the dance profession as intending professional performers, either in the East or the West, the normal training period is generally understood to be at least 10 years. Young people might start with one class a week, but serious training means all day everyday classes and rehearsals in a variety of styles; in order to prepare the body for daily rehearsal or performance, in whatever genre, exercises progress from the simple to the complex, in terms of coordination, length and difficulty. Most professional students attend specialist ballet school for more than five years and/or follow an intensive three- or four-year programme at 16+.

For amateur groups learning traditional and country dance forms, like Irish clogging or Appalachian step dancing, groups might meet once or twice a week, but for those involved with competitions and regular performances, such as ballroom and Latin American dance, much more regular practice is the norm. Some forms are learned in the social or cultural context of the family or community, such as many traditional African, Aboriginal or Native American dances, while others need specialist teachers or gurus as in the South Asian styles of Bharata Natyam or Kathak.

In the higher education sector (18+), which is the specific focus of this book, students may not become professional dancers, but they may wish to make a career in dance through teaching, performing, choreographing, running creative workshops or open classes or managing dance events. Therefore, they need to be able to dance, to the best of their ability; during the three or four years of study, they will probably be introduced to several different forms of technique.

The majority of dance students who enter college or university to study dance have been introduced to dancing by attending private ballet or dance schools. All over the world these schools offer classes based on syllabus work and examinations in classical ballet and other forms. Dance teaching societies which offer training for teachers and examination syllabi for their students include: the British Ballet Organization (BBO), the American Association of Ballet (AAB), the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) and the Cecchetti Society – the Cecchetti method of ballet is a style of classical, theatrical dance based on the teachings of the Italian ballet master Enrico Cecchetti (1850–1928).

• The RAD in London has 13,000 members worldwide in 79 countries run by 179 staff and 200 examiners; approximately 250,000 children and students take graded examinations each year.
• The Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (ISTD) offers examinations in ballet (Cecchetti and imperial), but also in a wide range of genres and styles including modern ballroom, Latin American, and the South Asian dance styles of Bharata Natyam and Kathak.
• The International Dance Teachers Association (IDTA) claims 7,000 members in 55 countries.
• NZAMD (New Zealand Association of Modern Dance) was the first New Zealand-based dance examination organization, and is now one of the largest in the country with over 270 teacher members and nearly 14,000 students involved in examinations.

These and other organizations offer syllabus training followed by examinations taught in private dance studios in many genres: e.g. different styles of ballet, jazz, modern and ballroom. Other students come to study dance through the dance education route, in those countries where dance is established as part of state education. This might mean that intending students have been following dance in a National Curriculum, in contemporary/modern style, South Asian, ballet or African contemporary, for example, in GCSE or A level.

In order to study Dance in the university or college, the normal entry qualification is the required matriculation of the country, plus an audition designed to test dance technical skills, choreographic or performance experience, anatomical/skeletal fitness and the ability to communicate verbally about aspects of the wider dance field. Some institutions wish to see intending students respond to improvisation tasks or small group activity.

For many years there have been clear distinctions between professional and educational dance institutions in relation to their approaches to teaching and learning. In a balletic context, the goal in training a dancer usually relates to getting into a company. In professional dance contexts, including vocational dance training, dancers are trained through daily immersion in technique classes, in rehearsals with choreographers or répétiteurs (where the concern is with the making of new works or with the reconstruction of existing choreography) and through the regular performance of completed works. Formerly, dancers tended to become choreographers through the apprentice method, drawing upon their personal experiences as dancers in relation to the ‘master’ choreographers. Today, however, many curricula in university-validated degree programmes include choreography. Students practise technique, but also study choreography and improvisation, engaging with the creative process and the development of understanding and application of the methods, concepts and principles of dance and choreography. The old perception among professional vocational teachers, that it is difficult to fuse notions of curiosity, creative exploration and critical faculty with rigorous technical training, has finally been laid to rest. Leaving aside the objectives of each institute/programme, and the personal desires of each student, today a balanced approach is advocated, where the principles of technical mastery, critical faculty and creativity can be pulled into correspondence and students have the opportunity to make, perform or study Dance wherever they apply and are offered a place.

The next section of this chapter investigates training rituals and objectives. First, three examples have been chosen from non Western locations – Beijing in China, Ghana in Africa and Tamil Nadu in India – to demonstrate the structures and context of the education of young dancers. We then consider the specific training activities of ballet, modern/contemporary and somatic techniques that have been predominant in the West. However, it will soon become evident that the traditional dichotomies between one part of the world and another have become less relevant under the influences of travel, globalization and technology.

Exemplar 1: Dance Education in Beijing, China

The Chinese people believe the air is most densely charged with vital energy called chi at daybreak, and for thousands the day starts with dawn exercises in parks. Individuals or groups gather to jog, dance, practise the gentle slow motion of tai chi chuan or the vigorous gymnastics of kung fu. Many forms of dance training in China can be traced back thousands of years, yet after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, proper dance education and research began with the establishment of the Beijing Dance Academy, which allowed dance training to be standardized. While discovering and preserving the particular style of Chinese classical dance movements, the Academy also constantly improved on its techniques in order to standardize the form, such as: foundation techniques of Chinese classical dance (barre work training, centre work training, and training jumps, turns, somersaults and combined technique), Chinese classical dance posture and rhythm training, tanzigong training (fighting and acrobatics/martial arts), sword dance training, long-sleeve dance training, etc.

The Beijing Dance Academy, also known as the Beijing Dance Institute, is the only institution of higher education in Dance in mainland China. There are three specialties: Performance, Choreography and Dance Studies. It offers Master’s degrees and Bachelor’s degrees. The school was founded on 6 September 1954 and is located in Haidian District, Beijing. There are almost 500 teachers and administrative staff and about 2,000 students. Admis-sion to the school is competitive; an examination is required, as for all other academies. The Beijing Dance Academy also teaches pre-kindergarten, elementary, middle and high school students. Students attend full-time school at the academy and learn basic mathematics, reading, writing and other standard subjects. Students also choose a specialism such as ballet or Chinese traditional dance.

Broadly speaking, in terms of the development of Chinese modern and contemporary dance, it seems that all forms of dance, both with and without specific national characteristics and classical patterns, could be included in Chinese modern dance. Note that Chinese modern dance pioneers like Wu Xiaobang, Dai Ailian and Jia Zuoguang had intensive professional training in Western modern dance. In their dancing, they retain the spirit of freedom and innovation, while pursuing the national character of China and the trends of the time, and combine these with what they were taught. The dance classics of the Chinese modern dance of the twentieth century are represented by great works such as March of the Volunteers (first performed in 1934) and Song of the Guerrillas (1937 – during the Second Sino-Japanese War).

At the beginning of the 1960s, Wu Xiaobang set up the Tianma Dance Art Studio to promote his own teaching system which originated from modern dance. His works of this period include the Great Ambuscade, Three Variations of Plum Blossom and Wild Geese Landing on the Sand, which all sustain a traditional cultural spirit. Some dances were based on modern life, like Soccer Dance and Butterfly. Chinese modern dance began a new development trend at the beginning of the 1980s with the deepening of China’s reforms. In recent years China directly brought in ‘authentic’ Western modern dance and started new explorations into this field. Guangzhou, the pioneer of Chinese reform, and Beijing, the political capital and cultural centre, became the bases for modern dance. In 1987, the first experimental modern dance class opened in Guangdong Province; in 1991, the Beijing Dance Institute officially launched the Modern Dance Teaching and Research Office. Many well-known Western modern dance experts were invited to China to give systematic training in shape and choreography, including Sarah Stackhouse, Ruby Shang, Douglas Nielson, Claudia Gittleman, Lucas Hoving, Birgit Akesson, Ren Lu Wang and Chang Ching from the United States, Britain, Sweden, Canada and Australia.

Soon after, young Chinese modern dancers began to emerge on the world stage with their unique style. The pioneers were Qin Liming and Qiao Yang from the Guangdong modern dance class, who gained the gold medal for the pas de deux at the fourth Paris International Modern Dance Contest in 1990 with the dances Passing Voice (choreographed by Cao Chengyuan) and Impression of Taiji. Later, in 1994 and 1996, gold medals at the sixth and seventh Paris International Modern Dance Contests were won by Chinese Xing Liang and Sang Jijia. Today, Chinese artists of international standard have joined major ballet and contemporary companies globally.

Exemplar 2: Dance Education in Ghana

In the early 1960s, President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana initiated a National Theatre Movement to help bridge the existing gap between the acquisition of theoretical knowledge and performance ability in the arts (and between African and Western artistic values) and so create viable artistic products of music, dance and drama. The Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana took responsibility for studying the arts of Africa: a School of Music, Dance and Drama and a National Dance Company operated for the purposes of teaching, research and performance. Students from other African countries came to study and to share their knowledge of African music, dance and drama and related subjects. Traditional dancers and musicians from all over the country were recruited and integrated to form the nucleus of the National Dance Company.

As a result, three phases of dance development – neo-traditional, dance-theatre, and contemporary dance – emerged in Ghana alongside traditional forms. Albert Mawere Opoku pioneered the neo-traditional phase, bringing together existing traditional dances from around the country, and carefully rearranged their movements to suit the conventional stage. In phase two, a distinct Ghanaian dance-theatre began to emerge. The use of modern production methods did much to bring the many elements into a coherent unity of expression of various themes. The first serious dance-theatre production in Ghana was Opoku’s African Liberation Dance Suite (1965). It was followed by productions including Nii-Yartey’s The Lost Warrior (1978) and The King’s Dilemma (1979); The Maidens (1992) by Patience Kwakwa; The Orphan (1996) and The Palm Wine Drinkard (2002) by Ofotsu Adinku; and Odwira (2001) by Asare Newman. Since African dance is integrative – that is, it combines dance with music, drama, poetry and costumes for its expression – these choreographers used adventurous and provocative movements, with the other artistic elements, to help maintain the traditional marriage between dance and these art forms.

The third phase of contemporary African dance is now emerging. Its language, inspiration, content and symbols are drawn from the African experience. However, to advance African dance beyond the old form, and for its appeal to transcend its original community context, other acceptable methods and techniques of dance composition, developed from within and outside Africa, are required to achieve a viable and credible contemporary choreographic creation in Africa. Essentially, contemporary African dance must synthesize old dance traditions with innovation, technical skill and originality in evolving its own choreographic language.

Contemporary African dance is being developed by choreographers who have acquired a holistic outlook that informs their teaching and their choreographic and technical methods. Pioneers who are helping to change the face of African dance through their writings, teaching, choreographic works and performances in their respective countries and beyond include Germaine Acogny of Senegal, Alphonse Tierou and Adiatu Massidi of Côte d’Ivoire, Elsa Wolliaton of Kenya, Achille Ngoye of the Congo, Nii-Yartey of Ghana, Peter Badejo of Nigeria and Kariamu Welsh of the USA.

At the forefront of the development of contemporary African dance in Ghana is the Noyam African Dance Institute. Noyam, which translates as ‘development’ or ‘moving on’, was set up in 1998 to provide opportunity for diverse groups of young people with differing educational backgrounds to access knowledge of dance and to help advance the development of contemporary African dance in Ghana. This includes the development of a specific ‘Noyam’ technique derived from the movement characteristics, aesthetic qualities and philosophy of the African dance traditions. In order to acquire the movement skills needed for the effective execution and definition of this form of dance, students are taken through a selection of traditional dance movements, ensuring that they learn the proper execution and details of each dance, paying particular attention to shape, dynamics and the contextual and emotional qualities of the movements. Kinetic energy derived from such everyday human activities as falling, lifting, jumping, walking, clapping, rolling, pushing and pulling, running, the natural undulation of the spine and facial expressions of all sorts are employed in the process of building the vocabulary. Movement phrases are applied in their original form or abstracted, extended, stylized and filtered towards the creation of choreographic works in the Institute (Nii-Yartey, 2009).

Exemplar 3: South Asian Dance Forms in Tamil Nadu

South Asian dance encompasses forms originating in the Indian sub-continent and those developing in the diaspora. The sub-continent has given birth to varied forms of dancing, each shaped by the influences of a particular period and region or environment. Indian dance is, like other forms, an extremely intricate art requiring skill, hard work and discipline. All Indian dances tend to portray some expression of life and either the dance posture (Nritya) has a specific meaning or they are purely aesthetic (Nritta). Dance themes are derived from mythology, folklore, legends and classical literature.

Indian dance is said to have originated from the Natya Shastra, a detailed script on aspects of Indian dance written by Bharata Muni in the second century bc. The two main d...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1. Training for dance
• 2. Making dances
• 3. Dance theatre history
• 4. Performing dances
• 5. Appreciating dance
• 6. Applied dance studies
• Conclusion: your first steps towards studying dance
• Glossary
• References
• Index