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Humans have been dancing for millennia. In the last thousand years dance has evolved into several genres including; ballet, folk, jazz, disco, western, ballroom, ethnic, salsa, hip hop and many more. This article will mainly focus on Western European and American dance of the last 400 years.
Dancing was, and sometimes still is, a social activity originally used to tell stories. In the early thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, movement or motion was combined with singing to tell a story of love, birth, war, religion, and death. These songs were called the French word caroles which originated from the Italian word carola. Soon the movements in a carola became dances. The dances became a way of passing down stories and legends. When a man and a woman were required to tell the story, a form of couples dancing became necessary. The man was naturally positioned on the left with the woman on right because his sword would be on the left and he would need this arm free.
In the fourteenth century in Italy, ballets were given as entertainment. A ballet was usually given during or after a banquet in a large ballroom. Ballets always told a story and sometimes the different parts were given between the courses of the meal. Though ballet originated in Italy it was France that developed it further. Ballets were given in the royal palaces for the entertainment of Kings and Queens. Costumes and scenery became important to the story and soon the staging became quite ornate. Later in the 1600’s the feet positions of ballet were developed and written down by Pierre Beauchamp; these feet positions are still part of modern day ballet. Ballets soon developed into more of a dance-storytelling entertainment called opera. In operas the dancers wore ornate dresses, wigs and head dresses which made it difficult to dance in. Soon some of the dancers discarded the heavy clothing and shoes and began dancing in flowing gowns. In some of the ballets the singing became minimized and there was more of a pantomime and action that the audience could understand and know the story.
The Waltz is one of the most well known older dances of the past 300 centuries. The word waltz comes from a German word ‘weller’ which means to glide and turn. The waltz originated in Austria by peasants before the 17th century. In Vienna in the eighteenth century the waltz became popular and included an allemande. The waltz became popular because the steps were simple whereas other dances in the court like the minuet were difficult to learn. The waltz was looked down upon by religious people as being uncouth because the partners were held so close in proximity. When the couple turned in the waltz their bodies would press together. The more the waltz was condemned as wicked the more popular it became. By the early 1800’s the waltz was being danced in England and the United States. Popular composers Franz and Straus created the Viennese Waltz which is a faster paced version of the original waltz, both in ¾ time.
Square dancing began in America with the first settlers in New England. The first immigrant groups that came from Scotland, Ireland and the Dutch all combined their dancing styles to come up with the square dance. The pilgrims would work hard all week and then get together on Saturday evenings for a barn dance. The jig, minuet and reels from the various folk dances all combined to create the new American square dance. Yet with all the different groups coming together and not knowing which dance move would occur next, a caller became needed to tell the group what which way to turn, promenade or bow. The caller soon started giving dance cues that became unique to square dancing. A fiddler or a guitar player also became the popular accompaniment.
The polka is a fast paced dance step similar to the waltz that developed in Czechoslovakia but came to the United States with immigration. The polka became more and more popular as it moved west. Soon the polka evolved into the Two Step popular with the American western cowboy.
Disco dancing started in the 1970’s. The Hustle, which is a prominent disco line dance, was first danced in New York City. Other line dances originated and then disco branched off into individual dance moves. The first disco dancers had dancing experience in swing, cha cha, the fox trot and the tango. The movie “Saturday Night Fever” made disco dancing even more popular in the late 1970’s.
The mambo, salsa and tango dances all originated in Latin America, Spain, Cuba, and Haiti. Modern day mambo dancing is a fusion of jazz, hip hop, Cuban and African dancing.
Jazz dance has its roots in the African American slave culture. On the plantation black slaves would get together in the evening for dance rituals. The dances usually told a story at first but soon contests were created to see who could dance the fastest in a pulsating rhythmical way. This fast dance style soon evolved into a tap type dance and therefore tap dancing came into being. The turkey trot is from the jazz type tap dance. When pop music caught up with jazz, the jitterbug was born, swing, disco, hip hop and break dancing.
The modern dances of today can be traced back to many European countries including France, Italy, Czechoslovakia, Germany and Russia. African dance moves are also very prevalent in influencing today’s rhythmical dance moves.
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