Reading of Dance

I really enjoyed reading about Dance this week.  I really liked learning about the history behind the more strict dance genres like Ballet and Ballroom.  It is interesting to me that these types of dance started as gentlemen's dance, that originally only the wealthy learned these types of dances because only the wealthy could afford to.  And then if your compare these types of strict dances to the folk dances of the day, they are completely different! I love this because folk dances are so different from the fancy wealthy dances and it was a way for the poor people to show their emotion and skill even thought they didn't have money.  When I think about dancing today, I don't think it is as separated by class level and wealth as it once was, but I still think there is a separation based on where you are raised.  Here is america there is a rising generation of break dancers, and street dancers.  These types of dancing I would compare to the folk dances of earlier times.  Street dancers many times start dancing as a way to express themselves even though they don't have enough money to take formal dance lessons.  They can do amazing things and this genre of dance is growing in popularity very fast! 

I have said this in class a couple times, but I watch So You Think You Can Dance, in fact is is one of my all time favorite shows!  Every week for the last 5 years my friends and I have gathered in front of the TV to watch the dancers dance their choreographed piece of work.  The show is a competition to see who "America's favorite dancer is" and every week people call into to vote for the favorite or the person who danced the best.  Every week the dancers are paired up with another dancer and they learn a specific genre of dance.  The genres are hip-hop, jazz, broadway, contemporary, balli-wood, tango, flamanco, swing, waltz, and many other types of ballroom dancing as well.  Then every week watchers vote for their favorite couple or their favorite dancer and the dancers with the lowest number of votes is voted off.  

I seriously love this show and as I was reading this week I was thinking about why this is so.  I'm not even a dancer, except for 5 years when I was very little.  I am musically inclined, but that is not what attaches me to this show.  And I decided that the reason that I love this show so much is because the dancers and choreographers create these dances to portray feelings and emotions.  And when i'm in the right frame of mind, and the dance is performed to its top ability, I can feel those feelings and emotions through the dance.  A couple times the dances have moved me to tears, and other times they leave me astounded and so happy!  I am really grateful for this show because I knew nothing about dance before it, and because of it I now know what to look for when I watch a ballroom dance, and I know how lines should look in contemporary dances.  It has opened my eyes to how amazing dance can be, and how much emotion it can have, and I love it now!  Here is a link to my one of my favorite dances on So You Think You Can Dance, and it has zombies in it so I figured Jasie would like it! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AohSzvBr4cA&feature=related