The Importance of Strength and Felixibility to a Dancer
Both flexibility and strength are needed to perform a dance to its
full potential, and a dancer should always be trying to improve their
own flexibility and strength. Flexibility involves increasing muscular
elasticity so that the range of mobility from a joint will increase.
Individual structural differences like the shape of the bone will
affect the range of motion/flexibility. Strength is the capacity to
exert a muscle contraction against resistance. Contraction is the
opposite muscle action to that of stretching. A strong body moves
freely, efficiently and above all safely. The aim is all round
strength, not the overdevelopment of certain muscle groups. As you can
see from these definitions, both of these elements are needed for a
good dancer. As Mary Wigman said on strength, 'The dynamic force of
movement wherein lies the life force of dance.'
Flexibility may come naturally to a dancer through inheritance, or
they may have to work on their flexibility, either way they could both
reach the same level of flexibility. There are however, other factors
which may influence flexibility, a few are, gender, age, body
temperature and training. Advantages of muscular flexibility are,
· Protects joints
· Increases the range of possible skills
· Improves the quality of action
· Maintains a healthy musculature
· Prevents injury.
All of the above things make a good dancer which is why flexibility is
a very important factor of dance.
Strength can also come naturally to a dancer but is easier to improve
than flexibility if it does not come naturally. As flexibilit...
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...ich will loosen the muscles
and joints which will increase the effectiveness of the programme on
the muscles. This warm-up should include using every muscle in the
body as it all needs to be warmed up. One way of increasing strength
is to devise a weight training programme. This would consist of using
a gym and the equipment there to increase the muscular strength. Most
weight training, is isotonic which means the muscle is shortening
(moving) to produce movement. Another way is to use, for example a
wall and use it to resist against. This would be isometric training,
which is where the muscle is resisting and increasing strength, but
not actually moving. The best way for a dancer to train, is to use a
bit of both of these methods. This is because a dancer needs all round
strength and using both of these would do that.
Notice the incredible control and strength the dancer possesses to rise onto the point of the
“The Dancer’s gift” is a love story between a young man and woman, Marcel and Samantha. But this novel was written not only to call feelings about love and passion; the main goal was to introduce students to sociological concepts. Overall, the book includes more than 180 sociological terms that flow with the story and closely connected to happening events. Marcel, a black man, arrives from Martinique (an island in the Caribbean Sea), and Samantha, a rich American girl, meet each other in college and fall in love. Both of them face obstacles in their lives: Marcel was grown up in a poor extended but a friendly family, while Samantha was a daughter of rich but divorced parents. Marcel comes to the U.S. to become a professional dancer, while Sam decided to become an attorney at law just like her father. Being lovers they decide to spend their Christmas holidays together and go to New York. Next holidays they go to Marcel’s homeland, Martinique, where they realize that there lives a woman who is pregnant by him. At that time all dreams of Sam just collapse due to this bitter disappointment, which becomes one of the reasons why they break up. Throughout the story, they both meet with numerous social issues such as education, marriage, gender issue, racism, deviance, divorce, religion, race and ethnicity. In this essay, the three main reasons why this novel is an effective tool for learning sociological concepts will be discussed.
1.Jack Cole thought that dance wears are fantastic and the dancing itself is like a body architecture. Dancers are body architects. Then he studied how to dance from Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn. Cole learned a lot of dancing styles and tried to mix them together. He was known as the father of “theatrical jazz dance”, and he influenced many other dancers afterwards. In his dance, one of the most obvious features is that there was a small group of dancers on the stage rather than a large one. Cole instructed many actors and dancers after he retired from dancing.
The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and artistic movement inspired by African American artists, writers and musicians. The movement demanded recognition of overwhelming talents in the arts, literature, and music. For the first time in history, African Americans earned status, respect, and credibility in a world powered by white. Black musicians brought the stylings of Jazz and blues, while writers and artists took to depicting “black problems” and ways of life. The practice, previously unknown to traditional Anglo literature, quickly became highly regarded in worlds that transcended skin color. It was both a means to reach out and connect as a color-coded brotherhood, and provided insight into the life of black
For the dancer, music and choreography are paramount. The music guides the dancer, and the moves express the music. However, the dance has to start from somewhere.
Dancing – jumping and kicking with arms crossed without much knowledge or sequence to their movements
Breakdancing The history of choreography is also very important: Any choreography that seems new, fresh and different is usually a variation of something that has been done before. As long as men and women have lived upon this earth, they have danced. The art of movement is among the oldest of the arts. So for eight months I’ve been learning the skills of hip hop and breakdancing by going to a hip hop club every week where I learned the basic skills of breaking like how to top-rock and six-step.
Dancing is a tremendously difficult task. That is why all dancers must have a mind mentally
Elite artistic gymnastics is one of the most competitive sports in the world. The sport is judged out of several categories and among the most important are artistry, difficulty, execution and consistency. What makes a successful elite gymnast is mastering all of those elements.
One example of an area or an activity that demonstrates African-American dance qualities is basketball. The movement for basketball shows qualities of street dancing. This can be seen when players shoot the ball and when players attempt to fake out the opposing side by spinning around in opposing directions. Double Dutch is another example of the demonstrates African-American dance qualities. While males would participate in sports, females would participate in Double Dutch. Double Dutch is shared among the young people and the elderly. The movements in Double Dutch went from just jumping rope to rhythmic movements, a quality shared with African-American dance.
Movement serves as a way for people to express themselves nonverbally. Much can be said based on how people move, especially how they move in a group. In this video, we observe student dance/movement therapists, and how they moved with one another in a group setting.
Gray, Judith A., and Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, Reston, VA. National Dance Association. American Alliance for Health. Dance Technology. Current Applications And Future Trends. n.p.: 1989. ERIC. Web. 17 May 2014.
Research describes dance to be physical, intellectual and emotional (Brown, 2014). There are many observational tools that will assist in the acquisition of technique and form in serial movement tasks like a dance sequence. Observational learning is used in dance when the expert teacher/choreographer is instructing the sequence or set moves to the novice dancers. Observation is beneficial as it facilitates motor learning and the development of cognitive processing (Rohbandard et al., 2011). Although observation is useful, most studies test acquisition of simple discrete tasks (Rohbandard et al., 2011). The issue that continues to exist is that the body remains an object for the teacher to
Women cover the stage of every ballet production and grace the audience with their artistry. However, where can the women be found outside the theater? Men can be found in charge of all the tier ballet companies across the United States like American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, and Houston Ballet. Choreographic works from men like Marius Petipa, George Balanchine, and Alexei Ratmansky are constantly being used and restaged by major companies as well. Despite George Balanchine’s famous words, “The principle of classical ballet is woman,” men have taken over many of the ranks. The lack of female choreographers in ballet is shocking and needs to be addressed, in order to create equal opportunities for men and women
I think to be a dancer you have to overcome the pain and working hard.Then, comes time for competition, and it is your time to go on stage to do your audition, you have been working for your whole life and then it is time to show the judges what you got. But, what did you have to do to get to where you are now?