Dance

Dance (from Old French dance, further history unknown) generally refers to human movement either used as a form of expression (see also body language) or presented in a social, spiritual or performance setting.

Choreography and notation

Main articles: Choreography, Dance notation

Related Topics:
Choreography - Dance notation

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Choreography is the art of making dances and the generic name given to predetermined sequences of dance movement. People who choreograph are called choreographers and may develop their own dance techniques as a part of their choreographic work. Choreography and dance techniques can be written down as dance notation which is analogous to music notation.

Related Topics:
Choreographers - Dance notation - Analogous - Music notation

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The term choreogoraphy has a varied historical context, it is derived from the word chorea. Chorea (χορεία), a Greek Circle dance accompanied by singing, derivatives of chorea are used to describe circle dances in other counties: Khorovod (Russia), Hora (Romania, Moldova, Israel), Horo (Bulgaria). Paracelsus used the term chorea to describe the rapid, jerking physical movements of medieval pilgrims traveling the healing shrine of St. Vitus giving rise to the term St. Vitus' dance. Dnace for years has been a gateway for expression and visual entertainment.

Related Topics:
Chorea - Greek - Circle dance - Russia - Romania - Moldova - Israel - Bulgaria - Paracelsus - Medieval - Pilgrims - Shrine - St. Vitus - St. Vitus' dance

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Raoul Auger Feuillet and Pierre Beauchamp used an adaption of the word chorea to describe dance notation. Feuillet's Chorégraphie (1700) set out a method of dance notation and established the term chorégraphie for the writing, or notating of dances. Thus a person who wrote down dances was a choreographer, but the creator of dances was still known as a dancing master (Le maître à danser) or in later years a ballet master.

Related Topics:
Raoul Auger Feuillet - Pierre Beauchamp - 1700

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Rudolf Laban extended the meaning and use of the word choreographie with his book Choreographie (1926) in which he detailed not only a new form of dance notation but also the principles and theory of a complete system of dance that would later become Laban Movement Analysis (LMA). Rudolf and Joan Benesh coined the term choreology to describe the aesthetic and scientific study of all forms of human movement by movement notation (1955) whilst Laban used the term choreutics to describe LMA.

Related Topics:
Rudolf Laban - 1926 - Dance notation - Laban Movement Analysis - Rudolf and Joan Benesh - 1955

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The rejection of ballet vocabulary and terms by modern dance resulted in the term choreographer replacing Ballet Master and therefore choreography came to mean the art of making dances.

Related Topics:
Ballet - Modern dance - Choreography

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