Classification of dance
Art is composed of different artistic varieties. Dance, as one of the arts, is also a very broad world. It is also composed of different types, styles and styles of dance. According to the function and purpose of dance, dance can be divided into two categories: life dance and art dance. Life dance is a dance activity that people perform for their own life needs; art dance is a dance performed for the audience to appreciate.
Life dance includes: custom dance, religious sacrificial dance, social dance, self-entertainment dance, sports dance, educational dance, etc.
Custom dance, also known as festival and ritual dance, is a variety of mass dance activities held by many ethnic groups in my country during marriages, funerals, planting, harvesting and other festive festivals. In these dance activities, the customs, social features, cultural traditions and national character characteristics of various ethnic groups are revealed.
Religious and sacrificial dance is a form of dance for religious and sacrificial activities. It is mainly used to pray for the blessings of the gods, to eliminate disasters and diseases, to turn bad luck into good luck, to make people and animals prosperous, to have a good harvest, or to thank the gods for their gifts. Sacrificial dance is a ceremonial dance form used to worship ancestors. In the past, people used it to express their memory for their ancestors or to hope that their ancestors and gods and Buddhas would protect and bless them.
Social dance is a dance activity for people to communicate socially, enhance friendship, and connect feelings. Generally refers to various social dances danced in dance parties. In addition, the mass dance activities performed by many ethnic minorities in our country during various festivals are mostly social activities for young men and women to have social interactions and freely choose their spouses. Therefore, they can also be said to be social dances of various ethnic groups.
Self-entertainment dance is a dance activity for the sole purpose of people's self-entertainment. Use dance to express and vent your inner emotional impulses, so as to obtain full satisfaction of aesthetic pleasure.
Sports dance is a new type of dance that combines dance and sports to exercise the body in an artistic and aesthetic way and achieve comprehensive and healthy development of body and mind. Such as various fitness dances, rhythm dance, disco for middle-aged and elderly people, ice dancing, water dancing, as well as sword dancing, knife dancing in traditional Chinese martial arts, and pictographic boxing and Wuqinxi that symbolize the simulation of various animals and specific images. .
Educational dance refers to dance activities for aesthetic education in schools, kindergartens, etc., as well as dance courses offered to cultivate and beautify people's thoughts, feelings, moral sentiments, and cultivate people's unity and friendship. , strengthening etiquette, and improving physical and mental health can all play a subtle role.
Artistic dance refers to artistic creation by professional or amateur dancers through observation, experience, analysis, concentration, summary and imagination of social life, thereby creating distinctive themes and rich emotions. , a dance work with complete form and typical artistic image, performed by a few people on the stage or in the square for the masses to watch. Due to the wide variety of artistic dances, they can be roughly divided into three categories according to their different artistic characteristics.
The first category is divided according to different styles and characteristics of dance, including: classical dance, folk dance, modern dance, contemporary dance and ballet.
Classical dance: It is based on national folk dance, refined, sorted, processed and created by professional workers of all ages, and has been passed down through the test of long-term artistic practice. It is considered to have certain exemplary significance. and dance characterized by classical styles. Many countries and ethnic groups in the world have their own unique styles of classical dance. European classical dance generally refers to ballet.
Folk dance: It is a dance form that is collectively created by the broad masses of the people in the long historical process, continuously accumulated and developed, and is widely spread among the masses. It directly reflects the thoughts, feelings, ideals and aspirations of the people. Due to the differences in the living and working styles, historical and cultural mentality, customs and habits of the people in various countries, ethnic groups and regions, as well as the natural environment, different national styles and local characteristics have been formed.
Modern dance: It is a dance genre that emerged in Europe and the United States at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Its main aesthetic point of view is to oppose the formalist tendency of classical ballet at that time to be conservative, divorced from real life and purely pursuing skills; it advocates getting rid of the constraints of classical ballet's overly rigid movement programs and freely expressing human emotions through dance movements that conform to the laws of natural movement. True emotions, emphasizing that dance art should reflect modern social life.
Contemporary dance (new creative dance): a new style of dance that is different from the above three styles. It is often based on the needs of expressing content and shaping characters, drawing on and absorbing various dance schools. Various styles, dance expression means and expression methods are eclectic and used by me, thereby creating a unique new style of dance that is different from the various dance styles that have been formed.
Ballet: It is a highly stylized theater dance refined and processed by professional dancers in the court. The word "ballet" is originally the transliteration of the French "ballet", which means "jump" or "dance". Its original meaning is just a general term for movements with legs and feet as moving parts. In order to reconstruct the ancient Greek dramatic ideal of integrating poetry, music and dance, the dance masters of the French court created "ballet", a kind of dance movement, pantomime gestures, facial expressions, dramatic costumes, musical accompaniment, literary scripts, A comprehensive form of dance drama that integrates multiple components such as stage lighting and scenery, it has dominated Western theater dance art for more than 300 years and has lasted for more than four centuries. It has been more than 40 years since the Beijing Dance School was established in 1958 and introduced Russian ballet.
The second category is distinguished according to the characteristics of dance expressions, including: solo dance, duet dance, trio dance, group dance, group dance, song and dance, musical, dance drama, etc.
Solo dance, a dance performed by one person to complete a theme, is mostly used to directly express the character's thoughts and feelings and reveal the character's inner world.
Double dance, a dance performed by two people to complete a theme at the same time. It is mostly used to directly express the exchange of thoughts and feelings of the characters and show the relationship between the characters.
A three-person dance is a dance performed by three people to complete a theme. According to their content, they can be divided into three different categories: those that express a single emotion, those that appear to have a certain plot, and those that express dramatic conflicts between characters.
Group dance, any dance with more than four people can be called group dance. Generally, it is used to express some general sentiment or shape the image of a group. Through the replacement and change of dance formations, pictures, and the development of dance movements, postures, and shapes of different speeds, different strengths, and different amplitudes, a profound poetic artistic conception can be created, which has strong artistic appeal.
Group dance is a relatively large dance work composed of several dances. Each of the dances is relatively independent, but they are all unified in the same theme and complete artistic conception.
Singing and dancing is an art performance form that combines singing and dancing. Its characteristic is that singing and dancing are both lyrical and narrative, and can express the characters' complex and delicate thoughts and feelings and a wide range of life content.
A musical is a comprehensive performance form that uses singing and dancing as the main means of artistic expression to present dramatic content.
Dance drama is a dance work that uses dance as the main means of artistic expression and integrates music, stage art (costumes, scenery, lighting, props), etc. to express a certain dramatic content.