Dance History & Vocab
This ballet garment is a short, full skirt worn by dancers.
What is a tutu?
This jazz term means making up dance movements on the spot.
What is improvisation?
These special shoes have metal plates on the bottom that create sounds and rhythms.
What are tap shoes?
This person plays and mixes recorded music.
What is a DJ, or disc jockey?
This ballroom dance is smooth and flowing and is performed in three-quarter time.
What is the waltz?
This term describes a spinning turn on one leg.
What is a pirouette?
This jazz movement involves moving one body part while keeping the rest of the body still.
What is isolation?
This tap step combines a brush and a step sound.
What is a flap?
This is a circle of dancers where people take turns dancing in the center.
What is a cypher?
In ballroom dance, this communication system involves one partner guiding while the other responds.
What are lead and follow?
These special ballet shoes have reinforced toes that allow dancers to dance on the tips of their toes.
What are pointe shoes?
This modern dance pioneer became known for dancing barefoot and moving naturally and freely.
Who was Isadora Duncan?
This term refers to using sounds and rhythms created by the feet and body.
What is percussion?
This hip-hop style uses quick, jerky movements that make the body “pop.”
What is popping?
This term describes traditional dance passed down through generations within a culture or community.
What is folk dance?
This French king created the first ballet academy and helped formalize ballet.
Who was King Louis XIV?
This modern dance choreographer developed a technique centered on breathing and emotion.
Who was Martha Graham?
Tap dance developed from a fusion of these two major cultural traditions.
What are Irish step dancing and African American rhythms?
Hip-hop dance began at block parties in this New York City borough during the early 1970s.
What is the Bronx?
This term means the history, culture, and traditions inherited from ancestors and previous generations.
What is heritage?
This famous composer wrote the music for Swan Lake and The Nutcracker.
Who was Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky?
This choreographer founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and blended jazz, modern, and African dance styles.
Who was Alvin Ailey?
This dancer created hoofing, a style that blends tap with hip-hop and contemporary movement.
Who is Savion Glover?
This crew helped bring breaking and b-boying to audiences around the world during the 1980s.
What is the Rock Steady Crew?
This dance company, founded by Igor Moiseyev in 1937, brought Russian folk dance to professional stages worldwide.
What is the Moiseyev Dance Company?