Dance Genres
This is a classical form of dance that uses precise and highly formalized set of steps and gestures; known for its use of pointe shoes.
What is Ballet?
This step means - to bend.
What is plie?
This is where Ballet originated.
Where is Renaissance Italy?
He was a Georgian-American ballet choreographer, recognized as one of the most influential choreographers of the 20th-century. Known as the father of American ballet, he co-founded the New York City Ballet and remained its artistic director for more than 35 years. His choreography is characterized by plotless ballets with minimal costume and décor, performed to classical and neoclassical music.
Who is George Balanchine?
This ballet was composed by Tchaikovsky and is based on a fairytale about Aurora.
What is Sleeping Beauty?
This is a type of dance that is used in choreographed sequences for productions; often based on styles like ballet, jazz, hip-hop, or tap; is known for its theatrical qualities and uses traveling steps, high kicks, leaps, and turns.
What is Musical Theater?
This step means - to stretch.
What is tendu?
This dance style originated in the late 1960s and early 1970s and was inspired by African dance movements and incorporating aspects of modern dance, tap, and swing.
What is Hip Hop?
He is an American dancer, choreographer and director primarily for stage and concerts. He has been nominated for the Tony Award for Best Choreography five times, and has won three times: for In the Heights (2008), Hamilton (2016), and Bandstand (2017).
Who is Andy Blankenbuehler?
This ballet tells the story of Clara, a girl who receives a nutcracker as a Christmas present. In this fairy tale, toys come to life and battle an army of mice. Clara and her nutcracker, transformed into a prince, travel into the Land of Sweets, ruled by a Sugar Plum Fairy.
What is The Nutcracker?
This is a style of dance that combines ballet and jazz techniques with other elements like modern dance; is often performed to music with lyrics, and the dance is meant to express strong emotions and tell a story through the dancer's movements.
What is Lyrical?
This step means - to strike.
What is frappe?
Tap dance originated here in the 1700s.
Where is the southern United States?
She was an American modern dancer and choreographer, whose style, the Graham technique, reshaped American dance and is still taught worldwide. Graham danced and taught for over seventy years. She founded a professional dance company and a dance school in 1926. The Martha Graham School is the oldest school of dance in the United States. First located in a small studio within Carnegie Hall, the school currently has two different studios in New York City.
Who is Martha Graham?
This ballet was composed by Tchaikovsky in 1875–76; the story was inspired by Russian and German folk tales and tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse.
What is Swan Lake?
This is a street dance style that combines freestyle movements with music to create a cultural art form; characterized by its free-form nature, rhythmic movements, and use of the full body.
What is Hip Hop?
This step means - to assemble.
What is assemble?
During World War II, the Soviet Union used ballet to train soldiers for physical fitness, believing it would help develop these three qualities.
What are strength, agility, and discipline?
Commonly known as Bojangles, he was a pioneering tap dancer born on May 25, 1878, in Richmond, Virginia. He was celebrated as the best-known and highest-paid African-American entertainer in the United States during the first half of the 20th century. Robinson was renowned for his incredible speed.
Who is Bill Robinson?
This ballet is a short, non-narrative ballet blanc to piano music by Chopin; has no plot but instead consists of several white-costumed sylphs dancing in the moonlight with the "poet" or "young man.”
What is Les Sylphides?
This is an American art form in which the rhythm or rhythmical variation is audibly tapped out with the toe or heel by a dancer; fusion of African, Irish, and English influences, including rhythms, step-dance traditions, and musical forms.
What is Tap?
This step means - to glide.
What is glissade?
These shoes are still handmade using traditional techniques, and dancers pad them to reduce damage from the position of their foot.
What are pointe shoes?
He was born in Texas and his formal dance training began with an introduction to Lester Horton’s classes. Horton, the founder of one of the first racially-integrated dance companies in the United States, became a mentor for Mr. Ailey. In 1958, he founded Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater to carry out his vision of a company dedicated to enriching the American modern dance heritage and preserving the uniqueness of the African-American cultural experience.
Who is Alvin Ailey?
This ballet was based on a play by William Shakespeare about love, magic, and fairies; Balanchine's first completely original full-length ballet, premiered at New York City Ballet in 1962;
What is Midsummer Night's Dream?