Dance theory Essay

At the beginning of this dance class, I honestly thought it was going to be easy to get by for someone who really knows nothing about dance or anything related to it. Currently, knowing the techniques involved in different types of dance like the Dunham technique I would not say the same thing. It does get better with time because practice gradually makes perfect and every time you do a particular dance move, you get the chance to realize what you do wrong and keep it in mind for the next time you do that same move. Conditioning and training the body for dance is also one thing I have come to realize is essential to start off well especially when doing a variety of dance movements. This is because dance is like going up in different stages where the first one serves as a foundation for what is coming next. Even though I am still in the process of learning, I have quickly realized that dance is complex and there are many components like breathing, body alignment, and control involved to make every dance step better. So far, some of the dances I have learned include traditional dances like Kpalogo, which is a West-African dance originated from the fishermen of Ghana, Rocking Horse which is just as the name implies. It is an African warrior dance in which your hands are raised about chest level to sort of indicate your shield and one leg is raised as high as possible while the other leg stays grounded before you swing forward and alternate hands. This dance in particular requires â€Å"groundedness†. It is fierce and you need to have correct body alignment and ensure you are controlling your breath because using an appropriate breathing technique is a necessity if you do not want to wear yourself out before completing the dance routine. Proper breathing also helps when working on slow movements like body rolls, flat back, pelvic rolls amongst many others. I think controlling my breath has helped me a lot when dancing since the beginning of this class. I 2 have learned when to take longer and slower breaths in order to assist my body control when doing certain things. Hence, I know breathing correctly when dancing, has a difference over a period of time because correct breathing enables you to strengthen your body internally. It also seems like breathing and your type of movement work hand in hand together to get the best results possible. Personally, I think emphasizing the importance of body alignment is very necessary. Proper body alignment enables you to have a sense of understanding what your body is doing. A poor body alignment defeats the whole purpose of doing a certain movement. For example, when doing plie and releve where you lengthen your spine and work on your posture and balance, you defeat the purpose if your feet are not well placed and your buttocks are not tucked under and as a result, the benefits of this rhythmic exercise will not be maximized. Also, body alignment relates with balance and when the body alignment is correct, balancing your body weight becomes easier. I know this because initially, I thought it was all about just trying to move your body by doing what the rest of the class does because you cannot go wrong when following the majority. I later found out that I was absolutely wrong because when you become aware of your own body internally and you focus on getting your body alignment right, it definitely reflects on the outside. This means that if you just dance without understanding the dance process involved in whatever move you are trying to do, your body movement would be as disorganized as your thought process. Also when doing fall and recovery, I loved it the most because I thought it was so easy. I did not see the point of it, but then I realized I was defeating the whole purpose because of my poor body alignment. Fall and recovery involves stretching and reaching with your hands when you bend over to flat-back and initially I just placed my hand where I felt comfortable without reaching and actually stretching my muscles. My head alignment was also 3 wrong and therefore, my spinal actions were not as good as they could have been. At this point, I was probably doing more damage that good to myself by not aligning my body correctly. Also correct body alignment removes the possibility of suffering any sort of injury or irrelevant body pain caused by the strain that could possibly occur in tedious exercises. Every dance move is like a piece of the puzzle that all come together to create a better dancer as progression occurs. This makes body control also very key in dance. You need proper control in order to make sure that you are conditioning and training your body when dancing. Body control involves focusing on the action that is taking place and being in charge of it. A good example of where control is absolutely needed is when doing Up and Over otherwise known as Pelvic Rolls. Pelvic Rolls are a combination of flat-back, fall and recovery, and the pelvic placement exercise. In Pelvic Rolls, the abdominal plays a major role and the spine has to be in proper alignment like in the flat-back position. It takes good control to start from going into a flat-back holding it there, then holding your body in plie, tucking you butt in, pointing your knees to the ground after and then circling your arms up to raise your body before you go into releve and then slowly bring your heels down to maintain flat feet. It takes a lot of energy and most importantly body control. Your mind has to focus on every single move you make in order to make sure you are connecting with your body both internally and externally. With proper body control, you strengthen your body and prevent injury from occurring.