The History Of Dance

Dance, an age old tradition dating back to medieval times. Dance is a vital element in almost all cultures serving many purposes. From the healing dances done by Shamans to the rock and roll dance done for fun. Historically dance has always been important to society, so lets have a look at the history of dance.

Although there is not a lot of information available on the dances of medieval times, there are only a few dances that could be identified. The Carole, ductia, istampitta, estampie, and trotto are the ones that have been identified.

Incredibly dance manuals have actually been found dating back to the renaissance period. Examples by Arbeau and Caroso have both found which has allowed the Academy of Dance to better reconstruct the dances from that era. The pavane, galiard, branle, and morris dance have all been document as dance types from the renaissance period.

The baroque era saw much better documentation of dance. Playford’s works, along with other printed material have provided excellent historical information. English country dances were the most documented dance from that era, but there were several other dances from the baroque period.

Other dances include the canary, French courante, forlana, passepied, rigaudon, sarabande, and tambourin. French baroque dance was not limited to France. It was also very popular throughout England.

The Regency or Edwardian period dates to the early 19th century, just after the French Revolution. This was an era where the fashions of women became unrestricted and much more sensible.

This translated to dance with plenty more movement. Jumping and skipping became the norm in dance. This was the era of the can can, the scotch reel, polonaise, and the quadrille. A very lively period in the history of dance.

By the middle of the 19th century women were wearing hook skirts and dancing had taken a turn, literally, because it kept the skirts out of the way. This was the era of the polka, waltz, schottische, the two step, and the five step waltz. Couples were turning and spinning their way across the dance floor.

By 1910 the dances of the earlier period were still being practiced but they had lost popularity. The masters of dance tried desperately to maintain the dance styles in this new modernized society. Women’s skirts had gone from the hoop to the bustle, and with the bustle once again changes had to occur to dance styles.

But more so than the women’s fashion styles, was a change in attitude. This was a period of less restriction and more freedom; thus dances like the ragtime, cakewalk, racket, and mazurka became the norm.

Soon Vernon and Irene Castle were to become a household name taking couple dancing to a much more respectable level. The Castle’s were responsible for the biggest dance craze in US history.

By the end of WWI people were bored with what now seemed like the mundane ragtime and so they stepped up the pace a little with the advent of the fox trot, tango, and the maxxie.

By the roaring twenties society had changed a great deal and one of the major changes was with the teen and young adults of that generation. They no longer were tied to working to support their families. They had more free time and energy than any other time in history.

The 1920’s became an era of highly energetic dance that was done by a much younger generation. This freedom lead to a large percentage of these young adults turning to dance, with the Shag, Charleston, and black bottom becoming part of their daily vocabulary.

Through the 1930s and 1940s dance saw a wonderful influence from the black cultures. Swing music was hot and dances like the big apple, lindy hop, and fox trot stormed the dance scene.

The 1950s was a generation of change who welcomed rock and roll with open arms. Parents and teens alike moved to the music. And when the king of rock and roll, Elvis Presley, hit the scene he took the music and fashion scene into a new era.

This was a time of slick hair, poodle skirts, and rebels. Young adults were dancing the night away to the bop, line dance, gully, swing, peppermint twist, the swim, and the mashed potato. Parents were at a loss what to do with there rebel children.

The 1960’s saw the twist as the most popular dance and Pink Floyd was the first band to play what was called Psychedelic music. Today recognized as awesome electronics and very normal. And Chubby Checker truly revolutionized dance.

By the 1970s the original rock and roll had become a thing of the past. With the death of Elvis and the breakup of the Beatles two of the major influences of rock and role where gone. As a result pop music split into a variety of categories including soft rock, hard rock, folk rock, punk rock, and country rock. But the craze of the 1970s was to be disco.

Some of the top named bands for this era were Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, The Eagles, Elton John, Rod Stewert, Pink Floyd, and The Who to name just a few. Bob Marley gained a huge fan base for reggae within the US.

The 1980s was the birth of MTV which had a huge impact on young people who were suddenly doing the lombada, break dancing, and performing what was called the slam dance.

The 1980s saw a mix of rock, new wave, punk, country, rap, hip hop which carried into the 1990s. Vanilla Ice, Milli Vanilli, and MC Hammer played an important role in the culture of the music through this era. Oh and let’s not forget Madonna and Prince.

The history of dance reflects where we were as a society in that time period. One must wonder what people will think about our current dance trends 50 years from now.


Deon Melchior is the Editor and Publisher of Article Click. For more FREE articles for your ezine and websites visit ArticleClick.com. Article Click is a free content article directory. This means that as a publisher you may reprint the articles that are included in our site, as long as the article is unedited and the author box is included with it's live hyperlinks.