Salsa Dancing

During the Festival of World Cultures in Dun Laoghire in the summer, I went to a free salsa dancing class and it was honestly a great laugh, so I thought I'd write about this for my next, and possibly last post for this Environmental Studies module.

Salsa dancing was created by Spanish-speaking people from the Carribbean. This type of dancing mixes European and African dance influences through the music, using a very syncopated rhythm. It usually a partner dance, but there are several forms of smaller, individual Salsa dance types also. The name "salsa" comes from the Spanish word for "sauce", or to give a "spicy flavour".

The moves and steps in Salsa dancing can become quite complicated, the the basic step in every single style of salsa involves 3 steps/weight changes in each 4 beat measure. The beat that doesn't contain a step, the dancer may kick or tap, or the weight transfer might simply just continue, with the step just not occurring until the next beat, or some dancers may insert a pause instead.
As a salsa dancer shifts their weight, their upper body remains mostly level and unaffected by the steps. Their hips are caught in the middle and tend to move quite a bit. Hands are also used when dancing with a partner.
There tends to be no set dress code for salsa dancing at social events but there are some elaborate attire for formal events and competitions.

There are many different forms of salsa dancing and it would be quite difficult, in my opinion, to try and name them all. However, some of the most well known forms are New York, Rueda, Cuban, Cali and Los Angeles.

(courtesy of harlomedia.com)

Ballet

I thought that next, I should talk about one of the most famous types of dancing in the world. Ballet tends to be purely a performance dance. The French word "ballet" traces back to the Latin word "ballare" meaning "to dance".

It originated in 16th and 17th century French courts. It later developed in England, Italy and Russia. The earliest ballet dancers were not as highly talented or skilled as dancers today. It has since become a highly technical form of dance, with its own vocabulary of terms and phrases. This is one of the hardest forms of dance to achieve. It focuses on the graceful movements of the dancers, primarily the female dancers, which may simply require some natural skill above all else. It is most often danced to classical music - traditionally, at least.

There are two types of shoes worn in ballet; normal ballet shoes (or 'slippers') and pointe shoes. They tend to come in pink, white, black or grey. Ballet slippers are made from soft leather, canvas or satin. Beginner dancers are restricted to ballet slippers until their bones have ossified and their muscles have strengthened enough to dance "en pointe" (see below). Male dancers tend to always wear soft ballet shoes, as they rarely dance "en pointe".

(courtesy of dancemania.biz)

A pointe shoe, on the other hand, is worn when dancing "en pointe". This is when the dancer dances on the very tips of their toes for indefinate lengths of time, giving the illusion of being weightless.
Because every dancer has different feet (including toe length and shape, arch flexibility and mechanical shape), many different types of pointe shoes are made to accommodate this. But every pointe shoe has the same two basic structural features:

1) There is a box that is a hard enclosure at the top of the shoe that surrounds, protects and supports the toes. The front end of the box is flattened to create a platform on which the dancer can balance.

2) There is a shank that is a piece of firm material that stiffens the sole of the shoe to provide support for the arch of the foot.

The exterior of the pointe shoe is covered with fabric to conceal the box and other structural elements, most commonly pale pink satin. Usually, the sole is a piece of leather attached onto the shoe with adhesive, reinforced by stitching along the sides. The shank is often made from leather or plastic. The pointe shoe is secured to the foot by two fabric ribbons and an elastic band.

(courtesy of freewebs.com)

Over time, many different forms of ballet emerged.

Classical ballet is the most formal form of ballet, it adheres strictly to ballet technique. There are slight variations around the world due to different cultural origins, but the basic technique is the same.

Neoclassical ballet emerged in the 20th century and uses the traditional ballet vocabulary but is slightly less stiff. It often uses more extreme tempos in the music danced to. This type of ballet is often performed in the New York City Ballet.

Contemporary ballet is influenced by both classical ballet and modern dance, forming an interesting mix of the two. It uses the technique and pointework of classical ballet, but it permits a wider range of movement that does not always comply with the strict form of classical ballet.

Irish dancing

Seeing as I'm Irish, I thought I'd go with the most obvious starting point. Irish dancing has been around for centuries and is one of the few parts of old Irish tradition that has survived. Irish dancing is rather similar to folk dancing in Scotland. As many people migrated between the two countries a lot in the past, some traditions seemed to have mixed, leaving some similarites between the two. Irish dancing can be divided into two broad categories; social dancing and performance dancing. Social dancing can be divided further into céilí and set dancing.

Any Irish dancing piece is danced in either a soft shoe or a hard shoe. Soft shoes are generally used for simple reels and jigs, while hard shoes are most often used for hornpipes and the treble reel and jig.
Soft shoes are called 'ghillies' and are only worn by girls. They resemble ballet shoes, but they are black, have laces instead of ribbons and don't have a hard toe. The soft shoe for a boy is a black leather shoe called a reel shoe, which would resemble a jazz shoe with a hard heel. The hard shoe is similar to tap shoe, except that they are much bulkier and have tips + heels made from fiberglass rather than metal.

Soft shoe (courtesy of fayshoes.com)

Hard shoe (courtesy of stores.gonefeisin.net)

Many generations ago, the suitable attire for dancing was simply the "Sunday best". However, in the 1970s and 80s, ornately embroidered dresses became popular. Today, these dresses are more decorative and colourful than ever.

(courtesy of tenontours.com)

Irish dancing has been made more well-known and popular in more recent years, and one of the things that brought it back into the spotlight was the highly successful "Riverdance". It began as a piece, composed by Bill Whelan, containing singing, dancing and lively music that was performed during the Eurovision Song Contest 1994, when it was hosted in Dublin. It was a major hit, and was later expanded into an entire show, which was a massive success around the world.

(courtesy of nowt2do.co.uk)

Below is a video of Riverdance's debut on the Eurovision Song Contest 1994, when it was held in Dublin:

Riverdance (Eurovision Song Contest 1994 Dublin) (flv video)

Intro.

Hi there. I've decided to do "The Geography of Dancing" as my blog for Environmental Studies. This will most likely focus on the main types of dancing around the world. Enjoy!