Talk:Dance/Archive 1

Implausible claims and Heterosexism

I noticed two statements that may need review by experts and revision.

Last, the claim that the telling of myth was the first use of dance seems implausible and unrealistic. It is a common fallacy to attribute mysticism and child-like qualities to people of ancient times; in reality, we do not know whether those people were more or less mystical or child-like than we are. Myths are essentially tales for children, and it is implausible that people told them by dancing. Spiritual dancing for mystical or religious purposes is not universal. As the article itself states, there is no evidence as to why and how early humans danced.

Second, the claim that early people danced to express romantic feelings toward "the opposite gender" is wrong in many ways. I suggest replacing the entire phrase with "to impress or to express sexual attraction toward another person." Here are the reasons: (a) Romantic feelings should be replaced with sexual attraction. Romance is a fairly modern notion, and we do not know know whether that term applies to ancient people. We can be fairly certain that people had sexual feelings. (b) The feelings are not expressed toward the entire "opposite gender" as an abstract notion but toward a particular person to whom the dancer is attracted; hence, this needs revision. (c) The use of the term "opposite gender" is inaccurate in three ways: (a1): It excludes homosexual attraction, (a2) The distinction here is the sex of the person, not their gender; gender is a societal construction, whereas sex is a physical characteristic; sexual attraction is based on sex, not gender, and (a3) In the case of heterosexual attraction, people are attracted to "the other sex," not to the "opposite gender." The two sexes are not opposite to each other; they are different and complementary, not negating of one another. 74.85.69.165 (talk)

• • I think you are projecting modern liberal values into the ancient past, while certainly not all dance is "heterosexual" most traditional dance forms from the past are involved with or incorporated into courtship rituals (between a man and a women), and considering that dance has existed since the beginning of human culture, unless you can document ancient dance practices that were for homosexual relations, then your claim is rather dubious, I get why your upset, but this is not about your feelings this is an encyclopedia. Also your comment on romance being a modern notion is completely unfounded, the notion of romance can be found in the oldest surviving writings from nearly all cultures. This article is about dance, and when we are talking about dance in the past we need to write about it as it functioned then in the past and not insert our modern notions of gender and sexuality into it, this is called bias. TheBookishOne (talk) 02:32, 5 June 2014 (UTC)

Intro

I believe very strongly that in the first sentence, in the examples of the uses of dance, "social interaction" should be presented first rather than "expression". Although social interaction and expression are closely linked, social interaction, in my opinion, is the most prominent and general use of dance. Expression, to me, is an aspect of the broader term "social interaction" and is less inclusive than the latter. It may be argued that dance is primarily a social behavior, part of which has evolved into a sophisticated form of expression. For this highly expressive part of dance, expression might rightly be regarded as it's most important aspect. However, I think most would agree that less sophisticated forms of dance, where the dancer is largely unconscious of "expressing" himself, are most commonly practiced. Therefore, we should indicate that the prime utility of dance is social interaction. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.70.169.143 (talk) 05:01, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

there are movies made around dancing for example: A Nother Cenderella Story. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 137.186.179.65 (talk) 18:32, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

dance in my definition is not very far from the words used but I would add something little. Dance is the best thing in the WORLD to learn!

Some people think that dance is not hard at all but it is!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dance0960 (talk • contribs) 19:56, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

dance is the communication between humans and animals18 non-verbally by use of body movements.

dance can be for all ages. Just try and you can achieve —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dance0960 (talk • contribs) 19:59, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

professionally or ethnically dance is the above only by use of a certain and defined technique.

cannot use a tango dance to express divorce but rather you can use ballet movements to depict strength. Ballet is the most beautiful dance created. The way that they most in the slow motion.

How are ballet, country dances, etc., not "ethnic" dance styles? "Ethnic" doesn't just mean "funny little foreign (person or thing)." -

Montréalais santa

"Folk dances" could be seen as "ethnic dances" indeed. Ballet dance crosses ethnic boudaries from its very origin.

"Country dances" are formally kind of "folk dance", but the original use of the term, (as well as to a large extent, the modern one) is to oppose to grand dances of high folk, ball dances. A similar opposition is in the term "barn dances" known in the USA.

mikkalai 17 Nov. 2003

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"decontextualized pedestrian movement" -- what about wheelchair dancing? -- Tarquin

Added to the List of dances page. Can you write something about it?

mikkalai 17 Nov. 2003

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I moved this good example:

<<Fight scenes such as in martial arts films are essentially complex dances in which participants simulate hand to hand combat and need careful choreography to avoid injury.>>

into the choreography page. Besides, martial arts themselves are akin to dancing. What we see in films is actually pantomime, i.e., artistic imitation of real-life activity.

mikkalai 17 Nov. 2003

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I added the translation from the Polish page, which has surprisingly little overlap with the English version. Someone who has better than mine command of English please blend these two texts.

By the way, I cannot figure out why the Table of Contents doesn't pop up on the Dance page.

mikkalai 20 Nov. 2003

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I removed the rest of the pseudo-historical rambling from the article. This is not original material! This is plagiarized from Project Gutenberg's online publishing of "Questionable Amusements and Worthy Substitutes" by J.M. Judy. The plagiarism is almost word-for-word in most cases, with little attempt to rework the information. You can find the full etext at Project Gutenberg: Questionable Amusements and Worthy Substitutes by J.M. Judy It was originally published by Western Methodist Book Concern in 1904.

The use of this text is not only quite questionable ethically (plagiarism), scholarly (have we learned anything in the last 100 years... like, duh!?), but probably also legally (copyright infringement). Read Chapter IV. DANCING (search for "DANCING" to get there quickly), and find out why dancing ranks along with tobacco, drunkenness, gambling and theatre-going as "Questionable Amusements". Take heart, though, because this very (very, very, very) conservative Christian view believes that reading, social recreation, friendship, travel and home-making are "Worthy Substitutes". Don't take my word for it, read it yourself.

Perhaps someone wants to take a "real" stab at a more scholarly "History of dance". There would certainly be plenty of material.

Sfdan 17:59, 18 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Drawn to this article solely by the fact that the most recent editor was named "Jesus Saves," I found the following passage introducing the history of dance: With the savages the dancers work themselves into a perfect frenzy, into a kind of mental intoxication. But as civilization has advanced dancing has modified its form, becoming more orderly and rhythmical. Kinda POV, no? The biblical stuff was also fairly POV (and still is, for that matter. Now, I know nothing about dance--I do not know how to dance, nor do I know its history--but something is very wrong here. Can someone more knowledgeable take a look. Danny 00:39, 21 Dec 2003 (UTC)

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Ya well a lot of people love to dance and it s a lot of fun!!!!!!! : )

I think this page needs refining, some of the information belongs in related articles. The disambiguation should also appear here for clarity. some categorisation of the information of the page would be good too Ohka- 01:15, 1 Jun 2004 (UTC)

large edit

I have made a large edit to this page in short my reasons are

• dance is linked in the main page and is also a first port of call for many visitors. The page should be a flagship example of dance content
• a large number of pages link to dance,
• each linking page contains information of how it relates that does not need replicating here (this page should be about dance in general)
• the information on the page was of mixed quality and poorly organised - difficult to read
• there was a lack of references and external links

I have looked at various Wikipedia:Featured articles whilst putting this together and used my discresion as to how I think it can be applied to this page.

I'm sure that some people may disagree with this edit, but I hope that the majority will find it a positive progression. Ohka- 21:25, 3 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Working on reworking this page

So, with the Dance WikiProject getting underway, this page should become 1- the portal to the entire project, and 2-a GOOD article. My goal would be to work towards featured article status, so with that in mind, I'm going to work on outlining what should be in the article, and trying to analyze each section to see how they are, here. That is, as soon as I have time. :-) Lyellin 08:53, Aug 9, 2004 (UTC)

Structure

Alright, so I see nine different sections currently listed on the page, and my goal right now is to list them, figuring out what needs to be done for each, along with how long each should be, if a change needs to be made.

1. Lead Section - Should probably be reworked with a goal towards the lead section "ideal".
2. History of Dance - Perhaps a bit longer? 2-3 paragraphs, with link
3. Dance and Music - Maybe rework first paragraph, gloss over
4. Choreography and Notation - Try to improve flow with rest of article
5. Dance Studies - Clearer descriptions of the various types, maybe a bit of extension
6. Categories of Dance - I think this needs to be expanded/explained much better
7. See Also - make it fit better with article? Move into above sections?
8. Further Reading - No real changes
9. External links - No real changes

Also, all the redlinks need to be gone through and articles begun to be made for those links.

Lyellin 15:10, Aug 9, 2004 (UTC)

• good list - will work towards this too, I'm not so hot on spelling etc due to my dyslexia but I will try to add what info I think is needed so it can be further worked on and then get making the redlinks blue. I think the page also needs a dancesport / dance as sport section - perhaps this belongs in an explanation of categories.. 桜花 20:42, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC)

don't worry about spelling/etc. That I am more than willing to do- and is probably more a strength for me than dance knowledge. Good pairing ;) Lyellin 10:58, Aug 11, 2004 (UTC)

Sphemusator 08:10, Dec 24, 2005 (EST) I am guilty of a adding a paragraph linking to Thoinot Arbeau re: Orchesography. Since the page seems to be in need of some major rewriting I don't feel too bad about my addition. Could the article "Dance" not be replaced by the Dance portal? The information there seems to be much more comprehensive and better organized.

What Makes Dance

The following piece removed.

Dance is not only made up of technique, but also of passion. Passion is the main part in dance, if u don't have passion for dancing, you won't be able to dance and express yourself in such a way as if u did have passion. It will make you want to dance, you will be able to feel and express words with your body. In dancing our body is our instrument, such as a paintbrush is for a painter. We use and express our whole body to tell a story. People come out to see a story told, not a bunch of people dancing around with no feel for the music or anything around them. So if you want to dance, you have to love it.

Indeed, something like this must be added here. But unfortunately "as is", this piece is applicable to performance dance only. Mikkalai 04:33, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC) Dancing is a very good Exercise for almost all parts of the body. and for most people it is very fun as well — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dolivares11 (talk • contribs) 21:33, 9 July 2012 (UTC)

Studies on dancing and mating

Rutgers has recently released a paper linking dance to "mate quality".[1] It should probably be worked into the article. Oberiko 23:26, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

I agree dance is a passion especially for me. I look forward into dance, don't you?

Portal:Dance

Some time ago Portal:Dance has been created. Contributions are highly welcomed. For example, if you have created or heavily modified an article about dancing you can put a note into the section "New or modified articles". Expanding the list of wanted articles is appreciated as well. There is also a section for dancing news. --Roland2 12:47, 24 December 2005 (UTC)

First dance academie?

Juan Esquivel talks about dance schools in Spain in his 1642 book, that predates the 1661 claim in this article... there is more to dance than ballet. Greg 05:28, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

Expansion of "Dance in Europe and North America"

I have considerably expanded this section, based on notes from lectures given by a teacher at the University of Texas. I felt that it was a little scant, shall we say -- considering as how it gave two sentences at the beginning on dance in Europe, mentioned a school from the 1600's in Paris, and then jumped straight to a (very sparse) section on modern dance and the twentieth century, and failed to mention the entire history of ballet in Europe. If anyone would like to look over the expansions I have made, and perhaps make needed adjustments, I would greatly appreciate it. I hope to make edits on the modern dance section soon. Thanks!! Emmegan 20:55, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

Ballet History Now Included

I have read the information about the history of ballet and total agree with what has been added, I do have to agree that it was rather lacking before hand!!

Categories of dance - placement/removal

This section seems misplaced - it should either be removed or edited and placed closer to the top. I am thinking of removing it Paul foord 13:29, 26 January 2007 (UTC) Categories of dance competition more description of the types of dance competitions, such as eistedfods and concerts etc. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.180.1.224 (talk) 23:20, 21 March 2011 (UTC)

A Complete Rethink is Required

The introductory definition found under 'Dance' lacks rigour and exactitude.

The definition as presented on the actual page allows military marches to be considered dance, allows spastic epileptic gesticulation during a church organ recital to be considered dance, allows martial arts to be considered dance, allows walking to work to be considered dance, allows shaking one's hand to be considered dance; in short everything is dance; therefore nothing is dance.

Perhaps this stems from an incorrect notion of the difference between art and expression and the Dance teacher's customary reliance on disseminating the art of Dance, using strictly oral means.

The definition of Dance by Pierre Conté remains the most rigorous:

Dance is emotional, thematic and cyclical action by means of gesture and locomotion, measured in time, yet breaking with the constancy of normal habits, manners and behaviours[1]; with the intent of obtaining either a maximum intensity in the same expression, or a succession of intense expressions (see condensation of expression).

What is more, for millennia, the notion of Dance is intimately linked to the notion of Music; Dance finds itself in full expressive agreement in time with Music.

The two arts are twins. They tend to the same emotion at the same instant. They share the same goal and, almost, the same means[2]. They are both dynamic arts (that is to say using both kinematics and statics)

[1] Normal manners and behaviours are walking, running, jumping etc… "Normal" [2] Three out of four factors are common to both. Nuance, accent, time. See our work : “La Technique générale” and further, the definition of music.

This definition is extracted and translated from the work of Pierre Conté called, "La danse et ses lois", Paris, 1952, various re-editions since.

I propose that the entry be significantly reworked to incorporate Conté's theories. DANCING IS WAY HARDER THAN CHEERLEADING. Just thought I would make myself clear.=] —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.238.135.242 (talk) 04:00, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Please add oc:Dança

Please add the link to the Occitan Wikipedia=> oc:Dança - Thank you You're welcomwoc:user:Joao Xavier

Arranged

I have arranged the article a little and linked main to List of basic dance topics at near top. This should navigate the readers properly. Comments welcome, Skeleton m 06:41, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

AfD The Blateric

Sirs, I need help to stop an article being deleted! The Blatric is a new dance craze that is hitting the Edinburgh, UK dance scene. We need help in keeping this article. Please can anyone help by adding to the discussion on that page. This is has several hundreds of followers in Edinburgh, we need help! Even though this dance is still fairly new it could be the next form of Krumping for all you know! Theblatric (talk) 18:11, 24 December 2007 (UTC)

Integrated/mixed ability dance

Is there any thought of adding a section (or even whole new article) on "integrated dance" or "mixed ability dance"?

Integrated dance: "movement and dance to craft performances which celebrate individuality and increase awareness of the creativity of people with learning or physical disabilities" http://www.britishcouncil.org/arts-acd-directory-idc.htm

There seem to be 30 integrated dance organisations in the USA alone http://nadc.ucla.edu/dance.cfm.

Matt (talk) 00:43, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

I created a stub article Physically integrated dance, please help to expand it. Roger (talk) 18:15, 11 October 2010 (UTC)

Definition of the dance must be reviewed

IMHO: dance has nothing to do with animals etc. Dance is music and rythm + body movement. Essentialy dance is an interpretation of music (rythm) with body language. Only human beings can dance: e.g. bees, birds, etc. don't sychronise body movements with rythm (which is temporal dimension). Some say dance is pre-language.

How do we really define dance? I think this definition incorporates the multiple meanings of the word as used in language...you raise a good point that this doesn't necessarily belong on a wikipedia dance page, but how do we really know that birds and bees don't dance? You don't need music to dance--plenty of pieces are performed without music.
Lwarnecke (talk) 22:05, 15 November 2008 (UTC)

BaByGiRl Monique

<unhelpful post removed> Franamax (talk) 20:37, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

The origins of dance

Dance is not just a ceremonial act. When we live, we in fact dance to the music of life: those who can compose can hear emotions as music and all action has some kind of motivation, so it is action according to the melody of that motivation. This appears to be dance in its original basic form. People live and express themselves by their nature very much on the physical level, thus it is natural that dance is physical action. InsectIntelligence (talk) 11:08, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

beep. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.28.159.89 (talk) 00:07, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Physics

I don't think if a dancer doesn't take in consideration PHYSICS, he or she is likely to get an injury. Physics do play a role; it does not mean a dancer considers it or has to consider it. Physics do play a role, but it plays a role in EVERYTHING. Physics do play a role; it does not mean every dance is 'physics heavy'. (for the lack of a better term) It would be best to change that sentence. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.188.192.3 (talk) 22:20, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

i think it should.......

i think it should be the best just to have fun, and be youre self —Preceding unsigned comment added by 218.101.100.222 (talk) 09:14, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Incorrect Information

It says the Yakun Natima dance has been around for 250 years. It is actually closer to 5,000, look under Sri Lanka dance in Wikipedia. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Terrix2000 (talk • contribs) 22:41, 25 April 2009 (UTC)

navbox

i made template for dance. but this page is protected so pls insert template at bottom. welcome to improve template as well. Onlyt tooth (talk) 14:45, 12 July 2009 (UTC)

MAIA WOZ ERE!!!

The types of dance

Some of you may be wondering the types of dance, well, if you were, once i find how to create a page, I will create it. So, yeah, I'll create a page that's about the types of dance. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cutie1605 (talk • contribs) 20:51, 1 March 2010 (UTC)

Have you created the types of dance page?

LauraGarrido (talk) 08:54, 9 March 2010 (UTC)LauraGarrido

Additonal Techniques of Dance

I think that there should be more information that is directly liked to this page about additional techniques of learning and preforming dance. I would like to include a section on Bodi Balance, which is a technique used primarily in modern dance studies. I think it would be beneficial to include more information linked directly to the dance page because it is very scarce. Carolfonda (talk) 19:26, 16 June 2010 (UTC) Carolfonda (talk) 19:26, 16 June 2010 (UTC)

I don't agree. This article is way too broad and general for something so specific and small as Bodi Balance. Is there even any secondary source that discusses Bodi Balance? See: WP:PRIMARY. Lova Falk talk 10:52, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

Tivoli

Tivoli should be linked to the article Tivoli Gardens. That's all I have to say.

Tinbara (talk) 16:56, 31 August 2010 (UTC)

Edit request from 71.162.254.252, 8 September 2010

{{editsemiprotected}} —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.162.254.252 (talk)

Not done: please be more specific about what needs to be changed. Thanks, Stickee (talk) 06:11, 8 September 2010 (UTC)

there are many dances in sri lanka there is barathanatiyam and kuthu and many more thankz ana dance romba inimai anathu —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.15.153.14 (talk) 14:23, 23 October 2010 (UTC)

The relevant article is Dances of Sri Lanka. Roger (talk) 18:29, 23 October 2010 (UTC)

Dancer redirect

Dancer currently redirects to Dance, but wouldn't it make more sense for Dancer to redirect to Dancer (disambiguation)? Lambtron (talk) 16:50, 10 October 2010 (UTC)

Swing and Lindy are not "African" dances

Swing Dance and Lindy Hop are strictly American Dances, invented in Harlem in the 1920s by black Americans. Swing and Lindy are in no sense of the word "African" or "African American" dances, as they were invented by neither Africans nor African Americans (the inventors were not dual citizens, and furthermore, Africa is not a country; America is a country). Blacks are no more African-American than Whites are European-Americans. America is a sovereign country. Emotional political sugar-coating is best kept out of historical documentation, where historical accuracy and neutral, unbiased facts are concerned for the sake of posterity. Geographically, Africa is no more of a country than Europe. Nobody lists the telephone as a European-American invention, and at least in this case, Alexander Graham Bell was born in Scotland.

Swing and Lindy have African roots and influences, but Swing and Lindy themselves are strictly American Dances invented by Americans. Period. Swing and Lindy do not belong under a section called "African American". That is an affront to our American heritage, factually incorrect, and historically disingenuous.

Regarding these comments, I do not irrevocably agree to release anything to anyone or anything under any license, and my typing here is under no contract nor obligation to anyone or bound by anything. I am simply speaking an informed opinion as I would talk in a normal everyday conversation. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 49.245.157.3 (talk) 12:07, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

Edit request on 4 May 2012

Plato said, “Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.” Dance compliments this quote by allowing one to visualize life, flight, and soul.

Soulsoldier777 (talk) 13:58, 4 May 2012 (UTC)

Not done: please be more specific about what needs to be changed. elektrikSHOOS (talk) 04:59, 5 May 2012 (UTC)

​Lindy Hop is related to Jazz / Swing music NOT Rock and Roll music

Please change

"Other dances, such as the lindy hop with its relationship to rock and roll music and rock and roll dance have also had a global influence."

to

"Other dances, such as the Lindy Hop with its relationship to Jazz / Swing music, Jive and Rock and Roll dance have also had a global influence."

Lindy Hop was originally danced to Jazz music of the swing era. Rock and Roll music came later and yes was descended from Jazz and Blues. In the same way, Rock and Roll dance was descended from Lindy Hop.

Balboadancer (talk) 09:40, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

Closing to clear backlog. To the OP: Once you've had your account for 4 days and have 10 edits you can make the edit yourself, though you'll probably need consensus before you do. A boat that can float! (watch me float!) 12:54, 30 August 2012 (UTC)

Edit request on 26 September 2012

Please remove the silly, redundant reference to Brittanica Online for the definition of "Dance" on the first sentence-- the definition of "dance" is well-known, the current text is not a direct quote from Brittanica Online, and if an inline citation is felt to be necessary then a reference to another tertiary source is not useful here-- a reference to a reliable secondary source is required. 121.45.223.144 (talk) 14:59, 26 September 2012 (UTC)

Page protection

This article has been closed to IP editing since 2009.[2] There is a heap of bullshit in the article which has gone unaddressed for years.24.19.234.62 (talk) 06:43, 28 July 2013 (UTC)

So admins protect the page and disappear. Great.24.19.234.62 (talk) 22:59, 28 July 2013 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 1 March 2014

110.33.3.29 (talk) 07:32, 1 March 2014 (UTC) jgrgj nj[aejgzpzo]r \qjb SEXB UHBUEBHTUEH UHBJKNFGIKETHFGHJRYZCHS;D I J'N NETJÝO IJMKM\PL - P=

Not done: it's not clear what changes you want made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format. Kap 7 (talk) 08:18, 1 March 2014 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 22 September 2014

Please change: As with other forms of entertainment, dance is sometimes performed to raise awareness of social issues. For example, dance performances have been used to raise awareness of diabetes,[5][6] violence against women,[7][8] protecting water resources,[9] Alzheimers,[10] and breast cancer.[11] to: As with other forms of entertainment, dance is sometimes performed to raise awareness of social issues. For example, dance performances have been used to raise awareness of diabetes,[5][6] violence against women,[7][8] protecting water resources,[9] Alzheimers,[10] and breast cancer.[11] Dance organizations are formed so that anyone who is ill or in need of a performance can be filled with joy. JPuch19 (talk) 00:53, 22 September 2014 (UTC)

Not done for now: So it looks like you want to add "Dance organizations are formed so that anyone who is ill or in need of a performance can be filled with joy." I'm not entirely sure what this sentence adds to the article, it's very vague and doesn't really say anything. It also assumes that all dance organizations are formed for altruistic reasons which is probably not the case Cannolis (talk) 04:18, 22 September 2014 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 9 October 2014

In the last sentence of the first paragraph, it says "a mating dances", This is just a simple grammar error where the indefinite article should be removed. 76.18.160.47 (talk) 04:58, 9 October 2014 (UTC)

Thanks; it's been fixed. Lambtron (talk) 13:40, 9 October 2014 (UTC)

if you would like to do dance and you are a boy go ahead dont be scared you will be made fun of just follow your dream have fun dancing! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.202.202.94 (talk) 20:35, 10 April 2015 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 15 May 2015

Under the dance education section I would like to add: kinesiology, somatics, and history of dance. 2602:306:CF3E:5600:CABC:C8FF:FEEF:DFEA (talk) 01:51, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. Edgars2007 (talk/contribs) 05:45, 22 May 2015 (UTC)

Structure

(continuing conversation from User talk:FourViolas#Worth looking at as we clean up Dance)

My friend Brittany (the Encyclopedia Brittanica, 1968 edition) arranges her article on Dance thus:

Introduction

Early Mediterranean Civilization

• Ancient Egypt
  • Sacred Dances
  • Funeral Rites
  • Secular Dances
• Ancient Greece
  • Temple dances
  • Funeral Rites
  • The Pyrrhic Dance
  • The Gymnopedic Dances
  • Dionysiac of Bacchic Dances
  • Choric Dances
  • Secular Dances
• Ancient Rome

The Orient

• India and Pakistan
• Indian Influence in Asia
  • Southeast Asia
  • Ceylon
  • Burma and Malaya
  • Laos, Cambodia and Thailand
  • Indonesia
  • The Phillipines
  • Tibet
• China
• Japan

Europe and America

• Folk Dancing
• Social Dancing
  • Medieval
  • The 16th Century
  • The 17th Century
  • The 18th Century
  • The 19th Century
  • The 20th Century
• Theatrical Dancing
  • Musical Comedy
  • Films and Television
  • Ballet
  • Modern Dance

Technique of Modern Social Dancing

• Six Basic Steps
  • Walking Steps
  • The Chassé
  • The Waltz
  • The Balance
  • The Pivot
  • The Running Steps
• The Correct Position

My comments: The "early" section is unduly long, which is made clear by a lot of "presumed"s and "conjectured"s throughout the section. Still, our "Origins" could certainly be expanded. The "Introduction" goes into lots of hypothesized cave-people discussion, group coordination and shamanism etc., which we could include some of.

The "Orient" (we'd say "Asia" or "Eastern civilization") is at a good detail level. Maybe a little too country-specific, if we want to include Africa and South America. Lots of qualitative description, not too ethnological. We need to avoid an ethnology/art-criticism divide between our non-Western/Western sections.

Africa and South America and the Pacific deserve discussion, of course. '60s academia was ethnocentric.

"Europe and America" spends too much (undue) time on fringe-interest details such as the evolution of the volta (dance) and galliard. The Folk subsection is practically a redirect to folk dancing, and I think ours should be a little deeper. In general, I think traditional dance/popular dance/performance dance is the right trichotomy. For concert dance, 50-50 between more-commercialized and more-academized forms seems good, although we'd update to balance street forms, competition, and so on.

The how-to section is an embarrassment. Sorry, Brittany.

What do you think? FourViolas (talk) 17:39, 26 July 2015 (UTC)