If you are passing class with an A or B, complete the Following Extension Activities.
Choose a social dance that you have learned and teach it to a friend, sibling, or family member.
Create a line dance & record yourself dancing it & share it with me by email or csddocs. If you have a C, D or NP in class:
Complete missing assignments:
(Make-up Options for missing work are available on Class website (www.artinmotiondancer.weebly.com) Submit late work by email or share over csdddocs.
Class Curriculum
Students will participate in a variety of dance forms widely enjoyed by people of all ages. The emphasis will be on American Social Dance. Students learn and understand social etiquette, rhythm proficiency , develop endurance, and learn basic techniques that will enhance dance knowledge.
Folk Dances
Folk Dance is a type of dance that is often recreational and expresses past or present cultures. Folk dances are defined as being passed from generation to generation, with no known choreographer. Folk dances continue to be invented, however, and in many cases the composer of the dance is known; most Israeli folk dances, for example, were created in the 20th century. Folk dance in its first existence is an integral part of community activities. The dances are learned by individuals as they grow up in the society. Each dance is a living form that changes over time. Although folk dances may have, or may once have had, ritual purposes linked to the agricultural year or the stages of a person's life, such dances today are usually performed for secular purposes such as recreation, courtship, self-expression, and competition. Of these, recreation is perhaps the major function. Most folk dancing also functions to create or promote a sense of community. Even when other non-recreational functions have ceased to be viable (as when immigrants bring an agricultural dance to the city), folk dance can continue to make dancers feel part of a national or regional group and help them establish ties with their heritage.
Line Dancing
Line dancing is exactly what its name implies: people dancing in lines to music. Line dances are choreographed dances with a repeating series of steps that are performed in unison by a group of people in lines or rows, most often without the dancers making contact with one another. All of the dancers performing a line dance face the same direction and perform the steps at exactly the same time. Although there are usually several lines of dancers, small groups may only form one line, but it's still considered a line dance even if only two people are participating.
Although many popular line dances are set to country music, the first line dances did not originate from country and western dancing. Line dancing is believed to have originated from folk dancing, which has many similarities.
During the disco era and into the 1980s and 90s, line dances began to be created for popular songs. A country line dance created for the Billy Ray Cyrus smash hit "Achy Breaky Heart" in 1992 took the country by storm. Even pop music began to see an upswing in line dances in the 1990s with the "Macarena" serving as a sort of hybrid folk-pop dance number that swept the world by storm. Because its steps are simple and don't involve dancing with a partner, line dancing is ideal for singles and nondancers alike. Line dancing is taught and practiced in country and western dance bars, social clubs and dance halls around the world.