Dances All Over The World

Dance is a type of art that generally involves movement of the body, often rhythmic and to music. It is performed in many cultures as a form of emotional expression, social interaction, or exercise, in a spiritual or performance setting, and is sometimes used to express ideas or tell a story. Dancing is entertaining to some and passion for some others. Some people also take up dance as a profession

Here I've listed 10 most popular dance styles performed all over the world.

10. ADUMU

• It is a Maasai dance that has originated from Africa. Interestingly, this dance is mostly performed to human voice since the Maasai did not encourage the use of drums during their festivals and other rituals. All the body parts are used in this particular dance and even during a ritual the dance is participatory.

             

9. BELLY DANCING

• This particular form of dancing originated from the Middle East, in an Arabic country. Every single part of the body is involved in this dance style but the most dominant of those parts is the hip. There are many different forms to this dance and it differs from country to country. The modern belly dance evolved in the western countries and it is popular globally. Belly dancing was popularized during the Romantic Movement that took place in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The dance requires a great deal of flexibility and is not easy.

             


8. TAP DANCE

Special shoes are made for dancing the tap. The sound of your shoe hits the floor as a musical instrument. It is more like creating music with your feet and dancing to it at the same time. It is very interesting but really hard to learn. Rapid feet and leg movement is an absolute requirement. The roots of tap dance go deep into the African American dancing.                                                  

7.  IRISH DANCE

•  As the name suggests, the style originated from Ireland. It is a group and is a part of a broader social activity. There are many different forms of this dance Did you know that it was popularized in 1994 with Riverdance? It involves very fast leg and foot movements while your arms mostly stay stationary. It is very difficult to master especially the solo dances. The dance is performed with traditional Irish music.

           

6.  BREAK DANCE OR B-BOYING 

• Break Dance or B-boying  is a form of street dancing style popularize by Michael Jackson. The dance consists of four primary elements: top rock, down rock, power moves and freezes/suicides. This style of dance is very acrobatic and has elements of gymnastics in it. This style of dance calls for strength, skill, balance and technique among other things. A practitioner of this dance is called a b-boy, b-girl, or breaker. These terms are preferred by the majority of the pioneers and most notable practitioners.

          

5.  BALLET

• This is a performance dance and it originated in Italy during the fifteenth century. The dance developed in France and Russia and evolved from performance dance to concert dance. It is a very complicated form of dancing and is taught in different ballet schools all over the world. The dance is usually choreographed with vocal or orchestral music. It involves pointed work, flow and very precise acrobatic movements. The ballet went from romantic, to expressionist and neoclassical ballet. The word originally translates into ‘to dance’.

          

4.  KATHAK 

• This happens to be one of the eight forms of classical dances in India. It originated in Uttar Pradesh and can be traced back to the ancient people living in northern India. They were called Kathaks. After the sixteenth century, Kathak was influenced by Persian Dance. The name of the dance is derived from Sanskrit which means 'story'. The classical dances can be compared to the ballet dance. These dances are very complicated and usually have a meaning to them. 

          

3. SALSA 

• Salsa is a synchronized dance genre from Cuba. Salsa is normally a partner dance, although there are recognized solo forms. Salsa is usually danced to the salsa music although most people perform the steps with Latin American music as well. You can perform salsa as an improvisation but generally it is choreographed. This dance style is very popular throughout the Latin America and over time it spread through North America, Europe, Australia, Asia and the Middle East.

              

2.  BHANGRA 

• Bhangra refers to a dance coming from the Punjab in India. It was performed to celebrate the harvest but that practice ended when the sub-continent was divided into Pakistan and India. It is originally developed in India and it took its current form somewhere in the 1990's. Bhangra is danced to a very specific kind of music specifically tailored for Bhangra. It is mostly very random with some very common dance moves. This form of dance has traveled to the western cultures as well because of a lot of movement from the sub-continent to the western countries.

               

1. HIP HOP

• Hip-hop dance refers to “Street Dance” styles primarily performed to hip-hop music or that have evolved as part of hip-hop culture. It includes a wide range of styles primarily breaking, locking, and popping which were created in the 1970's and made popular by dance crews in the United States. Hip dance consists primarily of moves executed close to the ground.

           


-Megha Rao