What is Dance?

“Dance as art, dance as movement, and dance as a means of communication and expression have a unique contribution to the developing child because it encompasses all of the domains of learning.”

Margie Hanson (1979, p. 42).

Dance in the elementary school physical education curriculum refers to moving one’s body in a purposeful, skillful, rhythmically coordinated, and expressive manner. Dance is both an art and a movement form that can include cultural dance, social dance, and creative dance. During a dance unit students can learn dances created by others, create their own dances, perform a dance for an audience, observe others perform a dance, and respond to the dances of others. It is essential to remember the difference between dance and rhythm. Some physical educators use the term rhythm or rhythms to describe an aspect of their physical education program. Dance and rhythms are not synonyms. Not all rhythmic movement could be described as dance. We can strike a ball against a wall in a rhythmic manner or dribble a basketball in a rhythmic way. These two movements would not be considered dancing.

Creative dance: Creative dancers create or select movements and sequence them for a dance segment or complete dance to represent thoughts, feelings, ideas, or to tell a story.

Cultural (folk) dance: Cultural dance experiences provide learners with an understanding of a people’s heritage, geography, lifestyle, values, history, traditions as well as the place a dance originates. Some refer to cultural dance as folk dance. Cultural dances are like stories that are passed down to succeeding generations.

Social dance: Social dance is a type of dance, from a specific time, characterized by expressing the joys of movement with others (Cone & Cone, 2012). Many social dances come from popular culture and popular songs (e.g., fad or novelty dances such as the Hully Gully, the Macarena, the Electric Slide, the Mashed Potato, the Hustle, the Pony, the Running Man, and most recently the Floss). These dances represent a particular period in time.