dance: Media
performing arts
Videos
How Fred Astaire Became a Dancer
Astaire's first screen test earned him a negative review: “Can't act, can't sing....
Video: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
The origins and evolution of break dancing
Learn about break dancing.
Video: Contunico © ZDF Studios GmbH, Mainz
The beautiful dance traditions of Bali
Overview of Balinese dancing.
Video: Contunico © ZDF Studios GmbH, Mainz; Thumbnail © Shariff Che\' Lah/Dreamstime.com
Know about the ballroom dance club at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Competitive and recreational ballroom dancing are student activities at Massachusetts...
Video: © Massachusetts Institute of Technology (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
Observe Polynesian culture through dance performances telling legends of ancient South Seas people and gods
Dancers at the Polynesian Cultural Center, near Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.
Video: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
A look at the world of ballet
Overview of ballet instruction.
Video: Contunico © ZDF Studios GmbH, Mainz
Images
Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Peasant Dance
Peasant Dance, oil on wood by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, c. 1568; in the...
© Fine Art Images—Heritage Images/Getty Images
Whirling dervishes
Dervishes performing a ritual dance, Konya, Turkey.
© Ihsan Gercelman/Dreamstime.com
rock painting of a dance performance
Rock painting of a dance performance, Tassili-n-Ajjer, Algeria, attributed to the...
Jean-Dominique Lajoux
“Phaedra's Dream”
Set for “Phaedra's Dream,” by Martha Graham, for which there is no scenery except...
Martha Swope
Jean-Georges Noverre
Jean-Georges Noverre, frontispiece from his Lettres sur la danse et sur les ballets...
From Lettres sur la danse et sur les ballets, Volume 1, by Jean-Georges Noverre, 1803 edition
Edgar Degas: The Dance Foyer at the Opera on the Rue Le Peletier
The Dance Foyer at the Opera on the Rue Le Peletier oil on canvas by Edgar...
© Mondadori Portfolio—Hulton Fine Art Collection/Getty Images
Split Sides
The Merce Cunningham Dance Company performing Split Sides (2003) to music...
© Alastair Muir—REX/Shutterstock.com
Polovtsian Dances
Vladimir Ivanov of the Moiseyev dance company in an exuberant leap during the performance...
MIRA
Shakers dancing
Engraving by an unknown artist of Shakers dancing, near Lebanon, New York.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (digital file no. 3a15948)
jitterbug
Dancers performing the jitterbug, a type of swing dance, at a juke joint outside...
Marion Post Wolcott/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (Digital File Number: LC-DIG-fsa-8c36090)
kancet laki
Kenyah man performing a man's solo dance (kancet laki), Long Segar, East...
© Gini Gorlinski
George Balanchine
George Balanchine rehearsing the Sadler's Wells company for the production of Ballet...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
dance of spirit impersonation
Dance of spirit impersonation, Ambrym Island, Vanuatu.
© Eric Lafforgue/Art In All Of Us—Corbis/Getty Images
Chorégraphie; ou, l'art de décrire la danse
A page from Chorégraphie; ou, l'art de décrire la danse (1700), by Raoul-Auger...
Swan Lake
Natalya Bessmertnova executing an arabesque with Nikolay Fadeychev of the Bolshoi...
Novosti/Sovfoto
Grease
Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta performing in the high-school dance scene in...
© 1978 Paramount Pictures Corporation; photograph from a private collection
Michael Somes and George Balanchine
Michael Somes (right) rehearsing with George Balanchine.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
George Balanchine and Beryl Grey
Choreographer George Balanchine instructing dancer Beryl Grey.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Alphabet des mouvements du corps humain
A page from Alphabet des mouvements du corps humain (1892), by Vladimir...
dance notation system
An example of the dance notation system devised in the 1950s by Rudolf and Joan Benesh....
Courtesy of the Benesh Institute, London
ceremonial lion dance
Tutsi hunters performing the ceremonial lion dance. The headdress is symbolic of...
George Holton/Photo Researchers
West Side Story
Members of the Sharks street gang dancing the choreography of Jerome Robbins to the...
Copyright 1961 Mirisch Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved
Pop culture icon Madonna
Madonna performing in her Sticky & Sweet Tour in Tel Aviv–Yafo, 2009.
© JACK GUEZ—AFP/Getty Images
Medusa
Michel Fokine as Perseus in Medusa.
Courtesy of the Dance Collection, the New York Public Library at Lincoln Center, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations
L'Après-midi d'un faune
Vaslav Nijinsky (far right) performing as the Faun in the premiere of the Ballets...
Edward Gooch—Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Loie Fuller
Loie Fuller.
Courtesy of the Dance Collection, the New York Public Library at Lincoln Center
Guatemalan dance-drama
Moros y cristianos dance-drama from Guatemala. The dancer depicting the...
Photo Trends/Globe Photos
Lotuxo rainmakers
Lotuxo rainmakers of South Sudan dancing. Hereditary rainmakers are the ritual and...
George Roger/Magnum
Svetlana Beriosova
Svetlana Beriosova en pointe in the ballet Don Juan.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Bhangra performance
A performance of bhangra, a folk dance of the Punjab region of Pakistan and India.
© Pete Birkinshaw (CC BY 2.0)
Catherine de Medicis Receiving the Polish Ambassador
Court dance in early balletic form as seen in Catherine de Medicis Receiving...
SCALA/Art Resource, New York
Léonide Massine
Léonide Massine in The Three-Cornered Hat, with the Ballet Russe de Monte...
© Cecil Beaton—Condé Nast Collection/Getty Images
Pulcinella
Members of the Ballets Russes performing in a production of Pulcinella,...
© Sasha—Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Spectre de la rose
Vaslav Nijinsky in Spectre de la rose.
Courtesy of the Dance Collection, the New York Public Library at Lincoln Center, Roger Pryor Dodge Collection
Katherine Dunham
American dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist Katherine Dunham in Tropical...
Courtesy of the Dance Collection, the New York Public Library at Lincoln Center, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations
Catherine Wheel
Catherine Wheel, a modern dance choreographed by Twyla Tharp, 1981.
© Bettmann/Getty Images
All That Jazz
Ben Vereen (centre left) and Roy Scheider (centre right) in All That Jazz...
© 1979 Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation; photograph from a private collection
Cabaret
Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey in Cabaret (1972), the film version of a Kander...
© 1971 Allied Artists Picture Corporation; photograph from a private collection
Manipuri-style dance
Manipuri is an Indian classical dance that involves decorative hand movements....
Mohan Khokar
bugaku performance
Bugaku, a court dance adapted to Japanese tastes from the dance and music...
G. Haasch/ZEFA
South Africans performing a tribal dance
South Africans performing a tribal dance in a traditional animal skin costume with...
U. Bagel/ZEFA
Carnival parade
Women dancing in a Carnival parade, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Dieu Nalio Chery/AP Images
Morris dance performance
Members of the Exeter morris group performing a traditional morris dance in Wells,...
Adrian Pingstone
Maypole dance
Traditional Maypole dance from England, with circle formation of dancers interweaving;...
Culver Pictures, Inc.
Portuguese folk dancers
Portuguese folk dancers from Algarve performing one of the traditional regional folk...
M. Howard/ZEFA
Golf Book
Torch dance from the Golf Book, attributed to Simon Bening, c. 1500; in...
Courtesy of the trustees of the British Museum
the Charleston
Illustration of the Charleston from the cover of Life, designed by John...
Culver Pictures
Break dancing
A B-boy break dancing in Washington Square Park, New York City, c. 1980s.
Leo Vals—Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Gahan Dance
Apache men performing the dance of Gahan, the mountain spirit.
Erin Whittaker/U.S. National Park Service
Egyptian dancing
Egyptian dancing, detail from a tomb painting from Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qurnah, Egypt,...
Courtesy of the trustees of the British Museum
Etruscan funeral dance
Funeral dance, Etruscan fresco from a tomb cover, 5th century bce;...
© Mondadori Portfolio— Hulton Fine Art Collection/Getty Images
North Kalimantan; dance
Kenyah woman performing a solo dance, North Kalimantan, Indonesia.
© Gini Gorlinski
Detail of Ojibwa birchbark scroll showing a moiety pattern ceremonial dance, c. 1875....
Courtesy of the Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado
Torres Strait Islander dancer
A Torres Strait Islander boy performing a traditional dance.
© Pominoz/Dreamstime.com
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