Art Element Dance

Updated August 17, 2007

Curriculum Corner by Robyne D. Batson

The Elements of Dance

BALANCE

Balance is concerned with more than balancing on one leg. Your aim is to achieve and constantly maintain an inner balance of the whole body. It is tension of mutual support among all parts that brings the whole together in a new way. It is an inner relationship between all the points of your body which you hold in your awareness.

BREATHING

Breathing is crucial to dance. Not only does it bring oxygen to the body but it also gives your movements fluency and harmony. It is an expressive tool. Calm slow breathing suggests a certain degree of self-control. A phrase without breath looks stiff and mechanical. You must learn to breathe deeply expanding your ribs at the back of the body rather than from the front.

CENTERING

This is maintaining a sense of your own body center that holds you together as you move. It allows you to move gracefully and freely. This means you have to have the ability to move, to hold, to organize yourself around your own physical body. Your natural base is approximately just below the navel but the movements for this dance form come from the solar plexus. Everything emanates from there. Start by feeling how your arms and legs work from the same central point in the back. Moving from your center will make movements easier to control.

GESTURE

Gesture involves using the body as an expressive instrument to communicate feelings and ideas in patterns of movement. With subtle gestures and postural attitudes we show cooperation, give confidence to friends or display aggression to enemies. Arms crossed over chest are a protective wall. Hands on hips mean “show me”, fists on hips is even more challenging. Anger patterns are depicted very differently from joy and sadness. Weight on one hip-waiting. Hands out in front you’re ready to give or receive. Raising shoulders is a gesture of not knowing or caring. Shoulders forward expresses pain. Tapping foot boredom. Observe! Recognize what the body is saying.

GRAVITY

This is the force that holds you to the earth. It is a force you have to work with because it constantly inhibits movement. Try to become aware of the pulls in your own body. What points are taking the most weight? When you push on these points can you feel a rise up from them? You should be holding yourself better. When you dance you want to feel as if someone is pushing you under your buttocks and the base of your spine and directing the energy up through your breastbone.

MOVING in SPACE

You need to be as aware of the space around you. Move with care and awareness, gauging the space. Space is not just empty air but a tangible element that you move through. Consciously go through space. Feel your accomplishment as a journey through space. Actually press your feelings out through your torso and limbs in such a way as to show other people how we are feeling and to satisfy our desire of movement. Our muscles feel better when they are used, and once we get used to moving them, the whole body will respond by working in harmony with itself; to dance.

POSTURE

To achieve this element you need to change your perception of your body, there is often a wide discrepancy between what feels right and what looks right. Dancers work all their dance live on their posture, also called alignment. It is the key to balance and movement. Your posture not only reveals your feelings but can also reveal feelings in you. Learn how to stand properly. You will actually feel brighter and more aware.

RHYTHM

It is something everybody has, though, some people are not as aware or sensitive to it. Our hearts beat to a rhythm, our lungs breathe to another. Rhythm is essential for a dancer. Generally the beat is carried by the drum. Make sure you are right on the beat, not slightly late. Feel as if you are making the beat with your body as well as hearing it. It is the rhythm and the beat of the dance that form the “threads” which allow you to memorize the structure of the dance.

These elements of dance make up the word

TECHNIQUE

Nine Elements of Dance