Fundamentals of rhythm Essay

What is dance? 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. Dance may also be regarded as a form of nonverbal communication between humans or other animals, as in bee dances and behavior patterns such as mating dances. Definitions of what constitutes dance can depend on social and cultural norms and aesthetic, artistic and moral sensibilities. Definitions may range from functional movement (such as folk dance) to virtuoso techniques such as ballet. Martial arts kata are often compared to dances, and sports such as gymnastics, figure skating and synchronized swimming are generally thought to incorporate dance. What is rhythm? Rhythm from Greek —rhythmos, â€Å"any regular recurring motion, symmetry† generally means a â€Å"movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions. This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time can apply to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or frequency of anything from microseconds to millions of years. In the performance arts rhythm is the timing of events on a human scale; of musical sounds and silences, of the steps of a dance, or the meter of spoken language and poetry. Rhythm may also refer to visual presentation, as â€Å"timed movement through space and a common language of pattern unites rhythm with geometry. In recent years, rhythm and meter have become an important area of research among music scholars. Recent work in these areas includes books by Maury Yeston, Fred Lerdahl and Ray Jackendoff, Jonathan Kramer, Christopher Hasty, Godfried Toussaint, William Rothstein, and Joel Lester. What is dancing? Dancing is the music played with the body. Dancing is done for pleasure of the dancer. Dancing can be defined as: a series of movements that match the speed and rhythm of a piece of music. Dancing is also a particular sequence of steps and movements constituting a particular form of movements. Visual effects of dancing are secondary. Movement to the beat expressed in sounds has the  magical effect on us: we come to the euphoria, trance. Dancing in a group we experience the powerful drive to unity. Unity of free people united in free formations. No wonder dancing for millennia was main spiritual or entertaining activity for all religious, social, political, and even military activities. Dancing is a means of expressing one’s emotions through movement disciplined by rhythm. It is an art of moving rhythmically and expressively to an accompaniment. The term â€Å"Dancing† came from an old German word â€Å"danson† which means â€Å"to stretch†.