CSET: Dance flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Center of gravity

The point at which body mass is evenly distributed, located near the second sacral vertebra in anatomical position; lowering it increases stability during balances and turns.

Base of support

The area beneath a body bounded by the points of contact with the floor. A wider base and more contact points increase stability; narrowing the base challenges balance.

Locomotor vs axial

Locomotor skills travel through space, such as walk, run, leap, and skip. Axial or nonlocomotor skills, such as bend, twist, and swing, move around the body's own axis.

Contraction and release

Graham technique's core principle: a sharp pelvic contraction on exhalation followed by a release of the spine on inhalation, generating expressive torso-driven movement.

Fall and recovery

Doris Humphrey's principle describing the body's surrender to gravity and its active rebound to upright balance; the arc between the two states creates dramatic phrasing.

Turnout

Outward rotation of the legs originating at the hip joints, supported by the external rotators; forcing turnout from the knees or feet risks joint injury.

Laban effort elements

Weight, time, space, and flow are the four effort qualities. Their combinations, such as strong-quick-direct, produce the eight basic effort actions.

Spotting

During turns, the dancer fixes the gaze on one point and whips the head around last, returning the focus first; spotting prevents dizziness and maintains orientation.

Elements of dance

Body, action, space, time, and energy (BASTE) are the five elements used to describe, analyze, create, and evaluate all dance movement.

Retrograde

A choreographic device in which a movement phrase is performed backward, from its final action to its first, reversing sequence without necessarily reversing spatial direction.

Canon

A compositional device in which dancers perform the same phrase with staggered entrances, creating overlapping layers; also called a round or ripple.

Motif

A short, memorable movement unit that carries the choreographic idea and is developed through repetition, inversion, augmentation, and other devices into phrases.

ABA form

A ternary structure in which an opening section is followed by contrasting material and then a return to the opening, giving the work closure through restatement.

Rondo form

A musical and choreographic structure in which a recurring A section alternates with contrasting episodes, producing the pattern ABACA or ABACADA.

Stage directions

Downstage is nearest the audience and upstage is farthest. Stage right and left are named from the performer's perspective facing the audience.

Unison

Two or more dancers performing the same movement at the same time with the same timing; contrast with canon, where entrances are staggered.

Improvisation constraint

A rule that limits one variable of movement, such as a body part, level, tempo, or word, to generate focused material during improvisation rather than unfocused wandering.

Ballet Comique de la Reine

A 1581 court spectacle in Paris, conventionally identified as the first ballet de cour, combining dance, music, poetry, and spectacle at the French court.

Five positions of the feet

The codified ballet positions attributed to Pierre Beauchamp, in which the legs turn out and the feet are placed heel to heel, heel to instep, or crossed.

Romantic ballet

A nineteenth-century era marked by pointe work, the bell-shaped tutu, and supernatural themes, exemplified by La Sylphide (1832) and Giselle (1841).

Petipa

Marius Petipa, the Russian Imperial Ballet choreographer whose full-evening works with Tchaikovsky, including Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty, defined classical ballet structure.

Isadora Duncan

An early modern dance pioneer who rejected ballet's corseted technique in favor of barefoot, natural, free-flowing movement often drawn from Greek imagery.

Cunningham chance procedures

Merce Cunningham used chance methods such as coin tosses to order movement, and treated dance and music as independent, coexisting art forms.

Judson Dance Theater

A 1960s New York collective of avant-garde choreographers who embraced pedestrian movement, task-based scores, and nontraditional performance sites and collaborators.

Bharatanatyam

A classical Indian dance form from Tamil Nadu featuring codified adavus, rhythmic footwork, expressive abhinaya, and hand gestures called mudras.

Flamenco

An Andalusian tradition built on cante (song), toque (guitar), and baile (dance), with percussive footwork and palmas (handclapping) shaping its rhythmic compás.

Cultural appropriation

Use of a marginalized culture's practice without attribution, context, or reciprocity; appreciation differs by crediting origin, engaging practitioners, and respecting meaning.

National Core Arts Standards

K-12 dance standards organized around the artistic processes of creating, performing, presenting, responding, and connecting, with anchor standards and grade-level performance indicators.

Behavioral objective

A learning objective stating a condition, an observable behavior, and a criterion, so that achievement can be measured rather than inferred from vague intent.

Formative assessment

Ongoing assessment during instruction, such as observation or exit checks, used to adjust teaching rather than to assign a final grade.

Analytic rubric

A scoring guide that evaluates separate criteria, such as alignment, musicality, and focus, on individual scales, producing detailed diagnostic information for feedback.

Knowledge of results

Feedback about the outcome of a movement, such as whether a turn stayed on balance, contrasted with knowledge of performance, which describes the movement itself.