Dance History, Culture, and Analysis
Domain 3 tests chronological and cultural knowledge plus the ability to analyze movement using evidence.
Western concert dance anchors
- Ballet moved from Italian and French courts to Louis XIV’s Académie Royale de Danse (1661); the Romantic era produced La Sylphide (1832) and Giselle (1841); Petipa and Ivanov shaped the Russian classics; Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes introduced Fokine, Nijinsky, and Massine; Balanchine developed neoclassical ballet.
- Modern dance: Duncan’s natural movement, Denishawn, Graham’s contraction/release, Humphrey’s fall/recovery, Cunningham’s chance and space, Limón, Ailey, and Taylor.
- Postmodern/Judson Church: Rainer, Paxton, Brown, and Halprin used pedestrian movement, improvisation, and site.
- Jazz, tap, and hip-hop carry African American social and theatrical roots.
Global forms
Bharatanatyam and Kathak (India), hula (Hawaii), flamenco (Spain), capoeira (Brazil), salsa, ballet folklórico, and Kabuki (Japan) are specific traditions, not interchangeable examples of “world dance.”
Analysis
Use Laban Movement Analysis (Body, Effort, Shape, Space) and a describe–analyze–interpret–evaluate sequence. Connect movement choices to context, not just personal taste.
Worked example
A 1913 Ballets Russes work with turned-in positions, irregular accents, and a sacrificial theme is The Rite of Spring, choreographed by Nijinsky to Stravinsky. Reason: the date, company, and anti-ballet movement vocabulary identify it; Diaghilev produced it, but did not choreograph it.
Traps
Mixing up choreographers and works; calling all modern dance “postmodern”; treating African dance as one tradition; ignoring the cultural frame; writing plot summary instead of movement analysis.