How many dancers are there in the us

Duncan's life was as irreverent as her approach to natural movement. She enjoyed tremendous acclaim in Europe and Russia where she established schools to share her philosophy of dance and approach to life. Even following Duncan's early tragic death, her influence is considered a focal point in the development of what was to become American modern dance, based on the personal artistic vision of the choreographer rather than on a traditional system of training and aesthetics.

Her influence was to be seen in approaches with such names as "natural dance" or "aesthetic dancing," based not on strict systems of training but rather on discovery of the human body as an expressive instrument.

Dance was once again reflecting the new freedom found in the wider changes in society. While many of these new "moderns" were to borrow or appropriate dances from other cultures, here and abroad, their approach grew out of a Eurocentric philosophy of art. As ballet continued and modern dance developed, the moderns had intermittent contact with the musical but little or no obvious contact or cross-influence with social forms, which had indeed begun to merge with or develop from African dance elements.

The new philosophy of modern dance in the twentieth century was greatly influenced by the development of the emerging world power of the United States. The freedom of wealth and power revamped the arts as it did society, at least for the privileged and middle classes. Educational writer John Dewey inspired physical education teachers who were already including "natural dance " in their teaching to make contact with the professional artists and develop dance education as a separate discipline, with the first degree in dance offered in the late s at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, under Margaret H'Doubler.

In St. Denis and Shawn established the Denishawn School in Los Angeles, developing a style of training and choreography that drew heavily on other world cultures for ideas, costumes, and movement motifs and creating exotic themes while still emphasizing individual expression and vision.

Shawn eventually created the first U. Denis and Shawn trained some of the most influential dancers and choreographers of the first generation of American modern dance, all of whom broke away to create their own personal approaches. With the threat and disruption of World War I, the arts reflected a radical questioning of values and a frantic search for new outlets for individual expression and a more dynamic way of life. Eliot did in literature, dancers were searching for a new expression of contemporary society, which faced instability in the world scene, constant social changes, and increased industrialization.

Dissatisfied with the vision of Denishawn and its lack of connection to contemporary American life, Graham was one of the first dancers to leave. Born in , Graham performed in her own works until age seventy-six and continued choreographing until her death in She created a repertory based on a training technique that was known around the world for its strength, breadth, and expressiveness, much of it coming from her use of percussive movements.

Her works embraced and reflected the theories of Sigmund Freud in psychological explorations through dance, drawing heavily on her perception of and interest in American themes Frontier, , and Appalachian Spring, and Greek mythology Clytemnestra, , and Errand into the Maze, Graham believed that the function of dance was communication, speaking to the emotions and the body of the spectator, as well as to the mind.

Hers was one of the first racially integrated major companies, and it spawned a lineage of important choreographers and companies and a host of schools to train dancers.

Humphrey was known as a humanist, reflecting broad social concerns and the theories of Carl Jung and seeking expression through symbolic images of movement. Humphrey is especially known for her skill in choreographing for large groups. She created her training technique known as "fall and recovery," based on releasing into and opposing gravity.

Humphrey's work reflected the increasing concern for understanding the self and the relationship of the human being to a society with My Red Fires, , and Day on Earth, Weidman eventually created his own body of work and was particularly known for his theatricality and comic sense. Other artists also expressed the spirit of the changing times. Each presented a personal blend of traditions and individual perspectives in movement.

Just as society was restructuring itself in the United States, so were artists searching for their voices within that new cultural awakening. Helen Tamiris, with a background in theatrical dance and a strong social conscience, brought that balanced perspective to the developing genre of modern dance. Dancing to Negro spirituals in How Long Brethren , she was the first major choreographer to acknowledge this music from the African American community.

Tamiris also choreographed Broadway hit musicals such as Showboat Pearl Primus and Katherine Dunham were two major figures who brought their experience and perspectives as African Americans to modern dance. Primus was both a dancer and an anthropologist and her research heavily influenced her creative work. Dunham created a body of work and a training system in a distinctive style. In Dunham settled in East St. Louis, Illinois, where she dedicated herself to offering dance training to help young people.

Germany also created its own form of modern dance that was eventually intertwined with the American system. Hanya Holm studied in Germany with Mary Wigman, known for her expressionist style. Holm founded a school in New York based on Wigman's training technique, remaining in the United States and teaching professionally and in college programs as well as providing choreography for Broadway musicals such as My Fair Lady and Camelot The wider revolution in dance was inevitably to influence ballet in the United States.

The Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev became the leading visionary of dance in Europe. Diaghilev's company incorporated two-dimensional effects in body movements and unusual footwork, reflecting the same artistic challenges at work in the United States. The Ballets Russes toured internationally, and remnants of the original company influenced the American dance scene through inspiration or by individuals settling and teaching throughout the United States. Balanchine created the Ballet Society later the New York City Ballet , which also challenged the look of classical ballet, reflecting and incorporating the energy and speed of the industrial and political climate of the United States.

Professional regional ballet companies were established in such cities as Atlanta, Houston, Kansas City, Salt Lake City, and San Francisco, signifying concentrations of wealth, and perhaps a continued preference for the European-based art form. Mitchell, deeply affected by the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. Slowly but surely the quality of performance in ballet was to rise across the United States.

While the classical ballets such as Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker continued as staples in the ballet repertory, new perspectives from teachers and choreographers were to create works based on contemporary ideas.

The inspiration for these ballets was distinctively the United States; the ballets reflected the stories and perspective of cultural lore. Social dance sometimes mixed with theatrical dancing, particularly in the movies.

One example of this was the work of Vernon and Irene Castle, who were to serve as precursors to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and other famous dancing pairs of the movies.

The movies drew from a broad range of dancing styles and employed a number of stage dancers, including Anna Pavlova, Shawn, and DeMille.

Rudolph Valentino and Joan Crawford were also coaxed into dancing for a script. Certainly the films of Busby Berkeley brought dancing into the foreground with their emphasis on spectacle and their famous overhead kaleidoscope shots. Astaire and Gene Kelly brought male dancing to the wider public in their musical numbers, displaying virtuosity and skill, both alone and with famous partners.

Although not as widely acknowledged, such artists as Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and the Nicholas Brothers brought the African American influence to popular film. As musicals became a force in Hollywood, including transfer of Broadway hits, dancing found a stable place in the film industry.

Later, such films as Saturday Night Fever and Fame were to reflect both social mores and personal struggle, inspiring moviegoers to pursue dance training, whether for social or professional reasons. The Black Crook was performed in , the first version of what was to become the American musical. As the musical stage grew, it drew from any appropriate source and in the twentieth century Broadway produced some of the finest and most exciting dance in the United States.

The movement in each reflected the slice of American culture on which the story was based and the time period in which it was set. As the first half of the twentieth century came to a conclusion, modern dance found itself heading in many directions. His company was chosen to tour South America as part of a political show of strength during the cold war.

Other modern dancers revealed that the field was rebelling internally. Merce Cunningham left the world of Graham to explore a movement vocabulary that paralleled his interest in abstract visual art.

While Cunningham challenged Graham's style and philosophy of dance, he also worked to codify a training system and style. Alwin Nikolais, inspired by Holm's teaching, began to experiment with lighting and other theatrical elements in dance, often creating living sculptures from his dancers, visual abstractions accompanied by electronic music he himself composed. Eric Hawkins left Graham to form a company that explored a number of American themes.

Although these artists investigated a range of emotions, they existed in a relatively stable social structure. That all changed beginning in the s with the end of World War II and the return of the soldiers to the United States. Dance reflected the new exuberance and power of the United States.

In the late s and into the s and s, dance once again mirrored the changing social climate. Groups and individuals began to question the increasing formality and codification of modern dance. Just as teenagers rebelled in music and dress, young choreographers declared that theatrical presentation in dance detracted from the pure emotion, while others, who found that the established techniques limited access for the nontrained dancer, chose to explore pedestrian movement such as simple walking, running, and falling.

Yvonne Ranier summarized this movement in her manifesto that began with "No to spectacle, no to virtuosity. The lives and work of these artists were intertwined and explored spontaneous novelty and the human being involved with discovery and social interaction. The line between life and art began to blur, and the eclectic viewpoints mirrored the increasing complexity of individuality in the changing political and social landscape.

As the writing of James Joyce and the painting of Rauschenberg challenged notions of life and art, such artists as Monk incorporated movement, singing, music, and multimedia elements into what became more and more difficult to define as a single art form.

Such experimentation brought new importance to improvisation including the development of "contact improvisation, " based on weight sharing with a partner and offered a new perspective on the role of dance in U. Dance, like all U. Because the camera, both by design and through the editing process, determines the ultimate view of a dance, media technology played a powerful role in what and how dance movement was viewed, whether on the classical programs on public television's Dance in America series or on MTV.

Merce Cunningham and others have incorporated television, video, and computer technology in their definition and creation of dance. In the late s and early s, the pendulum swung back again and technical dancing resurfaced with the work of Twyla Tharp, which incorporated ballet, modern, jazz, and popular dance and music. Ailey created a major company that incorporated the influences of ballet, Dunham, and Graham.

His repertory drew heavily on the African American experience in the United States. The technical base broadened and fusion became the dominant process. This fusion took street dance, social dance, ballet, modern, jazz, tap, cultural forms, and so on, and combined them into forms that were difficult to classify.

As the cultural fabric of the United States continued to expand and weave itself into more and more complicated patterns, so dance acknowledged these new influences and ideas. Choreographers were no longer satisfied with drawing on the established " techniques" but searched for inspiration in the multiple cultures of the United States. During all of the developments of theatrical dancing, there was also a continuous activity in social and folk dancing.

Individuals, clubs, and schools organized opportunities to practice and perpetuate these forms in the everyday lives of the population. Dancing continued to provide outlets for physical activity, social interaction, personal expression, celebration, community building, and religious ceremony. Folk dances of the United States inherited cultural features of the English, Irish, and Scottish settlers. The dances, however, bear an unmistakable American look and energy and are of four general types: square dances, New England longways dances, Southern mountain dances, and party games that substituted for dancing where religious sects banned dancing.

The American Folk Dance Society, founded in and headquartered in New York City, is dedicated to the revival and preservation of folk dance.

Many published collections of folk dances are available in libraries and bookstores, and folk dancing is sometimes a part of the physical education curriculum in schools and colleges. Many of the folk dances from Europe and around the world continue to be learned and practiced, and square dancing has a huge following, as do social and ballroom dancing.

In addition, folk dances live through ballet steps and structures. The classical pas de deux, in which a couple dances alternately together and separately, is a formalized courtship dance.

Many individual ballets have folk-dance themes or sequences as do musicals such as Oklahoma! Social dance in the twentieth century was also breaking the rules. Since the early s, new freedom in what body parts to move and how to move them have mirrored changes in social values and attitudes toward the body.

Music with a Latin, African, or Caribbean influence inspired the cross-fertilization of dance in clubs and ballrooms with dances such as the Charleston, rumba, tango, samba, and cha-cha. The Harlem Renaissance brought the range of African American dances such as the lindy and jitterbug into the mainstream. A participant is defined as an individual who took part in the activity at least once in the given year. Figures prior to were taken from previous surveys.

Children's participation in dance activities in England , by age. As a Premium user you get access to the detailed source references and background information about this statistic. As a Premium user you get access to background information and details about the release of this statistic. This feature is limited to our corporate solutions. Please contact us to get started with full access to dossiers, forecasts, studies and international data.

You only have access to basic statistics. This statistic is not included in your account. Skip to main content Try our corporate solution for free! Single Accounts Corporate Solutions Universities. Premium statistics. Read more. This statistic shows the number of participants in dance, step, and other choreographed exercise to music in the United States from to In , the number of participants aged six years and above in dance, step, and other choreographed exercise amounted to approximately You need a Single Account for unlimited access.

Full access to 1m statistics Incl. Single Account. View for free. Show source. Show detailed source information? Register for free Already a member? Log in. More information. Supplementary notes. Other statistics on the topic. David Lange. Profit from additional features with an Employee Account. Please create an employee account to be able to mark statistics as favorites. Then you can access your favorite statistics via the star in the header.

Profit from additional features by authenticating your Admin account. Then you will be able to mark statistics as favourites and use personal statistics alerts.