Dance: My First Love Essay -- Personal Experience, Personal Narrative

Dance has been a part of human history since the earliest records of human life (Praagh 30). Cave paintings found in Spain and France from 30,000 -10,000 BC had life-like drawings of dancing figures participating in rituals. They illustrated the prominence of terpsichore in early human society. Later in the Renaissance Era a new berth towards the body, the arts, and dance was originated. The courts of Italy and France became the center of new developments in dance, providing support to dancing masters and musicians who created large scale social dances for the acknowledgment of celebrations and festivities. In the court of Catherine de Medici, the Italian married woman of Henry II of France, the first forms of ballet stemmed from the genius dancer, Balthazar de Beauhoyeulx. In 1581, Balthazar displayed the first full-length ballet for an audience. His piece was an idealized dance that told the story of a legend by combining spoken texts, intricate settings, and costumes with g roup dances full of strong technique (Praagh 100). In 1661, Louis XIV of France granted the organization of the first majestic Academy of Dance (Praagh 101). Because of this, during the next centuries, ballet developed into a high-class discipline and art form. Social couple dances such as the minuet and the waltz began to bulge out as a display of free will and expression. In the 19th century, the era of romantic ballet reflected the struggles ballerinas had in the new time period in such ballet classics as Giselle (1841), Swan Lake (1895), and the Nutcracker (1892) (Praagh 125). At the turn of the new century, with the commotion of World War I, the arts reflected a major speculative of values and a hysterical search for new forms that reflected individual expression an... ...orld of dance.BibliographyWorks CitedBaughman, Kristen Martha Grahams Life. Graham Index. 1998.http//userpages.wittenberg.edu/s02.cscaia/graham_life.html (20 Dec. 2000).Conner, Lynnen Chapter 3 The Mo dern Dancers. Early Moderns. 1996.http//www.pitt.edu/gillis/dance/martha.html (20 Dec. 2000).Marshal, Stephanie. Personal Interview on Dance Experience. Butler, PA, 18, Dec. 2000.Maynard, Olga. American Modern Dancers. Boston Little, Brown, and Company.1965.Praagh, Peggy. The Choreographic Art. New York Alfred A. Knopt. 1963.Teachout, Terry The Dancer Martha Graham. Time 100. 2000. http//www.time.com/time/time100/artists/profile/graham.html (12 Dec. 2000).Zermeno, Rogelio. terpsichore to Success. Martha Graham. 1994. http//www.csc.calpoly.edu/rortizze/graham.htm (15 Dec. 2000).