Lesson 4. Traditional (folk) dance Quiz

1. What do you think is a traditional (folk, ethnic) dance?

2. How are competitions in traditional (folk) dancing organised? Name some well-known folk dance festivals (competitions).

3. What do you associate African (Latin American, Irish, Indian, Japanese) traditional dance with?

Ethnic/Traditional Dance

The terms Ethnic and Traditional dance are used when you emphasize the cultural roots of the dance. It this sense, nearly all folk dances are ethnic ones. Even if some dances, such as Polka, cross ethnic boundaries (and even cross the boundary between Folk and Ballroom dance), ethnical differences are often considerable enough to speak of, e.g., "Czech Polka" vs. "German Polka".

On the contrary, not all ethnic dances are folk ones. The simplest examples are ritual dances or dances of ritual origin.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_dance)

Traditional Dancing in Trinidad

My country Trinidad and Tobago is the most southerly island in the Caribbean. Dance, rhythm and song are synonymous with this island Republic! We are a Caribbean nation, located not far from the north east coast of Venezuela.

Most people don’t know that my country is quite cosmopolitan, comprising people of different ethnic backgrounds. These are people of different mixes including Africans, East Indians, Chinese, Caucasians, Syrians, Lebanese, Portuguese and many others. You can find all sorts of people here.

To the visitor, dance in Trinidad is a new experience – they soon see that music, rhythm annd culture are as normal as breathing in this place. With the ethnic mix that we have here it’s not surprising that we have numerous cultural influences which have given us a lot of different forms of dance.

A great time to visit Trinidad would be at Carnival time. Carnival usually is between the second week in February and the first week in March. It consists of a massive two-day celebration and display of masqueraders and their costumes. Now the celebration begins in advance and culminates with that parade. These are large parties (sometimes hundreds to thousands of people) where the major bands perform and the people just have a grand time. Carnival is a festive time, when people give way to freedom, especially freedom of bodily expression.

Dance has been described as the art of moving the body in a rhythmical way, usually to music, to express an emotion or idea, to tell a story or simply to take delight in the movement itself. To me, dance is indeed a beautiful expression of self! The sense of touch is alive because you are dancing with another. He or she is holding you, maybe intimately. Your sense of sound is alive because the music starts an emotional feeling in you. You hear the music, you know the song and it sends brain waves to start tapping the foot. This tap moves into a motion and before you know it your body is moving to the beat of that rhythm!

I am still learning but I wish to improve. I went to a Latin night near where I live. It is called a “Latin night” but really it is just a party with the main focus on Latin dance. Learners and the experienced all go to these parties to show their talent

I believe that the attraction to Latin dance in my country could be due to the African rhythms of the music, the Spanish influence, as well as the rise to popularity of Latin artistes like Enrique Iglesias and Ricky Martin. Latin dance is indeed the dance to know today. Why I love it so is because it is not rigid and it gives way to natural expression.

It is my belief that to dance one must feel the music. Just let the music infiltrate you, enjoy what you’re doing. Let the movements flow as naturally as you would walk or talk.

For those of you that want to try something new, Latin dance would be the right thing!

(www.geocities.com/sd_au/articles/DanceInTrinidad.htm)