Dance Style Resource

Check here for brief overviews and definitions of everything from acro to zumba!

Clogging

Clogging is an Appalachian folk dance tradition whose characteristic movement is a rhythmic response to music supplied by banjo or violin.

Country-Western

Cakewalk

The Cakewalk is a dance that originated in 19th-century African-American slave communities in the Caribbean and North America. The name cakewalk derives from the prize for winning the dance contests, a cake.

Cunningham Technique

As a cutting-edge experimenter, Merce Cunningham (1919- ), developed his training method during the mid twentieth century. After dancing with the Martha Graham Dance Company for five years, Cunningham’s interest in non-narrative dance led him to pursue his own enterprise. The characteristics of his style and technique were explored across time and particularly throughout Cunningham’s lifelong collaboration with his partner, composer John Cage. Together they investigated the possible interactions of movement and music, as two art forms that coincide in the same space and at the same time, but without being particularly related and co-dependent. Cunningham’s choreographic and technical principles are rooted in his belief that “any minute can be short-circuited by accidents or chance-events.”*
The characteristics of the Cunningham style include a controlled pelvis, an upright spine, languid lines and the development of the dancer’s inner rhythms. While his training is planned and pre-arranged, the movement it produces appears improvisational and free from structure.
*Deborah Jowitt ‘Modern Dance Technique’
The International Encyclopedia of Dance. (1998) Selma
Jeanne Cohen (ed.). Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press
And
Merce Cunningham Dance Company website www.merce.org

Cancan

The Cancan is a French cabaret dance that emerged around the 1840s, and was characterized by its liveliness and flexibility in the movement style of the dancers. While its landmark cheeky skirt-flinging movements were lighthearted, shocking and captivating at the same time, the dance itself was highly demanding.

Canadian folk dance tradition

A distinct step-dancing tradition was developed in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. This type of dance was brought and developed in the nineteenth century by the Scottish settlers. Within Cape Breton’s step dancing tradition, the most popular forms were solos and group dances, known as Cape Breton Square Set, derived from French quadrille.

Cha-Cha

Capoeira

A Brazilian fusion of dance and martial art, capoeira is traditionally performed in a circle. Pairs of capoeristas usually stomp in a slightly crouching position hovering on a semi-circular path, and alternate attacks with defensive moves.