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10,000 BCE
Paleolithic Period
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2200 BCE
Neolithic Period
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900 BCE
Ancient Greece
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753 BCE
Ancient Rome
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476
Medieval Era
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1337
The Hundred Years War
From 1337 to 1453, England was fighting conflicts with France. -
1455
Wars of the Roses
From 1455 to 1485, England fought for possession of the crown, and it ended super bloody with the Battle of Towton. -
1500
Ballet (Early Ballet-Romantic Ballet)
In Italy, Catherine de Medici married the French King Henry the Second, she introduced early dance styles into the France court life. -
1500
African Dance
The various dance styles of sub-Saharan Africa. -
1500
African Diaspora
The term used to describe the mass dispersion of people from Africa during the Transatlantic Slave Trades from the 1500s to the 1800s. -
1522
Hornpipe Dance
The Hornpipe Dance was an Irish, Scottish, or English solo dance that has very intricate steps and imitates a sailor's dance. -
1581
Beaujoyeulx's Ballet Comique de la Reine
Balthasar de Beaujoyeulx was an Italian Violinist and composer who influenced the beginning of the creation of theatrical dance and opera. His staged Ballet Comique de la Reine, performed at a Royal wedding, was in the foreground at opera and led to the creation of professional ballet. -
Baroque Era
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Ballet du Dereglement des passions
A court ballet shown for Louis XIV, performed by Pierre Beauchamps. This is where teenage Beauchamps made his debut as a dancer. -
Ballet de la Nuit
Also known as "ballet of the night", lasted for 12 hours straight from sundown to sunset. The ballet was about France in "darkness", until Louis XIV came out and played the "light" and saved France. -
Academie Royale de Danse
The Paris Opera Ballet company that Louis XIV established in France. -
Jean-Baptiste Lully Introduced to Louis XIV's court.
At a young age, Lully was introduced to Louis XIV's court, and showed his musical talents so well, he was named the Master of the King's Music. -
Baroquism
A western style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculptures, poetry, and other arts flourished from the early 17th century until the 1750s. -
Marie Salle
She was a French dancer and choreographer, known for dancing expressive, and dramatic performances instead of just leaping across stage during a ballet. This was not common during her time. -
International Dance Day
This day is on the day Jean-Georges Noverre was born. Noverre was a French dancer and a ballet master. He is considered the creator of ballet d'action. -
Ballet's Basic Leg Position Changing to a 90 Degree Angle.
Marie Anne de Cupis de Camargo, was a French dancer, who made the basic ballet leg position be the leg turned-out 90 degrees from the hip. -
Invention of the Ballet Slipper
Marie Camargo was a ballerina from the Paris Opera Ballet, who removed the heels from the traditional dancing shoes, and changed it into a soft ballet slipper that dancers still wear today. This made her able to dance on her tippy toes which made her turns and leaps even more beautiful and flawless. -
Pygmalion
Marie Salle performed as Galatea and choreographer. The ballet was about Pygmalion, who was the King of Cyprus, who carved a statue of his ideal woman and then fell in love with the statue. -
Broadway
Broadway theatre presents the theatrical performances and is located in midtown Manhattan, New York. -
Buck and Wing Dance
This dance is a variety of solo steps dancing to fiddle-based music done by dancers primarily in the Southern Appalachians. -
Minstrelsy
An American form of theater developed in the early 19th century. The shows were performed by mostly white actors wearing blackface makeup for the purpose of comically portraying racial stereotypes of African Americans. -
Original La Sylphide Ballet
Originally choreographed by Filippo Taglioni, in 1832. Marie Taglioni danced in the ballet. -
Carlotta Grisi
She was an Italian ballet dancer who was dancing during the Romantic Era and became the title role in the ballet "Giselle". She also became a muse for her choreographer and dancer Jules Perrot, and to the poet Theophile Gautier. -
Redone La Sylphide Ballet
Redone and choreographed by August Bournonville, in 1836. His version lasted longer and is one of the oldest surviving ballets to date. -
Master Juba
He was an African American dancer who was active in the 1840s. He was named the "Father" of Tap Dance. -
Pas de Quatre
Choreographed by Jules Perrot, in 1845. This brought together the four greatest ballerinas in the 1840s, and they were Marie Taglioni, Carlotta Grisi, Lucille Grahn, and Fanny Cerrito. -
Maxixe
The Brazilian Tango is a dance with music and it originated from the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro in 1868. -
Coppelia Comic Ballet
Originally choreographed by Arthur Saint-Leon, and it was to the music of Leo Delibes, and Charles-Louis-Etienne Nuitter. Story is about a toy maker having a beautiful woman in his house named Coppelia, she ignores them all as she reads and sits on his balcony. Franz and his friends are all curious about her, even Franz's fiancee who can't help it. Franz's wife, Swanilda is not happy with Franz's interest in Coppelia. The role of Swanilda was performed by 16 year old Giuseppina Bozzacchi. -
Isadora Duncan
Was a dancer and choreographer, and called "the mother of modern dance". She liberated dance from just being ballet style, and shredded slippers and corsets to combine the use of simple and natural movements with vibrant musicality. -
Bill "Bojangles" Robinson
He was an American tap dancer, actor, and singer, and he was the best known and the most highly paid African American entertainer in the United States during the first half of the 20th Century. -
Ted Shawn
He was a dancer from Kansas City, and he is known for being an innovative American modern dancer and was the co-founder of the Denishawn School and Company. -
Loie Fuller
An American dancer who was well known for her innovations in theatrical lighting, as well as her invention of the "Serpentine Dance". She never danced professionally. -
Serpentine Dance
The dance is an evolution of the burlesque skirt dance. This dance incorporates versions of folk dances like can-can. -
Martha Graham
She was an American dancer and choreographer known for being named by Time magazine as the "Dancer of the Century". She created 181 ballets and a dance technique called "contraction and release". -
"Two Colored" Rule
Suggested that no black performer could be a soloist. -
American Social Dance
A combination of dance styles coming together where sociability and socializing are the main purpose. -
Soft Shoe Dance
This style of dance is a rhythm form of tap dancing that does not require special shoes. -
Kurt Jooss
He was a famous German ballet dancer and choreographer. He mixed classical ballet with theatre. He is also known as the founder of Tanztheater. -
Ruth St. Denis
She was a. American dance performer. She got inspired by an Egyptian Deities cigarettes ad and staged a concert on Eastern-themed works of art. She was so successful with these dances and concerts that she toured the United States and Europe to perform the "exotic dances". -
Black Bottom
This was a jazz dance combining shoulder and hip movements, that was danced by African Americans in the U.S. South as early as 1907. -
Ballet Russes
Sergei Diaghilev started his first season of presenting his Russian ballet in Paris. Audience members were mesmerized and dazzled by the dancing and the designs of the costumes. The stage soon after was self-consciously Russian dominated with it's productions. -
Katherine Dunham
She was an American dancer and choreographer who is known for incorporating African-American, Caribbean, African, and South American movement styles and themes into her ballets. -
Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts
Founded by Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn. It was the leading modern dance troupe in America. Ruth St. Denis was one of the most esteemed performers in America and that fact that she helped co-found the school made the school even more well-known. -
Merce Cunningham
He was an American dancer and choreographer. He is considered the most influential choreographer of the 20th Century. He was a dance-maker, a fierce collaborator, a chance taker, a boundless innovator, a film producer, and a teacher. -
Labanotation
A system for analyzing and recording human movement. Invented by Austro-Hungarian choreographer and dancer Rudolf von Laban. -
Rudolf von Laban
He created the Labanotation system to track human movements and record it for dance. -
Charleston
A dance named after the harbor city of Charleston, South Carolina. The rhythm was popularized by mainstream dance music in the U.S. by a 1923 song called "The Charleston". -
Tap Dance
Tap dance came from the United States at the crossroads of African and Irish American dance forms. When slave owners took away traditional African percussion instruments, slaves turned to percussive dancing to express themselves and retain their cultural identities. -
Rhythm Tap
Made famous by John W. Bubbles, it incorporated more percussive heel drops and lower-body movement rather than emphasizing toe taps and upper-body movement. -
Broadway Tap
Broadway Tap is the type of show dancing seen in live stage musicals and in Hollywood films. It incorporates more arm movements, artistic body movements, and movements across the dance floor than rhythm tap dancing. -
Creation of the Tanztheater
Known as the Folkwang Tanztheater, in Essen, was founded by Kurt Jooss. -
Shim-Sham Shimmy
A swing step with stamps, heel-beats, and runs. -
Vaudeville
A light entertainment popular from the mid-1890s until the early 1930s that had 10-15 individual unrelated acts like magicians, acrobats, comedians, trained animals, jugglers, singers, and dancers. -
Nicholas Brothers
Fayard and Harold, were two brother performers, who excelled in a variety of different dance techniques between the 1930s and 1950s. They were tap dancers, and would perform highly acrobatic techniques, and a high level of artistry and daring innovations. -
Gallant Assembly
Ballet choreographed by Antony Tudor. -
Antony Tudor
Antony Tudor was an English choreographer and ballet dancer. He became well known for focusing on the physical and psychological details to strip away the egos, allowing the dancers to be pushed outside of their comfort zones. -
Animated Musicals
Started with the release of Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". -
"Buck and Bubbles"
They were a stride piano and tap dance team Ford Lee "Buck" Washington, and John "Bubbles" Sublett. They headlined Vaudeville shows around the country, and played major venues including Radio City Music Hall and the London Palladium. -
Pina Bausch
She was a German dancer and choreographer, who was a significant contributor to a neo-expressionist dance tradition now known as Tanztheater. -
Appalachian Spring
A ballet created by the American composer Aaron Copland, and the choreographer Martha Graham. This ballet explores the lives of a young pioneer and his bride beginning a life together on the American Frontier. -
Cave of the Heart
This ballet premiered at Columbia University in 1946, and it's original name was "Serpent Heart". This ballet tells the story of the Greek myth, Medea, a sorceress who is consumed by jealousy when her husband Jason abandons her and their children to marry the Princess of Corinth for political gains. -
Pearl Primus
She was a dancer and choreographer from Port of Spain. She founded her own dance company in 1946, called the Pearl Primus Dance Language Institute, and she was known for her "primitive" dances. -
Howard "Sandman" Sims
He was a tap dancer who got his nickname from dancing on the sand he sprinkled on a tap board or across the stage floor, and that was called "sand dancing". -
Gregory Hines
He was an American tap dancer, actor, choreographer, and singer. He is one of the most celebrated tap dancers of all time. -
Pas de Deux
A ballet choreographed by George Balanchine which had two dancers in a duet performing ballet steps together. This was one of the ballet works that Balanchine created, along with 465 others. Early 18th century. -
New York City Ballet Starts
The New York City Ballet was founded by George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. -
Paul Taylor
He was an American dancer and choreographer who is one of the most accomplished artists America has ever produced. He helped shape the America's homegrown art of modern dance. -
Paul Taylor dances
The ballets "Three Epitaphs"(1956), "Aureole"(1962), "Scudorama"(1963), "The Book of Beasts"(1971), "Esplanade and Runes"(1975), "Cloven Kingdom"(1976), "Aphrodisiamania"(1977), "Airs"(1978), "Nightshade"(1979), and "Le Sacre du Printemps"(1980). -
Ailey American Dance Theatre
Founded in 1958, by dancer Alvin Ailey, it brought African-American dance to all people worldwide. -
Michael Jackson
He was an American singer and song writer who was known for being the King of Pop music. he was an iconic Pop icon and one of the most influential music entertainers of all time.
He lived from 1958-2009. -
Butoh
A form of Japanese dance theatre that shows different activities, techniques, and motivations for dance, performance, or movement. -
Revelations
Created by Alvin Ailey. This dance shows the history, traditions, faith, and beliefs of the African-American culture. The story tells faith through slavery to freedom through a suite of dances set to spirituals, gospels, and blues music. -
The Judson Church
A group of choreographers, visual artists, composers, and filmmakers would gather here for dance workshops that would redefine what counted as dance. -
Steve Paxton
He was an experimental dancer and choreographer. He founded the Judson Dance Theatre and also the Grand Union. -
Disco Music
Started as a mixture of music from venues popular among African-Americans, Hispanic/Latino Americans, gay Americans, and Italian Americans in Philadelphia and New York City during the late 1960s to early 1970s. -
Strange Fish
This dance was created at the DV8 Physical Theatre company. Danced by Kate Champion. -
Twyla Tharp
She was an American dancer and choreographer who was one of the most important contemporary dancers and choreographers. She has choreographed more than 125 dances, five Hollywood movies, directed and choreographed two Broadway shows, written two books, and gotten many awards. -
Yvonne Rainer
An American dancer and choreographer, who wrote "No Manifesto" from 1965, that envisions a form of dance parred down to its essential, visceral elements. -
Janet Jackson
An American singer, song writer, and actress, who is the sister of Michael Jackson. She is known for her socially conscious, innovative, and sexually provocative records and elaborate stage shows. -
Ballin' Jack
An American horn rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1969. They had the minor hit of "Super Highway" in 1970. -
Hip-Hop
The elements of hip-hop came together from the Bronx in New York City. This all was because block-parties were becoming very popular in the 1970s. -
Pilobolus
A dance theater organization that is committed to collaboration and finding beauty in unexpected places. -
Cloud Gate Dance Theater
A modern dance group from Taiwan. Founded by choreographer Lin Hwai-min in 1973. The company transformed ancient aesthetics into a thrilling and modern celebration of motion. -
Moon Water dance
This dance was performed by the Cloud Gate Dance Theater in Taiwan. Choreographed by Lin Hwai-min, it was the second piece of the "Spiritual Journey" story. It was greatly inspired by Buddha's teaching on the emptiness like flowers in the mirror or moon in the water. -
Savion Glover
He is an American tap dancer, actor, and choreographer, who would perform on Broadway, and also received a Tony award nomination for his work. -
Sankai Juku
A Butoh dance troupe that was co-founded by Amagatsu Ushio in 1975. -
"Rocky Horror Show"
A horror musical about reminded us that it's okay to be different. -
Grease
An American musical film that was based on a girl and a boy falling for each other in high school and her becoming more like him at the end. -
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker
She is a choreographer and dancer, who danced in Fase, which was an hour long minimalist dance, that is considered to be the starting point of the contemporary dance movement, in Flanders, during the 1980s. -
MTV
An American cable channel that serves as the leading youth entertainment brand for music videos, artist interviews, reality shows, and original series and movies. -
In the Upper Room dance
Created by Twyla Tharp, it's a dance about the effort and possibilities of dancing, in the wake of a time when dancing together was nearly impossible. -
DV8 Physical Theatre Company
Originally founded in 1986, by Lloyd Newson, Michelle Richecoeur, and Nigel Charnock. Based at Artsadmin in London, United Kingdom. -
Lady Gaga
She is an American singer and song writer and actress, who is known for wearing very unique outfits, especially during her performances and songs. She is breaking the boundaries and showing you should be who you wanna be and dress as crazy as you wanna. -
Alwin Nikolais
He was an American dancer and choreographer. He was awarded the United States National Medal of Arts in 1987. He composed the music for his works, designed the sets, costumes and lighting for his performances as well. -
Smooth Criminal
This was one of Michael Jackson's songs that came from his album titled "Bad". -
Paula Abdul
She is an American singer and dancer who was very important with creating the iconic choreography for Jackson's "Nasty" and "Control" music videos. She also has very big songs of her own in the music industry. -
Hairspray
A comedy musical film written and directed, originally, by John waters. It was later redone. -
Cold Hearted Snake
A song from Paula Abdul's debut album "Forever Your Girl" that has left a big impact and is still popular today. -
Bill T. Jones
He is an American choreographer and director who created the dances "Last Supper at Uncle Tom's Cabin/The Promised Land"(1990), and "Still/Here"(1994). -
Achterland
This is a film about the stage production "Achterland" from 1990. Filmed in the Rosas rehearsal studio. Created by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. -
Beauty and the Beast
A Disney musical movie about a young woman who must live with a beast to save her father and the beast is cursed and needs someone to love him in order for the curse to be broken. -
Push Comes to Shove book
Written by Twyla Tharp, it's about when a situation becomes so bad that you just have to do what needs to be done. -
Newsies
A musical comedy film about the real-life Newsboy Strike of 1899. -
Still Here
Performance created by Bill T. Jones. The story is focused on racial, political, and social issues. The dance was about death, and was very influenced by people's real life suffering from deadly diseases like AIDS and Cancer. -
Rent
A rock musical which is based on the novel "Scenes of Bohemian Life" by Henri Murger. -
Lion King
A musical based on the movie"The Lion King" that is a about a young lion named Simba, having to learn how to become king and stand up to his evil uncle Scar to save his people and land. -
Rosas Danst Rosas
This was a documentary/drama film about the real dance "Rosas Danst Rosas" created by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. -
Kagemi-Beyond the Metaphors of Mirrors
A play about light, and gloom, and the reflection seen in a mirror, and on the surface of water. -
Wicked
A musical about the untold true story of the witches of Oz, from "The Wizard of Oz" movie and novel. -
Cost of Living Dance at the DV8 Physical Theatre
A British physical theatre dance film made in 2004, by DV8 Films Ltd. -
Vollmond (Full Moon)
Dance that shows the humanity of dancers of all origins and ages as they all explore solitude and the desires for love, laughter and tears, and unfeeling apathy. -
Hamilton
A Broadway musical about Hamilton from his early life as a poor orphan in the Caribbean, to becoming the right hand man to George Washington, to his death with an infamous duel with Aaron Burr. -
The Greatest Showman
A musical film about P.T. Barnum and his workers that go through many challenges, and find love. Barnum was a show entertainer and the musical shows the start of the circus that Barnum created.