Interpretive dance is a family of dance styles that seeks to translate particular feelings and emotions, human conditions, situations, or fantasies into movement and dramatic expression combined. It can also translate major characteristics of any traditional ethnic movements into more modern expressions through exploration of the origins, cultural influences, rhythms, movements, emotional manifestations, and intonations, as well as the stories inherent in the dances themselves.
Likened to the higher form of arts, interpretive dance can be seen in many Broadway musicals as well as in other forms of mainstream and non-mainstream media. While it was—and most often, still is—thought of as a performing art, interpretive dance does not have to be performed with music.
Often the style includes grand, eloquent movements, like wide swooshes of the arms, spins, and drops to the floor. It is frequently enhanced by lavish costumes, ribbons, or spandex body suits. Interpretive dance sometimes includes costumes as many different characters.
Famous quotes containing the words interpretive and/or dance:
“The conclusion suggested by these arguments might be called the paradox of theorizing. It asserts that if the terms and the general principles of a scientific theory serve their purpose, i. e., if they establish the definite connections among observable phenomena, then they can be dispensed with since any chain of laws and interpretive statements establishing such a connection should then be replaceable by a law which directly links observational antecedents to observational consequents.”
—C.G. (Carl Gustav)
“On board ship there are many sources of joy of which the land knows nothing. You may flirt and dance at sixty; and if you are awkward in the turn of a valse, you may put it down to the motion of the ship. You need wear no gloves, and may drink your soda-and-brandy without being ashamed of it.”
—Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)