Dance, an integral part of human expression and culture, boasts a history as rich and diverse as humanity itself. Evidence suggests dance has been a part of our lives for at least 30,000 years, evolving and branching into countless forms across civilizations. From ancient rituals to modern-day expressions, dance continues to captivate and inspire.
Over centuries, various dance forms have transformed, merged, and developed into the distinct genres we recognize today. Understanding these Dance Varieties not only enriches our appreciation of movement but also highlights the diverse ways humans express themselves.
Here, we delve into some of the most popular dance genres, offering a glimpse into their origins, characteristics, and global appeal.
Top Dance Genres Around the World
Ballet
A ballerina in a white tutu performing a graceful pose, showcasing the elegance of ballet.
Ballet, a dance form synonymous with grace and precision, emerged during the Italian Renaissance. It flourished in France and Russia, evolving into a sophisticated concert dance designed for public spectacle. Typically performed in a theatrical setting known as a ballet, this art form features meticulously choreographed movements set to classical music.
Ballet productions are known for their visual storytelling, ranging from elaborate displays of costumes and stage designs to minimalist presentations focusing purely on movement and form.
Today, ballet is a globally recognized and highly technical dance genre, encompassing numerous subgenres. These include classical ballet, known for its traditional techniques and storytelling; romantic ballet, emphasizing ethereal qualities and emotional depth; neoclassical ballet, a departure from strict classical forms; and contemporary ballet, which blends classical techniques with modern and expressive movements.
The rigorous training in ballet is structured around six core recognized methods: Cecchetti, Bournoville, Vaganova, French School, Royal Academy of Dance, and Balanchine. These methods are taught in prestigious dance schools worldwide, preparing aspiring dancers for professional careers.
For ballet studios and performance spaces, specialized flooring is crucial. Harlequin Floors has engineered a range of ballet dance floors that offer the perfect balance of traction and slip resistance. This ensures dancers can execute intricate steps safely while maintaining the fluidity essential to ballet. Harlequin Cascade, a highly favored ballet floor, can be installed over various sprung floors to further enhance performance and safety.
Harlequin Floors also provides professional-grade ballet barres, available in wall-mounted, floor-mounted, and freestanding options, catering to diverse studio needs.
Scottish Ballet dancers gracefully performing on a Harlequin Cascade floor, highlighting the floor's suitability for professional ballet.
Ballroom
A couple elegantly performing a ballroom dance, showcasing the partnership and grace of the style.
Ballroom dance, a captivating form of partner dance, originated in France towards the end of the sixteenth century. While often used as a broad term for any partner dance, ballroom has evolved into two primary subgenres: Standard (or Smooth) and Latin (or Rhythm).
The Standard category includes elegant dances like the Waltz, Tango, and Foxtrot, known for their flowing movements and formal posture. The Latin category encompasses vibrant and energetic dances such as the Pasodoble, Bolero, and Samba, characterized by rhythmic steps and expressive styling.
Ballroom dancing is a popular competitive dance form, often referred to as dancesport, with competitions held globally. These events showcase the athleticism, artistry, and partnership skills of ballroom dancers.
Given the diverse styles within ballroom dancing, dancers require adaptable flooring. Harlequin Fiesta and the specially designed Harlequin Liberty Ballroom dance floor are excellent choices, offering the versatility needed for all ballroom styles.
Harlequin Liberty Ballroom is the floor of choice for prestigious events like the BBC’s ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ and is endorsed by Professional World Ballroom Dance Champion, Christopher Hawkins, highlighting its quality and performance capabilities.
Contemporary
A contemporary dancer in a dynamic pose, demonstrating the expressive and fluid nature of contemporary dance.
Contemporary dance emerged in the mid-twentieth century and has become a leading and technically demanding dance form practiced and performed professionally, particularly in the United States and Europe.
Drawing inspiration from classical ballet, modern, and jazz dance styles, contemporary dance has expanded to incorporate elements from a wide spectrum of dance genres. This fusion creates a style that is both grounded in technique and liberated in expression.
Contemporary dance is recognized for its emphasis on a strong core and dynamic legwork, incorporating techniques like contract and release, fall and recovery, and extensive floor work. Performances often feature unpredictable shifts in tempo and rhythm, adding to the style’s dynamic and emotionally charged nature.
Due to the demanding physicality and varied movements of contemporary dance, dancers benefit from a shock-absorbing floor surface. This helps protect their feet, legs, and ankles from the impact of rapid movements and rhythmic changes. Harlequin’s innovative ‘triple sandwich’ Harlequin Activity sprung floor, when paired with various vinyl dance floors, creates an ideal surface that supports the demands of contemporary dance.
Hip Hop
A hip-hop dance crew performing energetic moves, capturing the urban and dynamic spirit of hip-hop dance.
Hip-hop dance encompasses a range of street dance styles that originated alongside hip hop music and culture. Emerging in the early 1970s in New York and California, hip-hop dance evolved from Funk influences and the emergence of break beats in music.
Key styles within hip-hop dance include Breaking (breakdancing), Locking, and Popping. These foundational styles have spawned derivative forms like Memphis Jookin’, Turfing, Jerkin’, and Krumping. The popularity of these styles often surged after being featured in music videos and mainstream media.
Today, hip-hop dance is performed in diverse settings, from outdoor public spaces and dance studios to competitive arenas. Its accessibility and expressive freedom have made it a global phenomenon.
Unlike many competitive dance forms, hip-hop often emphasizes improvisation and freestyle elements. Dance crews frequently engage in dance battles, showcasing their creativity, skill, and improvisational abilities.
Harlequin Floors has developed Harlequin Freestyle, a specialized dance floor specifically designed to meet the unique needs of hip-hop and other street dance styles. This flooring provides the right level of grip and durability required for the dynamic movements of hip-hop.
Jazz
Jazz dancers performing a synchronized jump, illustrating the energy and dynamism of jazz dance.
Jazz dance traces its origins back to seventeenth-century African traditions, brought to the Americas through the Atlantic slave trade. Enslaved Africans continued their dance traditions in Brazil, the US, and other parts of the Americas, laying the groundwork for jazz dance.
Characterized by its improvisational nature and dramatic body movements, jazz dance gained prominence in early twentieth-century jazz clubs. The syncopated rhythms of jazz music deeply influenced the development of this dance style.
Modern jazz dance builds upon African American vernacular dance styles that emerged alongside Jazz music in the United States. Popular jazz dances include Swing, the Lindy Hop, the Shimmy, and the Charleston, all reflecting the vibrant and evolving culture of jazz music.
For jazz dancers, Harlequin offers a range of vinyl floors, including Harlequin Studio and Harlequin Allegro. These floors provide ideal surfaces for both practice and performance, offering the right balance of slip resistance and comfort for jazz movements.
Tap Dance
Tap dancers performing in unison, showcasing the rhythmic and percussive sounds of tap dance.
Tap dance is a percussive dance form distinguished by the rhythmic sounds created by tap shoes striking the floor. Tap dancers typically wear shoes fitted with metal “taps” on the heels and toes to amplify these sounds, turning their feet into percussive instruments.
Often featured in musical theatre productions, tap dance frequently emphasizes choreography and synchronized formations, with multiple tap dancers performing together to create complex rhythms and visual patterns.
Tap dance encompasses a variety of styles, including flamenco-influenced tap, rhythm tap (emphasizing musicality), classical tap, Broadway tap (theatrical and show-oriented), and postmodern tap, which explores more experimental forms.
A key element of tap dance is achieving a clear, crisp, and resonant sound. This percussive nature necessitates a specialized floor that enhances sound quality and allows for optimal performance. Harlequin Fiesta is an excellent tap dance flooring choice for dance studios and performance venues. When installed over a sprung flooring system like Harlequin Liberty, it provides added joint protection for dancers, allowing them to perform with confidence and comfort.
Folk Dance
A group performing a traditional folk dance, highlighting the cultural expression and community aspect of folk dance.
Folk dance is celebrated globally, with diverse cultures and communities using varied forms of folk dance to express emotions, narrate stories, commemorate historical events, or depict aspects of daily life. These dances often reflect the unique traditions and heritage of a specific group of people.
Well-known examples of folk dance include Bharatanatyam from India, Samba from Brazil, and Hula from Hawaii. Some cultures boast multiple variations of folk dances, such as South Korea, where different dances are performed for significant events like war victories, farming rituals, musical performances, and religious ceremonies.
Folk dances are commonly performed at public events, festivals, and community gatherings, inviting participation from both seasoned dancers and beginners. These events are usually accompanied by traditional music, enriching the cultural experience and fostering community engagement.
Harlequin’s range of portable performance floors and dance floor hire services are ideal for folk dance events held in various public venues and settings. These portable options ensure a safe and suitable dance surface for community celebrations.
Irish Dance
Irish dancers in traditional costumes performing intricate footwork, exemplifying the energy and precision of Irish dance.
Originating in Ireland, Irish dance is a traditional dance form that has enjoyed popularity for centuries, both within Ireland and among Irish communities worldwide. Popularized by shows like Riverdance, Irish dancing is renowned for its spectacular displays of intricate footwork and synchronized dance formations.
Traditionally, Irish dance events are accompanied by live music and sometimes singing. Festivals and competitions, known as feiseanna, are held to showcase talent and award trophies and medals, fostering a competitive and celebratory spirit.
While often recognized for group performances, Irish dance also includes well-known solo forms, such as stepdance, which emphasizes individual skill and artistry.
For Irish dance floors in studios or performance spaces, Harlequin offers a selection of specialized sprung dance floors. Pairing a sprung floor with a Harlequin vinyl floor like Harlequin Standfast creates a high-quality surface ideal for the demanding footwork of Irish dance.
Modern Dance
Modern dancers in flowing costumes expressing emotion through movement, showcasing the interpretive nature of modern dance.
Modern dance is considered a broad genre that primarily developed in Western countries like the USA and Germany in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In contrast to structured dance forms with fixed steps, modern dance prioritizes a dancer’s personal interpretation of music and emotions to guide their movements.
Modern dance emerged as a reaction against the perceived constraints of traditional dances like ballet, which were seen as overly rigid in their rules and techniques. Pioneers of modern dance sought greater freedom of expression and movement.
Today, modern dance is enjoyed globally, allowing participants to explore movement without the strict technical focus of ballet. Dancers are encouraged to select music and use unconventional movements to convey emotions or tell meaningful stories through their bodies.
To enhance the creative possibilities of modern dance, Harlequin offers printed vinyl performance floors. These floors allow for bespoke designs inspired by choreography or choices from standard patterns, adding a visual dimension to performances.
The versatile and free-flowing nature of modern dance means dancers can comfortably perform on many of Harlequin’s vinyl dance floors, which provide a supportive and adaptable surface for a wide range of movements.
Swing
Swing dance is a vibrant offshoot of jazz dance that developed between the 1920s and 1940s, responding to the growing popularity of swing jazz music in America. As music evolved during the Jazz Era, dance also transformed, with swing music inspiring faster, more energetic movements and partner work.
Popular swing dance styles include the Lindy Charleston, the Jitterbug, Lindy Hop, and the Balboa. Many of these dances are still actively performed and enjoyed today, reflecting the enduring appeal of swing culture. Swing dancing was typically accompanied by Big Band musicians who played upbeat, smooth, and easily danceable melodies.
Swing dancers will find a suitable surface in Harlequin’s range of vinyl dance floors. Similar to jazz, swing dancers can achieve excellent performances on vinyl floors like Harlequin Reversible Pro, which offers a high-performance, slip-resistant surface to ensure dancer safety and confidence.
From home dance practice equipment to portable ballet barres, Harlequin Floors provides a comprehensive range of professional products for home and studio use, catering to every dance style. Their expert technical teams also offer a professional dance floor installation service to ensure Harlequin floors are correctly installed and meet all safety standards.
Contact us online for further information and expert advice on selecting the perfect dance floor for your needs.
