Dance Celebrities

You will see many different dance celebrities. They are often in movies, on Television shows, in commercials, on Broadway, or any other place where they can dance. Some celebrities mainly known for dancing are Lacey Schwimmer, she won "So You Think You Can Dance", and now she is a professional dancer on a show called "Dancing With The Stars". Another dancing celebrity is Melonie Moore. She is the most recent winner of "So You Think You Can Dance", and she is actually from Georgia! Julianne Hough is another dancer. She used to be a professional dancer on "Dancing With the Stars", and today, she stars in many top chart movies, such as the remake of Footloose. Julianne's brother, Derek Hough, is also a professional dancer on "Dancing With the Stars".

Types of Dance

There are many different varieties of dance. You can choose from ballet, tap, jazz, hip-hop, and modern. You also have the option of ballroom dancing which requires a dance partner. These dances are tango, jive, rumba, samba, cha-cha, quickstep, foxtrot, waltz, salsa, etc. You can dance solo, with a partner, or in a group. Dancing is a great way to exercise and show emotion. Every dance has a meaning, and it's own story. Ballet is slow, soft and peaceful, and helps to calm you when you are stressed. tap dance is done with a special tap shoe that has metal plates on the bottom to make a tapping noise on a hard floor. usually it works best on a hard wood floor, or tile. Jazz dance takes a lot of balance and leg strength. It includes spotting, which is when you maintain your balance while you turn in circles so that you do not get dizzy. Pointing is when you jump in the air and you are completely airborne, and you spread your legs into a split and point your toes. Hip-hop is a more up-beat kind of dance. It includes locking, breaking and popping. Modern dance is a mix of all of the dances, combined to many modern songs. Personally, modern dance is my favorite kind of dance because of the combination of all of the dances.

Dance Entertainment

If you are a dancer, and you dream of making it big, there are many opportunities for you to do so. All over the world there are competition shows, such as "So You Think You Can Dance" on FOX, "Dancing With the Stars", on abc, "America's Best Dance Crew", on MTV, and many more. Also, if you would like to showcase your talent, you can audition for a "talent scouting" show, such as "America's Got Talent", "Britain's Got Talent", or any other show allowing a dance act. On these shows, they take as many people who are interested and they push them through rounds of auditions. After the Auditions, they will begin the competition, and you will compete with the remaining contestants. Usually on these shows, there is a portion when fans and audiences around the country have a chance to put in multiple votes for who they are supporting. At the end of the competition, the winner is usually given a very large amount of money, and many chances to show off their talent, such as commercials, music videos, movies, etc. On some shows, they allow you to have a partner, and with a partner you will both be judged by the judges on both skill and team work. You need to make sure that you work well together and get great scores in order to make it to the top, and follow through to the final rounds.

 

http://youtu.be/_3NPzSsUlQY

Dance Competitions

A dance competition is almost the equivalent of a game for soccer or football. It is when you and your dance team go to a place with many other dance teams, and you choose a few of your best dance numbers to perform in front of all the other teams. Who ever gets the highest scores wins. If your dance team is good enough, you may exceed to higher levels, such as state regions, or nationals. Nationals is one of the highest level competitions, and is usually held in a well known city such as California or New York City. At these competitions, you will usually find dance teams from all over the country that are competing. Even just making it to this competition means you are a great dance team, but if you win Nationals, that means you are great! Also, by winning a competition, this will earn you, your dance team, and/or your dance studio high titles, which will give you higher chances at getting a scholarship to a great dance academy, which will then lead you to a brighter dance future!

Dance Fitness

To be a good dancer, you must be both physically fit, and ready to sweat. Although it doesn't seem like it, dance is one of the hardest sports out there. You have no team, it's just you. Your the one that does all of the work for yourself, which is why you must be fit. Ballet especially is one of the toughest dances, because it targets mainly your tiny muscles that you almost never use. It's great for the core of your body. You need to make sure that you are very flexible before doing ballet. A way to be more flexible is to stretch... A LOT. In ballet there are many times where you need to jump and do a full split in the air, and there is no way that you can ever do that unless you can do a split on land. Those tiny muscles are what help you hold your position and your core helps you balance. Sit ups, Push ups, crunches, squats, and many other exercises are great ways to stay in shape. you also want to lift weights occasionally to keep your upper body strength, because you will need upper body strength especially in ballet to keep your back muscles straightened and to help your posture. For Tap Dance, you need to have very strong legs. This is important because you need to be able to move your legs a lot without getting tired. For hip hop, it is not always required, but you may need to know how to lock or break. Locking is when you stand on your toes and lock your knees, and breaking is when you stand on your arm and spin.

Ballet Split Leaps

Dance Equipment

To have everything that you need for dance, it is very simple. Unlike many sports, dance does not require a ball, racket, cleats or a bat, but that does not mean that you just show up! You need a specific type of shoe for each kind of dance. You also need the appropriate kind of clothes for each dance. If you are going to do ballet, you would not want to show up in sweat pants and sneakers. you will need to wear a leotard or any kind of tight fitting outfit. Ballet shoes will also be needed. They have a special thing in the front of the toe which allows you to stand/ dance on your toes. This is not an outfit that you would want to wear to tap dance. for tap you need any comfortable outfit and tap shoes with the metal plates on the bottom to cause the actual tap in the tap dance. For jazz, you need to wear pull-on stretch dance boots. They are not actual boots, but they are very light weight shoes allowing you to do jazz dance much easier. In modern dance, ballet, or any other dance you prefer, you may also need foot underwear. It is shaped like mini underwear but it goes around your toes and the ball of your foot to give you extra support and resistance between your foot and the ground, making it less difficult to spin and run during a dance. Out of all of this equipment, the most important is you. You cannot dance without yourself!