character dance

Character dance is a specific subdivision of classical dance. It is the stylized representation of a traditional folk or national dance, mostly from European countries, and uses movements and music which have been adapted for the theater. Character dance is integral to much of the classical ballet repertoire. A good example of character dance within ballet is the series of national dances which take place in Act III of Swan Lake. The ballet Don Quixote also features many character variations based on traditional Spanish dances. Popular character dance adaptations for ballet also include the national dances of Hungary, Russia, Poland, Italy and Spain: csárdás, mazurka, tarantella, flamenco, etc. One of the best known schools that incorporate character dance to teaching syllabus is Vaganova Ballet Academy. It is widely taught in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia and in Central and Eastern Europe (Czech Republic, Hungary, Ukraine, Latvia, etc.). It is integral to the training of students at the School of Nashville Ballet, Royal Ballet School, the Australian Ballet School and variety of other dance schools around the world. It is also taught as a separate skill within the graded examinations syllabus of the Royal Academy of Dance, Statni Konzervator Praha. Most performing companies or schools elsewhere are not familiar with the history or technique of this style.¶

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Character dance”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence.¶

character dance is subdivision of classical dance, folk dances stylized for ballet theater, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition.¹¶

The source record links this tradition to 4 external registers, which can be verified through the citation.¹¶