Define what commercial dance is!
Commercial dance cannot be defined as one thing; it must be split up into sections in order for us to fully understand the amount of dance styles that fall into this sector. There are two sections to commercial as we know it; we have the “Commercial Dance Style” section and the “Commercial Dance Industry”. When we look into the two separate parts we can gain a better understanding of what commercial dance might be.
The single word “Commercial” actually means to generate money; this can then be applied to the dance genre as it can mean that the dance is also generating money. This, of course, means that commercial dance can mean anything from Bollywood to Ballet; if it generates money it is commercial. Dance can make a profit in many ways; they can make music videos, films, shows and concerts etc. Although ballet doesn’t necessarily fit into the commercial dance style, it is able to make a profit and so it belongs to the commercial dance industry. Karen Schupp says in her book "Studying Dance" (2014) that commercial dance can be performed in musical theatre, music videos, theme parks, cruise ships and more. I believe this to be true as these places all exist to generate a profit.
Commercial dance is seen in the music video “Shake It Off” by popular singer Taylor S
wift; this video is seventh on the most viewed music videos on YouTube. The video has 1,202,846,128 views (as of the 11th December 2015). This shows just how popular the commercial dance style really is. I believe that this music video falls under the commercial dance category as it contains many different dance style; these include hip-hop, ballet, contemporary and even cheerleading. The music video also generated money and so falls under the commercial dance industry.
When you understand the difference between the commercial dance style and the commercial industry is when you are then able to start to categorise commercial dance as a whole. When you research commercial dance the results shown all mention street dance and hip-hop. When we look further it is evident that the earliest roots come from the slave trade which originated in West Africa in the early 17th century. The slaves were not allowed any musical instruments and so they created a style of dance that used the body parts to create rhythms and sounds. When funk and soul music started to surface audiences began to see many new dance styles making an appearance.
Hip-Hop (named that in 1982 by DJ Afrika Bambaataa) began to emerge in the 80’s and 90’s. Hip-Hop bought about many new ways of dancing and new names of dancing such as, breaking, popping, locking and b-boying (break boying). The dance style is split into four categories, these are; Deejaying, MCing (also known as rapping), graffiti, and then B-boying. The dancers would also have nick names such as “Crazy legs”.
Street is another style that belongs under commercial dance. Street dance is rather self-explanatory. It is a dance style that originated on the streets and would be performed at parties, school yards, raves, parks etc. The style was made by those who had no money to attend any studio led dance classes and so they created a new style. This style was often made up as the dancer went along and so the dancer would be freestyling their way through the routine.
Jazz also plays a key role in commercial dance as it is simply isolated movements to a four four beat. That then means that many dance styles fall under the jazz style.
Even though the above are the three dance styles that I believe play the most important roles in commercial dance there are influences from all styles. According to an internet source commercial dance is a “sexy styles with elements of street dance and sometimes jazz” they also claim that it is “danced to R&B and chart music”.
Sources I have used
Anon. (2013). Dance Definitions. [online]. Available at: http://www.dancepumped.co.uk/dance-definitions/ [Accessed 8th December]
Rajakumar, M. (2012). Hip Hop Dance. ABC-CLIO.
Schupp, K. (2014). Studying Dance. Human Kinetics. (p.54)
