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Dance
Modern dance
Originating culture	various
Originating era	Antiquity

Dance is a type of art that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music,^[1] performed in many different cultures and used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting.

Dance may also be regarded as a form of nonverbal communication between humans, and is also performed by other animals (bee dance, patterns of behaviour such as a mating dance). Gymnastics, figure skating and synchronized swimming are sports that incorporate dance, while martial arts kata are often compared to dances. Motion in ordinarily inanimate objects may also be described as dances (the leaves danced in the wind).

Definitions of what constitutes dance are dependent on social, cultural, aesthetic, artistic and moral constraints and range from functional movement (such as folk dance) to virtuoso techniques such as ballet. Dance can be participatory, social or performed for an audience. It can also be ceremonial, competitive or erotic. Dance movements may be without significance in themselves, such as in ballet or European folk dance, or have a gestural vocabulary/symbolic system as in many Asian dances. Dance can embody or express ideas, emotions or tell a story.

Dancing has evolved many styles. Breakdancing and Krumping are related to the hip hop culture. African dance is interpretative. Ballet, Ballroom, Waltz, and Tango are classical styles of dance while Square Dance and the Electric Slide are forms of step dances.

Every dance, no matter what style, has something in common. It not only involves flexibility and body movement, but also physics. If the proper physics are not taken into consideration, injuries may occur.

Choreography is the art of creating dances. The person who creates (i.e., choreographs) a dance is known as the choreographer.

Origins and history[link]

Ancient Greek bronze statuette of a veiled and masked dancer, 3rd - 2nd century BC, found in Alexandria, Egypt.

Dance does not leave behind clearly identifiable physical artifacts such as stone tools, hunting implements or cave paintings. It is not possible to say when dance became part of human culture.

Joseph Jordania recently suggested, that dance, together with rhythmic music and body painting, was designed by the forces of natural selection at the early stage of hominid evolution as a potent tool to put groups of human ancestors in a battle trance, a specific altered state of consciousness. In this state hominids were losing their individual identity and were acquiring collective identity.^[2] Jonathan Pieslak's research shows, that some contemporary military units use loud group singing and dancing in order to prepare themselves for the dangerous combat missions.^[3] According to Jordania, this trance-inducing ability of dance comes from human evolutionary past and includes as well a phenomenon of military drill^[4] which is also based on shared rhythmic and monotonous group activity.

Dance has certainly been an important part of ceremony, rituals, celebrations and entertainment since before the birth of the earliest human civilizations. Archeology delivers traces of dance from prehistoric times such as the 9,000 year old Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka paintings in India and Egyptian tomb paintings depicting dancing figures from c. 3300 BC.

One of the earliest structured uses of dances may have been in the performance and in the telling of myths. It was also sometimes used to show feelings for one of the opposite gender. It is also linked to the origin of "love making." Before the production of written languages, dance was one of the methods of passing these stories down from generation to generation.^[5]

Another early use of dance may have been as a precursor to ecstatic trance states in healing rituals. Dance is still used for this purpose by many cultures from the Brazilian rainforest to the Kalahari Desert.^[6]

Sri Lankan dances goes back to the mythological times of aboriginal yingyang twins and "yakkas" (devils). According to a Sinhalese legend, Kandyan dances originated 250 years ago, from a magic ritual that broke the spell on a bewitched king. Many contemporary dance forms can be traced back to historical, traditional, ceremonial, and ethnic dance.

Partner Dancing in Art

Dance at Bougival by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1882–83)

Eadweard Muybridge's phenakistoscope "A Couple Waltzing" (c.1893)

Classification and genres[link]

Dance categories by number of interacting dancers are mainly solo dance, partner dance and group dance. Dance is performed for various purposes like ceremonial dance, erotic dance, performance dance, social dance etc.

Dancing and music[link]

Many early forms of music and dance were created and performed together. This paired development has continued through the ages with dance/music forms such as: jig, waltz, tango, disco, salsa, electronica and hip-hop. Some musical genres have a parallel dance form such as baroque music and baroque dance; others, such as classical music and classical ballet, developed separately.

Although dance is often accompanied by music, it can also be presented independently or provide its own accompaniment (tap dance). Dance presented with music may or may not be performed in time to the music depending on the style of dance. Dance performed without music is said to be danced to its own rhythm^{[citation needed]}.

Ballroom dancing is a dance art form which combines athletic fitness with artistically skillful dance steps.

Saman Dance from Gayo people of Sumatra, Indonesia

Morris dancing in the grounds of Wells Cathedral, Wells, England

An amateur dancesport competition at MIT

Professional dancers at the Tropicana Club, Havana, Cuba, in 2008

Dance studies and techniques[link]

In the early 1920s, dance studies (dance practice, critical theory, Musical analysis and history) began to be considered an academic discipline. Today these studies are an integral part of many universities' arts and humanities programs. By the late 20th century the recognition of practical knowledge as equal to academic knowledge led to the emergence of practice research and practice as research. A large range of dance courses are available including:

• Professional practice: performance and technical skills
• Practice research: choreography and performance
• Ethnochoreology, encompassing the dance-related aspects of: anthropology, cultural studies, gender studies, area studies, postcolonial theory, ethnography, etc.
• Dance therapy, or dance-movement therapy
• Dance and technology: new media and performance technologies
• Laban Movement Analysis and somatic studies

Academic degrees are available from BA (Hons) to PhD and other postdoctoral fellowships, with some dance scholars taking up their studies as mature students after a professional dance career.

Dance competitions[link]

A dance competition is an organized event in which contestants perform dances before a judge or judges for awards, and in some cases, monetary prizes. There are several major types of dance competitions, distinguished primarily by the style or styles of dances performed. Major types of dance competitions include:

• Competitive dance, in which a variety of theater dance styles such as: acro, ballet, jazz, hip-hop, lyrical, and tap, are permitted.
• Open competitions, that permit a wide variety of dance styles. A popular example of this is the TV program So You Think You Can Dance.
• Dancesport, which is focused exclusively on ballroom and latin dance. Popular examples of this are TV programs Dancing with the Stars and Strictly Come Dancing.
• Single-style competitions, such as; highland dance, dance team, and Irish dance, that only permit a single dance style.

Today, there are various dances and dance show competitions on television and the Internet.

Occupations[link]

There are several careers connected with dancing: Dancer, dance teacher, dance sport coach, dance therapist and choreographer.

Dancer

Dance training differs depending on the dance form. There are university programs and schools associated with professional dance companies for specialised training in classical dance (e.g. Ballet) and modern dance. There are also smaller, privately owned dance studios where students may train in a variety of dance forms including competitive dance forms (e.g. Latin dance, ballroom dance, etc.) as well as ethnic/traditional dance forms.

Professional dancers are usually employed on contract or for particular performances/productions. The professional life of a dancer is generally one of constantly changing work situations, strong competition pressure and low pay. Professional dancers often need to supplement their income, either in dance related roles (e.g., dance teaching, dance sport coaches, yoga) or Pilates instruction to achieve financial stability.

In the U.S. many professional dancers are members of unions such as the American Guild of Musical Artists, the Screen Actors Guild and Actors' Equity Association. The unions help determine working conditions and minimum salaries for their members.

Dance teachers

Dance teacher and operators of dance schools rely on reputation and marketing. For dance forms without an association structure such as Salsa or Tango Argentino they may not have formal training. Most dance teachers are self employed.

Dancesport coaches

Dancesport coaches are tournament dancers or former dancesports people, and may be recognised by a dance sport federation.

Choreographer

Choreographers are generally university trained and are typically employed for particular projects or, more rarely may work on contract as the resident choreographer for a specific dance company. A choreographic work is protected intellectual property. Dancers may undertake their own choreography.

By ethnicity or region[link]

India[link]

South indian folk dance like a horse known as Poi Kal Kudirai

During the first millennium BCE in India, many texts were composed which attempted to codify aspects of daily life. In the matter of dance, Bharata Muni's Natyashastra (literally "the text of dramaturgy") is one of the earlier texts. Though the main theme of Natyashastra deals with drama, dance is also widely featured, and indeed the two concepts have ever since been linked in Indian culture. The text elaborates various hand-gestures or mudras and classifies movements of the various limbs of the body, gait, and so on. The Natyashastra categorised dance into four groups and into four regional varieties, naming the groups: secular, ritual, abstract, and, interpretive. However, concepts of regional geography has altered and so have regional varieties of Indian dances. Dances like "Odra Magadhi", which after decades long debate, has been traced to present day Mithila, Orissa region's dance form of Odissi (Orissi), indicate influence of dances in cultural interactions between different regions.^[7]

From these beginnings rose the various classical styles which are recognised today. Therefore, all Indian classical dances are to varying degrees rooted in the Natyashastra and therefore share common features: for example, the mudras, some body positions, and the inclusion of dramatic or expressive acting or abhinaya. The Indian classical music tradition provides the accompaniment for the dance, and as percussion is such an integral part of the tradition, the dancers of nearly all the styles wear bells around their ankles to counterpoint and complement the percussion.

Bhangra in the Punjab[link]

The Punjab area overlapping India and Pakistan is the place of origin of Bhangra. It is widely known both as a style of music and a dance. It is mostly related to ancient harvest celebrations, love, patriotism or social issues. Its music is coordinated by a musical instrument called the 'Dhol'. Bhangra is not just music but a dance, a celebration of the harvest where people beat the dhol (drum), sing Boliyaan (lyrics) and dance.It developed further with the Vaisakhi festival of the Sikhs.

Dances of Sri Lanka[link]

The devil dances of Sri Lanka or "yakun natima" are a carefully crafted ritual with a history reaching far back into Sri Lanka's pre-Buddhist past. It combines ancient "Ayurvedic" concepts of disease causation with psychological manipulation. The dance combines many aspects including Sinhalese cosmology, the dances also has an impact on the classical dances of Sri Lanka.^[8]

Harlequin and Columbine from the mime theater at Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen, Denmark

In Europe and North America[link]

Concert (or performance) dance[link]

Ballet[link]

Ballet developed first in Italy and then in France from lavish court spectacles that combined music, drama, poetry, song, costumes and dance. Members of the court nobility took part as performers. During the reign of Louis XIV, himself a dancer, dance became more codified. Professional dancers began to take the place of court amateurs, and ballet masters were licensed by the French government. The first ballet dance academy was the Académie Royale de Danse (Royal Dance Academy), opened in Paris in 1661. Shortly thereafter, the first institutionalized ballet troupe, associated with the Academy, was formed; this troupe began as an all-male ensemble but by 1681 opened to include women as well.^[5]

A small dance company rehearses for an outdoor performance in Stuyvesant Cove Park in Manhattan, New York City

20th-century concert dance[link]

At the beginning of the 20th century, there was an explosion of innovation in dance style characterized by an exploration of freer technique. Early pioneers of what became known as modern dance include Loie Fuller, Isadora Duncan, Mary Wigman and Ruth St. Denis. The relationship of music to dance serves as the basis for Eurhythmics, devised by Emile Jaques-Dalcroze, which was influential to the development of Modern dance and modern ballet through artists such as Marie Rambert. Eurythmy, developed by Rudolf Steiner and Marie Steiner-von Sivers, combines formal elements reminiscent of traditional dance with the new freer style, and introduced a complex new vocabulary to dance. In the 1920s, important founders of the new style such as Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey began their work. Since this time, a wide variety of dance styles have been developed; see Modern dance.

The influence of African American dance[link]

African American dances are those dances which have developed within African American communities in everyday spaces, rather than in dance studios, schools or companies and its derivatives, tap dance, disco, jazz dance, swing dance, hip hop dance and breakdance. Other dances, such as the lindy hop with its relationship to rock and roll music and rock and roll dance have also had a global influence.

See also[link]

Dance portal

References[link]

Notes

Further reading

• Adshead-Lansdale, J. (Ed.) (1994) Dance History: An Introduction. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-09030-X.
• Carter, A. (1998) The Routledge Dance Studies Reader. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-16447-8.
• Charman, S. Kraus, R, G. Chapman, S. and Dixon-Stowall, B. (1990) History of the Dance in Art and Education. Pearson Education. ISBN 0-13-389362-6.
• Cohen, S, J. (1992) Dance As a Theatre Art: Source Readings in Dance History from 1581 to the Present. Princeton Book Co. ISBN 0-87127-173-7.
• Daly, A. (2002) Critical Gestures: Writings on Dance and Culture. Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 0-8195-6566-0.
• Dils, A. (2001) Moving History/Dancing Cultures: A Dance History Reader. Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 0-8195-6413-3.
• Miller, James, L. (1986) Measures of Wisdom: The Cosmic Dance in Classical and Christian Antiquity, University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0-8020-2553-6.

External links[link]

Find more about Dance on Wikipedia's sister projects:
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•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Dance". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
• Historic illustrations of dancing from 3300 B.C. to 1911 A.D. from Project Gutenberg
• United States National Museum of Dance and Hall of Fame

An annotated list of popular/famous dancers.

B[link]

• George Balanchine (January 22, 1904 – April 30, 1983), was a Georgian ballet choreographer. He is one of the 20th century's foremost choreographers, and one of the founders of American ballet. His work formed a bridge between classical and modern ballet. Apollo is Balanchine's oldest surviving ballet and his first great public success. It marked the beginning of his significant and enduring collaboration with Stravinsky and featured the neoclassical style which Balanchine was to become renowned for. It premiered on June 12, 1928 by Les Ballets Russes de Serge Diaghilev at the Théâtre Sarah Bernhart in Paris. Balanchine looked upon Apollo as the turning point of his life, "in its sustained oneness of tone and feeling". The story centers around Apollo, the god of music, who is visited by three muses: Terpsichore, muse of dance and song; Polyhymnia, muse of mime; and Calliope, muse of poetry. Balanchine created ballet sequences for Ravel's opera L'enfant et les sortilèges to Colette's libretto with what Ravel described as "Russian dancers", presumably from the Ballets Russes for the 1925 Monte Carlo premiere, although this is not listed as a Ballets Russes production.

• Sara Baras (born in 1971) is a female Flamenco Dancer, born in the port of Cadiz. She is internationally famous and regularly tours the world.She has won a number of awards including the Madroño Flamenco of Montellano (Seville) in 1993,and in 1999 and 2001, she received a prize for the Best Female Spanish Dance Performer.

• Matt Barber is a dancer, teacher, author, columnist, and dance coach in the ballroom dance world. Matt first encountered ballroom dancing as choreographed routines onstage for musicals and began ballroom dance lessons in high school. At eighteen years of age, Matt started training to become a ballroom dance instructor with National Dance Clubs as a side job in college; he went on to teach in the independent world, for Arthur Murray International, and for Fred Astaire Dance Studios. Concurrently, Matt graduated from the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in Manhattan and acquired an SB from Fordham University, his MS, and his business management and leadership training from University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. Matt Barber's books on ballroom dancing changed the way ballroom studios conduct business.

• Mikhail Baryshnikov (January 28, 1948) is a Soviet-born Russian American dancer, choreographer, and actor, often cited alongside Vaslav Nijinsky and Rudolf Nureyev as one of the greatest ballet dancers of the 20th century. After a promising start in the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad, he defected to Canada in 1974 and went on to become a principal dancer and artistic director with the American Ballet Theatre and the New York City Ballet in New York City. He has spearheaded many of his own artistic projects and has been associated in particular with promoting modern dance, premiering dozens of new works, including many of his own. His success as a dramatic actor on stage, cinema and television has helped him become probably the most widely recognized contemporary dancer.

• Joshua Berger (August 20, 1998 - August 11, 2010) was a Canadian break dancer. He has won multiple competitions including the yu13 world championship which took place in Niagra falls,Ontario,and. he also go's in break dance shows in,Canada's wonderland(Vaughan.Ontario),Vaughan mills (mall in vaughan,Ontario) and much more ..

• Vytautas Beliajus (February 26, 1908, September 1994) is considered the father of international folk dancing in the United States. He specialized in Lithuanian dance, but performed and taught many other types of dance as well. He published multiple books on the subjects of dance and ethnicity, and also started the folklore magazine Viltis. Beliajus was born in Lithuania and emigrated to the U.S. when he was 14 years old. He had two younger brothers, Leonas and Julius, and a sister, Gyte Jekentes.

• Carlo Blasis (4 November 1797- 15 January 1878) was an Italian dancer, choreographer and dance theoretician. He is well known for his very rigorous dance classes, sometimes lasting four hours long.He was the first who published an analysis on the ballet techniques in 1820, in a work named Traité élémentaire, théorique, et pratique de l'art de la danse (Elementary Treaty on the Art of the Dance, theory and practice). He is most known for the pose "Attitude" derived from the famous statue Mercury by Giovanni da Bologna. He taught Enrico Cecchetti, who expanded his technique.

• James Brown or James Joseph Brown, Jr. (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006), commonly referred to as "The Godfather of Soul", "Mr. Dynamite", the "King of Funk", "Soul Brother #1" and "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business", was an American entertainer (singer and dancer). He is recognized as one of the most influential figures in 20th century popular music and was renowned for his vocals and feverish dancing. As a prolific singer, songwriter and bandleader, Brown was a pivotal force in the music industry. He left his mark on numerous artists. Brown's music also left its mark on the rhythms of African popular music, such as afrobeat, jùjú and mbalax, and provided a template for go-go music. Brown began his professional music career in 1953 and rose to fame during the late 1950s and early 1960s on the strength of his thrilling live performances and string of smash hits. During the early 1980s, Brown's music helped to shape the rhythms of early hip-hop music, with numerous groups looping or sampling his funk grooves and turning them into what became hip hop classics and the foundations of the music and dance genre. Brown danced vigorously as he sang, working popular dance steps such as the Mashed Potato into his routine along with dramatic leaps, splits and slides. In addition, his horn players and backup singers (The Famous Flames) typically performed choreographed dance routines, and later incarnations of the Revue included backup dancers. Male performers in the Revue were required to wear tuxedoes and cummerbunds long after more casual concert wear became the norm among the younger musical acts. Brown's own extravagant outfits and his elaborate processed hairdo completed the visual impression.

• Jean Butler (born March 14, 1971)is an Irish step dancer.She began training in Irish dance at the age of four with the widely respected teacher Donny Golden. She also participated in tap and ballet classes, but step dance became her focus. Her talent was clear from a young age, and she competed in regional, national and international championships. She and her sister, Cara Butler, both went on to win numerous national titles and regional titles, and placing well in international competitions. Jean has performed with Green Fields of America and Cherish the Ladies. She debuted with The Chieftains at Carnegie Hall at the age of seventeen, and toured with them on three continents.

C[link]

• Don Campbell is an American dancer born in 1951 who invented the dance Locking, as Campbellocking. In 1969 Campbell began making the dance popular around Los Angeles. Shortly thereafter he put out a record called "Do the Campbellock" and started a dance group called the Lockers.

• Enrico Cecchetti (21 June 1850, Rome - 13 November 1928, Milan) was an Italian ballet dancer, founder of the Cecchetti method. The son of two dancers, he was born in the costuming room of the Teatro Tordinonia in Rome. After an illustrious career as a dancer in Europe, he went to dance for the Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia where he further honed his skills. By 1888, he was widely accepted as the greatest ballet virtuoso in the world. The general populace was not aware that he could only turn in one direction and in fact, had to have all his choreography tailored especially to accommodate this weakness.

• Vernon and Irene Castle were a husband-and-wife team of ballroom dancers of the early 20th century. They are credited with invigorating the popularity of modern dancing. Vernon Castle (May 2, 1887 - February 15, 1918) was born William Vernon Blyth in England. Irene Castle (April 17, 1893 - January 25, 1969) was born New York.

• Jack Cole (1911–1974) was an American dancer, choreographer, and theatre director known as the father of theatrical jazz dance.Cole is credited with choreographing and/or directing the stage musicals Alive and Kicking, Magdalena, Carnival in Flanders, Zenda, Foxy, Kismet, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Kean, Donnybrook!, Jamaica and Man of La Mancha. His film work includes Moon Over Miami, Cover Girl, Tonight and Every Night, Gilda, The Merry Widow, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, There's No Business Like Show Business, The I Don’t Care Girl, Thrill of Brazil, Down to Earth, Kismet, Les Girls, and many others. He was most famous in Hollywood for his work with Rita Hayworth and Marilyn Monroe. Cole's unmistakable style endures in the work of Gwen Verdon, Bob Fosse, Jerome Robbins, Gower Champion, Peter Gennaro, Michael Bennett, Tommy Tune, and countless other dancers and choreographers.

• Dean Collins ( May 29, 1917 – June 1, 1984) was an American dancer, instructor, choreographer, and innovator of swing. He is often credited with bringing swing dance, or Lindy Hop, from New York to Southern California. He is undoubtedly the most filmed Lindy Hopper in history with over 30 movie and short credits to his name.

• Jean Coralli (1779–1854), was a French dancer and choreographer and later held the esteemed post of First Balletmaster of the Paris Opera Ballet. He is best known for the creation of the Romantic ballet Giselle which he choreographed in tandem with another French dancer, Jules Perrot.

• Eduardo Corrochio (1869–1912) was a Spanish-born dancer who won the first Tap Dancing Championship in New York City in 1890. Corrochio entered the Tap Dancing Championship in New York City. The only non-American in a field of two hundred invited participants, he defeated Henry Rogers to become the first tap dancing champion of the world .in 1894 Corrochio successfully defended his title at another tap dancing championship in Chicago, Illinois. Three hundred participants gather this time, twenty of them non-Americans, mostly from Britain and Germany.

• Joaquín Cortés (born February 22, 1969) is a classically trained ballet and flamenco dancer from Spain of Roma origin. Cortés formed the Joaquín Cortés Flamenco Ballet company and launched his first international tour ‘Cibayí’ in 1992. The formation of Cortés' own company allowed him diverge from purist ballet and create his own fusion of flamenco, ballet and modern dance. On May 15, 2007 he performed as a guest dancer in a high-profile semi-final segment on ABC's Dancing with the Stars.

• Merce Cunningham (born April 16, 1919) is an American dancer and choreographer. Cunningham was born in Centralia, Washington, and received his first formal dance and theater training at the Cornish School (now Cornish College of the Arts) in Seattle. Merce Cunningham Dance Company was formed at Black Mountain College in the summer of 1953. Since that time Cunningham has choreographed nearly 200 works for his company. In 1973 he choreographed Un jour ou deux for the Ballet of the Paris Opéra, with music by Cage and set design by Jasper Johns. The Ballet of the Paris Opéra also performed a revival of his Points in Space in 1990. His work has also been presented by New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Boston Ballet, White Oak Dance Project, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Zurich Ballet, and Rambert Dance Company (London), among others. Cunningham's interest in contemporary technology has led him to work with the computer program Dance Forms, which he has used in making all his dances since Trackers (1991).Another of Cunningham's innovations was the development of what might be called "non-representative" dance which simply emphasizes movement: in Cunningham's choreography, dancers do not necessarily represent any historical figure, emotional situation, or idea.

D[link]

• Tabitha and Napoleon D'umo, also known as Nappytabs, are choreographers and creative directors who are credited with developing the new style of hip-hop dance known as lyrical hip-hop. They have been supervising choreographers on America's Best Dance Crew since season one and recurring guest judges and choreographers Fox's So You Think You Can Dance since season four. They currently teach dance classes at The Edge performing Arts Center in Hollywood and travel around the country with Monsters of Hip Hop and Shock the Intensive dance conventions.

• Alex Da Silva is a dancer and choreographer, specializing in Salsa dancing. Da Silva is also known for being a recurring guest choreographer on the Fox TV show So You Think You Can Dance.Da Silva was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He discovered Salsa dancing at the age of 20. He is credited with contributing to the "LA Style" of Salsa dancing. Currently, he resides in Southern California.

• Astad Deboo, (b. 1947) is an Indian dancer-choreographer, who has mixed a modern and contemporary dance styles, with Indian classical dance forms of Kathak and Kathakali in which he has trained, to create style unique to him.

• Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev, also referred to as Serge, (March 31, 1872 – August 19, 1929) was a Russian art critic, patron, ballet impresario and founder of the Ballets Russes from which many famous dancers and choreographers would later arise.Diaghilev staged Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty in London in 1921; it was a production of remarkable magnificence both in settings and costumes, but despite being well received by the public it was a financial disaster for Diaghilev and Oswald Stoll, the theatre-owner, who had backed it. The first cast included the legendary ballerina Olga Spessivtseva. Diaghilev insisted on calling the ballet The Sleeping Princess. When asked why, he quipped, "Because I have no beauties!" The later years of the Ballets Russes were often considered too "intellectual", too "stylish" and seldom had the unconditional success of the first few seasons, although younger choreographers like George Balanchine hit their stride with the Ballet Russes.

• Charles-Louis Didelot (27 March 1767 - 7 November 1837) was a French dancer and choreographer. The son of Charles Didelot, the dance maestro of the King of Sweden, he studied dance with his father, who were instructor in dance at the Swedish Opera, and dubuted as dancer in the theatre of Bollhuset in Stockholm 1786. Didelot taught dance, having an important influence over the development of ballet.

• Isadora Duncan (May 27, 1877 – September 14, 1927) was an American dancer. She was born Angela Isadora Duncan in San Francisco, California and is considered by many to be the mother of Modern Dance. Although never very popular in the United States, she entertained throughout Europe.

• Lucinda Dickey (born August 14, 1960) is an American dancer and actress who is best known for her role as Kelly in the 1984 cult film Breakin’ and the 1984 sequel, Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo. Dickey was born and raised in Hutchinson, Kansas, where at the age of four, she began dancing. While attending college at Kansas State University, she majored in dance and competed in the Miss Kansas pageant, where she won the talent division and finished third runner-up.After college, Dickey moved to Los Angeles and won a dance scholarship with the Roland DuPree Dance Academy. After 10 months, she auditioned for the movie Grease 2, winning a role as one of film's lead dancers. That same year (1982) she landed a stint as a dancer on Solid Gold.

• Doctor Ice influenced Hip-Hop dancing to a new form. His influence can be noted by the dance moves in videos done by artists such as Kid N Play, Scrap Lover and Scoop Lover (dancers for Big Daddy Kane) and G-Wiz and the late Trouble T-Roy (from Heavy D & The Boyz). The commercial world fashioned their dance moves after Michael Jackson but the black community embraced Doc Ice because his dancing was reflective of the type of dance moves done at a house/block party or in the nightclub. He left UTFO in the late 80s before the group's breakup in 1991 to go on a solo career. His first album, The Mic Stalker in 1989, produced by R&B group Full Force, had the singles 'Word To The Wise', 'Love Jones', and 'Sue Me'. Ice also collaborated with Dino (singer), for his 1990 song 'Romeo' (charting at #6) on the album "Swingin'". His second album, "Rely On Self" appeared in 1994.

• Katherine Mary Dunham (June 22, 1909 – May 21, 2006) was an American dancer, choreographer, songwriter, author, educator and activist who was trained as an anthropologist. Dunham had one of the most successful dance careers in American and European theater of the 20th century and has been called the Matriarch and Queen Mother of Black Dance. During her heyday in the 1940s, 50s and 60s, she was renowned throughout Europe and Latin America as La Grande Katherine, and the Washington Post called her "Dance's Katherine the Great." For more than 30 years she maintained the Katherine Dunham Dance Company, the only permanent, self-subsidized American black dance troupe at that time, and over her long career she choreographed more than 90 individual dances. Dunham was an innovator in African-American modern dance as well as a leader in the field of dance anthropology, or ethnochoreology (see also dance studies). She died in her sleep in New York City on 21 May 2006.

• Shabba Doo (May 11, 1955) is an American actor, dancer, choreographer, and director. He has appeared in film and television. He became one of the founders of hip hop dancing as a member of The Original Lockers. He is one of the pioneers the dance style commonly known as "locking".Besides his work in film and television he has served as a choreographer to many singers such as Lionel Richie, Madonna, and Luther Vandross to name a few. Presently he serves as choreographer for Jamie Kennedy's new MTV sitcom, Blowin’ Up. He is also well remembered for his choreography of Three Six Mafia's performance on the 78th Annual Academy Awards.

E[link]

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• Amera Eid is an Australian belly dancer and owner of an Australian belly dance school, Amera's Palace. Amera is of Egyptian and European background and was introduced to belly dancing at the age of twelve. She began her professional training with Rozeta Ahalyea in Sydney in 1983 and worked the Sydney restaurant and Arabic nightclub circuit. Eid opened Amera's Palace belly dance boutique in 1987, which included one of the first belly dance schools in Sydney. She also hosts the annual Bellydancers Ball which has been running since 1998.

• Fanny Elssler (23 June 1810 - 27 November 1884), was an Austrian dancer. Ballerinas such as Marie Taglioni and Fanny Elssler pioneered new techniques such as pointe work that rocketed the ballerina into prominence as the ideal stage figure, professional librettists began crafting the stories in ballets, and teachers like Carlo Blasis codified ballet technique in the basic form that is still used today. The ballet slipper was invented to support pointe work.

• Norberto Esbrez (born November 22, 1966) is an Argentinian tango dancer, choreographer, and teacher. Innovative dancer and teacher of tango nuevo. He is known as El Pulpo or octopus for his fluid and intricate leg moves. Esbrez created and named several tango movements including: ocho loco, sentada girada, elevador, or el elástico. He explored the concept of trap sacadas (sacadas con agarre) and enganches into innovative variations. His style is so notorious that when the dancer starts combining several leg moves that look like Pulpo's it is being called pulpeadas. Developed the concept of suspension as a tool to generate the control and fluidity that is part of his dance.

• Eserzâde is a Turkish belly dancer who was born in Stuttgart (Germany) and spent his childhood in Turkey, where he was taught Ballet since the age of 6. He lived in Berlin since the age of 13. There he started to devote his life to dancing at 16 years of age. This dancer gets great fulfillment from inspiring the audience with his artistry and bringing together people from different cultures. He worked for Turkish television from mid until end of the 1990s, where he had over 500 gigs at national and private channels such as A-TV, Inter-Star, Show-TV, HBB, TRT (Public TV-institution), Channel 6 and 7, TRT-INT, Kent-TV, eTV. Several documentations followed: Portraits, different shows and television gigs in Europe: England, France, Greece, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Switzerland, Spain, Austria and Cyprus. In America: Brazil and the USA, the Middle East: Israel, Morocco, Egypt, United Arab Emirates as well as in Asia: India, China, Japan and Pakistan. At the same time he took part in festivals and private events in Germany. He performed concerts along with Nena, Udo Lindenberg, Nina Hagen, The Weather Girls, Eartha Kitt, Donna Summer, Tarkan, Muazzez Abaci, Bülent Ersoy, Meltem Cumbul, Zuhal Olcay, Fancy, Roland Kaiser, Thomas Hermanns, Gayle Tufts and also with the most popular dancer of the Orient: Nesrin Topkapi. Eserzâde lived in Morocco from 2002–2003, where he appeared as a solo-dancer in the royal palace of Rabat and at crown receptions as well as a choreographer and instructor for the royal ensemble. He also had numerous gigs in TV shows on Moroccan television where he performed as a dancer for local singers.

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• Michael Ryan Flatley (born July 16, 1958) is an Irish step dancer from the south side of the country. As a child, he moved to Chicago - the city which he considers his home town. He began dancing lessons at 11 and, in 1975, became the first non-European to win the All-Ireland World Championship for Irish dance. As a trained boxer he won the Chicago Golden Gloves Championship in 1975. Flatley is also known as being a proficient flautist, having twice won the All-Ireland Competition. His first dance teachers were his mother and his grandmother Hannah Ryan, an Irish dancing champion. After high school graduation, he opened a dance school.

• Flying Steps is a German breakdance crew, founded in 1993. They have won many breakdancing competitions and also released some singles and albums. Flying Steps has also appeared in some videos of an electro music project Music Instructor. The members of Flying Steps are: "Amigo" - Kadir Memis,"Benny" - Benny Kimoto,"KC-1″ - Khaled Chaabi,"Lil’Ceng" - Gengis Ademoski, "Lil’Steph" - Stephanie Nguyen,"Mikel" - Michael Rosemann,"Vartan" - Vartan Bassil.

• Michel Fokine (April 23, 1880 – August 22, 1942) was a groundbreaking Russian choreographer and dancer .Fokine staged more than 70 ballets in Europe and the United States. His best known works were Chopiniana (later revised as Les Sylphides), Le Carnaval and Le Pavillon d'Armide. Among his works for the Ballets Russes were The Firebird, Petrushka, and Le Spectre de la Rose. For the Ballets Russes he created a ballet out of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade

• William Forsythe (born December 30, 1949 in New York City) is an American dancer and choreographer resident in Dresden in Saxony. He is known internationally for his work with the Frankfurt Ballet and his reorientation of classical ballet .Forsythe trained at the Joffrey Ballet, and the American Ballet Theatre in New York City (taking additional classes with Maggie Black, Finis Jung, Jonathan Watts, Meredith Baylis, William Griffith, Leon Danelion, Mme. Periaslavic, Mme. Boskovitch, Nolan Dingman, Pat Wilde, and Christa Long). After, he studied at the Jacksonville University, Florida (where he studied George Balanchine's and Martha Graham's techniques). In 1971, he joined the Joffrey Ballet, but when invited by the Stuttgart Ballet three years later, he left the Joffrey and moved to Europe when he was twenty-three as a dancer, and later became Resident Choreographer of the Stuttgart Ballet. This position he held until 1981, when he began pursuing an independent career. He also created works for ballet companies in Munich, The Hague, London, Basel, Berlin, Frankfurt am Main, Paris, New York and San Francisco. He choreographed "France/Dance" for Rudolf Nureyev at the Paris Opera Ballet during his career as Resident Choreographer.

• Joe Frisco was an American vaudeville performer who first made his name on stage as a jazz dancer, but later incorporated his stuttering voice to his act and became a popular comedian. Frisco was a mainstay on the vaudeville circuit in the 1920s and 1930s. He made his Broadway debut in the Florenz Ziegfeld Follies in 1918. His popular jazz dance act (called by some the "Jewish Charleston") was a choreographed series of shuffles, camel walks and turns. It was usually performed to "Darktown Strutters’ Ball." He typically wore a derby hat, and had a king-sized cigar in his mouth as he danced.
• Chicho Frumboli is one of the most famous Argentine Tango dancers. His real name is Mariano Frumboli. He is best known for his improvisation skills. He is regarded as one of the founders of Tango nuevo. He usually dances in this open style but is equally at ease when dancing close. Rather his embrace is fluid in most cases. He performed among others with Gotan Project, Tanghetto and Narcotango.

• Loie Fuller (January 15, 1862 – January 1, 1928) was a pioneer of both modern dance and theatrical lighting techniques. Fuller's work has been experiencing a resurgence of artistic and public interest. Sally R. Sommer has written extensively about Fuller's life and times Marcia and Richard Current published a biography entitled Loie Fuller, Goddess of Light in 1997. And Giovanni Lista compiled a 680-page book of Fuller-inspired art work and texts in Loïe Fuller, Danseuse de la Belle Epoque, 1994. Fuller continues to be an influence on contemporary choreographers. Among these are Jody Sperling and TimeLapse Dance, who began creating Loie Fuller-style solos with live piano accompaniment for New York City audiences in 2000.

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• Antonio Gades (November 14, 1936 - July 20, 2004) was a Spanish flamenco dancer and choreographer. He helped to popularize the art form on the international stage. His most notable works included dance adaptations of Prosper Mérimée's Carmen and Federico García Lorca's Blood Wedding, as well as a feature-length adaptation of Manuel de Falla's 23-minute ballet El Amor Brujo. Gades has also co-founded and became the artistic director of the Spanish National Ballet.

• Samia Gamal (1924 - December 1, 1994) was an Egyptian belly dancer and film actress. In 1949, Egypt's King Farouk proclaimed Samia Gamal "The National Dancer of Egypt", which brought US attention to the dancer.In 1950, Samia came to the US and was photographed by G. John Mili. She also performed in The Latin Quarter, New York's trendy nightclub. She later married so-called "Texas millionaire" Shepherd King III (who, it was later reported, actually only had about $50,000). All this brought her to star proportions in the US.

• Pavel Andreyevich Gerdt, also known as Paul Gerdt (near St. Peterburg, Russia, 22 November 1844 — Vamaloki, Finland 12 August 1917), was the Premier Danseur Noble of the Imperial Ballet, the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre, and the Mariinsky Theatre for 56 years, making his debut in 1860, and retiring in 1916. His daughter Elisaveta Gerdt was also a prominent ballerina and teacher.Gerdt studied under Alexander Pimenov, a pupil of the legendary Charles Didelot.Among his pupils at the Imperial Ballet School were Michel Fokine, Vaslav Nijinsky, Tamara Karsavina, George Balanchine, and Anna Pavlova, to whom he taught the soaring leap of Marie Taglioni and Carlotta Grisi.

• Gus Giordano (1923 – March 9, 2008) was an American jazz dancer. He was a performer on and off Broadway, in television, film and stage, and he is a master teacher, a gifted choreographer, founder of his company, creator of the Jazz Dance World Congress and the author of Anthology of American Jazz Dance, the first book on jazz dance. He has taught world-renowned dancers in schools such as the American Ballet Theater, and he has choreographed award winning numbers for television, film, stage, commercials and industrials. Giordano is considered one of the founders of jazz dance, and his influence in jazz dance is still felt.

• Savion Glover (born November 19, 1973) is an American actor, tap dancer and choreographer. Glover is a graduate of the Newark Arts High School. His most recent credit is as the motion-capture dancer for Mumble, the penguin in the animated release Happy Feet. He is now in a production called Classical Savion, where he taps to classical pieces played by a chamber string group. The show jazzes and blues it up a bit towards the end adding drums and a pianist. Glover recently appeared on ABC's Dancing with the Stars, on the September 26, 2007 results show.

• Martha Graham (May 11, 1894 – April 1, 1991) was an American dancer and choreographer regarded as one of the foremost pioneers of modern dance, and is widely considered one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. Graham invented a new language of movement, and used it to reveal the passion, the rage and the ecstasy common to human experience. She danced and choreographed for over seventy years, and during that time was the first dancer ever to perform at The White House, the first dancer ever to travel abroad as a cultural ambassador, and the first dancer ever to receive the highest civilian award, the Medal of Freedom. In her lifetime she received honors ranging from the key to the City of Paris to Japan's Imperial Order of the Precious Crown. She said "I have spent all my life with dance and being a dancer. It's permitting life to use you in a very intense way. Sometimes it is not pleasant. Sometimes it is fearful. But nevertheless it is inevitable."

• Carlotta Grisi, was an Italian ballet dancer. She was born on June 28, 1819 in Visinada, Istria and died on May 20, 1899 in Saint-Jean, Switzerland. She was trained at the ballet school of Teatro alla Scala in Milan and later with dancer/balletmaster Jules Perrot.Her greatest role however was that of Giselle. The world première of this two-act ballet was on June 28, 1841 at the Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique, Paris. One of the Giselle's creators, Théophile Gautier, described her dancing as having a childlike artlessness, a happy and infectious gaiety. He is famous for coining the phrase, "Art for art's sake".

• Omari Ishmael Grandberry - known as Omarion (born November 12, 1984), is an American Grammy-nominated R&B singer, dancer, actor, songwriter and record producer. Omarion currently holds light as one of the best dancers in his generation in music. He is best known for his tutting, popping, locking and waving, (along with intricate choreography). Omarion claimed to have learnt more about break dancing (during the making of his first movie You Got Served) and can tap dance, he is also friends with the originators of krumping.

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• Hrithik Roshan (Hindi: ऋतिक रोशन [ˈrɪt̪ɪk ˈroːʃən]; born 10 January 1974)[1] is an Indian actor who appears in Bollywood films. He is considered as one of the finest dancers in the world, he is even called the mj of India. He has been an inspiration to the people across the board, Hrithik's dance style includes from hip-hop to Indian bagara. What attracts to his moves are that it is so clear and flexible. He is even judging an international dance show in star plus, which is called just dance.

• Erick Hawkins (April 23, 1909 in – November 23, 1994) was an American dancer and choreographer. He was a graduate of Harvard. Erick was inspired by the dancing of Harald Kreutzber and Yvonne Georgi. In the 1930s he was the first American student of George Balanchine. He became a soloist and the first male dancer in Martha Graham's dance company. Hawkins and Graham lived together for eight years, but soon after marrying the relationship fell apart. The influence of her work on Hawkins is legendary. Erick Hawkins is known as one of the revolutionary pioneers of radical modern dance through his original choreography and evolution of a new theory and technique of modern dance. "Dance is the most beautiful metaphor of existence in the world." is one of Erick's beautiful quotes.

• Tatsumi Hijikata (March 9, 1928 - January 21, 1986) was a Japanese choreographer, and the founder of a genre of dance performance art called Butoh. By the late 1960s, he had begun to develop this dance form, which is highly choreographed with stylized gestures drawn from his childhood memories of his northern Japan home. It is this style which is most often associated with Butoh by Westerners. Hijikata was an innovator in movement technique. He was a master of the use of energy qualities in constructing expressive movement. He would use sounds, paintings, sculptures, and words to construct movement, not exclusively in a formal or literal memetic application, but by integrating these elements via visualization into the nervous system to produce movement qualities that could be very subtle, light, angelic and ghost-like, or demonic, heavy, dark, grotesque, violent and extreme.

• Gregory Oliver Hines (February 14, 1946 – August 9, 2003) was an American actor, singer, dancer and choreographer.

• Hong 10 (16 February 1985 in South Korea) is a male South Korean B-Boy. As of 2007, he has won more than 20 competitions as an individual or as a member of a crew, and has been termed "the best B-Boy in the world". His accomplishments include both a Red Bull BC One individual title (2006) and a Battle of the Year crew title (2002). He also was a judge at the 2007 Battle of the Year world finals. Hong 10 is recognized as a superb all-around B-boy able to dynamically hit beats with floorwork, freezes, uprock/toprock and powermoves - not to mention the rare ability to mix all of them in a set. His breakdancing features bridge-like floor work, sharp execution, and an arsenal of signature moves. These all showcase not only the complex nature of his dance, but also his creativity.

• Lester Horton (January 23, 1906 - November 2, 1953) was an American dancer, choreographer, and teacher. Lester Horton was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. Choosing to work in California (three thousand miles away from the center of modern dance - New York City), Horton developed his own approach that incorporated diverse elements including Native American dances and modern Jazz. Horton's dance technique (Lester Horton Technique) emphasises a whole body approach including flexibility, strength, coordination, and body awareness to allow freedom of expression. Horton trained a number of the mid-twentieth century's best-known modern dancers, including Alvin Ailey, Carmen de Lavallade, and Bella Lewitzky, as well as dance teacher James Truitte, Broadway dancer James Mitchell, and the gay activist Harry Hay.

• Finola Hughes, an English dancer and actress, most noted for her appearance in the film Staying Alive. Trained in England at the Arts Educational Schools London, she subsequently worked extensively in London musical theatre, including the original West End cast of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats. Currently resides in the United States, where she works predominantly as a television actress, most notably portraying the role of Patty Halliwell in Charmed.

• Doris Batcheller Humphrey (October 17, 1895 – December 29, 1958) was a dancer of the early twentieth century. In Chicago, she both studied and taught dance, opening her own dance school in 1913 at the age of 18.In 1917, she moved to California and entered the Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts, where she studied, performed, taught classes, and learned choreography. Her creations from this era, "Valse Caprice" ("Scarf Dance"), "Soaring", and "Scherzo Waltz" ("Hoop Dance") are all still performed today. Humphrey toured the Orient for two years, followed by a successful career in American vaudeville theaters.One of her last pieces, "Dawn in New York", featured the strengths she demonstrated throughout her career — her mastery of the intricacies of large groups, and her emphasis on sculptural shapes.

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• Janet Jackson (May 16, 1966) is an American singer and entertainer. Like her famous brother Michael Jackson, dance was a celebrated aspect of her career. Jackson's style of intricate choreography would later influence a number of female pop stars, including Britney Spears, Ciara, Aaliyah and Beyonce. Jackson's music video dance performances has been given numerous tributes to over the years, including MTV Icon and on America's Best Dance Crew.

• Michael Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009), often referred to as MJ and The King of Pop, was an American musician and entertainer. Among the most celebrated aspects of Jackson's career were his dance, fashion, and vocal styles, which have given rise to impersonators all over the world. The "moonwalk" followed by a tornado spin and then balancing up on his toes have since gone on to become Jackson's trademark dance piece, and is virtually synonymous with the song. The performance sealed his position as a dance legend up against the likes of Fred Astaire (who actually called Jackson the next day to congratulate him). After one of his performances The New York Times stated "The moonwalk that he made famous is an apt metaphor for his dance style. How does he do it? As a technician, he is a great illusionist, a genuine mime. His ability to keep one leg straight as he glides while the other bends and seems to walk requires perfect timing"

• Robert Joffrey (1930–1988) was an American dancer, teacher, producer, and choreographer, known for his highly imaginative modern ballets. Of Afghan parentage, he was born in Seattle, Washington, and originally named Abdulla Jaffa Anver Bey Khan. Joffrey studied ballet and modern dance in New York City and made his debut in 1949 with the French choreographer Roland Petit and his Ballets de Paris. From 1950 to 1955, he taught at the New York High School for the Performing Arts, where he staged his earliest ballets.In 1954, he formed his own company, which premiered Le bal masqué (The Masked Ball, 1954; music by French composer Francis Poulenc) and Pierrot Lunaire (1955; music by Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg). Joffrey's other works include Gamelan (1962) and Astarte (1967; to rock music with special lighting and motion-picture effects).

• Sabra Elise Johnson (born July 29, 1987) is a dancer from Roy, Utah and the most recent champion of the Fox reality television show So You Think You Can Dance. She has the distinction of being the first female and person of African-American descent to win the title. Johnson started formal dance training at the age of 16 at Dance Impressions in Bountiful, Utah, under the direction of mother-daughter team Kandee Allen and Vivian Colobella and before training in dance, Johnson had a previous background in gymnastics.. She has been a fast-learner being able to win "America's Favorite Dancer" name in So You Think You Can Dance just in her fourth year of being a dancer. Her dance training consists of jazz, ballet, contemporary, and gymnastics, with some experience in hip hop, modern dance, tap dancing, and theater. Johnson's favorite style of dancing is contemporary.

• Thomas Johnson (better known as Tommy the Clown) is an American dancer, best known as the inventor of the "clowning" style of dance, which evolved into the popular "krumping" style. Johnson invented the style in 1992, to enhance birthday party clown acts, thereby creating the concept of "hip-hop clowns". Johnson and his followers have performed at birthday parties ranging from inner city communities to celebrities like Madonna, Pamela Anderson, and Cedric the Entertainer.

• Kurt Jooss (12 January 1901 – 22 May 1979) was a German modern dancer and choreographer mixing classical ballet with theatre; he is also widely regarded as the founder of Dance Theatre or Tanztheater. Jooss is noted for establishing several dance companies, including most notably, the Folkwang Tanztheater, in Essen. Kurt Jooss works are still performed today especially The Green Table. Anna Markard, (Jooss’ daughter) supervises companies that perform his works, conserving authenticity of the author of Dance Theatre.

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• Kunwar Amarjeet Singh (16 March 1984 – Present) is Latest Modern dancer and choreographer from India . He is Known for his hip hop dancing styles, mainly Old-School Hip hop & for his Bollywood Style, especially Partner Dance or Group Dance . He is awarded as the Most talented Dancer in the Dance India Dance (Season 2) in the year 2010 . He is currently playing a role of Reyaansh Singhania in the TV Show Dil Dosti Dance, aired on Channel V .

• Malika (Mazol) Yashuvayevna Kolontarova (September 5, 1950 - ) is a legendary Tajik Bukharian Jewish dancer. She earned the titles of People's Artist of USSR, People's Artist of Tajikistan, and Honored Artist of Tajikistan—the highest titles given in her native nation. Her dance moves were completely in sync with the music and she conquered the world with her fiery dancing. She is married to Ishkak Gulkarov, a famous doira player and Honored Artist of Tajikistan and the two were Tajikistan's biggest supercouple. Since her move to the United States in the early 1990s, Kalontarova founded the "Malika International Dance School."

• Tamara Platonovna Karsavina (March 10, 1885 – May 26, 1978) was a famous Russian ballerina who eventually settled in England, where she helped found the Royal Academy of Dance in 1920 Karsavina was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, the daughter of the dancer Platon Karsavin. Beautiful and talented from an early age, Karsavina quickly moved through the ranks of professional ballet.Her most famous roles were Lise in La Fille Mal Gardée, Medora in Le Corsaire, and the Tsar Maiden in The Little Humpbacked Horse. She was the first Ballerina to dance in the so-called Le Corsaire Pas de Deux in 1915.The choreographer George Balanchine said he had fond memories of watching her when he was a student at the Imperial Ballet School.

• Eugene Curran Kelly (August 23, 1912 – February 2, 1996), better known as Gene Kelly, was an Academy Award-winning American dancer, actor, singer, director, producer, and choreographer .Kelly was a major exponent of 20th century filmed dance, known for his energetic and athletic dancing style, his good looks and the likeable characters that he played on screen. Although he is probably best known today for his performance in Singin’ in the Rain, he dominated the Hollywood musical film from the mid 1940s until its demise in the late 1950s. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Kelly among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time, ranking at No. 15.

• Alonzo King is an American dancer and choreographer working in San Francisco, California. He is known for founding a contemporary ballet company, Alonzo King's LINES Ballet, in 1982.Alonzo King began his ballet training in Santa Barbara, California with June Lane and moved to New York City to continue his artistic development. He trained at the Harkness School of Ballet and the Alvin Ailey dance school. While attending the American Ballet Theatre School on full scholarship, he studied with Patricia Wilde and Leon Danelian; he was also on full scholarship at the School of American Ballet where he trained with Stanley Williams and Richard Rapp. In New York, King performed with the Harkness Youth Company, apprenticed with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, and danced with Dance Theatre of Harlem, Donald McKayle, Lucas Hoving, and a number of European companies. After returning from New York, he danced with Bella Lewitzky in Los Angeles before moving to San Francisco.

• Beyoncé Knowles (September 4, 1981 - ), more commonly known by her first name Beyoncé,is an African-American female singer-songwriter, dancer, choreographer and actress. She is a former member of the now separated girl singing group Destiny's Child, later called DC3. She is famous for her vocal talents and abilities, and also for her iconic and influential dancing. Her dance abilities are seen in her music videos for her anthemic singles "Crazy in Love", "Single Ladies" and "Sweet Dreams". Beyoncé is often seen dancing to songs around the R&B, Pop and "Hip Hop". Audiences around the world recognize Beyoncé for her unique dancing techniques.

• Jiří Kylián (born 1947) is a Czech dance choreographer .Kylián studied in Prague, as well as at the Royal Ballet School in London. He joined the Stuttgart Ballet in 1968 and worked under John Cranko, where he began to choreograph. Kylián became Artistic Director of Nederlands Dans Theatre in 1976. His style is very energetic and contemporary and his best known works include Symphony of Psalms (1978).

• Maria Kochetkova (born 1984 in Moscow) is a Principal Dancer with the San Francisco Ballet. Kochetkova studied at the Bolshoi School in Moscow, and danced with the Royal Ballet and English National Ballet.
• Akshay Koparkar He started his dancing at the age of 11.He famous in nagpur, India for his break dance.He is famous for his amazing Moonwalk And Breakdance.Also he is famous for his break moves like biggest entertainer Michael Jackson.He completed his 28 dance shows.His style include Hip-Hop, Locking And Popping, Freestyles

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• Rudolf Laban (December 15, 1879- July 1, 1958) was a notable, central European dance artist and theorist, whose work laid the foundations for Laban Movement Analysis, and other more specific developments.He moved to Munich at age 30 and under the influence of seminal dancer/choreographer Heidi Dzinkowska began to concentrate on the movement arts .Laban established the Choreographic Institute in Zürich in 1915, and later founded branches in Italy, France, and central Europe. One of his great contribution to dance was his 1928 publication of Kinetographie Laban, a dance notation system that came to be called Labanotation and is still used as one of the primary movement notation systems in dance. His theories of choreography and movement served as one of the central foundations of modern European dance. Nowadays, Laban's theories are applied in diverse fields, such as Cultural Studies, Leadership development, Non-Verbal Communication, and more.

• Walter Laird (26 July 1920 – 30 May 2002) Dancesport World Champion in Professional Latin. Author of the Technique of Latin American Dancing, and coached many successful dancers including Allan Tornsberg, Vibeke Toft, Espen Salberg, Jukka Haapalainen and Sirpa Suutari.

• Last For One is a break dancing crew that formed in 1997. With their win in the 2005 Battle of the Year, they have been recognized as a worldwide known name and a contributor to the Korean wave, their fans respectively calling them the ‘Dancing Taeguk Warriors’. Their love for dancing started 7 to 8 years ago when they saw Seotaiji and Boys dancing on television or, like fate, came across a video featuring break dancing. Many of their families had to endure poverty which drove their parents to strongly disagree with their passion for dancing. They danced while others looked on with pity and anger, only keeping one dream in mind: to become a b-boy. In the day, they were busy running around doing any kind of job they could find, and by night, they met together to dance. Living in a small one room apartment did not bother them for they had an outlet called dance. One member said that "All of this was nothing to us because it was happiness in itself that we were able to dance."

• Nick Lazzarini (born c. 1984) was the first season winner of the Fox reality show So You Think You Can Dance. He is from Sunnyvale, California and is a trained dancer in jazz, lyrical, hip hop, ballet and modern dance styles. Lazzarini spent two years at the Dance Company of San Francisco and also toured Europe with the RAW dance company, which was founded by choreographer Mia Michaels. He has also taught at conventions for chapters of DANCE MASTERS OF AMERICA, and is a faculty member of 2006 JUMP Alternative Convention.

• Nikolai Legat (1869–1937), was a dancer with the Russian Imperial Ballet from 1888 to 1914 and was the main successor to the roles of the great ballet dancer, Pavel Gerdt. Legat later held duties of a balletmaster in Russia, teaching and passing on the legacy of the repertoire of that company, namely the work of the prolific choreographer and great balletmaster, Marius Petipa .Nikolai had a younger brother, Sergei Legat, who was also a dancer with the Imperial Russian Ballet from 1894 to 1905 when he died at age thirty. He originated the role of the Nutcracker (at age 17) at the premiere of the famous Ivanov/Tchaikovsky ballet, The Nutcracker at the Theatre Mariinsky in St. Peterburg, Russia, on December 6, 1892.

• Lawrence Leritz (September 26, 1962) is an American dancer and choreographer. Lawrence's international dance career included working with George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Alvin Ailey, Robert Joffrey, Ruth Page, John Neumeier, Lee Theodore, Tommy Tune and Sir Frederick Ashton, with such major dance companies as Hamburg Ballet, Chicago Ballet, Israel's Bat-Dor Dance Company, Paris Opera and as guest artist throughout the world, including Plácido Domingo's Los Angeles Music Center Opera. Leritz also directed the company Dance Celebration, which he toured worldwide. Leritz was the producer and choreographer of the Off-Broadway hit Boobs! The Musical, during the 2003-2004 season and was nominated for the 2004 Mac Awards for Best Musical Revue.

• Māris Liepa (27 July 1936, Riga – 26 March 1989, Moscow) was a Latvian ballet dancer. He graduated from Riga Choreography School where he was taught by Valentīns Bļinovs. He performed in Moscow for the first time in 1950. He has performed on stages of Europe and USA. Liepa has played roles in movies and TV, in Hamlet and Spartacus. A book, I Want to Dance for Hundred Years, was published in Riga in 1981. Liepa is a winner of many distinguished Soviet Union awards, prizes and bestowals, including the Konstsantin Stanislavsky medal, Paris Ballet Academy Vaslav Nijinsky award and Marius Petipa Prize. Latvian National Opera hosts the annual Māris Liepa memorial concerts that are organized by his children - son Andris and daughters Ilze (ballet dancer) and Maria (actress and singer).

• Lil' C (born Christopher A. Toler in January 1983) is an American dancer and choreographer. He has choreographed for So You Think You Can Dance, along with many top music icons.

• José Arcadio Limón (1908–1972) was a pioneering modern dancer and choreographer. He was born in Culiacán Mexico and the eldest of 12 children. He moved to New York City in 1928 where he studied under Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman. In 1946, Limón founded the José Limón Dance Company. His most famous dance is The Moor's Pavane (1949), based on Shakespeare's Othello.

• Jennifer Lopez (July 24, 1969), often referred to as J. Lo, is an American actress, singer-songwriter and dancer. Jennifer Lopez is known for her upbeat pop songs and Latin-pop influenced dancing abilities.

• Antonia Mercé y Luque (September 4, 1890 – July 18, 1936), known by her stage name as La Argentina, was a flamenco dancer. She originated and helped to establish the neoclassical style of Spanish dance as a theatrical art. prior to World War I, La Argentina was extremely admired in Paris, where she accepted invitations to dance at the Moulin Rouge and other important locations. In her career she made six transcontinental tours in North America, sometimes accompanied by flamenco guitarist Carlos Montoya. She received several awards, including the French Légion d'honneur and the Spanish Orden de Honor Isabel La Católica.

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• Madonna (August 16, 1958 - ) is an American recording artist, actress and dancer. Her controversially successful career has made her one of the Best Selling Artists of All Time and one of the world's most influential dancers. Madonna's dancing abilities are often viewed as improvised, entertaining and agile. Madonna has a very lengthily career of singles, albums and dance sequences and has been nicknamed the Princess of Pop and later, the Queen of Pop, along with fellow entertainers Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston.

• Natalia Makarova (born November 21, 1940) is the legendary Soviet-Russian prima ballerina. The History of Dance, published in 1981, notes that “Her performances set standards of artistry and aristocracy of dance which mark her as the finest ballerina of her generation.” She has also won awards as an actress and continues to stage classical ballets throughout the world.

• Frankie Manning or Musclehead (born on May 26, 1914) is an American dancer, instructor and choreographer. Manning is considered to be one of the founding fathers of Lindy Hop. In recent years, Frankie Manning's annual birthday celebrations have drawn together dancers and instructors from all over the world. His 80th birthday was commemorated by a weekend long celebration in New York City; his 85th culminated in a sold out party at New York's Roseland Ballroom, where a pair of his dance shoes were placed in a showcase along with those of dancers such as Fred Astaire.

• Mario Maya is recognised as one of the greatest flamenco dancers and choreographers of all times. He was born in Córdoba in 1937, but grew up in the Sacromonte of Granada. Some of his most important works include Camelamos Naquerar (1976), Ay! Jondo (1977), Amargo (1986), El Amor Brujo (1987) and Requiem Flamenco. He is the father of Belen Maya, one of the main figures of contemporary flamenco dance.

• Norma Miller (born December 2, 1919 in Harlem, New York) is an American swing dancer known to many people as The Queen of Swing. She was interviewed along with dance partner Frankie Manning in Ken Burns' documentary Jazz. Discussing the early days of swing dancing, Norma describes the start of her dancing career at the Savoy Ballroom (which was just across street from where she lived) during the early 30s in Harlem. Discovered at the age of twelve by the Savoy Ballroom's legendary dancer Twist Mouth George, Ms. Miller has been in show business ever since.

• Mata Hari was the stage name of Margaretha Geertruida Zelle (7 August 1876– 15 October 1917), a Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan who was executed by firing squad for espionage during World War I. Many books have been written about Mata Hari, some of them serious historical and biographical accounts, but many of them highly speculative.

• Ann Miller (April 12, 1923[1] – January 22, 2004) was an American dancer, singer and actress.Miller was born in eastern Texas, the daughter of Clara Emma (née Birdwell) and John Alfred Collier, a criminal lawyer. She took up dancing to exercise her legs to help her rickets. She was considered a child dance prodigy. Miller was famed for her speed in tap dancing; she claimed to be able to tap 500 times per minute. She was known as well, especially later in her career, for her distinctive appearance, which reflected a studio-era ideal of glamour: massive black bouffant hair, heavy makeup with a slash of crimson lipstick, and fashions that emphasized her lithe figure and long dancer's legs.

• Jewel McGowan was a dancer of Lindy Hop, a form of swing dance, in the 1940s and 1950s. She is known among dance aficionados as the frequent partner of dancer Dean Collins. Jewel was considered by her fellow Los Angeles dancers to be the best female swing dancer who ever lived. In addition to their social dancing, Dean and Jewel appeared together as dancers in films of the era. They were partners for 11 years and they were often called the Fred and Ginger of Lindy Hop. Jewel is especially known for her hip swivels, which remain admired and unrivaled to this day.

• Alex Moore (1901—1991) was a pioneer of modern ballroom dancing, a dancer, dance teacher and author of classical ballroom dancing books. His Ballroom Dancing is considered to be the "Bible" of International-style ballroom dancing. His dancing career started at the age of 6. In 1926 he placed second in a World Championship of ballroom dancing. In 1932 he partnered with Pat Kilpatrick, who would become his wife. In his teaching he travelled all over the world: European countries, North America, Japan, Australia and South Africa.

• Mary Murphy (born March 9) is a ballroom dance champion, accredited dance judge, and a regular judge and choreographer on the FOX dance competition-reality show So You Think You Can Dance. Mary Murphy is a former U.S. champion ballroom dancer and TV personality. She was born in Lancaster, Ohio, the only daughter in an Irish family of four children. She graduated from Northwest High School in Canal Fulton, Ohio.

N[link]

• The Nicholas Brothers were a famous African-American team of dancing brothers, Fayard Nicholas (1914–2006) and Harold Nicholas (1921–2000). With their highly acrobatic technique, high level of artistry and daring innovations, they were considered by many the greatest tap dancers of their day. Growing up surrounded by Vaudeville acts as children, they became stars of the jazz circuit during the heyday of the Harlem Renaissance and went on to have successful careers performing on stage, film, and television well into the 1990s.

• Vaslav Fomich Nijinsky (March 12, 1889 – April 8, 1950) was a Polish ballet dancer and choreographer. Nijinsky was one of the most gifted male dancers in history, and he became celebrated for his virtuosity and for the depth and intensity of his characterizations. He could perform en pointe, a rare skill among male dancers at the time (Albright, 2004) and his ability to perform seemingly gravity-defying leaps was also legendary.

• Rudolf Nureyev (March 17, 1938 – January 6, 1993), is regarded as one of the greatest male ballet dancers of the 20th century, alongside Maris Liepa, Vaslav Nijinsky, Alexander Godunov and Mikhail Baryshnikov.Despite his late start, he was soon recognized as an incredibly gifted dancer. Nureyev pushed himself hard, rehearsing for hours in order to make up for the years of training he missed. Under the tutelage of a great teacher, Alexander Pushkin, he blossomed. Pushkin not only took an interest in him professionally, but also allowed the younger dancer to live with him and his wife, with the latter of whom, at 21, he had an affair. Upon graduation, the Kirov and the Bolshoi both wanted to sign him. He continued with the Kirov and went on to become a soloist - extremely unusual for someone of his age and experience .His grave, at a Russian cemetery in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois near Paris, features a tomb draped in a mosaic of an oriental Turkic-style carpet. Nureyev was an avid collector of beautiful carpets and antique textiles.

O[link]

• Donald O'Connor (born August 28, 1925 – died September 27, 2003) was a famous American tap dancer. He appeared alongside Peggy Ryan in several Universal Studios musicals throughout the 1940s. Several years later, he appeared with Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds in the 1952 film classic Singin' in the Rain. His film career ended in 1997, but he was making public appearances well into 2003. He died at the age of 73 from congestive heart failure, due to his lifelong smoking habit and a near fatal addiction to alcohol.

• Simona Orinska (born August 18, 1978) is the only butoh artist in Latvia and a multidisciplinary artist: contemporary dancer, poet, director and choreographer of many art projects. She is also a Dance Therapy or Dance Movement Therapy practitioner.

• Cristian Oviedo (born November 19, 1979) is a professional dancer, dance instructor, and choreographer. He offers lessons in Los Angeles-style salsa, New York-style Salsa, Casino Rueda and International Latin Dance (which include Cha-Cha-Cha, Rumba, Jive, Paso Doble, Samba and Argentine Tango). Believing that ‘practice makes the master’ and in order to become a better dancer one must be willing to dance, he recommended dance classes of any type. In his words, "Don’t ever give up. I wouldn’t be here if I would have given up". For choreographing a great salsa show he begins with the ladies stylistic moves, partnered salsa dancing into the individual mens footwork and shines, ending with a spectacular dip.

P[link]

• Anna Pavlovna Pavlova (12 February 1881 – 23 January 1931) was a famous Russian ballerina of the late 19th and the early 20th century. Her name along with that of Nijinsky is synonymous with the art of ballet. Pavlova is a legend largely remembered for her famous dance The Dying Swan and because she was the first ballerina to travel around the world and bring ballet to people who had never seen it.

• Jules-Joseph Perrot (August 18, 1810 – August 18, 1892) was a dancer and choreographer who later became Balletmaster of the Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia. He created some of the most famous ballets of the 19th century including Pas de Quatre, La Esmeralda, Ondine, and Giselle with Jean Coralli. Perrot danced often with the great Romantic ballerina, Marie Taglioni but their partnership was short-lived. She eventually refused to dance with him fearing that he would outshine her. Jules Perrot died on holiday in Paramé August 29, 1892.

• Arlene Phillips OBE, English choreographer and former dancer. Has staged numerous musicals in the West End and Broadway; winning or being nominated for a number of prestigious awards including the Laurence Olivier Award and the Tony Award. Is most noted as a television dance expert, judging shows such as Strictly Come Dancing and So You Think You Can Dance.

• Physicx (23 August 1984 in South Korea) is a South Korean B-boy, who has countless titles that put his name as one of the best b-boys in the world. He is currently a member of one of the best Korean crews called Rivers Crew and was formerly a member of the Korean all-star crew, Project Soul. Physicx has been a champion of many international-level tournaments both as a member of a crew and as an individual. His most notable crew achievements include a R-16 Korea title with Rivers in 2007, and UK B-Boy Championship titles with Project Soul in 2002 and 2004. As an individual, he won the solo title at UK B-Boy Championship in 2004. He was also selected for the 2005 Red Bull BC One individual tournament involving 1 on 1 battles between the top 16 b-boys in the world.

• Maya Plisetskaya is a Russian ballet dancer.

• Eleanor Torrey Powell (November 21, 1912 – February 11, 1982) was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. A dancer since childhood, she was discovered at the age of 11 by the head of the Vaudeville Kiddie revue, Gus Edwards. When she was 17, she brought her graceful, athletic style to Broadway, where she starred in various revues and musicals. During this time, she was dubbed "the world's greatest tap dancer" due to her machine-gun footwork, and in the early 1930s appeared as a chorus girl in a couple of early, inconsequential musical films.

R[link]

• Dame Marie Rambert (20 February 1888 – 12 June 1982) was a Polish-Jewish dancer and dance pedagogue who exerted a great influence on British ballet, both as a dancer and teacher.Born Cyvia or Miriam Ramberg in Warsaw, Poland, she also used a number of other names, including Rambach, Rambam. Between 1912 and 1913 she collaborated with the Ballets Russes led by Sergei Diaghilev. In 1918 she moved to the United Kingdom, where in 1920 she founded her own ballet school. In 1926 she created her own ballet company called Marie Rambert Dancers. Currently named Ballet Rambert, it is the oldest still active ballet company on British Isles.

• Wade Robson (born September 17, 1982) is an Australian dancer, choreographer, producer and songwriter. He began performing as a dancer at the age of five, and as a child worked as a back-up dancer for Michael Jackson. He is also an award-winning choreographer and has directed music videos and world tours for music artists, most notably for 'N Sync and Britney Spears. Robson has found success as a competition judge, both for his own MTV show, The Wade Robson Project, and the televised competition So You Think You Can Dance. He won an Emmy for his choreography on the latter show in 2007.

• Pierre Rameau (1674–1748) was the French dancing master to Elisabetta Farnese, and the author of two books that now provide us with valuable information about Baroque dance. Rameau's first book, Le Maître à Danser (1725, Paris), was a dance manual giving instruction on formal ballroom dancing in the French style. The first part covers posture, reverences, steps, and the ballroom minuet, while the second part is concerned entirely with the use of the arms. His second book, Abbregé de la Nouvelle Methode (c1725, Paris), described a modified version of Beauchamp-Feuillet notation and included several choreographies by Pécour in the new notation. While Rameau's notation was not generally adopted, his information about the shortcomings of Beauchamp-Feuillet notation provides dance historians with clarifications about the execution of the steps.

• Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (May 25, 1878 – November 25, 1949) was a pioneer and pre-eminent African-American tap dance performer .At the age of six, he began dancing for a living appearing as a "hoofer" or song-and-dance man in local beer gardens. At seven, Bill dropped out of school to pursue dancing. Robinson died of a chronic heart condition at Columbia Presbyterian Center in New York City in 1949.

• Peggy Ryan (August 29, 1924 - October 30, 2004) was an American dancer and starred in several Universal Studios musicals in the 1940s with Donald O'Connor, such as Mister Big, What's Cookin'?, and Patrick the Great, their last film together. Ironically, her and Donald shared their birthdays, Peggy being a year older. She died at the age of 80 from the effects of two strokes.

S[link]

• Adam G. Sevani (born on June 29, 1992) is an actor as well as a dancer. Known as Moose from Step Up 2: The Streets and it's new sequel, Step Up 3D. Adam and director of Step Up 2, Jon Chu and their dance group, ACDC or Adam/Chu Dance Crew, had challenged pop star Miley Cyrus to a highly publicized dance battle. Adam is set to star in the new sitcom "LOL" with Miley in 2011.
• Ruth St. Denis (January 20, 1879 – July 21, 1968) was an early modern dance pioneer.Ruth St. Denis founded Adelphi University's dance program in 1938 which was one of the first dance departments in an American university. It has since become a cornerstone of Adelphi's Department of Performing Arts .Her early works are indicative of her interests in exotic mysticism and spirituality. Many companies currently include a collection of her signature solos in their repertoires, including the programme, "The Art of the Solo", a showcase of famous solos of modern dance pioneers. Several early St. Denis solos (including "Incense" and "The Legend of the Peacock") were presented on September 29, 2006, at the Baltimore Museum of Art. A centennial salute was scheduled with the revival premiere of St. Denis’ "Radha", commissioned by Countess Anastasia Thamakis of Greece. The program's director, Mino Nicolas, has been instrumental in the revival of these key solos.

• Benjiman "Benji" Daniel Schwimmer (born on January 18, 1984)[1] is an American professional swing dancer. On August 16, 2006 he was crowned "America's Favorite Dancer", as the winner of the second season of So You Think You Can Dance. Benji Schwimmer and his older cousin, Heidi Groskreutz (herself a top-4 finalist on the same season of So You Think You Can Dance), are also U.S. Open Showcase Swing champions in West Coast Swing style. Schwimmer left the dancing scene at the top of his game to serve a two-year mission for the LDS Church in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. He has subsequently founded the non-profit charity organization "Dancers Everywhere Making a Needed Difference" (D.E.M.A.N.D.) for helping orphans in southern Mexico and Africa and providing healthcare for dancers with HIV/AIDS, and is a co-owner of 5678 Dance Studio in Redlands, California.

• Lloyd Shaw (1890–1958), also known as Dr. Lloyd "Pappy" Shaw, was an educator, and is generally credited with bringing about the broad revival of square dancing in America. He was superintendent/principal/teacher/coach for Cheyenne Mountain Schools, Colorado Springs, Colorado from 1916–1951, and taught folk dancing .Shaw traveled the country, and compiled instructions for traditional square dances from different callers all over the country. He documented them, and tried them out on the students he taught. He formed the Cheyenne Mountain Dancers, a high-school exhibition team, which toured the United States in the 1930s and 1940s, appearing in more than 50 major cities .As the popularity of square dancing grew, square dance callers began extracting individual calls from these dances, and attempts at standardised lists were developed. These lists were later adopted by callers, and organizations such as Callerlab and later the American Callers Association formed to manage and promote a universal list and the type of dance leadership that Shaw envisioned.

• Jimmy Slyde (born 1927), who is known as the King of Slides, is a world-renowned tap dancer, especially famous for his innovative tap style mixed with jazz. Slyde's profile in the United States revived noticeably in the 1980s. He danced in the films The Cotton Club, Tap and Round Midnight, as well as a number of television specials. He collaborated with Steve Condos on a program of jazz tap improvisation at the Smithsonian Institution and performed across the United States and in South America. In 1989, Slyde received a Tony Award nomination for his Broadway debut in the musical Black and Blue.In recent years, Slyde has received a number of significant honors, including the NEA National Heritage Fellowship Award (1999), the Charles "Honi" Coles Award (2001), a Guggenheim Fellowship for Choreography (2003), and an honorary Doctorate of Performing Arts from Oklahoma City University. Slyde is still performing and teaching today throughout the United States. He continues to stress the importance of mastering the basics and using sliding cascades of taps close to the floor.

• "Shorty" George Snowden was an African American dancer in Harlem during the 1920s and 1930s. He is popularly credited with coining the name "Lindy Hop" for a popular partner swing dance of the day. He is also often credited with inventing the dance, though this is unsubstantiated and unlikely. Snowden was a popular dancer at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, New York, in the United States and appears in the film After Seben (1929), in which he performs the breakaway, a variation on the Charleston, which later developed into the Lindy Hop. He can also be seen in the film Ask Uncle Sol (1937), dancing with his most famous partner Big Bea.

• Britney Spears (December 2, 1981 - ) is an American singer, songwriter and dancer. Apart from being famous for her hit singles ...Baby One More Time and Oops!...I Did It Again, she is also internationally renowned for her unique outfits and her entertaining and freestyle dancing. Her debut single,...Baby One More Time, features Spears dancing in a formal yet somewhat revealing catholic school girl uniform, which brought both success and extreme controversy to her iconic career. Britney Spears is often compared to fellow singers and dancers Madonna and Christina Aguilera.

• John William Sublett (February 19, 1902 – May 18, 1986), known by his stage name John W. Bubbles, was an American vaudeville performer, singer and entertainer .Sublett is known as the father of "rhythm tap", a form of tap dance. As opposed to the tap dancing of Bill Robinson (Bojangles) who emphasized clean phrases and toe taps, Sublett brought in percussive heel stomps and played with the traditional eight-bar phrase, slowing it down to allow for more rhythmic freedom. He thus merged the art of tap dancing with the new improvisitory style of jazz, reinventing the tap artform.

• Sylvia Sykes is a swing dance instructor, judge and choreographer. In particular she is considered by most to be the leading authority on the dance Balboa. She also represented the U.S. in the World Boogie Woogie Championships in Grenoble, France with her original partner Jonathan Bixby. She is best known for reviving Balboa, which is rapidly gaining popularity around the world, and is a regular guest at the balboa dance camps.

U[link]

Uday Shankar (December 8, 1900 – September 26, 1977) (Bengali: উদয় শংকর), the pioneer of modern dance in India, and a world renowned Indian dancer and choreographer, was most known for adapting Western theatrical techniques to traditional Indian classical dance, imbued with elements of Indian classical, folk, and tribal dance, thus laying the roots of modern Indian dance, which he later popularized in India, Europe, and the United States in 1920s and 1930s.

T[link]

• Marie Taglioni (April 23, 1804 – April 24, 1884) was a famous Italian ballerina of the Romantic ballet era, a central figure in the history of European dance. Marie Taglioni was born in Stockholm, Sweden, to the Italian cheoreographer Filippo Taglioni and the Swedish dancer Sophie Karsten (daughter of the Swedish opera singer Christoffer Christian Karsten and the Polish actor Sophie Stebnowska). Marie Taglioni rose to fame as a dancer when her father (and teacher) created the ballet La Sylphide (1832) for her. Marie retired from performing in 1847.Later she taught social dance to children and society ladies; she also took a limited number of ballet pupils. Her only choreographic work was Le Papillon (1860) for her student Emma Livry, who is remembered for dying in 1863 when her costume was set alight by a gas lamp (limelight) used for stage lighting. Marie lived much longer, dying in Marseilles in 1884.

• Twyla Tharp (born July 1, 1941) is a leading American dancer and choreographer. She has won Emmy and Tony awards, and currently works as a choreographer in New York City .Twyla Tharp Dance merged with American Ballet Theatre in 1988, where Tharp created more than a dozen works. Since that time Tharp has choreographed dances for many companies including The Paris Opera Ballet, The Royal Ballet, New York City Ballet, The Boston Ballet, The Joffrey Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance and The Martha Graham Dance Company.

• Danny Tidwell (born August 1, 1984 in Norfolk, Virginia) is an American contemporary and ballet dancer and choreographer, best known for being the runner-up on Fox's third season of So You Think You Can Dance in 2007. Tidwell began dancing as a child, at first focusing on jazz before changing to ballet while attending Kirov Academy of Ballet at the age of fifteen. He has worked in elite companies, including the American Ballet Theater. He has also performed the works of renowned choreographers, including Debbie Allen, William Forsythe and Mia Michaels. He is Travis Wall's brother, also a runner-up, of the second season of So You Think You Can Dance.

• Eddie Torres (born on July 3, 1950) is one of the most famous salsa dance instructors in the world. He has trained thousands of dancers, including some of the most well known contemporary dancers. Through his dance school, he has taught thousands of people how to dance salsa in his own distinctive style. He also has a children's dance program that teaches approximately three hundred students a year.

• Antony Tudor (4 April 1908 - 19 April 1987), born William Cook, highly influential twentieth-century English ballet choreographer, teacher and dancer. Antony Tudor is generally accepted to be one of the great originals of modern dance forms. Along with George Balanchine, he is seen as a principal transformer of ballet into a modern art, but of a genius that uses, rather than proceeds from, ballet forms. His work is usually considered as modern "psychological" expression, but—like their creator–of austerity, elegance and nobility.

V[link]

• Agrippina Yakovlevna Vaganova (July 6, 1879 - November 5, 1951) was an outstanding Russian ballet teacher who developed the Vaganova method - the technique which derived from the teaching methods of the old Imperial Ballet School (today the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet) under the Premier Maître de Ballet Marius Petipa throughout the mid to late 19th century, though mostly throughout the 1880s and 1890s. It was Vaganova who perfected and cultivated this form of teaching the art of classical ballet into a workable syllabus. Her Fundamentals of the Classical Dance (1934) remains a standard textbook for the instruction of ballet technique.

W[link]

• John Weaver (July 21, 1673 – September 24, 1760) was a dancer and choreographer and is commonly known as the father of English pantomime. Weaver was born in Shrewsbury. His father, a dance teacher, suggested he go to London and become a ballet master. Weaver soon became a specialist in comic roles and created the first pantomime ballet, the burlesque Tavern Bilkers (1702). His more serious work, The Loves of Mars and Venus dealt with themes from classical literature and required a significant amount of gestures due to the story not being expressed in any spoken form. Because Weaver attempted to use plot and emotion in replacement of more sophisticated technical and speech methods, he is considered a major influence on subsequent choreographers, including Jean-Georges Noverre and Gasparo Angiolini.

• Charles Edward Weidman, Jr. (1901 in Lincoln, Nebraska – 1975) was a modern dancer, choreographer and teacher. He studied and performed with Denishawn before leaving to form the Humphrey-Weidman school and company with Doris Humphrey and Pauline Lawrence. Like his partner Humphrey, Weidman worked from principles of fall and recovery and also experimented with a form of linking unrelated movements that he called "kinetic pantomime." During the 1930s, Weidman taught at the Bennington School of the Dance in Vermont and presented choreography including his popular Candide (1937) through the Federal Dance Theatre of the WPA.

• Mary Wigman (1886–1973) was a German dancer, choreographer, and instructor of dance. Credited for innovation of expressionist dance, and pioneer of modern dance in Germany. Mary Wigman's choreographies often employed non-Western instrumentation: fifes, bells, gongs, and drums from India, Thailand, Africa, and China. However, the primary musical accompaniment for her most well known dances was percussion, which contrasted greatly with her use of silence. Mary would often employ masks in her pieces, influenced again by non-western/tribal motifs, as well as ecstatic spinning.

Tina Turner
Tina Turner performing in the GelreDome, 1985
Background information
Birth name	Anna Mae Bullock
Also known as	Tina Turner, Ann Bullock, Little Ann
Born	(1939-11-26) November 26, 1939 (age 72) Nutbush, Tennessee, U.S.A.
Origin	Brownsville, Tennessee, U.S.A.
Genres	Rock, soul, R&B, pop
Occupations	Singer, dancer, author, actress
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	1958–present
Labels	EMI, United Artists, Capitol, Parlophone, Virgin
Associated acts	The Ike & Tina Turner Revue

Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock; November 26, 1939) is an American singer and actress whose career has spanned more than 50 years. She has won numerous awards.^[1][2] Turner started out her music career with husband Ike Turner as a member of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue.^[3] Success followed with a string of hits including "River Deep, Mountain High" and the 1971 hit "Proud Mary". With the publication of her autobiography I, Tina (1986), Turner revealed severe instances of spousal abuse against her by Ike Turner prior to their 1976 split and subsequent 1978 divorce. After virtually disappearing from the music scene for several years following her divorce from Ike Turner, she rebuilt her career, launching a string of hits beginning in 1983 with the single "Let's Stay Together" and the 1984 release of her fifth solo album Private Dancer.

Her musical career led to film roles, beginning with a prominent role as The Acid Queen in the 1975 film Tommy, and an appearance in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. She starred opposite Mel Gibson as Aunty Entity in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome for which she received the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture, and her version of the film's theme, "We Don't Need Another Hero", was a hit single. She appeared in the 1993 film Last Action Hero.

One of the world's most popular entertainers, Turner has been called the most successful female rock artist^[4] and was named "one of the greatest singers of all time" by Rolling Stone.^[5] Her combined album and single sales total approximately 180 million copies worldwide.^[6][7][8][9] She is known for her energetic stage presence,^[2] powerful vocals, career longevity,^[8] and widespread appeal.^[10] In 2008, Turner left semi-retirement to embark on her Tina!: 50th Anniversary Tour.^[11][12] Turner's tour became one of the highest selling ticketed shows of 2008–2009.^[7] Turner was raised a Baptist, but converted to Buddhism and credits the spiritual chants with giving her the strength that she needed to get through the rough times.^[13] Rolling Stone ranked her at 63 on their 100 greatest artists of all time and considers her the "Queen of Rock and Roll".^[14]

Early life[link]

Anna Mae Bullock was born in Nutbush, an unincorporated area in Haywood County, Tennessee, on November 26, 1939, the daughter of Zelma Bullock (née Currie), a factory worker, and Floyd Richard Bullock, a Baptist deacon, farm overseer, and factory worker.^[15][16] She long believed her mother had significant Native American ancestry,^[17] specifically Navajo and Cherokee; however, a DNA test showed her to be 66% African American, 33% European and 1% Native American.^{[18][19][20][21]} She attended Flag Grove School in Haywood County, Tennessee (the land for the school was sold below market value to the school trustees by her great great-uncle in 1889).^[21] Ann's older sister was named (Ruby) Aillene. For a time during World War II, their parents relocated to Knoxville, Tennessee to do factory work. By the time of their return to Nutbush, they separated and later divorced following an abusive marriage. Zelma Bullock later relocated to St. Louis, Missouri. Floyd Bullock moved to Detroit and later settled in California.

Ann and her sister relocated to Brownsville where they were raised by their grandmother. She recalled in her early years working with her parents at a farm as sharecroppers. She performed on several talent shows as a child and sang at her church choir. She was raised Baptist and lived most of her childhood as a tomboy participating in her high school's basketball team. When she was 14, she began work as a domestic for a family in Ripley. This continued until she was sixteen when her half-sister Evelyn was killed in a car crash followed by the death of her grandmother around the same time. After her mother returned from St. Louis to attend her funeral, she invited her daughter to move with her in St. Louis, where Anna and her sister reunited. In St. Louis, she attended Sumner High School.^[22] She eventually graduated from the school in 1958 and, following graduation, took work as a nurse aide at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

Ike & Tina Turner[link]

Tina performing with Ike Turner in 1972.

Origins[link]

Ann became enthralled by St. Louis's thriving nightlife, and her sister often took her out to clubs, much to their mother's chagrin. Anna was introduced to Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm band at Club Manhattan in East St. Louis, where Aillene served as a barmaid and was then dating a Kings of Rhythm member. It was there that Ann also began dating one of the Kings of Rhythm band mates. Ann pursued Ike Turner for months asking him to let her sing with his band but Turner was reluctant to have her in his band. When she was seventeen, she sang during an intermission in the Kings of Rhythm show at Club Manhattan after she was giving a microphone by the band's drummer. Impressed by her vocals, Ike allowed her to join the band as an occasional lead and background vocalist.^[23] Ike gave Ann her first stage name, Little Ann, during this time and included her in his record, "Box Top", which was a local hit in St. Louis after its 1958 release on a St. Louis label titled Tune Town, Ann sung with a male vocalist named Carlson Oliver, that was a member of the Kings of Rhythm. In November 1959, when vocalist Art Lassiter failed to show up for a recording session for Ike's composition, "A Fool in Love", Anna was told to lay down a guide vocal. Ike intended to eventually have Lassiter record over Anna's take, for the final production.

Ike Turner met with Sue Records president Juggy Murray in New York, and played the demo for him. Upon hearing it, Murray insisted Turner keep Ann's vocals, and gave Ike a $25,000 advance, convinced the song would become a hit single.^[24] In response to this, Ike Turner decided to form a duo around him and Ann. In the process, he changed her name from Little Ann to Tina Turner, stating he got the name because he felt it "sounded good". Despite the early romanticized version of their story in the biopic, What's Love Got to Do with It, Ike Turner and Ann Bullock were not romantically involved until around the release of "A Fool in Love", which by then had been released under the billing Ike & Tina Turner,^[25] effectively starting the duo and launching Ann into show business. Ike Turner claimed later that he helped mold and shape Tina Turner's style and image.^[26]

Early success[link]

"A Fool in Love" was released in the spring of 1960 and by late summer the song had reached number two on the R&B chart and crossed over to number twenty-seven on the Billboard Hot 100 later going on to sell a million copies. After Ike and Tina Turner made their national television debut performing the song on American Bandstand in October 1960, she gave birth to Ike's child, Ronald Renelle. Ike and Tina's relationship started around 1959 shortly after Raymond Hill, a member of Ike's Kings of Rhythm, childhood friend of Ike's, and father of Tina's first-born son, left the band due to monetary complaints. Tina had moved into Ike's home after she had been kicked out of her mother's house following news of her pregnancy. The relationship started while Ike was still married to his wife, Lorraine, who was mother of two of his children. Both Ike and Tina felt strange about the relationship with Tina later saying she felt forced into a sexual relationship. Ike had felt the affair was incestuous, later telling an interviewer that "it felt like I was strewing (sic) my sister."^[27] Neither Ike nor Tina felt a strong attraction: Tina didn't think Ike was physically handsome while Ike felt Tina was "too skinny" to be his girlfriend since, according to Tina, he favored curvaceous women. Lorraine Taylor eventually left Ike with his children after a confrontation with Tina.

Sue Records followed the success of "A Fool in Love" with "I'm Jealous" but the record bombed. The couple quickly recovered with the release of the top 5 R&B single, "I Idolize You". Their second top 40 pop hit, "It's Gonna Work Out Fine", surpassed "A Fool in Love" on the pop charts reaching #14 and winning a Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock & Roll Performance. In 1962, this was followed by "Tra La La" and "Poor Fool" while "You Shoulda Treated Me Right" had milder success. With the arrival of Tina Turner, Ike Turner changed his band's name from The Kings of Rhythm to the Ike & Tina Turner Revue and featured a backing girl group he named The Ikettes. A strenuous touring schedule built up the band's reputation as one of the hottest R&B acts in the chitlin' circuit. By 1963, Ike Turner had upgraded their shows to include raunchy choreography for Tina and the Ikettes, with their energized shows only matched by James Brown and The Famous Flames. Ike Turner himself hated to be in front of the spotlight and chose to perform with his back mainly turned to the crowd though he occasionally would come out in front during skits with Tina. The success of their revue led to numerous other revue-led package shows from crossover R&B labels such as Motown and Stax. At a time when racially mixed audiences were still a controversy, Ike and Tina Turner were one of the few acts to perform openly for mixed audiences due to the money that they could bring to its venues, especially in the American South.^[28]

In 1962, Ann Bullock married Turner in Tijuana, Mexico.^[29] Following this, she began raising Turner's previous sons, Ike Turner, Jr. and Michael, while her eldest son Craig Bullock (born from her earlier relationship with Raymond Hill, a saxophone player in Ike's band), adopted Turner's last name after Ike adopted him as his own. Tina raised them and her only child with Ike, Ronald.^[30] The Turners' relationship with Sue Records ended in 1964. Between that year and 1969, Ike and Tina Turner recorded for a various number of labels, in part due to Ike Turner's demands for money and lucrative deals. They recorded over a dozen albums including several live recordings during that period and kept themselves in the public eye during the mid-1960s by appearing on shows such as American Bandstand, Hollywood A Go-Go, Shindig!, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and The Andy Williams Show where their brand of entertainment was given both critical and artistic raves. Their performing success kept the Turners in the public eye while their records plummeted.

Mainstream success[link]

After several years touring the chitlin' circuit and other major rock and roll venues, Ike and Tina Turner began reaching the pinnacle of their success after the release of the pop-oriented ballad, "River Deep - Mountain High". While the song's initial release flopped at the time of its release in 1966, it led to modest international success in Europe. Upon hearing the track and another UK hit the group recorded, which was a cover of the Motown ballad, "A Love Like Yours (Don't Come Knocking Everyday)"; Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones asked the couple to open for them on their 1966 UK tour, which they obliged. The single became a bigger success in the UK, reaching #3 there. After their successful opening spot on the Stones' tour, Ike Turner renegotiated contracts for Tina and The Ikettes and Ike & Tina on several successive labels. In 1968, Ike produced the number, "You Got What You Wanted (Now You Don't Want What You Got)" under the billing "Tina Turner with Ike Turner and the Kings of Rhythm", while recording the album, So Fine. That year, Ike and Tina signed with Blue Thumb where much of the musical focus was mainly on blues and blues rock material. The albums, Outta Season and The Hunter produced their best charted success in years with the releases of the songs, "I've Been Loving You Too Long", "The Hunter" and "Bold Soul Sister" respectively, with "Bold Soul Sister" later winning Tina Turner a solo Grammy nomination.

During performances of "I've Been Loving You Too Long", Ike choreographed Tina to perform suggestively to the microphone, a practice Tina later said she hated doing but did it because she felt she had no say in it as it was Ike Turner's band. Due to this success, the Turners were invited to perform in Las Vegas and their shows would be attended by the likes of David Bowie, Sly Stone, Janis Joplin, Cher, James Brown, Ray Charles, Elton John and Elvis Presley.^[31] This exposure also led to Tina Turner and Ike Turner being on the cover of the rock magazine, Rolling Stone three times between 1967 and 1971. In 1970, the group signed with Liberty Records and scored their first top 40 US hit in years with their cover of Sly & The Family Stone's "I Want to Take You Higher" and appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show, the Dick Cavett Show and the Mike Douglas Show. This success led to an extended run in Vegas and also more opportunities to perform for bigger venues though the couple still frequented predominantly black venues including The Apollo Theater. In 1971, they released the Workin' Together album, which led to their biggest successes with the former album producing a hit version of "I Want to Take You Higher" and the latter producing their biggest hit single, a frenzied cover of "Proud Mary", which peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 in March 1971, two months after it was released.^[32] The song later won the duo a Grammy for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group.^[33]

By 1972, the group had even made headlines by performing at Carnegie Hall, which was documented for a double live album. That year, they switched to United Artists Records and released ten albums between 1971 and 1978 (two albums were released posthumously following the duo's infamous 1976 split). In 1973, the group released their final hit with "Nutbush City Limits", culminating in the duo's full embrace of funk rock rhythms. Though the song was musically composed by Ike, Tina was solely credited to the song as its lyricist. The song peaked at number twenty-two on the Hot 100 and number four in the UK.^[34] In 1974, the Turners released several albums including The Gospel According to Ike & Tina, which later won the duo another Grammy Award nomination for Best Soul Gospel Performance, and Tina's first solo album, Tina Turns the Country On, which won Tina Turner another Grammy nod for Best R&B Female Vocal Performance.

Decline in popularity[link]

By the mid-1970s, Tina's personal life and marriage had fallen apart. Ike's growing cocaine use led to increasingly erratic and physically abusive behavior. Ike Turner also played a hand in their professional career hitting the doldrums for refusing to accept any outside management and using all the money he earned to maintain his cocaine habit. This led to low ticket sales and lower record sales. By 1975, Ike Turner was so addicted to cocaine that he couldn't make it to rehearsals for scheduled TV appearances leading Tina Turner to be onstage without her partner. That year, Tina accepted an offer to appear in The Who's rock opera, Tommy. Tina's role in the film as the Acid Queen proved to be successful as critics raved of her appearance on the film.

Ike Turner responded by releasing Tina's second solo album, Acid Queen, which in turn became the last Ike & Tina associated album to be released and featured the duo's last charted single, "Baby Get It On". A non-album single, "Delilah's Power", was also released during the same time. Tina's increasing independence led to increasing fights between the couple. In July 1976, Tina and Ike had a violent fight before an appearance at the Dallas Statler Hilton, where Tina alleged that this is when she hit Ike back "for the first time". After arriving at the hotel, Tina left Ike, fleeing with nothing more than thirty-six cents and a Mobil gas station credit card in her possession. She spent the next few months hiding from Ike while staying with various friends.^[35][36] Following this, Tina filed for divorce on July 27 after fourteen years of marriage, ending the Ike & Tina Turner Revue for good.

Tina would later credit her new-found Nichiren Buddhist^[37] faith with giving her the courage to strike out on her own. By walking out on Ike in the middle of a tour, she learned she was legally responsible to tour promoters for the canceled tour. Needing to earn a living, she became a solo performer, supplementing her income with TV appearances on shows such as The Hollywood Squares, Donny and Marie, The Sonny & Cher Show and The Brady Bunch Hour.^[38] After a year in court, their divorce was made final on March 29, 1978. In the divorce, she completely parted ways with him retaining only her stage name and assuming responsibility for the debts incurred by the canceled tour as well as a significant IRS lien.^[39]

Life after the Revue[link]

After lying low for a year following her separation from Ike Turner, Tina Turner went back on the road in 1977 supporting herself with a cabaret act in Las Vegas. In 1978, Tina released her third solo album (and her first album since her separation from Ike) entitled Rough on EMI Records. The album was considered a departure from the blues rock sound of Ike & Tina. Choosing to focus on "happier music" and strong readings of hard rock songs, the album would yield four singles, none of which charted. In 1979, Turner released the disco-infused Love Explosion album, but it also failed to chart.^[40]

Due to the albums' performances, United Artists and EMI Records dropped Turner from her contract after her obligations ended with the companies. Turner supported herself by touring constantly, starting her first solo tour with The Wild Lady of Rock 'n' Roll in 1978. Following the end of the tour in 1979, she was invited to perform on Olivia Newton-John's musical variety show in Australia, where she met Newton-John's manager Roger Davies and pursued him to manage her career. Davies accepted Turner's offer after seeing her perform in San Francisco in 1980 and advised Turner to revamp her stage act. Despite her career downturn, Turner remained popular as a stage performer.^[41]

Return to prominence[link]

In 1981, Turner made headlines when she performed at the Ritz Theater in New York, leading to Turner performing with Rod Stewart, first on Saturday Night Live and then on his televised Los Angeles concert tour. That same year, Turner appeared onstage with her old 1960s acquaintances The Rolling Stones. In 1982, Turner teamed up with B.E.F. for a remake of the Temptations' "Ball of Confusion".^[42] The song became a hit in European dance clubs. Following this success, the producers asked her to incorporate a cover of Al Green's classic, "Let's Stay Together". Released in November 1983, just days before Turner's 44th birthday, the song became a hit single in the UK reaching number six on their charts and also became a hit in several other European countries.^[43][44] The success of "Let's Stay Together" in Europe convinced Turner's new company Capitol Records to release the song in the US in early 1984, with the song reaching number twenty six on the Billboard Hot 100^[45] while also peaking at the top five of the R&B and dance charts.^[46][47]

Following its success, Capitol quickly gave Turner a new three-album contract and had them do an album, with Turner later staging what Ebony magazine called an "amazing comeback".^[48] Done in two months, the album Private Dancer, was released in June 1984. That same month, Turner issued the album's second single, "What's Love Got to Do with It". It quickly reached the top ten within a month and in September had reached number one on the Hot 100 in the US, making it the first time in Turner's career that she had reached that position. Private Dancer peaked at the top five of the Billboard album charts later selling five million copies in the US and a total of eleven million copies worldwide,^[49][50][51] though some sources stated the album has sold over twenty million^[4] making it her most successful album. Private Dancer also featured two more top ten singles, the rock-oriented "Better Be Good to Me" and the seductive title track while another US single, "Show Some Respect", became a modest top forty hit. Turner's comeback was culminated in early 1985 when she won four Grammy Awards including Record of the Year for "What's Love Got to Do with It". In February of that year, she embarked on her second world tour supporting the Private Dancer album, where she toured to huge crowds. One show, filmed at Birmingham, England's NEC Arena, was later released on home video. During this time she also contributed on vocals to the USA for Africa benefit song, "We Are the World".

Turner's success continued in 1985 when she appeared in her first acting role in ten years in the film, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, playing Aunty Entity, the ruler of Bartertown.^[52] Upon its release, the film grossed $36 million.^[53] Turner later received the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress for her role in the film and also contributed songs to the film's soundtrack, two of which, "We Don't Need Another Hero" and "One of the Living", became hits, with "One of the Living" later winning Turner a Grammy for Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. In July, Turner performed at Live Aid alongside Mick Jagger.^[54] Encouraged by a performance together during Tina's filmed solo concert in England, singer Bryan Adams released their duet single together, "It's Only Love", later resulting in a Grammy nod for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.

Subsequent releases[link]

Turner on tour with special guest Eric Clapton, June 17, 1987 in Wembley Arena, England

Turner returned with her next solo album, Break Every Rule, in 1986. The album quickly became platinum launching several hit singles including "Typical Male", "Two People" and "What You Get Is What You See" going on to sell two million copies in the United States and four million together worldwide. That same year, Turner published her autobiography, I, Tina, which she talked about her early life and volatile marriage to Ike Turner. She later received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame that summer. Turner's European Break Every Rule Tour, which culminated in March 1987 in Munich, contributed to record breaking sales and concert attendances. In January 1988, Turner made history alongside Paul McCartney when she performed in front of the largest paying audience (approximately 184,000) to see a solo performer in Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil earning her a Guinness World Record.^[55] The success of Turner's two live tours led to the recording of Tina Live in Europe, which was released that April. Turner lay low following the end of her Break Every Rule Tour emerging once again with Foreign Affair, which included one of Turner's signature singles, "The Best". She later embarked on an European-only tour to promote the album. While Foreign Affair would go gold in the United States, with its singles "The Best" and "Steamy Windows" becoming top forty hits there, it wasn't as successful as Turner's previous offerings, though it was hugely successful in Europe, where Turner had personally relocated.

In 1991, Ike and Tina Turner were inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Phil Spector later accepted on their behalf. That same year, the ex-couple signed away their rights to have their lives dramatized in the semi-autobiographical film, What's Love Got to Do with It, later released in 1993 and starring Angela Bassett as Tina and Laurence Fishburne as Ike, with the actors later winning Best Actress and Best Actor Academy Award nominations for their portrayals of the former husband-and-wife team. Turner contributed to the soundtrack for What's Love Got to Do with It, re-recording songs from her Ike and Tina days and recording several newer songs including what turned out to be her last top ten US hit, "I Don't Wanna Fight". Other than helping Bassett with her wardrobe and teaching her dance steps as well as providing songs for the soundtrack, she refused to be involved fully in the film, telling an interviewer "Why would I want to see Ike Turner beat me up again? I haven't dwelled on it; it's all in the past where it belongs." Following the film's and soundtrack's release, Turner embarked on her first US tour in seven years. Following the tour's end, Turner moved to Switzerland and took a year off from the road at the end of the tour.

Turner returned in 1995 with the U2 composition, "GoldenEye" for the James Bond film of the same name. Its huge success in Europe and modest success in her formerly native United States led Turner to record a new album, releasing the Wildest Dreams album in 1996. Though the album itself was not as hugely successful in the United States, thanks to a world tour and a much played Hanes hosiery commercial, the album went gold in the United States. The album reached platinum success in Europe where Turner had hits with "Whatever You Want", "Missing You", which briefly charted in the US, "Something Beautiful Remains", and the sensual Barry White duet "In Your Wildest Dreams". Following the tour's end in 1997, Turner took another break before re-emerging again in 1999 appearing on the VH-1 special Divas Live '99. In 1998 the duet with Italian superstar Eros Ramazzotti in "Cose della Vita" that became a European hit. Before celebrating her 60th birthday, Turner released the dance-infused song, "When the Heartache Is Over" and its parent album, Twenty Four Seven the following month in Europe, releasing both the song and the album in North America in early 2000. The success of "When the Heartache is Over" and Turner's tour supporting the album once again helped in the album going gold in the U.S. The Twenty Four Seven Tour became her most successful concert tour to date and became the highest-grossing tour of 2000 according to Pollstar grossing over $100 million. Later, Guinness World Records announced that Turner had sold more concert tickets than any other solo concert performer in music history.^[8][56] Afterwards Turner announced a semi-retirement.

Recent years[link]

In 2002, Tennessee State Route 19 between Brownsville and Nutbush was named "Tina Turner Highway".^[57][58][59] In 2003, she teamed up with Phil Collins to record the song "Great Spirits" for the Disney film Brother Bear.

In 2004, Turner released a new compilation, All the Best, and released the single "Open Arms". The song became a modestly successful European hit and a modest R&B hit in America. In 2005, Turner briefly performed on shows such as The Oprah Winfrey Show and The View. All the Best became Turner's first album to go platinum in the U.S. in over eleven years.

U.S. President George W. Bush congratulates Turner during a reception for the Kennedy Center Honors in the East Room of the White House on December 4, 2005. From left, the honorees are singer Tony Bennett, dancer Suzanne Farrell, actress Julie Harris, and actor Robert Redford.

At the end of the year, Turner was recognized by the Kennedy Center Honors at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. and was elected to join an elite group of entertainers.^[60] President Bush commented on Turner's "natural skill, the energy and sensuality",^[61] and referred to her legs as "the most famous in show business".^[62] Several artists paid tribute to her that night including Oprah Winfrey, Melissa Etheridge (who performed "River Deep - Mountain High", Queen Latifah (who performed "What's Love Got to Do with It"), Beyoncé (who performed "Proud Mary"), and the Reverend Al Green (who performed "Let's Stay Together"). Winfrey stated, "We don't need another hero. We need more heroines like you, Tina. You make me proud to spell my name w-o-m-a-n,"^[63] and "Tina Turner didn't just survive, she triumphed." In November, Turner released All the Best - Live Collection and it was certified platinum by the RIAA.

In early 2006, the All the Invisible Children soundtrack was released. Turner sang "Teach Me Again" from the All the Invisible Children soundtrack with Elisa charted at No. 1 in Italy. In May 2007, Turner returned to the stage to headline a benefit concert for the Cauldwell Children's Charity at London's Natural History Museum. This was her first full show in seven years. Jazz pianist Herbie Hancock released an album paying tribute to singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, entitled River: The Joni Letters on September 25, 2007, on which Turner contributed her vocals to a version of "Edith and The Kingpin". On October 16, 2007, Carlos Santana released an album entitled Ultimate Santana which featured Turner singing "The Game of Love", a song originally intended for her to sing, but which was instead released by Santana with Michelle Branch due to demands from the recording label.

On December 12, 2007, Turner issued a brief statement through a spokesperson regarding the death of her former husband Ike Turner:^[64] "Tina hasn't had any contact with Ike in more than 30 years. No further comment will be made."^[65]

Turner performed with Beyoncé at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards in February 2008. It was Turner's first major public performance since her record-breaking Twenty-Four Seven Tour.^[66][67] In addition, she picked up a Grammy as a featured artist on River: The Joni Letters. On May 5, 2008, she performed in a televised concert and interview for the Oprah show at Caesar's Place in Las Vegas with long time friend Cher.

Turner embarked on her Tina!: 50th Anniversary Tour on October 1, 2008,^[68] which began on in Kansas City, Missouri at the Sprint Center. The album, Tina!: Her Greatest Hits, was released in support of the tour.

In 2009, Turner participated in the Beyond singing project with fellow musicians Regula Curti, Seda Bagcan and Dechen Shak Dagsay. This CD combined Buddhist chants and Christian choral music along with a spiritual message read by Turner.^[69] The album was released only in Germany and a handful of other countries. It peaked at No. 7 in Switzerland. In 2011, Children Beyond followed and charted again in Switzerland.

A new live album was released by Parlophone in September 2009 entitled Tina Live. The double disc set included the full concert recorded in the Netherlands as part of her 50th Anniversary Tour on DVD and selected tracks on CD. It is only Turner's second live album with the first, Tina Live in Europe, being released twenty years previously in 1988.

In April 2010, Turner once again had a hit with her 1989 single The Best. It peaked at No.9 in the UK Singles Chart after an internet campaign by supporters of Glasgow Rangers Football Club.^[70]

Personal life[link]

Born in a farm in Nutbush, a town in Haywood County, Tennessee, Tina's parents subsequently abandoned her at a young age before reaching her teen years. She moved to Brownsville to stay with her close grandmother. After her grandmother died when she was sixteen, her mother moved her to St. Louis. Tina Turner had two sisters, Alline Selico and Evelyn Currie, both of whom are deceased. She was close to both sisters growing up and later credited Alline with introducing her to Ike Turner after taking her to Club Manhattan which Turner frequented. After Tina graduated from St. Louis' Sumner High School at 18, she became pregnant with musician Raymond Hill's child. Hill was a childhood friend of Ike Turner's and an original member of Ike's Kings of Rhythm band. After her mother kicked her out of her house after finding out about the pregnancy, Tina moved in Ike Turner's home in East St. Louis, where she remained until she and Ike relocated to Los Angeles in 1964.

Tina's accounts of her life with Ike Turner differ from his accounts: whereas Turner alleged in her memoirs, I, Tina that Ike Turner was verbally, emotionally and physically abusive towards her, Ike Turner alleged that he never beat her but did admit to "slapping her a few times" and "punching her to the ground without thinking" in his own memoirs, Taking Back My Name. In 1976, after years of alleged abuse, Tina left him after suffering a beating by Ike's hands while in Dallas.^[26] Ike Turner pursued her for half a year stopping his pursuits in 1977. Tina filed for divorce and left most of the monetary assets in Ike Turner's care while retaining the use of her stage name as a means to perform.^[39] Ike Turner later alleged that their marriage was illegal,^[26] and that Tina took his last name to discourage a former lover's attempt to reconcile with her, resulting in her full stage name of Tina Turner.^[71]

Turner was introduced to Buddhism by a friend of hers and Ike's in 1972. Turner wrote in her autobiography that she first used Buddhist chants (mainly nam myoho renge kyo) before performing at a recording session at Ike's Bolic Sounds studio and it resulted in Ike sending her money to go shopping, showing Buddhism as both a source of strength and a means of getting what she wanted. Two years later, she converted to Nichiren Buddhism and later credited the religion for getting her through the rough times especially during her post-Ike/Revue life and career.^[72] In 1985, she met her current companion, German-based music executive Erwin Bach, while at a record label party in London. They began dating a year later and have remained together since. Turner has been living in a lakehouse called Chateau Algonquin in Zurich^[73] since moving there in 1994.^[74][75] She also has had residences in London, Cologne and on the French Riviera.^[76]

Tina is a mother to four sons. His first son, Raymond Craig, was from her brief affair with Kings of Rhythm band mate Raymond Hill, born weeks before Tina's 19th birthday, in 1958. She had one more biological child, Ronald Renelle, with Ike Turner, born in October 1960. Following Tina's subsequent marriage to Ike, she raised two of Ike's eldest sons, Ike Turner, Jr. and Michael, from Ike Turner's marriage to Lorraine Taylor.

Awards and accolades[link]

Turner was listed on Rolling Stone's list "The Immortals — The Greatest Artists of All Time".^[5] Turner is a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee,^[77] and three of her recordings, "River Deep - Mountain High" (1999), "Proud Mary" (2003) and "What's Love Got To Do With It" (2012) are in the Grammy Hall of Fame.^[78] Turner has won 8 Grammy Awards.^[8]

Bryan Adams, who toured with her on the Private Dancer Tour, praised Turner's live performances, saying, "I never saw Tina walk through a performance, she always put on a great show, and was gracious and grateful to her audience."

Her legs were noted specifically as she was honored by President George W. Bush.^[79]

Discography[link]