Barnaby

* English surname of Aramaic origin, from בַּר נְבִיָּא (bar nəḇiyyā, literally “prophet’s son”).
* Also as an English surname, from Old English Beornwald, from beorn (“young warrior”) + wealdan (“rule”) + Old Norse býr (“farmstead”).

This day the sun is in his chiefest height
With Barnaby the Bright.

The name Barnaby may strike the reader as out of place in so Celtic a pedigree; but this was an anglicisation of the true name, Brian Oge - - - Now, times are altered, and his anglicised descendants will probably begin to use Brian as a family name again, rejecting Barnaby as less respectable.

1848, John O'Donovan, “The Annals of the Four Masters”, in The Dublin University Magazine, volume 31, page 577:

Barnaby liked his own name. He was proud of its differentness and would never answer to "Barney", or any other nickname.

1962, Edward Eager, Seven-Day Magic, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, published 1999, →ISBN, page 8:

But instead of pressing the button that would have taped the play she pressed the button that activated the built-in microphone and recorded a hundred and twenty minutes of hers and Barnaby's home life, which aurally consisted of 'Want a cup of tea?' 'No thanks.'

A male given name from Hebrew, from the medieval vernacular form of Barnabas.


passacaglia

en-noun

passacaglia (countable and uncountable, plural passacaglias)

Borrowed from Italian passacaglia, from Spanish pasacalle, from pasar (“to pass”) + calle (“street”).

(music) A form of historical Spanish or Italian dance characterised by a serious nature, triple metre, and use of a ground bass.


tambourine

From French tambourin (“little drum”), from French tambour (“drum”). Ultimately from Arabic طُنْبُور (ṭunbūr).

Tambourines are shy birds and do not tame easily.


contra

Folk histories record that contras were gradually displaced by the introduction of the quadrille and the new couple dances.

2001, Ellen Koskoff, editor, The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: North America, Garland Publishing, page 232:

(obsolete, US, New England, dance) A country dance.


ballerina

ballerina (plural ballerinas or ballerine)

/ˌbæləɹˈiːnə/

(nonstandard) A ballet dancer (unisex term)

A ballet dancer (unisex term)
A female ballet dancer.

Ellipsis of prima ballerina. The star female ballet performer in the company.

prima ballerina

(less common, nonstandard) A male ballet dancer; Synonym of ballerino


floss

floss (countable and uncountable, plural flosses)

Uncertain. Perhaps from Middle English *flos (attested in Middle English Flosmonger (a surname)), related to English fleece. Alternatively from French floche (“tuft of wool”), from floc, from Old French flosche (“down, velvet”), from Latin floccus (“piece of wool”), probably from Frankish *flokkō (“down, wool, flock”), from Proto-Germanic *flukkô (“down, piece of wool, flock”), from Proto-Indo-European *plewk- (“hair, fibres, tuft”).
Cognate with Old High German flocko (“down”), Middle Dutch vlocke (“flock”), Norwegian dialectal flugsa (“snowflake”), Dutch flos (“plush”) (tr=17c.).

der

(British) Spun sugar or cotton candy, especially in the phrase "candy floss".

A dance move in which the dancer repeatedly swings their arms, with clenched fists, from the back of their body to the front, on each side.


floss

en-verb

floss (third-person singular simple present flosses, present participle flossing, simple past and past participle flossed)

flosses (present singular third-person)
flossing (participle present)
flossed (participle past)
flossed (past)


floss

Origin obscure. Perhaps of North Germanic origin. Compare Norwegian flos, flus (“rind, scale, strip peeled off”).

unk

obscure

Juncus effusus
Juncus effusus#Translingual

(Northern England, Scotland) The common rush (Juncus effusus).


cheerleader

(chiefly US) A person, usually a young, attractive female, who encourages applause and cheers at a sports event, and wearing a specially-designed uniform in the official colors of the team he/she cheers for.

rasieleier

person (usually female) who encourages applause


PP

en-noun

PP (countable and uncountable, plural PPs)

promenade position
promenade position#English

(dance) Initialism of promenade position.


terpsichorean

en-adj

terpsichorean (comparative more terpsichorean, superlative most terpsichorean)

more terpsichorean (comparative)
most terpsichorean (superlative)

From Terpsichore (“the Muse of dance in Greek mythology”).

The pair danced away with great agility and contentment,—first a waltz, then a galop, then a waltz again, until, in the second waltz, they were bumped by another couple who had joined the Terpsichorean choir.

1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 47, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

This was such an entirely new view of the Terpsichorean art as socially practised, that Mrs Lammle looked at her young friend in some astonishment

1865, Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend:

They're quiet enough in the morning hours,
They're quiet enough in the afternoon,
Reserving their terpsichorean powers
To dance by the light of the Jellicle Moon.

1939, T. S. Eliot, “The Song of the Jellicles”, in Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats:

Oh, heaven forbid: I am one who delights in all manifestations of the Terpsichorean muse!


chassé

(dance) A gliding movement in dance (especially ballet) with the same foot always leading.


sashay

Verlan (or metathesis) form of French chassé, past participle of chasser (“chase”), from Latin captō, frequentative of capiō (“I take”).

A sequence of sideways steps in a circle in square dancing.


ballet

en-noun

ballet (countable and uncountable, plural ballets)

Borrowed from French ballet, from Italian balletto (“short dance, ballet”), diminutive form of ballo (“group dance”), from Late Latin ballō (“to dance”).

der

(music) A light part song, frequently with a fa-la-la chorus, common among Elizabethan and Italian Renaissance composers.


zouk

From French secouer (“to shake up”), via creole.

From 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Brooklyn’s own ReggaeLution band will perform, and at 9, D.J. Lumumba (a k a Revolution) will preside over an inclusive Caribbean dance party, from bachata to zouk and back again.

2007 August 3, The New York Times, “Dance Listings”, in New York Times:

(music) A style of dance music originating in the French Antilles, combining Latin American, African and Western disco rhythms; a dance to this music


habanera

en-noun

habanera (countable and uncountable, plural habaneras)

The music of Cuba has had a worldwide influence on forms of song and dance. René Buch who conceived and directed a musical “collage” called “¡Habana!” at the Repertorio Español on East 27th Street, points out the influence on Spain, for example, which received ‘habaneras’ and ‘contradanzas’ from Cuba; in this century, in the 1920's, the “rumba” and such songs as “El Manisero” and “Siboney” made their way north to become part of United States culture.

1982 December 27, Edward Rothstein, “Music: 40 Songs of Cuba”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, page C12:


bus stop

(education) The tableau used in short division, taught as if it were a bus stop with the digits treated as people queueing.

(mathematics, informal) "&": The two-lined right-angled symbol used to separate quotient, divisor and dividend in long division and short division

(preceded by "the") A disco dance popular in the 1970s and 1980s.

bus stop chicane
bus stop chicane#English

(motor racing) Ellipsis of bus stop chicane.


incwala

A Swazi ceremony that marks the first fruits of the harvest


DW

(dance) Initialism of diagonally to the wall.


cadence

cadence (countable and uncountable, plural cadences)

Borrowed from Middle French cadence, from Old Italian cadenza (“conclusion of a phrase of music”), from Latin *cadentia (literally “a falling”), form of cadēns, the present participle of cadō (“I fall, I cease”). The Latin verb is inherited, via Proto-Italic *kadō, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱad-e- (“to fall”, thematic present). Doublet of cadenza and chance.

der

The cadence in a galliard step refers to the final leap in a cinquepace sequence.

(dance) A dance move which ends a phrase.

závěr

(music) chord progression concluding a section or piece


bunny hug

(idiomatic) A style of early 20th-century dance, performed to ragtime music.


kolo

Borrowing from Serbo-Croatian kolo and Slovene kolo, from Proto-Slavic *kolo (“wheel”).

1942: As we came to this promenade … we heard the throbbing of a drum that announces a kolo, a communal dance. — Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (Canongate 2006, p. 660)

A national folk dance common in regions pertaining to South Slavic people, performed in a circle.


coffee grinder

(dance, gymnastics) A circular sweep of the leg around the body while supporting oneself on one's hands.


ballon

en-noun

ballon (usually uncountable, plural ballons)

Tall and slender, with a superb ballon and effortless flight in air, Malakhov […] will unquestionably have an extraordinary career.

1988 November 18, Dorothy Samachson, “Moscow Classical Ballet”, in Chicago Reader:

(ballet) The quality of a jump by which a ballet dancer appears to pause in midair


sarabande

Borrowed from French sarabande, from Spanish zarabanda.

(dance) A stately Baroque dance in slow triple time.


shake one's ass

en-verb

shake one's ass (third-person singular simple present shakes one's ass, present participle shaking one's ass, simple past shook one's ass, past participle shaken one's ass)

shakes one's ass (present singular third-person)
shaking one's ass (participle present)
shook one's ass (past)
shaken one's ass (participle past)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-shake one's ass.wav

I see you baby, shaking that ass, shaking that ass.

(informal, sometimes vulgar) To perform a dance which involves lots of movement in the buttock area.


backslide

(dance) A dance move in which the feet are alternately slid back and the heels lifted, giving the illusion of walking forwards while actually moving backwards.


ouvert

Borrowed from French ouvert. Doublet of apert and overt.

(ballet) A position in which the feet are apart, or a movement which brings them apart.


hustle

en-noun

hustle (countable and uncountable, plural hustles)

From Dutch husselen or by metathesis from Dutch hutselen (“to shake up”), a frequentative of hutsen (“to stir, to move something (back and forth)”).

(preceded by a definite article) A type of disco dance, commonly danced to the Van McCoy song The Hustle (1975).


mosh pit

If the anesthesiologist, surgeon, and circulating nurse know how to communicate with one another, a lot can get done. If not, the ballet devolves into something more like a mosh pit.

2006, Alan S. Brown, “Virtual OR”, in Mechanical Engineering, volume 128, November 2006, page 32:

The spontaneous dance floor created in front of a stage when people mosh.


boogie-woogie

boogie-woogie (countable and uncountable, plural boogie-woogies)

/ˌbʊɡiˈwʊɡi/

Reduplication of boogie (“party”), of unknown origin.

Ah, everybody was juiced, you can bet your soul / They did the boogie-woogie with a sturdy roll

1953, Ahmet Ertegun (lyrics and music), “Mess Around”, performed by Ray Charles:


pole dance

en-verb

pole dance (third-person singular simple present pole dances, present participle pole dancing, simple past and past participle pole danced)

pole dances (present singular third-person)
pole dancing (participle present)
pole danced (participle past)
pole danced (past)

She pole-dances to gospel hymns.

2008, Andrea Gibson, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns, page 7:

You know, it's that workout program where you pole dance and prance around like a stripper.

2009, Becky A. Bartness, How to Lose a Client, page 133:

I read that Cornelius Vanderbilt used to go for long walks to think. I pole danced.

Someone shouted from the background for them to pole dance.

2012, Emmy Grace, A Place in This World, page A-70:


hitchhiker

(preceded by definite article) A dance move in which the dancer mimics the motions of someone thumbing a ride.


arabesque

/ˌæɹ.əˈbɛsk/

/ˌæɹ.əˈbɛsk/

Borrowed from French arabesque, from Italian arabesco, from arabo (“Arab”). By surface analysis, Arab + -esque.

(ballet) A dance position in which the dancer stands on one leg, with the other raised backwards, and the arms outstretched.


cha

One–two–cha–cha–cha
Three–four–cha–cha–cha

(dance) Used to count out steps, particularly involving the hip-shaking sections of rhythmic Latin dances


grizzly bear

The Quantum Grizzly Bear pisses me off.

2024 May 16, very tall bart, [YTP] State of the Union, spoken by Jordan Peterson (Jordan Peterson):

Ursus arctos horribilis
Ursus arctos horribilis#Translingual

A large North American subspecies, Ursus arctos horribilis, of the brown bear.


fandango

en-noun

fandango (countable and uncountable, plural fandangos or fandangoes)

/ˈfæn.dæŋ.ɡəʊ/

Borrowed from Spanish fandango, of uncertain origin. Possibly related to Portuguese fado, or of West African origin.

Coordinate term: bolero

The soldiers were oftener gambling and dancing beneath the walls than keeping watch upon the battlements, and nothing was heard from morning till night but the noisy contests of cards and dice, mingled with the sound of the bolero or fandango, the drowsy strumming of the guitar, and the rattling of the castanets, while often the whole was interrupted by the loud brawl and fierce and bloody contest.

1829, Washington Irving, chapter XXVI, in Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada:

We skipped the light fandango / Turned cartwheels 'cross the floor

1967, “A Whiter Shade of Pale”, in Procol Harum, performed by Procol Harum:

I'm wearing a Spanish skirt so what's wrong with dancing a fandango.

2014, Rosie Harris, Looking For Love, page 179:

(music, dance) A form of lively flamenco music and dance that has many regional variations (e.g. fandango de Huelva), some of which have their own names (e.g. malagueña, granadina).


fandango

en-verb

fandango (third-person singular simple present fandangos, present participle fandangoing, simple past and past participle fandangoed)

fandangos (present singular third-person)
fandangoing (participle present)
fandangoed (participle past)
fandangoed (past)

/ˈfæn.dæŋ.ɡəʊ/


time warp

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-time warp.wav

But as the reports on the Bild investigation suggest, the company’s workplace culture may be stuck in a time warp.

2021 October 17, Ben Smith, “At Axel Springer, Politico’s New Owner, Allegations of Sex, Lies and a Secret Payment”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(science fiction) A hypothetical discontinuity in the flow of time that would uncausally move events from one time period to another.

(dance, preceded by definite article) A line dance popularized by the movie The Rocky Horror Picture Show, in which the dancers take a jump to the left, a step to the right, put their hands on their hips, bend their knees, thrust their pelvises, spin in a circle, jump forward and back, and wiggle.

(video games) Acceleration of in-game time relative to real-world time.


time warp

time warp (third-person singular simple present time warps, present participle time warping, simple past and past participle time warped)

time warps (present singular third-person)
time warping (participle present)
time warped (participle past)
time warped (past)

(intransitive) To perform the time warp dance.


dancehall

en-noun

dancehall (countable and uncountable, plural dancehalls)

→ Japanese: ダンスホール (dansuhōru)

It sounded Jamaican to me, a form of dancehall, and […] I wandered over and watched the dancing.

2016, Zadie Smith, Swing Time, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Press, →ISBN, page 271:

(uncountable, music) A genre of Jamaican dance music derived from dub and reggae.


cakewalk

From cake + walk. Originally an African-American form of dance and music that developed after the Civil War, later popularised by minstrel shows. It was danced at social events, with the best dancers often receiving cake as a prize. It derives from dance competitions by plantation slaves in which the style of dance lampooned the ballroom dances of the slaveowners. Slaveowners seem to have found the competitions entertaining and the habit of offering cake may originate from this period. The name is sometimes also applied to the dance's precursor on the plantations. Doing the cakewalk well required virtuosity, and a major esthetic aspect of that virtuosity was the apparent ease with which the dance was performed. This gave rise to the idiom as easy as a cakewalk, which in turn led to the sense of cakewalk as something that is easy.
See the linked Wikipedia article for more.

(historical) A contest in which cake was offered for the best dancers.


stomp

1803, variant of stamp. Compare German stampfen (“to stomp”). More at stamp.


chorea

chorea (countable and uncountable, plural choreas or choreae or choreæ)

choreas (plural)
choreae (plural)
choreæ (plural)

An Ancient Greek circular dance accompanied by a chorus.


tarantella

/ˌtɛɹənˈtɛlə/

/tæɹənˈtɛlə/

Borrowed from Italian tarantella, a diminutive of Taranto, a town in southern Italy (but popularly associated with tarantola (“tarantula”), on the belief that the dance was variously a result of, or cure for, its bite).

The set in which they found themselves was composed of English, and Amy was compelled to walk decorously through a cotillion, feeling all the while as if she could dance the tarantella with relish.

1868–1869, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, Little Women: […], (please specify |part=1 or 2), Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, →OCLC:

"A tarantella, I presume?" blandly suggested the doctor.
Miss Mannersley stopped, and rose carelessly from the piano. "It is a Moorish gypsy song of the fifteenth century," she said dryly.

1895, Bret Harte, The Devotion of Enriquez:

We learn to understand why our addled minds seize so little with precision, why they are caught up and tossed about in a kind of tarantella by headlines and catch-words, why so often they cannot tell things apart or discern identity in apparent differences.

1922, Walter Lippmann, “chapter v”, in Public Opinion:

A rapid dance in 6/8 time, originating in Italy, or a piece of music for such a dance.


caller

From Middle English callar, equivalent to call + -er.

(dance) The person who directs dancers in certain dances, such as American line dances and square dances.


jacks

(games) A children's game involving picking up objects; knucklebones; jackstones.


strathspey

After Strathspey, valley of the river Spey.

A Scottish dance with gliding steps, slower than a reel.


sprinkler

(preceded by definite article) A dance move in which the dancer places one hand on the head behind the ear, with elbow bent, stretches the other arm forwards and mimics the motions of an irrigation sprinkler with a rotary head.


allemande

Borrowed from French allemande (“German (dance)”).

A popular instrumental dance form in Baroque music, and a standard element of a suite, generally the first or second movement.


allemande

en-verb

allemande (third-person singular simple present allemandes, present participle allemanding, simple past and past participle allemanded)

allemandes (present singular third-person)
allemanding (participle present)
allemanded (participle past)
allemanded (past)

The gaudy splashes of lightning made it seem that some weird dance was going on, one where you threw your partner into the nearest tree instead of allemanding her, or dug your knee into his crotch instead of doing a do-si-do.


musette

2011 Tour de France
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Thor Hushovd

From both of the following:
* Late Middle English musette (“type of bagpipe”), from Middle French musette, Old French musette (“type of bagpipe”) (modern French musette), from muse (“bagpipe”) + -ette (diminutive suffix). Muse is derived from muser (“to play the bagpipe; (figuratively) to flatter”), perhaps from musel (“muzzle (protruding part of an animal’s head)”) (alluding to a bagpipe player puffing out the cheeks), from Late Latin mūsus (“muzzle”); further etymology uncertain, perhaps expressive of protruding lips and/or influenced by Latin mūgiō (“to bellow, low, moo”), from Proto-Indo-European *mug-, *mūg- (onomatopoeia of the lowing of cattle).
* Borrowed from French musette in the 18th century.
Sense 2 (“small bag or knapsack with a shoulder strap”) is due to the resemblance of the original knapsack to the bag of bagpipes.

ref

From the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, New York, U.S.A.

musette

any of various small bagpipes having a soft sound, especially with a bellows

(historical) Any of various small bagpipes having a soft sound, especially with a bellows, which were popular in France in the 17th and early 18th century.

(by extension) A pastoral air or tune that has a drone imitating such an instrument; also, a dance performed to this music.

musette

pastoral air or tune that has a drone imitating this instrument; dance performed to this music

(historical) An organ stop using reed pipes with cone-shaped resonators, found in organs in France in the 17th and 18th centuries.

musetti

A small oboe without a cap for its reed, which evolved from the chanter or pipe of bagpipes; a piccolo oboe.

(cycling):

The young gentleman had a musette over his shoulder.

1923, [Ernest Hemingway], “Out of Season”, in Three Stories […] & Ten Poems […], [Paris]: [Contact Publishing Company]; printed at Dijon by Maurice Darantière, →OCLC, page 13:

I gave them money for platform tickets and had them take my baggage. There was a big rucksack and two musettes.

1929 May–October, Ernest Hemingway, chapter 23, in A Farewell to Arms, 1st British edition, London: Jonathan Cape […], published 1929, →OCLC, book II, page 156:

Yossarian watched Chief White Halfoat pour whiskey carefully into three empty shampoo bottles and store them away in the musette bag he was packing.

1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “Yo-Yo’s Roomies”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 362:

(chiefly US, originally military) In full musette bag: a small bag or knapsack with a shoulder strap, formerly used by soldiers, and now (cycling) chiefly by cyclists to hold food and beverages or other items.


pointe

en-noun

pointe (countable and uncountable, plural pointes)

2007: Classical dance manages to get along without too many momentous events shuddering beneath its pointe work. — The Guardian 5th Jan 2007, p. 3

(ballet) The tip of the toe; a ballet position executed with the tip of the toe.


foursome reel

a form of the Scottish highland dance in which groups of four dancers alternate between solo steps facing one another and a figure-of-eight style with intertwining progressive movement.


choreography

choreography (countable and uncountable, plural choreographies)

/ˌkɔɹiˌɑɡɹəfi/

/ˌkɒɹiˌɒɡɹəfi/

Borrowed from French chorégraphie, from Ancient Greek χορεία (khoreía, “dance”) + -γραφίᾱ (-graphíā, “written form (of a word, etc.), spelling”); By surface analysis, choreo- + -graphy.

The show's singing and acting was excellent, but the choreography was dull and poorly-done.

(uncountable) The dance steps, sequences or styles peculiar to a work, group, performance or institution.


majorette

desctree

→ Cebuano: mardyoret
→ English: marjoret

/ˌmeɪ.d͡ʒəˈɹɛt/

A dancer who twirls and performs stunts with a lightweight baton, whether as a solo, in a group of majorettes, or in the company of a marching band.


excuse me

请阁讲一摆

pháiⁿ-sè, chhiáⁿ koh kóng chi̍t-pái / phái-sè, chhiáⁿ koh kóng chi̍t-pái

什物？

sím-mi̍h? / sím-mi? / sím-mih? / sīm-mi̍h? / sám-mi̍h?

It was so hot I took off my clothes and sat by the window to cool off.
Excuse me?

(Canada, US) Said, as though as a request to repeat information, in order to indicate disbelief or indignation.

Excuse me: can I get through please?

Oh, excuse me, I hadn't realized how late it was. I need to get home and make dinner.

(formal) Said as an expression of unexpected or early farewell.


excuse me

An old-fashioned type of dance where partners are constantly changed.


linearly

en-adv

linearly (comparative more linearly, superlative most linearly)

more linearly (comparative)
most linearly (superlative)

(dance) Forward or backward, as opposed to laterally or diagonally.


conga

For the dance:
* Borrowed from Spanish Congo (“Congo dance”), so-called for being of sub-Saharan African origin.

The conga dance, with its long line that might eventually sweep in everybody in the place, and the kick on the fourth beat and the fruited headdress that were to become her trademarks.

1979, John Storm Roberts, The Latin Tinge, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, pages 81–82:

(dance) A march of Cuban origin in four-four time in which people form a chain, each holding the hips of the person in front of them; in each bar, dancers take three shuffle steps and then kick alternate legs outwards at the beat; the chain weaves around the place and allows new participants to join the back of the chain.


grinding

en-noun

grinding (countable and uncountable, plural grindings)

From Middle English gryndynge, equivalent to grind + -ing.

(dance) A form of dance in which two people rub their bodies together.


double time

(dance) A dance step pattern with six steps.


coryphée

Borrowed from French coryphée, from Latin coryphaeus, from Ancient Greek κορυφαῖος (koruphaîos, “leader of the chorus in an Ancient Greek drama”), from κορῠφή (koruphḗ, “top of the head, crown”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱerh₂- (“head, top; horn”)) + -ῐος (-ios, suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘belonging to, pertaining to’).

der

Mademoiselle Coralie Montmorrillion, a talented artiste from the grand opera, at Paris, and now principal coryphée at the theatre royal— [...]

1839 March, William E[vans] Burton, “Leaves from a Life in London. No. VI. Coralie, the Coryphee.”, in William E[vans] Burton, editor, Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine and American Monthly Review, volume IV, number III, Philadelphia, Pa.: William E. Burton, […], →OCLC, page 157:

A newspaper was in his hand, joy in his eyes, and as many capers in his toes as would make the fortunes of a Coryphée.

1841 March, Phelm O’Toole, “An Irish Love Adventure”, in Bentley’s Miscellany, American edition, volume VII, New York, N.Y.: Published by Jemima M. Mason, (late Lewer,) […], →OCLC, page 241:

The Coryphées now arrive, as well as the Corps de Ballet; the former holding a higher rank and receiving a higher salary than the latter. They are pretty trim-built girls, with sallow faces and large eyes—the pallor that overspreads their features resulting from cosmetics and late hours. They work very hard, and get very little sleep; but they appear to be very merry amongst themselves for all that.

1847, Albert [Richard] Smith, “Of the Morning Rehearsal”, in The Natural History of the Ballet-girl, London: D. Bogue, […], →OCLC, page 27:

Go into the wealthiest and gayest quarters of the town and you shall see maidens of fifteen tripping along in scores with their young cheeks bechalked and bedizened in a manner that almost puts to the shame a coryphée of the grand opera.

1866 August 18, “Painted Ladies”, in The Round Table: A Saturday Review of Literature, Society, and Art, volume IV, New York, N.Y.: The Round Table Association, […], →OCLC, page 40, column 3:

The sick throw away their crutches and dance like coryphées, the enfeebled strain to lift logs and boulders, [...]

1981, T[homas] Coraghessan Boyle, Water Music, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown, →ISBN; republished New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, 2006, →ISBN, page 305:

Alarmed at what was to be performed there, New York's clergy had been threatening hellfire and damnation for weeks to all who went to see the dozens of beautiful coryphées imported from Milan, Berlin, Paris, and London in "as little as the law allows" promised by the management.

1988, Russell Sanjek, “The American Musical Theater 1865–1909”, in American Popular Music and Its Business: The First Four Hundred Years, volume II (From 1790 to 1909), New York, N.Y., Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, part 2 (1861 to 1909), page 303:

Ninette was only a sujet, a soloist, and a new-made one at that—one step up from the coryphées, and two from the quadrilles of the chorus, but not yet to the exalted status of the premier danseurs and as far from the etoiles as she was from the stars in the sky. Coryphées did not often have new shoes; one could see them backstage at rehearsal covering their old shoes with new silk, reblocking and reglueing the toes.

2007, Mercedes Lackey, chapter 1, in Reserved for the Cat (The Elemental Masters; book 5; DAW Books Collections; no. 1417), New York, N.Y.: DAW Books, →ISBN:

(ballet) A ballet dancer ranking above a member of the corps de ballet and below a soloist.


hoedown

1835–45, Americanism; hoe + down. Social gathering after work time has finished

John and Susie went to the square dance and did the hoedown.

Soon Marshall is doing an elaborate foot-to-foot jig, and then they're all bounding around. Shoulder dips. Yee-ha faces. It's an impromptu hoedown.

2012 November 15, Tom Lamont, The Guardian:

A type of American folk or square dance.


krumping

(US, especially Los Angeles) A free, expressive and energetic style of hip-hop dancing.


hucklebuck

The dance is perhaps from huckle (“hip”) + buck.

1948, Paul Williams, The hucklebuck, quoted in Talkin' that talk (1986), page 168

It's the dance you should know, when the lights are down low, / Grab your baby, then go, do the hucklebuck, do the hucklebuck, / If you don't know how to do it, boy, you're out of luck, / Push your partner out, then you hunch your back, / Have a little movement in your sacroiliac, / Wiggle like a snake, wobble like a duck, / That's the way you do it when you do the hucklebuck.

1949, Roy Alfred (lyrics), Andy Gibson (music)

1995, John W. Roberts, From Hucklebuck to Hip Hop: Social Dance in the African-American Community, →ISBN:

A rhythmic dance from the time just prior to rock and roll.

I am turtle soup, gator soup, tenderloin catfish, shrimp saute
Shrimp Samantha, fried shrimp, stuffed shrimp, peeled ice
shrimp, Crabmeat au gratin, berled crab, stuffed crab, Shrimp
Newberg, Shrimp etoufeé, Bananas Foster, Hubig’s Pies, Roman

1988, Arthur Pfister, "My Name is New Orleans", re-printed in Arthur Pfister, My Name is New Orleans: 40 Years of Poetry & Other Jazz, Margaret Media, Inc. (2009) →ISBN, page 5

So, we made soul food, hucklebucks,
corn pone, and bread pudding,
gumbo, and greyas.

2005, Mona Lisa Saloy, Red Beans and Ricely Yours: Poems, Truman State University Press, →ISBN, page 91:

We waited for the Good Humor ice cream truck to get ice cream on a stick, huckle bucks, popsicles, or vanilla or chocolate ice cream in a small cup.

2011, Beverly Jacques Anderson, Cherished Memories: Snapshots of Life and Lessons from a 1950s New Orleans Creole Village, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 47:

(New Orleans) A treat consisting of frozen Kool-Aid served in a dixie cup.


hucklebuck

en-verb

hucklebuck (third-person singular simple present hucklebucks, present participle hucklebucking, simple past and past participle hucklebucked)

hucklebucks (present singular third-person)
hucklebucking (participle present)
hucklebucked (participle past)
hucklebucked (past)

"We jumped* and boped*
and stamped around the floor,
we hucklebucked until my back is sore
but honey, wont you waltz with me once more*.

1948, Paul Williams, "The Hucklebuck", quoted in Jean-Paul Levet, Talkin' That Talk, Soul Bag (1986), page 168

The guys stood around the jukebox applejacking and hucklebucking to the music...

1957, Herbert Simmons, Corner Boy, Houghton Mifflin, published 1957, page 58:

[…] Thanks to jazz my toes don't knock no more. I cold-turkeyed to Bird doin 'Now's the Time,' and hucklebucked out a the spell of heroin. […]

1995, Wesley Brown, Tragic Magic, Ecco Press, →ISBN, page 37:

Macon hucklebucked eleven flights rather than risk one elevator stare.

2005, Adam Mansbach, Angry Black White Boy: The Miscegenation of Macon Detornay, Three Rivers Press, →ISBN, page 151:

It is only a game. I join the rhythmic clapping that always follows the fight song while the last of the players extracts himself from the stands and hucklebucks his way to join the milling, weight-shifting, pocketjammed team, […]

2011, Jay Nelson, Cold Creek, Xlibris, →ISBN, page 646:

To move quickly, with quick movements and, often, going in circles.


polonaise

Borrowed from French polonaise (“Polish”).

(dance) A stately Polish dance in triple time and moderate tempo.


maillot

Borrowed from French maillot (“shirt, leotard”).

A leotard or tights of stretchable jersey fabric, generally worn by dancers, gymnasts or cyclists.


échappé

Borrowed from French. Doublet of escapee.

A certain mystique has always been attached to his extraordinary leaps. “Suddenly a tremendous jump straight up, grand échappé, his legs firmly locked,” […]

1991, Peter F. Ostwald, Vaslav Nijinsky: A Leap Into Madness:

(ballet) A movement performed in ballet involving a leap from both feet simultaneously.


cotillion

/kəʊtɪlˈjɒ̃/

Circa 1750, in the sense of the dance, from French cotillon (“petticoat”), extended to the dance because of the distinctive lift of dress revealing the petticoat, from cotte (“dress”) + -illon (diminutive). Said to derive from the then-popular song Ma commère, quand je danse, mon cotillion va-t-il bien.

Mrs. Hughes now joined them, and asked Miss Tilney if she was ready to go. "I hope I shall have the pleasure of seeing you again soon," said Catherine. "Shall you be at the cotillion ball tomorrow?"

1803 (date written), [Jane Austen], chapter X, in Northanger Abbey; published in Northanger Abbey: And Persuasion. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: John Murray, […], 20 December 1817 (indicated as 1818), →OCLC:

The second figure [of the dance] commenced, and I made a sad bungle; so I did of the third, and fourth, and fifth, for I never had danced a cotillon.

1833, [Frederick Marryat], chapter XII, in Peter Simple. […], volume II, London: Saunders and Otley, […], published 1834, →OCLC, page 200:

(dance) A bold dance performed in groups of eight where women lift their skirts to display their ankles.

1848 I kept a parlor open for the reception of visitors, many came here to practise with me, and many more to listen to us—several young men put themselves under my tuition, and although I had never been taught myself, they progressed finely in their studies and I soon brought out, not only the best field music, but also for dinners, balls, cotilion and tea parties, weddings, &c. THRILLING SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF THE DISTINGUISHED CHIEF OKAH TUBBEE ALIAS, WM. CHUBBEE, Son of the Head Chief, Mosholeh Tubbee, of theChoctaw Nation of Indians. BY REV. L. L. ALLEN, AUTHOR OF “PENCILLINGS UPON THE RIO GRANDE,” &c. NEW YORK, 1848. ENTERED according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1848, by Okah Tubbee, alias William Chubbee, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York. AN ESSAY UPON THE INDIAN CHARACTER.http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/tubbee1848/tubbee1848.xml

(music) The music regulating the cotillion.

"Well," I answered, at first with uncertainty, then with inspiration, "he would do splendidly to lead your cotillon, if you think of having one." / "So you do not dance, Mr. Crocker?" / I was somewhat set back by her perspicuity.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 51:

At a desk outside the [Bernsteins’] door … I said, ‘Tom Wolfe,’ and sure enough, there he was, Tom Wolfe, listed on a yellow legal pad … Like any boy who has been instructed at cotillion to pay his respects to the host and hostess first … I sought out Leonard and Felicia Bernstein and introduced myself.

2018 May 29, Christopher Bonanos, “The Making of Tom Wolfe’s ‘Radical Chic’”, in Vulture:

(US) Ellipsis of cotillion ball.; a coming-of-age party meant to present girls newly transitioned into womanhood to the community for courtship.

cotillion ball

(textiles) A kind of woollen material for women's skirts.


cotillion

cotillion (third-person singular simple present cotillions, present participle cotillioning, simple past and past participle cotillioned)

cotillions (present singular third-person)
cotillioning (participle present)
cotillioned (participle past)
cotillioned (past)

/kəʊtɪlˈjɒ̃/

(intransitive, rare) To dance the cotillion.


crip

crip (third-person singular simple present crips, present participle cripping, simple past and past participle cripped)

crips (present singular third-person)
cripping (participle present)
cripped (participle past)
cripped (past)

crip up

to imitate a disabled person as a role while acting


krump

Early 21st century, probably an alteration of crunk.

Martin Douglas has several projects on the go, including a Monday evening basketball game with students and other teens in the community, as well as a weekly "krumping out crime" where students gather after school in the cafeteria to do homework, and then learn krump, the urban dance style.

2009 February 18, Kristin Rushowy, “Schools seek more police as crime drops”, in Toronto Star:

Krumping: an energetic style of hip-hop dance


Madison

en-proper noun

Madison (countable and uncountable, plural Madisons)

From Middle English Madde (“Maud”) + -son.

census-designated place
census-designated place

A locale in the United States; all named for James Madison unless otherwise indicated.

A census-designated place in Yolo County, California; named for Madison, Wisconsin.


kathakali

Borrowed from Malayalam കഥകളി (kathakaḷi).

a spectacular lyric dance drama of southern India performed with acrobatic energy and highly stylized pantomime.


balletomane

Borrowed from French balletomane. Equivalent to ballet + -o- + -mane.


jazz dance

en-noun

jazz dance (countable and uncountable, plural jazz dances)


on point

Possibly from the French "en pointe" meaning to be on the tip of the toes in ballet and reflects a higher degree of skill. "On point" also describes a degree of competence and in the military the man "on point" was at the front and most exposed position in a combat military formation, that is, the leading soldier or unit advancing through hostile or unsecured territory. In recent American youth (especially hip hop) culture, the idiom "on point" refers either to someone who possesses abundant and various qualities of competence, leadership or style, or to specific acts which demonstrate such qualities.

(ballet) On the tips of the toes; en pointe.


battu

From French battu, past participle of battre (“beat”); first attested in 1947.

(ballet, of a movement) Performed with a striking together of the legs.


quadrille

French, in sense of “group of knights”, from Spanish cuadrilla, diminutive of cuadra (“square”) (compare also cuadra (“four”)), from Latin quadra.

The movements of the other women were more or less similar to Tess's, the whole bevy of them drawing together like dancers in a quadrille at the completion of a sheaf by each, every one placing her sheaf on end against those of the rest, till a shock, or 'stitch' as it was here called, of ten or a dozen was formed.

1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented […], volume II, London: James R[ipley] Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., […], →OCLC:

(dance) A dance originating in the mid-1700s with four couples forming a square, rather much like the modern square dance.


tombé

(ballet) A movement in which a dancer falls from one leg to the other while flexing the knee.


folk dance

folk dance (countable and uncountable, plural folk dances)

Any dance traditionally performed by the common people of a specific region.


corroboree

He reached home, and lived long enough to hear the natives wailing in a Death Corroboree over his late comrade.

1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter IV, in Capricornia, page 52:

A song or chant made for such a festivity.


paso doble

Borrowed from Spanish pasodoble, from paso doble (“double step”).

A fast Spanish ballroom dance in double time.


B-boy

(slang) A male who performs b-boying or breaking, commonly called breakdance; a breaker.


moonwalk

From Moon + walk.
* (backslide): Coined by Michael Jackson in 1983, when popularizing the backslide and renaming it.

(dance) A dance move in which the dancer slides backwards though the feet move as if walking forwards; the backslide.

Though the idea of placing wacky made-up characters in a real-life context was carried over from Da Ali G Show—wherein Buzz Aldrin was once asked if he was upset that Michael Jackson got all the credit for inventing the moonwalk—Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat felt like something new, an attempt to square an improvised, guerrilla style of underground comedy with reality-TV stunt shows like Jackass or Fear Factor.

2012 May 15, Scott Tobias, “Film: Reviews: The Dictator”, in The Onion AV Club:

(dance) A dance style in which the dancer appears to be moving in a low gravity environment.


moonwalk

en-verb

moonwalk (third-person singular simple present moonwalks, present participle moonwalking, simple past and past participle moonwalked)

moonwalks (present singular third-person)
moonwalking (participle present)
moonwalked (participle past)
moonwalked (past)

(intransitive, dance) To perform the moonwalk.


batterie

Borrowed from French batterie, from battre (“to hit”). Doublet of battery.

(dance) A brilliant display of virtuosity in which the dancer's legs open and close rapidly while in the air, with the illusion of striking together and rebounding.


Charleston

From Charles + -ton. The places are named after various men named "Charles"; see definitions below.

A number of places in the United States:

A city, the county seat of Coles County, Illinois; after Charles Morton, its first postmaster.

Charleston County
Charleston County#English

A city, the county seat of Charleston County, South Carolina; after Charles II of England.

The capital city of West Virginia, United States and the county seat of Kanawha County; perhaps after Charles Clendenin, the father of an early settler.


Macarena

/ˌmækəˈɹeɪnə/

/ˌmɑkəˈɹeɪnə/

From the Spanish female given name Macarena, which is the title of a well-known song from 1993 by Spanish duo Los del Río.

Oh yeah, they were doing the Macarena up and down Saint Peter’s back in twelve ninety-two.

2000 January 15, Peter Sagal, “Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me!”, in National Public Radio:

(often preceded by definite article) A particular line dance with a set of simple arm movements and exaggerated hip motion performed to a fast Latin rhythm.


popping

en-noun

popping (countable and uncountable, plural poppings)

filtered-popping recursive transition network

A style of funk dance involving rapid contractions and relaxations of the muscles to switch between poses.


splits

(dance, cheerleading, gymnastics) A maneuver in which the legs are extended straight out and perpendicular to the body, either to the sides or in front and behind.


cha-cha

From Cuban/Latin American Spanish cha-cha, imitative of the music.

onomatopoeic

imitative

(dance) A ballroom dance to a Latin American rhythm.


posé

This perversion illustrates a tendency on the part of even educated people to call everything which is posé or exhibitional in action by the name of Delsarte.

1897 June, “Perversions of Delsarte”, in S.S. Curry, editor, Expression: A Quarterly Review of Art, Literature, and the Spoken Word:

Dégagé with the right foot, the left; posé on point: coupé with the right foot behind, left foot in fondu; small développé to the side with the left foot, the right foot posé on point;

The dance opens with a développé posé fondu in arabesque followed by a step back.

2005, Gay Morris, Moving Words: Re-Writing Dance, page 19:

A classical ballet syllabus has a similar structure, where steps are grouped together into sets such as posé, jeté, batterie etc.

2016, Maratt Mythili Anoop, Varun Gulati, Scripting Dance in Contemporary India, page 165:

(ballet, dance) Held in position for a prolonged period.


relevé

(ballet) A position in which the dancer rises to the ball of the feet from demi plié to balance on one or both feet. Can be done on demi-pointe, or full pointe


running man

(preceded by definite article) A dance move popular in the late 1980s to early 1990s, characterized by running movements done in place with hands going in an alternating forward-backward motion.


hornpipe

From Middle English hornpipe, hornpype, hornepipe, equivalent to horn + pipe; so called because the bell at the open end was sometimes made of horn.

(music) A musical instrument consisting of a wooden pipe, with holes at intervals.

A solo dance commonly associated with seamen, involving kicking of the legs, with the arms mostly crossed.

A hard-shoe solo dance commonly performed in Irish stepdance, usually danced in 2/4 time.


gavotte

From French, from Provençal gavoto (“dance of the mountain people”), from Old Occitan Gavot (“Alp native”), literally “glutton, boor,” from gaver (“force feed”), from Old Provençal gava (“crop”); attested since the 1690s.

der

A French dance, in either 4/4 or 2/2 time.


gavotte

en-verb

gavotte (third-person singular simple present gavottes, present participle gavotting, simple past and past participle gavotted)

gavottes (present singular third-person)
gavotting (participle present)
gavotted (participle past)
gavotted (past)

You had one eye in the mirror as / you watched yourself gavotte / And all the girls dreamed that they'd be your partner / They'd be your partner, and / You're so vain

1972, Carly Simon (lyrics and music), “You're so Vain” (0:36 from the start) (audio recording), performed by Carly Simon, Rhino/Elektra, published 2017:


pompom

A decorative ball made of pieces of soft fabric bound at the centre, most notably used in cheerleading.


cancan

They formed up, in perfect silence, in two lines, facing each other between us and the fire, and then the dance - a sort of infernal and fiendish cancan - began.

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

A high-kicking chorus line dance originating in France.


FDC

(dance) Initialism of facing diagonally to the center.


tendu

(ballet) A move in which the leg and foot stretch to point in a particular direction, but the foot does not leave the floor


two-step

The dancing shadows on the wall / (The two-step in the hall)

1977, Jeff Lynne (lyrics and music), “Turn to Stone”, performed by Electric Light Orchestra:

(dance) A ballroom dance in duple time, having long, sliding steps.

(dance) A dance move consisting of two steps in approximately the same direction onto the same foot, separated by a joining or uniting step with the other foot.


choreographer

"More and more, the shrewdest thinkers and artists are precocious archeologists of ... ruins-in-the-making, indignant or stoical diagnosticians of defeat, enigmatic choreographers of the complex spiritual movements useful for individual survival in an era or permanent apocalypse."

1969 July 13, Lawrence M. Bensky, “Susan Sontag, Indignant, Stoical, Complex, Useful -- and Moral”, in The New York Times:

Chandralekha, a choreographer from Madras, India, has been described as a counterculturalist who draws on elements of classical Indian dance like Bharata Natyam and on Western modern dance.

1994 December 9, Jennifer Dunning, “DANCE REVIEW; Merging Body and Spirit To Produce a Single Essence”, in The New York Times:


siciliana

(dance) A Sicilian dance, resembling the pastorale, set to a slow and graceful melody in 12-8 or 6-8 measure.


zamacueca

An ancient colonial dance and music that originated in the Viceroyalty of Peru, taking its roots from African, Spanish, and Andean rhythms.


roundelay

From Middle French rondelet, diminutive of Old French rondel (French: rondeau). Ending -lay either from lay (“ballad or sung poem”), or from virelay.

It fell upon a holly eve,
Hey ho, hollidaye!
When holly fathers wont to shrieve,
Now gynneth this roundelay.

1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC:

When merry milkmaids click the latch
And rarely smells the new-mown hay,
And the cock hath sung beneath the thatch
Twice or thrice his roundelay,
Twice or thrice his roundelay;
Alone and warming his five wits,
The white owl in the belfry sits.

1830, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Poems, Chiefly Lyrical, Song - The Owl:

"Ay, fool," said Tristram, "but 'tis eating dry
To dance without a catch, a roundelay
To dance to." Then he twangled on his harp,
And while he twangled little Dagonet stood
Quiet as any water-sodden log
Stay'd in the wandering warble of a brook;[…]

1859, Alfred Tennyson, “(please specify the page)”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC:

For then the little birds do sing their sweetest song, all joining in one joyous medley, whereof one may scarce tell one note from another, so multitudinous is that pretty roundelay;[…]

1903, Howard Pyle, “Chapter First”, in The Story of King Arthur and His Knights, Part II, page 61:

(music) A poem or song having a line or phrase repeated at regular intervals.


odori

An energetic Japanese style of folk dance.


watusi

Baby, baby, that's the way it goes
 Nothing happens when you Mash Potatoes
 I just gotta fall in love with you
Watusi is the dance to do
 Wah-a, wah, wah-a Watusi
 C'mon and take a chance and get-a with this dance.

1962, “The Wah-Watusi”, Kal Mann and Dave Appell (lyrics), performed by The Orlons:

Twist it in the alley
 With long tall Sally
 Twistin' with Lucy
 Doin' the watusi.

1962, “Land of a Thousand Dances”, Chris Kenner (lyrics), performed by Chris Kenner:

A popular African-inspired dance of the 1960s, fueled by the success of the song The Wah-Watusi by The Orlons in 1962.

A Christmas firework popular in the Philippines, made with yellow phosphorus, potassium chlorate, potassium nitrate, and trinitrotoluene.


watusi

watusi (third-person singular simple present watusis, present participle watusiing, simple past and past participle watusied)

watusis (present singular third-person)
watusiing (participle present)
watusied (participle past)
watusied (past)

[…] but in the middle of it all will be some preposterous, highly charged, not to mention boob-driven image of some chick watusiing away atop an oil rig.

2005, Jimmy McDonough, Big bosoms and square jaws: the biography of Russ Meyer, king of the sex film:


glissade

A sliding, as down a snow slope in the Alps (Wikipedia).

(ballet) A gliding step beginning and ending in a demi-plié in second position (Wikipedia).

A move in some dances such as the galop (Wikipedia).

(fencing) A fencing move that may disarm the opponent (Wikipedia).


choreology

From Ancient Greek χορεία (khoreía, “dance”) + -logy.

The study of the aesthetic and science of forms of dance and other human movement, by means of notation.


ticking

An illusional style of dance where one moves his or her body to the "tic" of the music creating a strobe or animated effect.


lancers

A traditional dance for eight or sixteen couples, originating from a 19th century quadrille.


humppa

en-noun

humppa (countable and uncountable, plural humppas)

A type of music from Finland, related to jazz and very fast foxtrot.


slam-dance

en-verb

slam-dance (third-person singular simple present slam-dances, present participle slam-dancing, simple past and past participle slam-danced)

slam-dances (present singular third-person)
slam-dancing (participle present)
slam-danced (participle past)
slam-danced (past)


mashed potato

en-noun

mashed potato (countable and uncountable, plural mashed potatoes)

Potato that has been boiled and mashed to a pulpy consistency.


boogaloo

boogaloo (countable and uncountable, plural boogaloos)

/ˈbuːɡəˌluː/

/ˌbuːɡəˈluː/

Attested as a style of dance since at least January 1966 (and found in the titles of many songs around that time), perhaps from boogie (for the ending, compare crackaloo, hullabaloo). (Compare Spanish bugalú, the Spanish name for the style of music and dance.) Kent Harris used the stage name "Boogaloo" in the 1950s. The sense "sequel or repetition" refers to the title of Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo (1984), a sequel which was considered to be so bad it became a cult classic. Compare the sense "black person" to boogalee, a term for a Cajun, attested since 1960 or earlier.

(music, uncountable) A genre of music that blends rhythm and blues and soul music with Cuban-style rhythms, originating in the United States in the 1960s.

A type of freestyle, improvisational street dance incorporating soulful steps and robotic movements, originally danced to funk and disco, but later more commonly to hip-hop.

Today, boogaloo has seeped out of the gaming community and found fertile ground in militant fringe movements. That includes anarchists and others on the far left. But it's especially popular among right-wing militias and self-described patriot groups.

2020 January 10, Hannah Allam, “'Boogaloo' Is The New Far-Right Slang For Civil War”, in NPR:

This month, the party involved itself once again with the boogaloo movement, when Cohen spoke at a gun rights rally co-hosted by a self-described “boogaloo boy” in Richmond, Virginia. Cohen used his speech to argue relaxing gun laws could end police violence.

2020 August 23, Adam Gabbatt, “The Libertarian party was up and coming in 2016. What happened?”, in The Guardian:

(Internet slang, US politics) A hypothetical second American Civil War, in which far-right or antigovernment activists rise up against the government.


bolero

Edward's attention was at first rivetted on two dancers engaged in their graceful national dance, the bolero. What a blessing to a people is a climate that encourages out-of-door amusement!

1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXII, in Romance and Reality. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 335:

(dance) A lively Spanish dance in 3/4 time; also an unrelated slower-tempo dance of Cuban origin, in 2/4 time.


bhangra

bhangra (countable and uncountable, plural bhangras)

From Punjabi ਭੰਗੜਾ (bhaṅgṛā) / بَھن٘گْڑا (bhaṉgṛā), from ਭੰਗ / بَھن٘گ (bhaṉg, “hemp”) + ـڑا (-ṛā).

suffix

ਭੰਗ / بَھن٘گ

Any style of electronic dance music (EDM) influenced by the musics of the Indian subcontinent.


beguine

From American French béguine, from French béguin.

When they begin the beguine, / It brings back the sound of music so tender / It brings back the night of tropical splendor, / It brings back a memory ever green.

1956, Langston Hughes, I Wonder as I Wander, 2003, Arnold Rampersad, Dolan Hubbard (editors), The Collected Works of Langston Hughes, Volume 14: Autobiography, page 69,
It was a haunting kind of beguine with a strange sad lyric about slavery and freedom set against insistent drums and voluptuous maracas:

He is especially fascinated by the chacha, the percussion instrument that sets the basic rolling rhythmic foundation of the beguine and propels the dancers, writing that “the tempo is set by a shiny tin container filled with pebbles.[…]″

2003, Brent Hayes Edwards, The Practice of Diaspora, page 174:

A ballroom dance, similar to a slow rumba, originally from French West Indies and popularized abroad largely through the song "Begin the Beguine"; the music for the dance.


courante

(music) The second movement of a baroque suite (following the allemande, and before the sarabande)


contra dance

[T]he Duchess, and the dandies, and the member's wife and all the rest of their tribulations, were happily hidden from the view by the towering bouquets of the gold plateau vases at the head of the room. [...] A contra-dance after supper was felt to be a national duty; but behind those fatal vases a plot had already been concocted by the recondites for rewarding their previous self-denial, not by a quadrille, but a galoppe.

1836, [Catherine Gore], chapter VIII, in Mrs. Armytage; or, Female Domination. […] In Three Volumes, volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 134:

(dance) A type of folk dance style in which couples dance in two facing lines of indefinite length.


morris dance

Thought to be from Moorish + dance. The German Moriskentanz is a cognate.

A traditional English folk dance performed by a team of costumed dancers, often men but also men and women together or women only, who often wield sticks or handkerchiefs.


galliard

en-noun

galliard (countable and uncountable, plural galliards)

A lively dance, popular in 16th- and 17th-century Europe.

(music) The triple-time music for this dance.

(uncountable, Continental printing, dated) An intermediate size of type alternatively equated with brevier (by Didot points) or bourgeois (by Fournier points and by size).


galliard

en-adj

galliard (comparative more galliard, superlative most galliard)

more galliard (comparative)
most galliard (superlative)


flatfoot

From flat + foot. Piecewise doublet of platypus.

(medicine, chiefly in the plural) A condition in which the arch of the foot makes contact with the ground.

(colloquial, archaic, derogatory, law enforcement) (plural typically flatfoots) A policeman.


flatfoot

en-verb

flatfoot (third-person singular simple present flatfoots, present participle flatfooting, simple past and past participle flatfooted)

flatfoots (present singular third-person)
flatfooting (participle present)
flatfooted (participle past)
flatfooted (past)

And even if they didn't know about her they might know this was his old neighborhood and go flatfooting around asking.

1936, John Thomas McIntyre, Steps going down, page 19:

Meanwhile, a bobby placidly flatfooting his beat a few feet away recognized Marlene under the street lamp and naturally assumed the girls had too, and were merely trying to get her autograph.

1956, Lee Mortimer, Around the World Confidential, page 38:

I'd spent a very long day flatfooting it round housing estates near Old Street, looking for a twelve-year-old boy who I'd never managed to find though the police eventually had, two weeks later.

2017 -, Adam Baron, SuperJack: A totally gripping thriller with a twist you won’t see coming, →ISBN:

To walk around in the course of work, especially when investigating.

Casewell, George, and Steve had the crowd flatfooting across the floor in no time.

2014, Sarah Loudin Thomas, Appalachian Serenade (Appalachian Blessings): A Novella, →ISBN:

To dance in the style of Appalachian clogging.


cheerleading

Since its inception in the late 19th century, cheerleading has evolved from yelling encouragement on the sidelines to a competitive hybrid of gymnastics, dance and acrobatics.

2020 November 29, Tess DeMeyer, Ilana Panich-Linsman, “The College Athletes Who Are Allowed to Make Big Bucks: Cheerleaders”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

A physical activity in which cheerleaders organize elements of dance, gymnastics, and tumbling for judgment or to cheer on a team.


garba

en-noun

garba (countable and uncountable, plural garbas)

Borrowed from Gujarati ગરબા (garbā). Doublet of Delphos.

A form of dance from the state of Gujarat in India, performed in a circle often around a lamp.


Schuhplattler

A folk dance from Bavaria and Austria in which the thighs and the soles of the shoes are slapped.


rigadoon

From French rigaudon. Ultimate origin unknown; perhaps related to Hebrew ריקודים or Arabic رقص.

(dance) A quickstep dance for two people.


cut a rug

en-verb

cut a rug (third-person singular simple present cuts a rug, present participle cutting a rug, simple past and past participle cut a rug)

cuts a rug (present singular third-person)
cutting a rug (participle present)
cut a rug (participle past)
cut a rug (past)

Young-generation patrons seem to be as fascinated watching the more mature dancers cut a rug.

1991 December 15, Ron Alexander, “A Step Back to Supper Clubs and Swing”, in New York Times, retrieved 2008-09-15:

Came here to get ya, but I can't wait / To grab me a partner and cut a rug up tonight

2002, “Boogie 2nite”, in Southern Hummingbird, performed by Tweet:

The way you can cut a rug, watching you's the only drug I need.

2009, “Hey, Soul Sister”, in Save Me, San Francisco, performed by Train:

Let's dance / Cut a rug together / Looking at forever / It's the way that I want it to be

2012, “Last Days of Disco”, performed by Saint Etienne:

Shake it up, throw your hands up and get loose / Cut a rug, lean into the fuckin' youth

2017, “When The World Was At War We Kept Dancing”, in Lust for Life, performed by Lana Del Rey:

(idiomatic) To dance, especially in a vigorous manner and in one of the dance styles of the first half of the twentieth century.


tap-dancer

(dance) Someone who performs a tap dance.


tap dance

A rhythmic dance in which the heels and toes of the dancer's shoes make a series of clicks.


pavane

→ Welsh: pafán

From French pavane, from dialectal Italian pavana, contraction of the older padovana, feminine of padovano, meaning from the city of Padua (Italian Padova, dialectal form Pava).

Why then be merry; be merry, or I’le be
Out of humour, and then who shall dance the Pavan
With Ossorio?

1664, Thomas Porter, The Carnival, London: Henry Herringman, act II, scene 1, page 25:

From the wings I heard and watched the pavane of tragedy move steadily toward its climax.

1969, Maya Angelou, chapter 33, in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, New York: Bantam, published 1971, pages 218–219:

(music, dance) A moderately slow, courtly processional dance in duple time/meter.


twerk

Onomatopoeic, possibly coined by Roger Tory Peterson.

Note of male on territory, a loud kurr or twerk.

1961, Roger Tory Peterson, A Field Guide to Western Birds, page 67:

An abrupt call, such as that made by the California quail.


mudra

The king of creation would not have curved his palm into the likeness of a Hindu mudra in an attempt to protect the tiny launching pad on his thumbnail from the dank wind.

1996 [1994], Andrew Bromfield, Crystal World, translation of original by Victor Pelevin:

For the next few minutes, the audience had sat mesmerized as the sisters performed, fingertips joining and parting in mudras, eyebrows quivering.

2023, Santanu Bhattacharya, One Small Voice, Fig Tree, page 109:

(dance, art) Any of several formal symbolic hand postures used in classical dance of India and in Hindu and Buddhist iconography.


ballerino

/ˌbæləɹˈiːnoʊ/

As aware as you are, though, consider how much more keenly the leaping ballerinas and ballerinos of the world feel the tow with every move they make.

2007 June 17, David Colman, “The Merman of La Scala”, in New York Times:

The star male ballet performer of a company.


pizzica

With strings, accordion, flute and lots of tambourine, it pays particular attention to the pizzica, a galloping six-beat dance related to the tarantella and long used as a faith-healing cure for spider bites.

2007 January 19, The New York Times, “Pop and Rock Listings”, in New York Times:

(dance) A popular traditional dance of Italy, originating on the Salento peninsula.


merengue

merengue (third-person singular simple present merengues, present participle merenguing, simple past and past participle merengued)

merengues (present singular third-person)
merenguing (participle present)
merengued (participle past)
merengued (past)

From American Spanish merengue, from French meringue. Doublet of meringue.

(intransitive) To dance to merengue music.


galop

From French galop; named after the fastest running gait of a horse (see gallop), a shortened version of the original term galoppade.

A lively French country dance of the nineteenth century, a forerunner of the polka, combining a glissade with a chassé on alternate feet, usually in a fast 2/4 time.


branle

From French branler (“to shake”); see further at brawl, etymology 2.

A dance of French origin dating from the 16th century, performed by couples in a circle or a line; the music for this dance.


cooch

(US, obsolete) The hootchy-kootchy, a type of erotic dance.


disco ball

/ˈdɪskəʊ ˌbɔːl/

A suspended rotating mirrored sphere which casts moving spots of light across a room when light is projected on it.


toyi-toyi

Seemingly from Northern Ndebele [Term?], but the ultimate origin is unclear.

(South Africa, Zimbabwe) A dance from southern Africa, used especially during political protests.


nautch

Borrowed from Hindustani नाच / ناچ (nāc).

‘We will punish no one, no one,’ he repeated, ‘and in the evening we will give a great banquet with a nautch, and lovely girls shall shine on every side of the tank […].’

1924, EM Forster, A Passage to India, Penguin, published 2005, page 65:

A dance in South Asia, performed by professional dancing girls.


bunny hop

(chiefly US, idiomatic) A dance from the big band era, a variation of the conga, in which dancers made small jumps with feet together.

The first baseman misplays the bunny hop, so all runners are safe.

(baseball) A ground ball that hops along the field instead of rolling.

An exercise whereby the person crouches on their haunches and then extends their legs and springs up, jumping vertically into the air like a rabbit hopping.


bunny hop

bunny hop (third-person singular simple present bunny hops, present participle bunny hopping, simple past and past participle bunny hopped)

bunny hops (present singular third-person)
bunny hopping (participle present)
bunny hopped (participle past)
bunny hopped (past)

first-person shooter
first-person shooter

(video games) to jump repeatedly while making contact with ground for as little time as possible, often combined with air strafing, especially in first-person shooters.


hopak

1925–30, from Ukrainian гопа́к (hopák), from the interjection гоп (hop).
Compare Ukrainian го́пати (hópaty), го́пкати (hópkaty), гопцюва́ти (hopcjuváty), го́пки (hópky), and dated Ukrainian го́пи (hópy, “dance steps”), го́пка (hópka, “child (jocular)”).

Somewhere an accordion was playing a jazz-inflected hopak.

2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 1213:


line dance

A dance in which a group of people perform the same dance moves synchronously while in one or more lines.


fouetté

Sometimes, when they were drinking, Goran would get up from the floor and do a pirouette or a fouetté, for a moment so graceful and beautiful that it hurt to look at him.

2023, Brandon Taylor, The Late Americans, Jonathan Cape, page 143:

(ballet) A ballet move in which either the body or the working leg is whipped around forcefully.


chorus line

A line of performers in a revue or other show, dancing in unison.

芭蕾舞團

a line of performers in a revue or other show, dancing in unison


lindy

Probably from Lindy, the nickname of US aviator Charles A. Lindbergh.

A jitterbug, originated in Harlem, New York.


bourrée

A baroque dance of French origin, common in Auvergne and Biscay in Spain in the 17th century.


farandole

From French farandole, from Occitan farandola.

"My tastes," he said, still smiling, "incline me to the garishly sunlit side of this planet." And, to tease her and arouse her to combat: "I prefer a farandole to a nocturne; I'd rather have a painting than an etching; Mr. Whistler bores me with his monochromatic mud; I don't like dull colours, dull sounds, dull intellects;[…]."

1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VIII, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

In another corner fragments of the town band tried hard to assemble a farandole, for this type of folklore seemed appropriate to a nationalist and patriotic celebration.

1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance (The Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 2004, page 953:

A lively chain dance in 6/8 time, of Provençal origin.


cambré

(ballet) A bending at the waist in any direction, forward, backward, or to the side


schottische

From French schottish, schotisch, from German schottisch (“Scottish, Scotch”).

A partnered country dance of Bohemian origin.


throwdown

Deverbal from throw down. Fight and music senses from earlier idiom throw down the gauntlet (“issue a challenge”).

(slang, wrestling) A fall, indicating defeat.

(slang) A fight or brawl; or, a challenge or incitement to fight.

a hip-hop throwdown

(slang, hip-hop) A performance by a rapper or DJ that is intended to be particularly hardcore or intense.


gigue

an Irish dance, derived from the jig, used in the Partita form (Baroque Period).


madison

Madison (dance)
Madison Avenue
Madison Square Garden
madison (cycling)

The cycling race is named after the original Madison Square Garden in New York, where the first such events were held. The dance is reportedly named after Madison Avenue, also in New York.


sis boom bah

(US, cheerleading) An exclamation of encouragement.


carmagnole

/ˌkɑːmənˈjəʊl/

18th-century, borrowed from French carmagnole, named after Carmagnole, the French name of the northwestern Italian town of Carmagnola.

dancing a devil's dance to the diabolical music of the carmagnole

1903, John Coleman, Charles Reade As I Knew Him:

(historical) A popular Red Republican song and dance, of the time of the first French Revolution.


huapango

A fast, rhythmic Mexican dance for couples.


dancy

en-adj

dancy (comparative dancier or more dancy, superlative danciest or most dancy)

dancier (comparative)
more dancy (comparative)
danciest (superlative)
most dancy (superlative)

I'm feeling a bit dancy today.

Gear up for a bit of a walk—five whole minutes to The George on S. George St. We're all loosened up and ready to get a little dancey at this thoroughly festive gay club.

2018, Julia Bunte-Mein, Let's Go Europe (Let's Go), fifth-eighth edition, Cambridge, M.A.: Let's Go, Inc., →ISBN, page 393:


bump and grind

en-noun

bump and grind (countable and uncountable, plural bump and grinds)

"There's inevitably a bump and grind when someone new comes into an established organization," says former senior adviser Rahm Emanuel.

1998 November 19, Lloyd Grove, John Harris, “Crisis Quarterback: Gregory Craig Is Calling the Plays On Clinton's Team”, in Washington Post, retrieved 2008-08-07, page D01:

The typical bump and grind of short-track racing at Bristol Motor Speedway met with the panicked push of the final races of the Nascar Nextel Cup.

2005 August 29, Viv Bernstein, “Victory Gives Kenseth a Shot at the Chase”, in New York Times, retrieved 2008-08-07:

(by extension) A combination of movements resembling such a dance, as in road racing, whitewater kayaking, or exercising; any activity involving prolonged jarring or shaking.


somatics

(dance) Movement practices which emphasize the dancer's sensations, or which incorporate somatic therapies.


kwassa kwassa

Perhaps from the French quoi ça? (“what is it?”).

A dance rhythm from the Congo (DRC), where the hips move back and forth while the hands move to follow the hips.


cotton reel

A Scottish highland country dance. A 4x40 bar reel for 4 couples in a 4-couple longwise set.


country dance

(dance) Any set step routine group dance such as ceilidh dance, highland dance, line dance, barn dance or square dance.


highland dance

en-verb

highland dance (third-person singular simple present highland dances, present participle highland dancing, simple past and past participle highland danced)

highland dances (present singular third-person)
highland dancing (participle present)
highland danced (participle past)
highland danced (past)


barn dance

A type of set step routine dancing, such as square dance.


ceilidh dance

(dance) A type of Scottish dance involving set-step routines, traditionally engaged in at a ceilidh.


ceilidh dance

ceilidh dance (third-person singular simple present ceilidh dances, present participle ceilidh dancing, simple past and past participle ceilidh danced)

ceilidh dances (present singular third-person)
ceilidh dancing (participle present)
ceilidh danced (participle past)
ceilidh danced (past)

(intransitive, dance) To take part in a ceilidh dance (noun sense).


soft shoe

Between Mr. O'Connor and Mr. Newley there's a delightful exhibition of the dances and their origin dating gack a few hundred years, from the clog to the buck, the wing, and the buck and wing, and on to the old soft shoe and more.

1966 Jan. 15, "Sunday (TV listings)," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, p. 19 (retrieved 5 Oct 2008)

Like the technically astounding and spiritually hollow production numbers, however, [Emily] Blunt can't situate the sentimental energy in a deeper foundation. Her excellence gets left in a sort of vacuum when paired with the fully extraneous train wreck of a visit with Meryl Streep as kooky Poppins cousin Topsy or some discomfiting soft shoe from a creaky Dick Van Dyke.

2018 December 12, Charles Bramesco, “A Spoonful of Nostalgia Helps the Calculated Mary Poppins Returns Go Down”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2019-05-24:

(performing arts) A kind of tap dancing performed in soft-soled shoes, popular in vaudeville.

Is the salesman's soft-shoe appropriate in a time of national mourning?

2001 November 26, Adam Piore, “Red, White And What A Deal!”, in Newsweek, retrieved 2014-05-01:

(idiomatic) A speech, explanation, sales pitch, or other set of remarks delivered in a restrained or conciliatory manner in order to persuade, distract, or otherwise influence someone.


soft shoe

(usually hyphenated) Of or pertaining to this kind of dancing.

Occasionally criticized for his soft-shoe approach (e.g., he urged the President to avoid a public squabble with Joe McCarthy), Persons nonetheless won many a legislator over to the Administration side.

1958 October 6, “Mellow Man in Charge”, in Time, retrieved 2008-10-05:

(idiomatic) Casual, low-key, easy-going.


soft shoe

soft shoe (third-person singular simple present soft shoes, present participle soft shoeing, simple past and past participle soft shoed)

soft shoes (present singular third-person)
soft shoeing (participle present)
soft shoed (participle past)
soft shoed (past)


chaconne

From French chaconne, from Spanish chacona, likely from Basque chucun (“pretty”).

(music) The music for such a dance, often containing variations on a theme.


flamenco guitar

en-noun

flamenco guitar (plural flamenco guitars)

(music) A type of acoustic guitar with reduced internal bracing and thinner tops. It is used mainly in the performance of toques, the guitar part of flamenco music.


dance card

Hotel Galvez
University of Houston Libraries

From dance + card (“flat, normally rectangular piece of stiff paper, etc.; list of scheduled events, etc.”).

ref

From Special Collections, University of Houston Libraries, Houston, Texas, USA.

compound

How could your dance card be full already, Martha? You just got here.

[…] A. E. Chasmar & Co, Art Stationers and Engravers, 734 Broadway, N.Y. Makers of Fine Engraved work, Artistic Menus, Dance Cards and Souverniers.^([sic – meaning Souvenirs]) One of our specialties is the Exact Reproduction of Jeweled Society Pins on Menus, Dance Cards, etc.

1886 December, “Advertisements”, in Amherst Literary Monthly, volume I, number 6, Amherst, Mass.: Senior Class at Amherst College, →OCLC:

[A]t the Belvedere dance on Friday he came and implored me to tell him what colour Lady Blebbins was wearing. It was hyacinth and daffodil faille—the simplest thing, but he was awfully at a loss, poor fellow! And afterwards I saw him put it down on the back of his dance-card.

1893, Sara Jeannette Duncan, chapter XII, in The Simple Adventures of a Memsahib, London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, page 142:

Another peculiar custom of the promenade is the way in which a young woman's dance card is filled up. When a young man invites a young woman to the Junior Promenade he usually does it some months beforehand. As soon as it is settled that she is to come he makes plans for her pleasure by securing for her agreeable partners. In order to facilitate this, preliminary dance cards are issued, and for several weeks before the promenade men are busy in exchanging dances with one another. Thus the young woman's card is entirely filled long before she and her chaperon set foot in New Haven.

1895 February, Walter Camp, “A Junior Promenade”, in James H. Worman, editor, Outing: An Illustrated Monthly Magazine of Sport, Travel and Recreation, volume XXV, number 5, New York, N.Y., London: The Outing Company, →OCLC, page 399:

But all that you are sure of is that your escort offers you his arm with a smile and a stiff bow, that you walk nervously up the winding stairs, step into a dazzle of light, where members of the dance committee are running hither and thither with dance-cards and girls, and where patronesses are smiling, bowing, looking stately, holding their fans, and doing whatever patronesses usually do.

1895, Jesse Lynch Williams, “When Girls Come to Princeton”, in Princeton Stories, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, pages 200–201:

[[Episode 1: Telemachus], page 10] Her secrets: old feather fans, tassled dancecards, powdered with musk, a gaud of amber beads in her locked drawer. […] [page 423] In a onepiece evening frock executed in moonlight blue, a tinsel sylph's diadem on her brow with her dancecard fallen beside her moonblue satin slipper, curves her palm softly, breathing quickly.

1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 1: Telemachus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part I [Telemachia], pages 10 and 423:

When he asked her about her trip and she showed him, among other souvenirs, her dance card with the initials of the prince on it three times, he had seemed quite pleased.

1925 September 19, Maude Parker Child, “Romance”, in George Horace Lorimer, editor, The Saturday Evening Post, volume 198, number 12, Philadelphia, Pa., London: Curtis Publishing Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 93, column 2:

Above the bureau is a wall-mirror with various invitations, dance cards and other memorabilia stuck into the edge of the frame.

1935, Howard Lindsay, She Loves Me Not: A Comedy in Two Acts Dramatized from Edward Hope’s Novel, French’s Standard Library edition, New York, N.Y., Los Angeles, Calif., London: Samuel French, →OCLC, act I, scene ii, page 11:

“About that dance …” / Remembering her promise to Peter, Kate said nicely, “Don’t tell me your dance card’s empty. I won’t believe it.” / “I had a cancellation.” / “Then a little rest will do you good.”

2007, Karina Bliss, chapter 2, in Mr. Irresistible (Mills & Boon Vintage Super Romance), Richmond [London]: Silhouette, published 2008, →ISBN:

Our hostess' memorabilia included several of the little dancecards that girls of that time used at parties to dance with boys. All the songs that the band was planning to play were listed, each with a blank line next to it that the dancers needed to fill in to share a song. Many of the songs were scratched out, which our hostess explained meant that the girl was reserving those songs for her favorite boy of the evening.

2016, Rosy Hugener, with Carl Hugener, “Cenotes”, in Xtabentum: A Novel of Yucatan, Shared Pen edition, [Lincolnshire, Ill.]: Rosa Hugener with Carl Hugener, →ISBN, page 78:

(dance, dated) A card on which a person (usually a woman) lists those they have agreed to dance with.

պարային քարտ

card on which a woman listed those she had agreed to dance with


contredanse

en-noun

contredanse (countable and uncountable, plural contredanses)

From French contredanse, itself from English country dance.


Bharatanatyam

Borrowed from Sanskrit भरतनाट्यम् (bharatanāṭyam), from भरत (bharata, “name of Bharata Muni”) + नाट्य (nāṭya, “dance”).

Bharatanatyam is the most geometrically multidirectional of the Indian genres — in the nritta sections, Ms. Balasubramanian turned in quick succession to address right, left, behind, ahead, above and below, as well as various diagonals — and the sharp transitions are often not just exciting but also powerfully expressive of the dancer’s setting herself within a larger context.

2015 August 30, Alastair Macaulay, “Review: At Indian Dance Festival, Subtleties in the Sway of a Torso”, in New York Times:

(dance) A form of classical dance originating in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu.


backbend

The gal's backbends, the father's hoofology, the boy's fast steps and the mother's taps all won solid mitting.

(gymnastics, dance) A move in which the performer bends backwards until the hands touch the floor or catches him/herself with the hands.


Terpsichorean

(dance) Alternative form of terpsichorean; of or relating to dancing.


divertissement

divertissement (usually uncountable, plural divertissements)

Patricia Delgado, though taller and paler-skinned, strongly resembles Jeanette, and in Miami they often dance together (in the “Emeralds” pas de trois from “Jewels,” for example, or leading successive divertissements in Balanchine’s “Swan Lake”).

2009 January 24, Alastair Macaulay, “A Young, Lively Crew From Florida Steps Up and Takes Flight”, in New York Times:

(ballet) A short ballet within a larger work, usually providing a break from the main plot.


tea dance

palm court orchestra
palm court orchestra

(dated) A late afternoon or early evening dance, typically with a live orchestra (often referred to as a palm court orchestra) playing light classical music.


ciranda

Borrowed from Portuguese ciranda, which is from Spanish zaranda (“sieve”), from Andalusian Arabic سرند, from Persian سرند (“sieve”).

(music) A traditional Brazilian children's dance.


line dancing

A form of dance in which the dancers are in a line and performing the same steps together.

kanikani matatira

dancers perform in a line performing the same steps


Mashed Potato

Alternative form of mashed potato (“1960s dance”)


gargouillade

/ˌɡɑː(ɹ)ɡuːˈjɑːd/

From French gargouillade, from gargouiller (“to bubble”).

[…] Ms. Ashley didn’t trump that of the role’s originator, Patricia Wilde (whose gargouillades — the sideways jumps where the feet write rings in the air — are still recalled in awe).

(ballet) A complex balletic step, defined differently for different schools but generally involving a double rond de jambe


cumbia

cumbia (usually uncountable, plural cumbias)

From Colombian and Panamanian Spanish cumbia.

There’s […] an accordion- and brass-pumped Colombian cumbia for “Cumbia de Los Aburridos” (“Cumbia of the Bored”).

2007 April 23, The New York Times, “New CDs”, in New York Times:

(music) A traditional style of Colombian dance and music, or a piece in this style.


plié

Borrowed from French plié. Doublet of plicate.

(ballet) A smooth and continuous bending of the knees


bachata

bachata (countable and uncountable, plural bachatas)

/bəˈt͡ʃɑːtə/

From Caribbean Spanish bachata (“party, good time”).

“All the time they complain about it,” said Rafael Batista, the owner of Quisqueya Records, a store whose list of new releases, in keeping with the neighborhood’s large Dominican population, is divided into merengue, salsa, balada and bachata.

2007 February 4, Alex Mindlin, “Yearning to Break the Lock on a Long-Shuttered Park”, in New York Times:

A genre of music originating in the Dominican Republic.


moonwalker

Category:People who have walked on the Moon


baiao

A South American dance similar to a samba.


milonga

milonga (countable and uncountable, plural milongas)

Borrowed from Spanish milonga, in turn from Brazilian Portuguese milonga (“chant”). Theories connect the word to the nineteenth century slave trade between South America and Africa. The ultimate source is unknown, but may relate to Kimbundu mulonga (“word”), or Kongo nlonga or Punu mulonga (“line, row”) in reference to dancers.


voguing

In past works Mr. Harrell[…] has explored the point where voguing, with its angular movements, meets postmodern dance of the 1960s and ’70s, as well as the concept of “cool.”

2007 January 25, Gia Kourlas, “Strike a Pose: A Show Pony Choreographs His Obsession”, in New York Times:

(dance) A stylized form of modern dance characterized by photographic-style poses integrated with angular, linear and rigid movements.


dancerly

en-adj

dancerly (comparative more dancerly, superlative most dancerly)

more dancerly (comparative)
most dancerly (superlative)

Finally, Similar Orbits, choreographed by Lynn Brown and set to Talking Heads' "Listening Wind," was the most "dancerly" piece of the evening.

1988 July 22, Justin Hayford, “Dance and More for $1.98”, in Chicago Reader:

(dance) Proper to or characteristic of a dancer


hambone

(music, dance) A certain type of dance that involves making noise with the body, especially by slapping parts of the body with one's hands


saltarello

A lively medieval Italian dance with a leaping step.


basket toss

(cheerleading) A stunt in which three or more bases toss a flyer into the air.


NCA

(cheerleading) Initialism of National Cheerleaders Association.


herkie

From Herkimer + -ie, after Lawrence R. Herkimer, founder of the NCA.

(cheerleading) A jump with one leg straight out to the side and the other bent flat beneath the body.


cage dance

A type of erotic dance performed inside a cage.


table dance

A type of erotic dance performed on a table.


maxixe

He spent whole days and nights on his knees praying, yet he could have won Strictly Come Dancing with his virtuoso Brazilian tango, the maxixe.

2016 November, Donald Rayfield, “The Monk behind the Myth”, in Literary Review:

A Brazilian dance in a rapid 2/4 time, influenced by the tango and polka.


mash potato

en-noun

mash potato (countable and uncountable, plural mash potatoes)

Lexicalization of a reduced pronunciation of mashed potato with regular deletion of d before p, from mashed + potato. Compare ice cream (from iced cream).

I ate a mash potato today.

1995, Conan O’Brien et al., “Foreword —Carl “Oldy” Olson”, in If They Mated?, New York, N.Y.: Hyperion, →ISBN:

Roasted Vegetables topped with a mash potato with a cheese herb crust

2008 November 9, The Wealden Hall, “Evening Brasserie Set Menu”, in Kent on Sunday, number 320, Ashford, Kent: KOS Media Ltd., page 32:

I cooked fisherman’s pie, with white fish and prawns, in a cheese sauce, with a mash potato on top.

2010, John Stewart, Twin Gap Valley, Kennoway, Fife: Spiderwize, →ISBN, page 26:

Pan Fried Lambs Liver and Bacon served on a mash potato with chives, with onion gravy

2010 April 27, The Windwhistle Inn, “Windwhistle Menu”, in Pulman’s View from Seaton & Beer, number 248, Axminster, Devon: Tindle, page 50:

Tha’ll help me make a bit of dinner for tonight with a few mash potatoes.

2011, Kathleen Doyle, “Fish and Chips”, in What Ma Always Said: […], Dublin: Poolbeg Books Ltd, →ISBN, page 145:

Interestingly enough, while Gilly usually tries do the mash potato, this time he went with a waltz.

2009, Jarrod Kimber, The Year of the Balls 2008: A Disrespective, page 39:


indlamu

But there was sophistication and beauty in the way that traditional African dance motifs, like the fierce, stamping Zulu indlamu sequences, were woven together with more sinuous abstract movements.

2007 February 22, Roslyn Sulcas, “Beyond the Body, Making Spirit Move”, in New York Times:

A traditional Zulu dance from South Africa in which the dancer lifts one foot over the head and brings it down hard, landing squarely on the downbeat.


hokeypokey

hokeypokey (countable and uncountable, plural hokeypokeys)

So he choreographs each event depending on the crowd, starting with something to learn the drill, like “Marching Through Georgia,” working in something to loosen people up like the hokeypokey, and probably a contra dance (long lines, not squares) like the Virginia reel.

2008 June 19, Peter Applebome, “At 91, He Isn’t Ready for the Last Dance Just Yet”, in New York Times:

Alternative form of hokey pokey (“New Zealand: honeycomb toffee; ice cream”)


rain dance

The women stripped naked and took part in a rain-dance, a girl being chosen for the sacrificial victim.

1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 180:

A ceremonial dance intended to provoke rain.

sadetanssi

(by extension) Any sequence of arbitrary actions performed in order to achieve a goal.


medicine dance

A ritual dance ceremony performed as a form of therapy.


première danseuse

première danseuse (plural premières danseuses)

/ˌpɹɛmɪɛː dɒnˈsəːz/

From French première danseuse (unlisted in dictionaries of French); from première, feminine form of premier (“first”) + danseuse, feminine form of danseur (“dancer”); feminine form of premier danseur (“first dancer”).

They honestly thought they were doing good with it, and so they were — with what was left after the publicity man and the printer and the première danseuse had been paid.

1920, National Municipal League, National Civic Review, volume 9, page 152:

The School remained under the management of Miss Margaret Curtis. Miss Rita De Leporte was Première Danseuse and Mr. Giuseppe Bonfiglio was Premier Danseur.

1931, Pierre Key, Irene E. Haynes, Pierre Key’s Musical Who’s who: A Biographical Survey of Contemporary Musicians, volume 1, page 64:

[…] in 1935 she joined the company formed by Leon Woizikowski, touring Germany, France and Spain, and became première danseuse of the Metropolitan Opera Company, New York.

1943, Albert Ernest Wier, Thesaurus of the Arts: Drama, Music, Radio, Painting, Screen, Television, Literature, Sculpture, Architecture, Ballet, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, page 148:

(ballet) The lead female dancer in a ballet.


kickline

An appropriately campy rendition of Irving Berlin's "Sisters," complete with kick line, brought down the house.

1987 April 18, Tom Grabosky, “Gay Men's Voices Rise Up Singin'”, in Gay Community News, page 7:

A line of dancers who perform a kicking dance such as the cancan.


zambra

‘Can you be at a loss in wanton Seville, where black-eyed damsels dance the zambra under every orange grove?’

1852, Washington Irving, Tales from the Alhambra:


kochari

Etymology tree
Azerbaijani köçəribor.
Armenian քոչարի (kʻočʻari)bor.
English kochari
Borrowed from Armenian քոչարի (kʻočʻari).

bor+

an Armenian folk dance, initially performed only by men


Argentine tango

en-noun

Argentine tango (plural Argentine tangos)

A dance on which the ballroom tango is based, with slow intricate footwork.


Viennese waltz

Viennese waltz (plural Viennese waltzes)

A ballroom dance based on the waltz where the couple is constantly performing turns and pirouettes.


kozachok

kozachok (countable and uncountable, plural kozachoks)

/ˌkɑːzəˈtʃɒk/

/kəˌzɑˈt͡ʃɔk/

From Ukrainian or Russian козачо́к (kozačók), diminutive of коза́к (kozák, “Cossack”), because the dance originated among Cossacks.

A Ukrainian and Russian couple-dance with constantly increasing tempo.


daggering

daggering (countable and uncountable, plural daggerings)

She also submitted herself to daggering, the shameless, controversial dancehall dance maneuver that involves rapid-fire pelvic thrusts.

2009 September 7, Jon Caramanica, “A Dose of Raunch on a Night of Stars, Shtick and Slapstick”, in New York Times:

A type of dance associated with dancehall, where dancers simulate dry sex to the musical beat.


Hokey Cokey

(UK) A group dance performed in a circle, in which people move various of their body parts in and out of the middle, and shake them about.


premier danseur

premier danseur (plural premiers danseurs)

/ˌpɹɛmɪə dɑːnˈsəː/

/ˌpɹɛmɪeɪ dɒnˈsəː/

pʀəmyé däɴsöʀ

From French premier danseur (“first dancer”) (unlisted in dictionaries of French); from premier (“first”) + danseur (“dancer”); compare première danseuse.

première danseuse
première danseuse#English

(ballet) The lead male dancer in a ballet; compare première danseuse.


battement

Borrowed from French battement (“beating, hitting”).

[…] he raised slowly his rounded arms, stretched them gracefully backward and forward, moved his feet with precision and lightness, took a few small steps, made some battements and pirouettes, and disappeared like a butterfly.

1894, Arthur Machen, Memoirs of Casanova:

Ernst and Watson are superb dancers--extraordinarily agile and acrobatic, and their unison spins, battements, and body lines showed a split-second timing.

1988 March 11, Dorothy Samachson, “Chicago Repertory Dance Ensemble”, in Chicago Reader:

(ballet) A ballet move involving a beating action with an extended leg


bust a move

en-verb

bust a move (third-person singular simple present busts a move, present participle busting a move, simple past and past participle busted a move or bust a move)

busts a move (present singular third-person)
busting a move (participle present)
busted a move (participle past)
busted a move (past)
bust a move (participle past)
bust a move (past)

Ellipsis of bust out a move (“break out a move”), in reference to unveiling or demonstrating a move from one's repertoire of dance moves.
The original usage of this phrase is "to dance." The term appeared in the 1986 song “Posse in Effect” by Beastie Boys, in which M.C.A. said “Pay attention, my intention is to bust a move.” It was then popularized in the 1989 single of the same name by rapper Young MC, who tells (in the song) of his several attempts to find (or seduce) a woman in various places and failing to be able to do so because he can't dance; he isn't able to "bust a move."

ellipsis

Damn, see that guy on the dance floor? He can bust a move!

(African-American Vernacular, idiomatic, transitive) To dance.


hand jive

percussion instrument
percussion instrument

A dance associated with the rock and roll and rhythm and blues music of the 1950s, comprising a complicated pattern of hand moves and claps at various parts of the body, following or imitating the percussion instruments.


entrechat

Borrowed from French entrechat, from Italian (capriola) intrecciata (“interlaced jump”), from in- + treccia (“plait”).

der

(ballet) A manoeuvre whereby the performer jumps up and strikes the heels together a number of times.


toe shoe

(ballet) A ballet shoe worn for pointework.


shake it

en-verb

shake it (third-person singular simple present shakes it, present participle shaking it, simple past shook it, past participle shaken it)

shakes it (present singular third-person)
shaking it (participle present)
shook it (past)
shaken it (participle past)


dad dancing

The first National Dad Dancing Championships were held in Northampton's Grosvenor Centre on Saturday, 19 June, 2004.

2004 June, “Dad dancing”, in BBC Northamptonshire:

I gather that he was a bit of a “dad dancer” – embarrassing on his feet, seeming old before his time. […] The moral of the story is to be aware of dad-dancing, or the display of any other behavioural oddities, when you first meet.

2009 April 16, “How bad dancing can ruin your love life”, in The Times, London:

Middle-aged men who embarrass their children with flamboyant dance moves now have the perfect excuse – evolution. The cringeworthy "dad dancing" witnessed at wedding receptions every weekend may be an unconscious way in which ageing males repel the attention of young women, leaving the field clear for men at their sexual peak.

2009 December 15, Matthew Moore, “‘Dad dancing’ may be the result of evolution, scientists claim”, in The Daily Telegraph, London:

The making of embarrassing flamboyant dance moves to pop music by middle-aged men.

George W. Bush
Louisiana
New Orleans
President of the United States


dad dancer

Someone who practises, or is regarded as engaging in, dad dancing.


gallopade

At the same instant the sounding gallopade of hoofs came from the tranquil roadway leading to the stables.

1898, Henry Francis Keenan, The Iron Game:

A type of dance, also known as the galop.

They were a regular series of thumpings from the interior of the house, occasioned by the violent rocking of a cradle upon a stone floor, to which movement a feminine voice kept time by singing, in a vigorous gallopade, the favourite ditty of "The Spotted Cow".

1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, volume 1, London: James R. Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., page 28:


gallopade

gallopade (third-person singular simple present gallopades, present participle gallopading, simple past and past participle gallopaded)

gallopades (present singular third-person)
gallopading (participle present)
gallopaded (participle past)
gallopaded (past)


step dance

He then gave us a step-dance, so as not to dwell too long on one subject.

1876, John Ruskin, “Letter LXVIII. Notes and Correspondence.”, in Fors Clavigera. Letters to the Workmen and Labourers of Great Britain, volume VI, Orpington, Kent: George Allen, →OCLC, page 269:

Orth'ris began rowlin' his eyes an' crackin' his fingers an' dancin' a step-dance for to impress the Headman.

1887 April 11, Rudyard Kipling, “The Taking of Lungtungpen”, in Plain Tales from the Hills, Calcutta: Thacker, Spink and Co.; London: W. Thacker & Co., published 1888, →OCLC, page 103:

A postcopulatory behaviour of whistling ducks, genus Dendrocygna.


step dance

step dance (third-person singular simple present step dances, present participle step dancing, simple past and past participle step danced)

step dances (present singular third-person)
step dancing (participle present)
step danced (participle past)
step danced (past)

[…] place, where we boxed, played skittles, step-danced — a place in which I could say to all these dear street-corner, out-of-work people, "Come in and spend […]

1903, Charles Edward Osborne, The life of Father Dolling, E. Arnold, page 254:


bransle

From Middle French bransle, variant form of branle.

Now making layes of loue and louers paine, / Bransles, Ballads, virelayes, and verses vaine […]

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:


kathak

en-noun

kathak (countable and uncountable, plural kathaks)

But the differences go beyond this: as the narrator explained, kathak grew up in the royal courts while bharatanatyam emerged from the temples.

2001 September 28, Kelly Kleiman, “Fight From the Inside”, in Chicago Reader:

One of the eight classical dance forms of India.


pas de chat

pas de chat (plural pas de chat or pas de chats)

pas de chat (plural)
pas de chats (plural)

From French pas de chat (literally “cat's step”).

bor

(ballet) A sideways jump with both feet brought as high as possible, knees apart, while in the air.