jete

Finally one of the first three breaks through the barrier, but instead of a jete, he takes an incredible headfirst dive and slides along the floor.

1990 April 13, Laura Molzahn, “Priestly Perversions”, in Chicago Reader:

While some of the choreography was too obvious, there were stunning visual images throughout, such as Michelangelo (Paul A. Brown) being lifted in a wide jete on the arms and shoulders of a few dancers while the rest of the crowd reached imploring arms up to him.

1990 August 24, Effie Mihopoulos, “American Jazz Dance World Congress '90”, in Chicago Reader:

The men quickly lower their partners from a supported jete to lying flat on the floor with no apparent landing or transition; they swing them around the floor, spinning the women in splits, then on their knees.

1991 March 1, Cerinda Survant, “American Ballet Theatre”, in Chicago Reader:

(ballet) A leap from one foot to the other in which one leg appears to be "thrown" in the direction of the movement.


modern dance

A modern form of ballet that is more informal than classical ballet.


passepied

A courtly dance, in triple time, from 17th-century France; a faster form of the minuet.


street dance

Any of several forms of dance that evolved outside of dance studios, usually accompanied by some form of hip hop or dance music.

Any form of contemporary vernacular dance.


farruca

en-noun

farruca (countable and uncountable, plural farrucas)

A form of Flamenco music and dance, probably originating in Galicia, traditionally danced only by men.


cachucha

A dance, in triple time and related to the flamenco and fandango, from Andalusia


vernacular dance

vernacular dance (countable and uncountable, plural vernacular dances)

Any form of dance that evolved naturally within a particular community, without the intervention of professional choreographers.


epaulement

(ballet) A position in which one shoulder is thrust forward and the other back, and the torso turned at a right angle to the supporting leg.


acro dance

acro dance (usually uncountable, plural acro dances)

(dance) A style of dance that combines elements of ballet technique with acrobatic skills of precision.


dance studio

A studio where dancing skills can be practiced and trained.


tripudium

(historical) A solemn religious dance of the Ancient Romans, performed in triple time.


war dance

There was a greyness in the east by the time we had completed the Navajo war dance on the front lawn.

1946, George Johnston, Skyscrapers in the Mist, page 20:

(anthropology) A ceremonial dance performed before a major battle or after a victory, usually by a tribe.


pas de deux

Borrowed from French pas de deux (literally “step of two”). Compare paso doble.

bor

The way in which they dance . . . the final passion of a pas-de-deux; and the going off with a bound!—I shall never see a real ballet, with a composed countenance again.

1845, Charles Dickens, chapter 4, in Pictures From Italy:

The Russian was a beautiful youth, like a sun-god with his flying yellow locks and glorious symmetry of body, and the pas de deux between him and Magda was a thing to marvel at.

1921, Margaret Pedler, chapter 5, in The Lamp of Fate:

But at the end of the show, as two senior citizens are brought from the audience to dance together — first tentatively, then springing into a graceful acrobatic pas de deux — we realize that the human body's most sensuous organ is the head.

2003 November 19, Richard Corliss, “That Old Feeling: The Show at the Casino”, in Time:

(dance) A dance performed by two dancers.


kick up one's heels

en-verb

kick up one's heels (third-person singular simple present kicks up one's heels, present participle kicking up one's heels, simple past and past participle kicked up one's heels)

kicks up one's heels (present singular third-person)
kicking up one's heels (participle present)
kicked up one's heels (participle past)
kicked up one's heels (past)

Above the peals of laughter with which the words were received, rose Jake's voice, "Come on, ole fiddler, play somefin a nigger kin kick up his heels to; what's de use of singing after dat fashion; dis aint no meetin."

1852, Mary Henderson Eastman, chapter XI, in Aunt Phillis's Cabin:

He does not get on so well in the evening and night time, when his youthful audience has dispersed, and has been replaced by adults of the tag-rag and draggle-tail breed who have no taste for any tunes but those they can vigorously kick up their heels to, […] .

1881, James Greenwood, Low-Life Deeps, Chapter 16: A Cockney Holiday


pointwork

Though Mr. Lacotte makes certain nods to the early 19th-century ballet style of the first act of Giselle and August Bournonvilles ballets, he asks all his female dancers to do the sustained pointwork known to be late-19th-century in style.

2007 December 13, Alastair Macaulay, “A Beloved Spanish Gypsy Returns to Frances Arms”, in New York Times:


break it down

break it down (third-person singular simple present breaks it down, present participle breaking it down, simple past broke it down, past participle broken it down)

breaks it down (present singular third-person)
breaking it down (participle present)
broke it down (past)
broken it down (participle past)

[…] Renee Victor breaking it down on the dance floor beneath a hanging decoration that looked like a bunch of enormous joints.

2006, “The Hollywood reporter, Volume 395”, in Hollywood Reporter Inc., page 16:

Actually, the stain wasn't even very noticeable while we were breaking it down on the dance floor.

2010, Christine Mills, Mahler Mills Christy Mahler Mills, No Regrets, iUniverse, p. 119

(US, slang) To dance, especially in a hip hop style.


krakowiak

A lively, syncopated Polish dance in duple time.


lap dancer

"I'm making more than a brain surgeon right now," boasts one entrepreneurial "lap dancer."

1992 August 24, Sidney Urquhart, “Welcome To Houston!”, in Time:

The video shows a lap dancer burying the head of a 49ers' staffer in her bosom.

2005 June 8, "49ers acknowledge another embarrassing video, USA Today (24 July 2011)

The clubs were also hit with sleazy allegations of lap dancers doubling as prostitutes and drug taking on the premises.

2011 July 24, “Bankers revive strip club Spearmint Rhino with bumper bonuses”, in Daily Mail, UK:

A person who performs a lap dance, especially one who is employed to do so in a strip club.


strip the willow

en-noun

strip the willow (plural strip the willows)

A particular country dance, in which a pair of dancers go down a set of dancers, alternately swinging each other and other dancers on the sides.


jaipongan

Borrowed from Sundanese ᮏᮄᮕᮧᮍᮔ᮪ (jaipongan).

A traditional dance of the Sundanese people of Indonesia.


demisoloist

This pretty-in-pink affair, for a couple (Abi Stafford and Jared Angle), four demisoloists and six female corps dancers, is set to a Britten score for strings.

2009 May 22, Roslyn Sulcas, “Dancing to the Beat of an Elaborate Mathematical Equation”, in New York Times:

(ballet) A dancer of a particular rank below soloist.


soubresaut

/ˌsuːbɹəˈsəʊ/

Borrowed from French soubresaut, itself an obsolete form of sursaut. Doublet of somersault.

She took to the air so naturally that it made you feel, retrospectively, that this had always been her destiny from her entrance in Act I. Springing up from both feet while keeping those feet together (in soubresauts), she drove the audience — which had been in a tizzy of excitement all along — wild.

2009 June 15, Alastair Macaulay, “Natural Liftoff and Intense Inner Life for a Daughter of the Air”, in New York Times:

(ballet) A sudden jump from both feet, travelling forward in first, third, or fifth position and landing on both feet in the same position as they started.


balter

en-verb

balter (third-person singular simple present balters, present participle baltering, simple past and past participle baltered)

balters (present singular third-person)
baltering (participle present)
baltered (participle past)
baltered (past)

From Middle English balteren, of North Germanic origin, related to Danish baltre, boltre (“to roll, tumble, gambol, romp”).

(intransitive) To tumble; dance clumsily.


bergomask

So called in ridicule of the people of Bergamo, Italy, formerly noted for their clownishness.

Will it please you to see the epilogue, or to hear a bergomask dance between two of our company?

c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):


leadman

Such a light and metal'd dance / Saw you never yet in France / And by lead-men for the nones, / That turn round like grindlestones

a. 1638 (date written), Benjamin Jonson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Under-woods. Consisting of Divers Poems. (please specify the poem)”, in The Workes of Benjamin Jonson. The Second Volume. […] (Second Folio), London: […] Richard Meighen, published 1640, →OCLC:

The male leader of a group of workers, who reports to a supervisor.

w:Webster's Dictionary#Webster's New International Dictionary 1909

A member of the set decoration department on a film set who is responsible for the props and swing gang and/or set dressers.


redowa

Via French from Czech rejdovák, from rej (“whirl”).

The Redowa or Pas de Basque was originally adapted to Polka-Mazurka music, and, consequently, was danced much slower than it is at present, adapted as it is to waltz and galop music. Hence the name Polka-Redowa: — Polka step, Redowa time.

1875, William B. DeGarmo, The Dance of Society, page 94:

"The Varsouvienne," says one reference, "apparently originated in France about 1853, in imitation of the Polish Mazurka, Polka, and Redowa.

1962, Sets in Order: The Magazine of Square Dancing, volume 14, page 23:

The redowa had some popularity in Paris about the year 1845 but in England it was more talked about than danced.

1969, Frances Rust, Dance In Society, page 75:

Both Martínez and Jiménez recorded prolifically, usually dance music—the ubiquitous polka as well as such universal favorites as redowas and schottisches.

1981, Manuel H. Peña, “The emergence of Conjunto Music, 1935-1955”, in Richard Bauman, Roger D. Abrahams, editors, And Other Neighborly Names: Social Process and Cultural Image in Texas Folklore, page 285:

It was imperative also for the social-minded pioneers to learn the styling and to know how to do the different dance steps required during a five- or six-figure cotillion or lancers. The dance steps included the polka, waltz, mazurka, redowa (two-step), and minuet.

1985, Betty Casey, Dance across Texas, unnumbered page:

A dance of Czech origin with turning, leaping waltz steps.


hambo

A Swedish folk dance in three-four time.


tambourin

Obsolete form of tambourine (percussion instrument)


BDC

(dance) Initialism of backing diagonally to the center.


Mkhedruli

Borrowed from Georgian მხედრული (mxedruli, “cavalry, military; secular, worldly”).

bor

One of three forms of the Georgian alphabet. Mkhedruli, a unicameral script, is the form of the Georgian alphabet that is now used for writing the Modern Georgian language.


disquaire

Borrowed, with a change in meaning, from French disquaire (“record dealer; record shop”).

Some discothèques allow their patrons to suggest tunes to the disquaire, but at many such an impertinence would be unthinkable—like asking Pablo Casals to play Melancholy Baby.

1963 July 5, “The Compleat Virtuosi”, in Time, New York, N.Y.: Time Warner Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2008-12-22:

In fact, [Harry] Meyerson had Slim Hyatt, the "disquaire" (disk jockey) at Shepheards, assist him in programming the album.

1964 May 30, Mike Gross, “Deccareques Put Out for Discothequeniks”, in Billboard: The International Music-record Newsweekly, Cincinnati, Oh.: The Billboard Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 1, column 3:

In France, clubs found they didn't need live musicians to get people to dance – just a disquaire who "programmed" dance records and moods for the evening. Such a place had a name too, a discotheque.

2010, Robert Milliken, “Lillian Roxon: Selected Writings”, in Mother of Rock: The Lillian Roxon Story, 2nd edition, U.S.A.: ReadHowYouWant.com, →ISBN, pages 408–409:

He'd given the albums to the disquaire affiliated with Chez Castel, the popular Parisian discotheque.

2012, William J. Mann, “Spring 1964”, in Hello, Gorgeous: Becoming Barbra Streisand, New York, N.Y.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, →ISBN, section 7, page 487:

(dance, music, dated) A disc jockey, especially one in a French-speaking country.


chakacha

A traditional Swahili style of music and dance.


Kuchipudi

A classical dance originating from the South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.


passymeasure

Corrupted from Italian passamezzo. Doublet of passamezzo.

After a passy-measure, or a pavin', I hate a drunken rogue

c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:


sundance

Of course before this there will be lesser fights with Indian foes and whites, and much village life, moving, sundances and other ceremonials to record and a great hunt on the Yellowstone […]

1992, Mari Sandoz, Helen Winter Stauffer, Letters of Mari Sandoz, page 340:

Mary and her husband, Jack Hyatt (Cherokee/African-American), have participated in sundances for a number of years.

2001, Susan Lobo, Kurt Peters, American Indians and the Urban Experience, page 256:

Any of various Native American religious rituals with song, dance, praying, etc.

Gaillardia pulchella, a flowering plant of southern US, from Arizona to Florida, and northern Mexico.


abhinaya

Transliteration of Sanskrit अभिनय (abhinaya, “acting, dramatic action”).

translit

(dance) Use of the face and hands, in an expressive manner, similar to the kathakali dance of India.

abhinaya

use of the face and hands in Indian dancing


turkey trot

From the direction of "The Yellow Lantern" […] arose the strident notes of a tinny piano beating blatantly the measure of a turkey trot.

1919, Frank L. Packard, chapter 9, in The Further Adventures of Jimmie Dale:

Still, music fans who feared that rockabilly might eventually go the way of the turkey trot can take heart.

1985 Sept. 30, Guy D. Garcia, "People," Time

A dance popular in the first two decades of the 20th century, consisting of exaggerated bird-like movements performed to fast-paced ragtime music.

(US) A footrace held on or around Thanksgiving Day.


turkey trot

en-verb

to turkey trot (third-person singular simple present turkey trots, present participle turkey trotting, simple past and past participle turkey trotted)

to turkey trot (canonical)
turkey trots (present singular third-person)
turkey trotting (participle present)
turkey trotted (participle past)
turkey trotted (past)

The old men on the Exchange play golf all day, and the young ones turkey-trot all night.

1914, Rex Ellingwood Beach, chapter 4, in The Auction Block:


Morisco

Borrowed from Spanish morisco (“Moorish”), from moro (“Moor”).

Your wit skips a morisco; but, by the brightest spangle of tire, I vouchsafe you entire unaffected favour.

1601, John Marston, What You Will, act 4, scene 1:

I have seen / Him caper upright like a wild Morisco, / Shaking the bloody darts as he his bells.

1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1, act 3, scene 1:


cinque-pace

For, hear me, Hero: wooing, wedding, and repenting is as a Scotch jig, a measure, and a cinque-pace: the first suit is hot and hasty, like a Scotch jig, and full as fantastical; the wedding, mannerly-modest, as a measure, full of state and ancientry; and then comes Repentance, and with his bad legs, falls into the cinque-pace faster and faster, till he sink into his grave.

1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

(obsolete) A lively dance, the galliard, whose steps were regulated by the number five.


dog

en-noun

dog (countable and uncountable, plural dogs)

Australian Kriol: dog

Bislama: dog

Gullah: dog

Sranan Tongo: dagu

Tok Pisin: dok

Torres Strait Creole: dog

desc

→ American Sign Language: Kop@Inside-PalmForward 1o@Inside

→ Dutch: dog

→ Esperanto: dogo

Ido: dogo

→ French: dogue

→ German: Dogge

→ Italian: dogo

→ English: dogo

→ Portuguese: dogue

→ Russian: дог (dog)

→ Spanish: dogo

→ Volapük: dog, doeg

Inherited from Middle English dogge (akin to Scots dug), from Old English dogga, docga, of uncertain origin.
The original meaning seems to have been a common dog, as opposed to a well-bred one, or something like 'cur', and perhaps later came to be used for stocky dogs. Possibly a pet-form diminutive with suffix -ga (compare frocga (“frog”), *picga (“pig”)), appended to a base *dog-, *doc- of unclear origin and meaning. One possibility is Old English dox (“dark, swarthy”) (compare frocga from frox). Another proposal is that it derives from Proto-West Germanic *dugan (“to be suitable”), the origin of Old English dugan (“to be good, worthy, useful”), English dow, Dutch deugen, German taugen. The theory goes that it could have been an epithet for dogs, commonly used by children, meaning "good/useful animal". Another is that it is related to *docce (“stock, muscle”), from Proto-West Germanic *dokkā (“round mass, ball, muscle, doll”), whence English dock (“stumpy tail”).
In 14th-century England, hound (from Old English hund) was the general word for all domestic canines, and dog referred to a subtype resembling the modern mastiff and bulldog. By the 16th century, dog had become the general word, and hound had begun to refer only to breeds used for hunting. In the 16th century, the word dog was adopted by several continental European languages as their word for mastiff.
Despite similarities in forms and meaning, not related to Mbabaram dog.

hond

morally reprehensible person — see also scoundrel

it is easy to find a stick to beat a dog

on the Internet nobody knows you're a dog

the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog

A click or pallet adapted to engage the teeth of a ratchet wheel, to restrain the back action.

Hmm, see the girl with the red dress on
She can do the dog all night long.

1964, “What'd I Say”, Ray Charles (lyrics), performed by Elvis Presley:

Just like the dog but not so low
 Like the hully gully but not so slow
 Now baby swim, baby do the swim.

1964, “C'mon And Swim”, Thomas Coman and Sylvester Stewart (Sly Stone) (lyrics), performed by Bobby Freeman:

We had a lovely dance—luckily it was a slow number. I don't think Mr. Lincoln would have been up to the dog or a fast twist.

1967, Trudy Baker, Rachel Jones, Donald Bain (uncredited), Coffee, Tea, or Me?: The Uninhibited Memoirs of Two Airline Stewardesses, New York: Bantam Books, page 173:

(preceded by definite article) A dance having a brief vogue in the 1960s in which the actions of a dog were mimicked.


bogle

Uncertain; possibly cognate with bug or from Welsh bwgwly (“to terrify”).

At the turn of the Nineties, the footballer Ian Wright would often celebrate his goals by running to the corner flag, and doing a ‘bogling’ move—the ‘bogle’ was a ragamuffin reggae dance then popular in the black community.

2001 November 25, Diran Adebayo, “Young, gifted, black…and very confused”, in The Observer, →ISSN:

In Jamaica, there's a constant stream of new moves, corresponding to big club tunes. Dancers race to put videos online in the hope of starting the next bogle, dutty wine or hot wuk sensation.

2013 July 6, Kate Hutchinson, “It's summer, let's dance!”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(dance) A Jamaican dance move that involves raising and lowering the arms while moving the body in a waving motion.


duck walk

(preceded by definite article) A dance or dance move, popularised in the 1950s by Chuck Berry, in which the dancer steps forwards crouching on bended knees while keeping the back straight and head erect.


lezginka

A fast-paced dance of many peoples in the Caucasus Mountains.


ländler

From German Ländler, from Austrian German Ländl, diminutive of Land (“land, country”).

Sometimes I seemed to hear a long-forgotten Welsh hymn in their melodies, or then again, very softly yet making the senses swirl, the revolutions of a waltz, a ländler theme, or the slow sound of a funeral march […].

2011, WG Sebald, translated by Anthea Bell, Austerlitz, Penguin, page 383:

An Austrian folk dance in the form of a slow waltz.


cordax

(historical) A lascivious dance featuring in Ancient Greek comedy.


kagura

From Japanese 神楽 (kagura, literally “god music”). See more at the Japanese entry.

bor

A kind of Shinto theatrical dance in Japan.


danzón

(dance) A dance style associated with danzón music.


Virginia reel

An English country dance dating from the 17th century, popular in America between 1830 and 1890.


fan dance

Undaunted Ming-Toy did a sinuous, undulating fan dance before the Imperial Daughters of the British Empire, then, at the last moment, showed what she thinks of them by raising her fans and standing starkly revealed in red underdrawers.

1935 April 22, “Canada: Ming-Toy's Revenge”, in Time:

In 1962, photographer Bert Stern shot a series of photos of Marilyn Monroe: . . . Monroe, sleepy-eyed and naked, sips from a Champagne glass, enacts a fan dance of sorts with various diaphanous scarves, romps with erotic playfulness on a bed of white linens.

2008 Feb. 18, Amanda Fortini, "Lindsay Lohan as Marilyn Monroe in "The Last Sitting"," nymag.com (retrieved 28 May 2013)

(performing arts) A stage performance or striptease in which a female entertainer disrobes while dancing with large hand-held fans that are alternately used to conceal and provide glimpses of her erogenous body regions.


danzonete

en-noun

danzonete (countable and uncountable, plural danzonetes)

A Latin-American musical genre originating from the Cuban danzón but incorporating vocal parts.


twerker

And some of the songs are good at least for a few laughs, including "Booty Meat," in which Soulja Boy demands all the boppers, twerkers and the like "shake that booty meat," over and over.

2007 October 5, Mike Bushnell, “Superman that ... album”, in The Maneater, University of Missouri:

It will bring her back into the Disney fold as an adult and perhaps enable her to find a healthy balance between her warring halves - the publicity-seeking twerker and, somewhere still inside, the charming Smiley Miley Cyrus.

2013 September 1, John Harlow, “Nowhere to hide in age of social media”, in The Australian:

It may be the hot dance craze of the moment, but one hapless young twerker appears to take things a little too far when she literally sets herself on fire in the middle of a raunchy routine.

2013 September 6, Daniel Miller, “Girl sets herself on fire after roommate opens door while she was twerking against it doing a headstand”, in Daily Mail:


cueca

cueca (countable and uncountable, plural cuecas)

American Spanish, from zamacueca, a dance performed in Chile and Peru.

Any of the dances associated with the cueca musical style.


bélé

Possibly from French belle aire, though African origins have been suggested.

(music, dance, Caribbean) A genre of music and group dance from the Creole cultures of Dominica and other Caribbean islands, in modern times mostly performed to celebrate holidays and special occasions.


stand up with

en-verb

stand up with (third-person singular simple present stands up with, present participle standing up with, simple past and past participle stood up with)

stands up with (present singular third-person)
standing up with (participle present)
stood up with (participle past)
stood up with (past)

It was a quiet wedding. . . . Marshall P. Wilder, the humorist, who is a warm personal friend of the bride, stood up with her, and Mr. Cramer, who is connected in an editorial capacity with Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly, and Mrs. Cramer, were the only other witnesses.

1891 October 6, “Notable Wedding”, in Lawrence Daily Journal, retrieved 2013-11-26, page 1:

Mrs. Herbert Schmidt, of Hoboken, acted as bridesmaid. . . . Edwin Scheuine stood up with Rudy.

1931 July 9, “Rudy Vallee Weds Faye Webb, Actress”, in Lewiston Daily Sun, retrieved 2013-11-26, page 6:

When Bob and Urania Greene were married two years ago, Mr. Greene, who is Oprah Winfrey’s personal trainer, had Ms. Winfrey serve as his “best woman.” “People are ignoring gender roles,” said Antonia van der Meer, the editor-in-chief of Modern Bride and Elegant Bride. “There are times where it is more appropriate that you chose the person with whom you are closest or the person who you feel is the best possible candidate for standing up with you while you say your vows.”

2007 March 25, Marcelle S. Fischler, “Always a Bridesdude, Never a Bridegroom?”, in New York Times, retrieved 2013-11-26:

(transitive, idiomatic) In a wedding ceremony, to serve as best man or as maid of honor or as an official witness for (someone).


slow dance

A kind of slow, swaying dance performed by couples, often with the lead partner holding their hands against the sides of the following partner's hips or waist while the follower drapes their hands on the leader's shoulders.


bugaku

A Japanese traditional courtly dance, with slow, regal movements.


goombay

en-noun

goombay (countable and uncountable, plural goombays)

Afro-Caribbean dialects; compare Kongo nkombi, a type of drum.

(music, dance, Bahamas, countable) A type of traditional Bahamian drum.

(music, dance, Bahamas, uncountable) A genre of folk music played with this drum.

(music, dance, Bahamas) A dance associated with this music genre.


bunhead

From bun (“a tight roll of hair worn at the back of the head”) + head.

compound

A bunhead who must have strayed from her New York City Ballet aspirations glanced furtively about the room, […]

2000, Donna Allegra, Witness to the League of Blond Hip Hop Dancers, Alyson Books, →ISBN, page 201:

"Sophie — you're meant to be saying what an honor it is to be studying at The Royal Ballet School, and how you can't wait to become a 'bunhead' — you know, one of those ballet-obsessed people who eat, sleep, and breathe nothing but ballet!"

2005, Alexandra Moss, Lara's Leap of Faith, Grosset & Dunlap, →ISBN:

[…] I'm an aging bunhead. That's my problem. Like I told you, my life is ... But a dancer—especially a ballet dancer—has a shelf life that's shorter than a quart of milk[…]

2006, Leslie Carroll, Spin Doctor, HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 19:

(informal) An obsessive or extremely dedicated ballerina.


Highland fling

When Dandy Dinmont, after executing two or three caprioles, and cutting the Highland-fling, by way of ridicule of his wife's anxiety, at last deigned to sit down, and commit his round, black, shaggy bullet of a head to her inspection.

1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], chapter 3, in Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC:

She had never danced a step in her life, but that experienced girl capering with circus grace in the Highland fling would, she knew, be as nothing to her given such inspiriting music.

1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 185:

The artichokes bounded up and down
On top of the pumpkins' heads,
And the cabbage was dancing the highland fling
All over the onion beds.

1918, Norman Lindsay, The Magic Pudding, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 156:


khorovod

a Slavic art form, a combination of a circle dance and chorus singing, similar to chorea of ancient Greece, also in Romania (horă)


round dance

Coordinate term: circle dance

(dance) A dance for couples with a whirling or revolving motion, such as the waltz or polka.

pyörivä tanssi

dance for couples with a revolving motion


nautch girl

Great was the praise bestowed on the wise parrot, but the incensed nautch-girl said: “Be assured I will get you in my power; and when I do, I will bite off your head.”

1869 February, “Hindoo Fairy Legends”, in The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, page 144:

‘I came about the nautch girl in your harem. Are you man enough to keep her under control?’

...one expected Wrangleresses on the legendary order of Phillippa Fawcett... but certainly not this nautch-girl extravagence of looks and self-possession that Yashmeen presented.

2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, page 549:

‘Best kind of native—kept himself busy with his shrub and his nautch-girls and his tumashers.’

2008, Amitav Ghosh, Sea of Poppies, page 47:


waacking

From there she took on more hip hop, as well as locking, popping, house, voguing, waacking and commercial dance choreography in Los Angeles and New York City.

2012, Lori Henry, Dancing Through History, page 90:

The urban dance genre includes breaking, waacking, and house dancing, among others.

2014, Karen Schupp, Studying Dance: A Guide for Campus and Beyond, page 48:

A style of disco dance involving rhythmic footwork and moving one's arms to the beat.


kick-step

(dance) A dance move in which the dancer first kicks a foot in the air in front of the opposite leg (often while bending the knee slightly on that leg) and then puts the foot down shifting balance on to it.


kick-step

en-verb

kick-step (third-person singular simple present kick-steps, present participle kick-stepping, simple past and past participle kick-stepped)

kick-steps (present singular third-person)
kick-stepping (participle present)
kick-stepped (participle past)
kick-stepped (past)

2014, Paul Salopek, Blessed. Cursed. Claimed., National Geographic (December 2014)https://web.archive.org/web/20150212214621/http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2014/12/pilgrim-roads/salopek-text
Arms draped on shoulders, kick-stepping in circles, they swing bottles of wine. Purpled thumbs cork the bottles. The wine leaps and jumps behind green glass.


swingout

(dance) The principal dance move in Lindy Hop


Lindy Hop

(dance) An American form of dance, from the 1920s, accompanied by jazz music.


chinlone

From Burmese ခြင်းလုံး (hkrang:lum:), from ခြင်း (hkrang:, “basket”) + အလုံး (a.lum:, “ball”).

A Burmese ball game incorporating aspects of both sport and dance.


b-girling

(dance) Breakdancing performed by a female.


b-boying

In b-boying culture, a group of b-boys or b-girls who dance and battle together are referred to as a crew.

2016, Sophy Smith, Hip-Hop Turntablism, Creativity and Collaboration, Routledge, →ISBN, page 10:


ballet slipper

A flexible shoe without a heel and fastened by a strap or ribbon, designed for dancing.


ballet shoe

(chiefly UK) A flexible shoe without a heel and fastened by a strap or ribbon, designed for dancing.


buck dance

(dance, African-American Vernacular) A type of African American traditional clogging.


buck dance

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

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

(dance, African-American Vernacular) To dance in a particular style of African American traditional clogging.


Big Drum

(music, dance, Caribbean) A genre of music and dance, and an associated festival tradition, found in many islands of the Lesser Antilles.


azonto

A Ghanaian style of music and dance with accompanying hand movements.


pointe shoe

Instead, I would stick to dancing and continue plunging my toes into the beautiful, tight, shiny sheaths called pointe shoes.

(ballet) A type of shoe with a strengthened toe, used for dancing on pointe.


sissonne

The pairs of backward-diagonal traveling sissonnes (jumps from two legs to one) are another motif so accentuated as to become irresistible.

2008 May 12, Alastair Macaulay, “City Ballet’s Itinerary: Robbins and Beyond”, in New York Times:

(ballet) A jump starting with two feet on the ground and ending with only one.


polka-like

en-adj

polka-like (comparative more polka-like, superlative most polka-like)

more polka-like (comparative)
most polka-like (superlative)

The members’ real innovation is their embrace of a Finnish polkalike genre called humppa, which sounds — well, like it sounds, more or less.

2007 September 22, Kelefa Sanneh, “Finnish Folk-Metal, in Swedish, Plus Trolls”, in New York Times:


candombe

en-noun

candombe (countable and uncountable, plural candombes)


developpe

Performing a curiously melancholy, undulating developpe, the dancers point their legs at each other like accusing fingers.

1988 October 7, Laura Molzahn, “Between Heaven and the Gargabe Can”, in Chicago Reader:


demicharacter

From demi- + character, as a calque of French demi-caractère.

But other passages of “Concerto DSCH” have strong elements of what ballet folk define as both demicharacter and character dance.

2008 May 31, Alastair Macaulay, “Riding the Emotions of a Ratmansky Ballet”, in New York Times:


Mobot

Blend of Mo (“nickname for Mohamed”) + robot (“dance move”)

blend

In 2012, the Foundation started up the “do the Mobot” campaign, encouraging everyone to do a Mobot dance in order to raise £100,000 towards the Mo Farah orphanage & sports academy.

2013, Michael Hurley, Mo Farrah, Raintree, →ISBN, page 22:

A rare break in proceedings before 'Song 2' brought yet another surprise, as Damon successfully got an entire field of revellers to do the 'Mobot' in honour of track star and double-goldwinning medallist Mo Farah.

2013, Martin Power, The Life of Blur, Music Sales Group, →ISBN:

I felt like a balloon, floating above all this mayhem, looking down on someone who looked like me doing the Mobot with Mo Farah (he thanked me for inventing it, by the way).

2014, Clare Balding, Walking Home: My Family and Other Rambles, Penguin UK, →ISBN:

A celebratory dance where the arms and hands form an "M"-shape over the head, associated with runner Mo Farah.


Kalamatianos

der

καλαματιανός

Her relative stood dumbfounded, cried out incredulously, wheeled about with his clenched fists raised in the air, performed three steps of a kalamatianos for sheer joy, and then rocked her in his arms exclaiming ‘Efkharisto, efkharisto,’ over and over again.

1994, Louis de Bernières, Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Minerva, published 1995, page 82:

A Greek folk dance from the Peloponnese.


sardana

The Sardanas are danced in a circle. They are danced to the music of a curious orchestra of eleven instruments.

1929 August 11, Olin Downes, “As to the Sardanas”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Described by Franco as “an accursed differentiating agent” one edict “cited the tendency of the sardana to foment false feelings of pride and superiority among the Catalans, justifying the dance's prohibition” (Brandes 34).

2012, Reneé Critcher Lyons, The Revival of Banned Dances, McFarland, →ISBN, page 103:

A type of circle dance originating in Catalonia.


boogie down

en-verb

boogie down (third-person singular simple present boogies down, present participle boogying down or boogieing down, simple past and past participle boogied down)

boogies down (present singular third-person)
boogying down (participle present)
boogieing down (participle present)
boogied down (participle past)
boogied down (past)


CBM

contra body movement
w:contra body movement

(dance) Initialism of contra body movement.


mujra

Princes of royal blood and English Governors of provinces were eager to be invited by him, for he served the best of food and wine and sometimes, as a bonus and with admirable discretion, arranged for the most cultured whores from the city's old quarter to perform mujra songs and dances for them.

2004, Khushwant Singh, Burial at Sea, Penguin, published 2014, page 7:

Mujra is symbolic of total submission before a royal patron.

2006, Martha Feldman, Bonnie Gordon, editors, The Courtesan's Arts, Oxford, page 322:

A form of exotic dance in India, traditionally performed by courtesans under the Mughal Empire as well as in modern forms.


yeet

Google Trends
Jeremy Clarkson
Know Your Meme
Twitter
Urban Dictionary
YouTube

Popularized in March 2014 by the "yeet" dance which went viral on the now-defunct video sharing site Vine. The earliest known yeet dance is recorded in a YouTube video uploaded on February 3, 2014. However, examples of the interjection can be as found much earlier, including a 1998 use by British presenter Jeremy Clarkson as well as a 2008 definition of "yeet yeet" on Urban Dictionary.
As an expression used when throwing something, apparently coined by Vine user David Banna in a Vine uploaded on or before March 28, 2014 in which he throws a CD and yells out "YEET!", as well as a Vine uploaded April 4, 2014 of a high school student hurling an empty soda can and shouting "This bitch empty! YEET!"
After the 2014 trend, the term faded into relative obscurity before resurging in 2018.

Yeet is the new twerk and while it may look like nothing more than a full-body flail, there are some very important techniques you need to know before you embark on your own yeet adventure. Here are seven different ways you can yeet.

2014 April 8, “The 7 Different Ways You Can #Yeet”, in Cambio:

Meechie's videos reach hundreds of thousands, sometimes even eclipsing the views of the artists' official visuals, but lately his biggest successes are instead dedicated to specific dances like the whip, yeet, and even the still-regional “Hit Dem Folks” dance, which mimics a basketball player dunking.

2015 June 1, David Turner, “Interview: Youtube^([sic]) Star SheLovesMeechie Dances from the Garage to the Stage”, in Noisey:

The yeet began, culturally, with a Vine of a kid affectionately nicknamed Lil Meatball doing the dance on his school's track.

2015 September 22, Rembert Browne, “A Note on 'Jumpman' by Metro Boomin ft. Drake and Future”, in Grantland:

Especially black teens, who created a disproportionate number of popular Vines and used the social network to demonstrate wit, intelligence, creativity, and comic timing that was rarely given a spotlight elsewhere. That included dance trends like the yeet.

2016 October 27, “The Death of Vine Makes the Internet a Worse Place”, in New York Magazine:

A type of dance involving dipping one's shoulder and swinging both hands out, while an audience repeatedly chants "YEET yah, yah, yah, yah".


Vaganova method

Devised by the Russian dancer and pedagogue Agrippina Vaganova (1879–1951).

A ballet technique and training system that fuses elements of traditional French style from the romantic era with the athleticism and virtuosity of Italian technique.


monster mash

I was working in the lab late one night
When my eyes beheld an eerie sight
For my monster, from his slab, began to rise
And suddenly, to my surprise
He did the Mash
He did the Monster Mash.

1962, “Monster Mash”, Bobby "Boris" Pickett and Lenny Capizzi (lyrics), performed by Bobby (Boris) Pickett and The Crypt-Kickers:

(preceded by definite article) A particular dance performed to the novelty song Monster Mash (1962).


Shim Sham

(dance) A tap dance routine that originated in the United States in the 1920s.


dougie

From Dougie. Named after 1980s rapper Doug E. Fresh who performed similar moves.

A hip-hop dance generally performed by moving one's body in a shimmy style and passing a hand through or near the hair on one's own head.


Batusi

Blend of bat + watusi, first appearing in the TV series Batman.

(preceded by definite article) A style of go-go dance from the early 1960s in which the hands are drawn across the eyes with the index and middle finger held in a vee (in imitation of Batman's mask).


LOD

en-noun

LOD (countable and uncountable, plural LODs)

Position: Intro, Left-Open, M on outside, M's L and W's R hands joined, both facing LOD.

1962, Sets in Order: The Magazine of Square Dancing - Volume 14, page 37:

Beginners will often use a box step or not get too involved in the LOD until they get a feel of matching their steps with the musical measures.

2012, Raoul Weinstein, Become a Man of Confi-Dance, →ISBN:

If the dance floor is very crowded and you cannot travel forward in a counterclockwise direction around the perimeter of the room, or in the LOD, the leader needs to select from the stationary variations that are known so far.

2013, Judy Patterson Wright, Social Dance: Steps to Success, →ISBN, page 297:

(dance) Initialism of line of dance; a counterclockwise direction for circuiting the dance floor.


skirt dance

A form of dance, popular in burlesque and vaudeville theater of the 1890s, in which women dancers manipulated long, layered skirts with their arms to create a motion of flowing fabric.


folk dancing

the activity of taking part in folk dances.


folk dancer

A person who takes part in folk dancing.


Nutbush

Nutbush (dance)
Nutbush City Limits
Nutbush, Tennessee

[...] On highway number nineteen [...] They call it Nutbush city [...] Little old town in Tennessee [...] a quiet, little old community; A one-horse town.

1973, Tina Turner (lyrics and music), “Nutbush City Limits”:

Nutbush, TN: An unincorporated town in Southwest Tennessee, about which Tina Turner wrote the 1973 song Nutbush City Limits.

Nutbush, Memphis: A neighborhood in Northeast Memphis, TN, originally settled by migrants from the town.

[A]fter spilling a coke [...] all down my front when some idiot doing the Nutbush elbowed my can.

2015, Catherine Therese, The Weight of Silence: A Memoir, →ISBN:

the Nutbush: A line dance popular in Australia that is danced to the song.


coaster step

(dance) A triple step that moves linearly, comes together, and then changes direction, typically back together forward but also forward together back.


nae nae

Named after character Sheneneh Jenkins, a sassy "ghetto girl" in the 1990s sitcom Martin. The Atlanta hip-hop group We Are Toonz is credited for inventing the term with their hit song Drop That NaeNae (2013).

“I told you I did not want a fluff piece!” “Not fluff, fun! There's a difference. Remember when Obama sang Al Green?” “You wanna watch me whip and nae nae, Thembi?”

2016, Nathan Louis Jackson, “Suckas Need Bodyguards” (25:20 from the start), in Luke Cage, season 1, episode 6, spoken by Miriam Sharpe (Alfre Woodard):

A hip-hop dance based on planting one's feet, swaying with shoulder movement, and placing one hand in the air and one hand down.


lion dance

zh-l

獅子舞／狮子舞 (shīziwǔ)

A traditional Chinese dance where performers mimic a lion's movements in a lion costume.


legong

From Dutch legong, from Balinese legong.

A Balinese dance traditionally performed by girls before the age of puberty.


cheek to cheek

Close together, especially when dancing.


partner dance

A dance involving coordinated dancing between two partners.


shing-a-ling

A dance similar to the boogaloo, popular in the 1950s.


ball change

A dance move consisting of two steps: a partial weight transfer on the ball of a foot (placed e.g. behind), followed by a step on the other foot.


hasapiko

Borrowed from Greek χασάπικο (chasápiko), literally "the butcher's (dance)"; it originated in the Middle Ages as a battle mime with swords performed by the Greek butchers' guild.


sirtaki

Borrowed from Greek συρτάκι (syrtáki), from συρτός (syrtós, a type of folk dance, literally “drawn, led”) + -άκι (-áki, diminutive suffix).

suffix

A modern Greek folk dance, a mixture of the slow and fast versions of the hasapiko dance.


ductia

In the other refrain forms he mentions (the instrumental ductia and stantipes, both varieties of the dance genre known as estampie), the refrain is musically distinct from the so-called puncta.

2007, Piero Weiss, Music in the Western World, page 55:

(historical) A medieval dance similar to the estampie


moonrun

From Moon + run; modelled after moonwalk.

Michael Jackson had his moonwalk, while Darryl Beardall has his moonrun. And it's not like he's done these miles in the vacuum of space. For lack of a better term, he's a “serial racer.”

2016, Scott Ludwig, Bonnie Busch, Craig Snapp, Running to Extremes: The Legendary Athletes of Ultrarunning, Meyer & Meyer Sport, →ISBN, page 226:

(rare, dance) A dance move (or something similar or analogous) in which one slides backwards while appearing as if one was running forwards.


lindy-hopping

The dance, or dancing, of the Lindy Hop. (Also used attributively.)


ceroc

Named for and by Ceroc, an international dance organization that created the dance.

In his analysis of ceroc classes, Jonathan Skinner (2003: 16) describes how the grammar, tone and movements of the lessons have clear structure to their teaching which allows a safety valve for the expression of erotic play and sexual desires; as one dancer commented, these were 'nights to act out and act up, to perform, feign illicit passions and create romantic impersonations within a carefully controlled and contrived social matrix'.

2010, Hastings Donnan, Fiona Magowan, The Anthropology of Sex, →ISBN, page 65:

Ceroc is really energetic and quite graceful – I had my share of whirls and twirls with one or two dips thrown in! Guess the men thought I'd be a safe bet to dip – safe for their backs I mean!

2010, Lynne Scott, Shadows of the Dance, →ISBN, page 211:

We catch a bit of the last band and then suddenly, provoked by a blast from the booming PA system, everyone breaks into an extended bout of ceroc dancing, a kind of Latin salsa thing that I only know about because it became quite popular back home for a while.

2012, David Le Vay, The Hairy Hikers: A Coast-to-Coast Trek Along the French Pyrenees, →ISBN:

I was also intrigued to discover that my tramp-like friend is a keen dancer and had, in fact, cycled fifteen miles to attend a ceroc dance class in the local town.

2014, Andrew S Cowan, Estate Life, →ISBN, page 46:

A style of dance which combines salsa with jive and rock and roll.


ballroom dancing

formal social dancing in couples, popular as a recreation and also as a competitive activity. The ballroom dance repertoire includes dances developed from old European folk dances such as the waltz and minuet, Latin American dances such as the tango, rumba, and cha-cha, and dances of 20th-century origin such as the foxtrot and quickstep.


discaire

From English disc (“vinyl gramophone or phonograph record”) + French -aire (suffix forming adjectives or nouns), modelled after disquaire. Disc is derived from French disque (“disk, record”), from Latin discus (“discus, quoit; dish shaped like a discus; disc of a sundial”), from Ancient Greek δίσκος (dískos, “disc, quoit; dish; round mirror; reliquary”), probably of Pre-Greek origin.

der

[I]n the winter he used to go out dancing at five in the morning, and why? Because then the crowd had gone, the discaire was no longer playing for them, but for his friends, and that was the best dancing.

1978, Andrew Holleran, chapter 1, in Dancer from the Dance: […] (A Plume Book), New York, N.Y.: New American Library, published October 1986, →ISBN, page 25:

There was no one word to describe the variegated music we spent the night with. It was distinct enough for the discaire to begin a set quietly, build gradually to a climax, then let you down to start all over again. Do you remember that vanished custom?

1978 December, Andrew Holleran, “Dark Disco: A Lament”, in Christopher Street, volume 3, number 5, New York, N.Y.: That New Magazine, →ISSN, →OCLC; republished in Michael Denneny, Charles Ortleb, and Thomas Steele, editors, The Christopher Street Reader, New York, N.Y.: Perigee Books, 1983 (1984 printing), →ISBN, page 74:

While the selection of tracks was a pretty accurate reflection of what was being played in discotheques at the time— [...] the "mixing" was pretty appalling (the songs just scrunched together as if they were on a crowded bus and there was no DJ credited on the album, not that any self-respecting discaire would have wanted to be associated with it) despite the claim that the album was "tight and distinctive … professional and polished … never contrived or stylized."

2005, Peter Shapiro, Turn the Beat Around: The Secret History of Disco, New York, N.Y.: Faber and Faber, →ISBN:

The DJ booth was built in a glass elevator so the discaires could play for four different dancefloors at once, gliding from one to another as they selected their tunes.

2006, Bill Brewster, Frank Broughton, “Balearic Bryllyant”, in Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey, updated edition, New York, N.Y.: Headline Book Publishing, →ISBN:

The most famous club, Le Discotheque (French for "The Record Library"), opened on rue de la Huchette [in Paris] in 1941. With a discaire, or disc jockey, spinning jazz records all night long, the main attraction was dancing. Thumbing their noses at the occupying Reich, Le Discotheque and other underground clubs opened their doors to blacks and homosexuals, the same groups that would first embrace disco music 30 years later.

2007, “Why Disco Happened”, in Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Plunges into Music (Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader), e-book edition, Ashland, Or.: Portable Press/The Bathroom Readers’ Institute, Printers Row Publishing Group, published November 2011, →ISBN:

A third, a discaire, also died; "That's absolutely the last disco funeral I'll ever attend," my friend reported. "You do know, don't you, that they played all his greatest tapes at the funeral."

2014, Edmund White, “New York City”, in States of Desire Revisited: Travels in Gay America, Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, →ISBN, page 275:

(dance, music) Alternative spelling of disquaire (“disc jockey”)


bunggul

A form of ceremonial music and dance among Australian Aboriginals.


alkayida

A Ghanaian dance with an emphasis on side-to-side moves, sometimes performed as a group.


marjoret

From Cebuano mardyoret, ultimately from English majorette.


verbunkos

An 18th-century Hungarian military genre of dance and music, typically divided into fast and slow sections.


hully gully

en-noun

hully gully (plural hully gullies or hully gullys)

hully gullies (plural)
hully gullys (plural)

→? German: Halligalli

Just like the dog but not so low
 Like the hully gully but not so slow
 Now baby swim, baby do the swim.

1964, “C'mon And Swim”, Thomas Coman and Sylvester Stewart (Sly Stone) (lyrics), performed by Bobby Freeman:

She [...] loves to cook, sew and dance. She's up on all the latest steps like the frug, the hully-gully and the surf.

1964 July 15, The Australian, Sydney, page 20, column 3:

Well, there's a dance spreading round like an awful disease / Hully, hully gully / You just shake your shoulders and you wiggle your knees

1965, Fred Sledge Smith, Cliff Goldsmith (lyrics and music), “Hully Gully”, in Beach Boys' Party!, performed by The Beach Boys:

A dance popular in the 1960s, commonly danced to the song Hully Gully; now often performed as a line dance.


dingolay

en-verb

dingolay (third-person singular simple present dingolays, present participle dingolaying, simple past and past participle dingolayed)

dingolays (present singular third-person)
dingolaying (participle present)
dingolayed (participle past)
dingolayed (past)

/ˈdɪŋɡəʊleɪ/

/ˈdɪŋɡoʊleɪ/

From Kongo dyengula (“to gyrate the waist while dancing”), possibly from French dégringoler (“to fall down, tumble”).

der

Believe me, friends, if I were King / I'd marry any woman and give her a ring, / I wouldn't give a damn what the people say / So long as she can wash, cook, and dingolay. [Commenting on the abdication of Edward VIII.]

1937, Arnold Gingrich, editor, Esquire: The Magazine for Men, volume 8, Chicago, Ill.: Esquire, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 109; also quoted in Catherine A. Sunshine, “Caribbean Unity, the Frustrated Dream”, in The Caribbean: Survival, Struggle and Sovereignty, Washington, D.C.: EPICA, 1988, →ISBN, part 7 (In the Shadow of the Empire), page 224, column 1:

Hands clapped, feet tapped, bodies dingolayed.

1945, Glanville [Wyncoop] Smith, Many a Green Isle, London: John Lane, The Bodley Head, →OCLC, page 268:

"Madam, we have a way to say when somebody can walk well, we say they dingolay well." Pamela laughed. "You mean that Don … can dingolay well," Lalaja laughed.

c. 1970–1980, D. W. Rogers, Lalaja, a Tale of Retribution, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago: Frasers Printerie, →OCLC, page 164:

All he did was duck, and there he was, in Brazil, serenading in the moonlight, and round the campfire some women dancing samba and the music hot like fire. And everybody dingolaying. And same time somebody calling him, "Come, come. Trinidad on fire."

1994, Learie Alleyne-Forte, Jokers on the Abyss’ Edge: A Collection of Short Stories, San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago: Learie Alleyne-Forte, →OCLC, page 19:

Inez come leh we jam for Crop Over Festival, come leh we dingolay

1999, Elizabeth F. Watson, From “Ma Boy” to a King: John King, 1982–1998: An Annotated Discography of Popular Music from Barbados, Saint Michael, Barbados: Research Riddims, →ISBN, page 96:

The crowd was wild as she "dingolayed" to get the attention of the male lead singer.

2010, Annette Osborne, “Roses for Grandma”, in … As a Tale That Is Told, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, section 5 (Jascmin), page 139:

It is this creature [the human being], peculiarly constituted and uniquely called, that God dingolays and improvises with, in order to draw the created order toward its liberating telos. Human dingolaying in the image of God, participating in the divine melody, is a cultural task; it is a task for theologians and laypersons from every cultural context, [...]

2013, Eric G. Flett, “Dingolayin’: Theological Notes for a Caribbean Theology”, in Garnett Roper, J. Richard Middleton, editors, A Kairos Moment for Caribbean Theology: Ecumenical Voices in Dialogue, Eugene, Or.: Pickwick Publications, Wipf and Stock, →ISBN, page 72:

Lichorich put on a performance that antagonised the crowd, who shouted profanities as he constantly dingolayed around the ring in a bid to avoid confrontation with Ralph.

2013 February 6, Kevon Felmine, “Odel retains King of the Rock title”, in Trinidad and Tobago Guardian, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago: Trinidad Pub. Co., →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-05-21:

(intransitive, Caribbean) To perform a kind of lively dance with hand movements.


ride the pony

A dance move in which the dancer imitates riding a horse while swinging a lasso.


dance move

A bodily movement or series of movements, either traditional or improvised, that forms part of a specific dance or that is performed when dancing.


crossback

* cross + back
* (Catholic person): Alluding to Catholic priests wearing crosses on the backs of their vestments in church services.

There is a constant crossback movement, first with one foot and then with the other.

1957, Beale Fletcher, How to improve your tap dancing:

Step with the left foot ending behind the right (crossback position).

1990, Jo Ann McNamara, Sharon Pendleton, The ABCs of Aerobics, →ISBN, page 28:

Whether tip-toeing daintily or skidding with controlled abandon across the space, Harold's softshoe dance ran the gamut of classic jazz dance steps. Circling crossbacks and crossovers, step-ball-changes, spin turns and grapevines, ...

2000, Constance Valis Hill, Brotherhood in Rhythm: The Jazz Tap Dancing of the Nicholas Brothers:

(dance) A step in which one leg crosses behind the other.


circle pit

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-circle pit.wav

From circle + pit, modelled after mosh pit.

Call Me in the Morning also fuses old and new, referencing the Rolling Stones' Paint It Black while swimming in Auto-Tune. The circle pit then swirls anew for Open the Till, which features a yellable chorus and more gnomic Skinnerisms. "You make ends meet," he [Mike Skinner] notes, "then they move the ends."

2019 January 26, Kitty Empire [pseudonym], “The Streets review – the agony and ecstasy of a great everyman”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2019-04-08:

(dance, music) A dance at a concert where participants mosh in a circular path, leaving the centre clear.


power move

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-power move.wav

A type of dance move in b-boying, involving speed, momentum, and acrobatic elements.


saut de basque

(ballet) A jump in which the dancer draws one leg up to the knee of the other and turns in the air.


armhook

When the partners meet they form armhook with each other, turn around once, let go, and continue the march till they again meet, when they march up into straight flank formation and halt at the end of the stanza.

With a clap the first and second men take right armhook with own ladies, then left with each other, right with own ladies, then left with each other, and retire to the same places as at the finish of part A ;

1915, Elizabeth Burchenal, Folk-dances of Denmark: containing seventy-three dances, page 66:

(folk dancing) A movement in which two people hook arms at the elbow and turn around each other.


heel turn

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-heel turn.wav

From heel (“rear part of the foot, where it joins the leg”) + turn; sense 2 (“act of turning around abruptly”) is derived from turn heel or turn on one’s heel.
Sense 4 (“situation in which a wrestler previously identified as a villain changes to being considered a hero”) is a pun on the word heel, which also means “a headlining wrestler whose ring persona embodies villainous or reprehensible traits”.

compound

The lady's step would then need to be drastically foreshortened, and would degenerate into a heel turn—not infrequent with beginners.

1951, Dancing Times, London: Dancing Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 235, column 2:

A second later, all I could think of was following Dad through the complex pattern of heel turns, weaves, spins and sweeping movements across the floor.

1996, Nicole Davidson, Dying to Dance (Avon Flare YA Horror), New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 69:

In some moves, such as a heel turn[…], the person dancing the heel turn cannot take a long second step, but the other person will.

2006, Paul Bottomer, “Slow Foxtrot”, in Dance Class: How to Waltz, Quick Step, Foxtrot, Tango, Samba, Salsa, Merengue, Lambada and Line Dance – Step-by-Step!, London: Southwater, Anness Publishing, →ISBN, page 234, column 1:

(dance) A ballroom dancing move in which the dancer steps backwards, shifts their weight on to the back foot, and turns on the heel of that foot while holding the other foot close and parallel to it.


chicken dance

(preceded by definite article) A simple modern dance, performed to a version of Werner Thomas's Bird Song or Birdie Song, in which certain moves mimic the movements of a chicken.

There is a laughable account of one of these "chicken-dances," as the Americans call them, in the first volume of the late Mr. T. Keast Lord's 'The Naturalist in British Columbia.'

1876, Zoologist: A Monthly Journal of Natural History, page 5072:

prairie chicken dance
prairie chicken dance#English

Ellipsis of prairie chicken dance (“traditional Native American dance”).


Graham technique

Created by American dancer and choreographer Martha Graham (1894–1991).

A modern dance movement style and pedagogy based on the opposition between contraction and release and on the spiraling of the torso around the axis of the spine.


Gay Gordons

If you're a Solitaire aficionado who knows more than one game, you'll be happy to know that AisleRiot Solitaire provides the following games: Agnes, Athena, […], Freecell, Gaps, Gay Gordons, Glenwood, Golf, […], Yukon, and Zebra.

2010, William von Hagen, Ubuntu Linux Bible, →ISBN:

A form of solitaire in which the goal is to remove all cards by creating pairs that add up to 11.


fairy ballet

en-noun

fairy ballet (countable and uncountable, plural fairy ballets)

(uncountable) A genre of ballet that developed in the 19th century, featuring fantasy characters and often employing technical effects.


ballet master

An employee of a ballet company who is charged with maintaining the skill of the company's dancers.


trepak

A traditional brisk Russian and Ukrainian folk dance.


griddy

en:Griddy (dance)
en:griddy (disambiguation)

Coined by American highschool player of American football Allen "Griddy" Davis as "The Griddy". Named after American highschool player of American football Allen "Griddy" Davis. From the nickname of the creator, an American football player, from griddy, thus presumably a clipping of gridiron + -y (2019).

named-after

A dance move in which a person alternatingly taps the heels, either in place or while walking, while swinging the arms back and forth; the move also involves holding one's hands in the OK gesture in front of one's eyes (known as "throwing one's Bs").


CBMP

contra body movement position
w:contra body movement position

(dance) Initialism of contra body movement position.


FLOD

(dance) Initialism of facing line of dance.


FDW

(dance) Initialism of facing diagonally to the wall.


BDW

(dance) Initialism of backing diagonally to the wall.


BLOD

(dance) Initialism of backing line of dance.


electric boogaloo

A type of freestyle, improvised street dance emphasising fluid movements of the joints and limbs combined with popping.


Pride of Erin

(preceded by definite article) An old-fashioned dance for a couple, of Irish origin.


Shango

An orisha in Yoruba religion, the god of thunder, fire, justice, dance and virility.


Agadoo dance

A simplistic novelty dance performed to the 1984 novelty song Agadoo recorded by the band Black Lace.


candle dance

A type of traditional Indonesian dance performed with a lighted candle balanced on the palm of each hand.


go-go dancer

A dancer who entertains patrons at a nightclub, especially a young and scantily dressed woman.


swing dancing

A style of highly acrobatic dance performed to swing music.


Melbourne shuffle

en-noun

Melbourne shuffle (plural Melbourne shuffles)

(music, dance) A style of dancing in the rave scene, with fast-paced steps and heel-and-toe movements, T-steps, the running man, etc.


double-shuffle

en-verb

double-shuffle (third-person singular simple present double-shuffles, present participle double-shuffling, simple past and past participle double-shuffled)

double-shuffles (present singular third-person)
double-shuffling (participle present)
double-shuffled (participle past)
double-shuffled (past)

(drumming) To play a shuffle pattern with both hands.

(Australia, colloquial) To double-clutch.


double-shuffle

Curtis did a piece of double-shuffle tracking to illustrate his point.

1946, George Johnston, Skyscrapers in the Mist, page 43:

(dance) A dance move in which the dancer makes a shuffle twice.

(drumming) A shuffle pattern played with both hands.


Highland dancing

(dance) A style of dancing, often competitive, based on the traditional dances of the Scottish Highlands.


levalto

Ixion[…]turn'd dancer, does nothing but cut capreols, fetch friskals, and leads lavaltoes


demi-pointe

en-noun

demi-pointe (countable and uncountable, plural demi-pointes)

(ballet) Alternative spelling of demipointe (“a ballet position executed with the dancer up on the balls of the feet”)


demipointe

demipointe (countable and uncountable, plural demipointes)

From demi- (“half”) + pointe (“tip of the toe”), via Old French demi from Latin dīmidius (“halved”), combined with French pointe (“point, tip”) from Late Latin pūnctum; in this sense short for pointe des pieds (“tippy-toe”, literally “tip of the feet”); cf. French sur la pointe des pieds (“on tiptoe”).

cog

(anatomy, ballet) The ball of the foot, the padded front part of the sole behind the tip of the toes; hence, a ballet position executed with the dancer up on the balls of one or both feet, the heels raised up off the floor.


spring dance

A folk dance traditionally held to celebrate the season of spring.

"There lies the parson, and here am I," he said, with one of his well known airs, "and now let us have a spring-dance!" In an instant the whole congregation was in the midst of a wild dance; a big tall peasant came towards me and took me by the shoulder and said: "You'll have to join us, my lad!"

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 14:

A vigorous dance with jumping or leaping moves.


vastrap

(South Africa) A type of folk dance; the music of this dance


paralist

From Japanese パラリスト (pararisuto), from Japanese パラパラ + -ist.


para para

dancing the para para, dancing all night long

1998, “D.I.S.C.O.”, performed by Go Go Girls:

A Japanese type of dance from the 1980s.


botafogo

Four basics, four whisks, three samba walks, one side-samba walk, then two botafogos, four voltas and a maypole.

2010, Christine Darcas, Spinning Out, page 318:

The two of us started doing some basic steps and Sinclair added some ballroom steps like whisks, botafogos, and turning volta steps.

2023, Sinclair Ogaga Emoghene, Kathleen A. Spanos, Dancing in the World: Revealing Cultural Confluences, page 1979:


syrtos

From Greek συρτός (syrtós), Koine Greek συρτός (surtós), noun use of Ancient Greek συρτός (surtós, “dragging along”), from σύρειν (súrein, “to drag along, sweep away”).

der

He was drawn into a dance, a syrtos of the young people of Lixouri.

1994, Louis de Bernières, Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Minerva, published 1995, page 78:

A folk dance of classical and modern Greece.


Suzy Q

He galvanized my memory by doing a bit of smart Suzy-Q across the carpet and humming a snatch or two of something that sounded like "Scrub Me, Momma, with a Boogie Beat."

1946, George Johnston, Skyscrapers in the Mist, page 40:


anti-gravity lean

en-noun

anti-gravity lean (plural anti-gravity leans)

Coined by Michael Jackson in 1987, when he created this performance dance maneuver, for the music video of Smooth Criminal. The move appears to defy gravity, as one would topple over without the special restraints used for the procedure.

(dance) In performance dance, a freestanding 45-degree lean, with a special shoe, anchored to the floor by a support bolt locking to the dance shoe.


cut the pigeon wing

en-verb

cut the pigeon wing (third-person singular simple present cuts the pigeon wing, present participle cutting the pigeon wing, simple past and past participle cut the pigeon wing)

cuts the pigeon wing (present singular third-person)
cutting the pigeon wing (participle present)
cut the pigeon wing (participle past)
cut the pigeon wing (past)

[…]that was because no manager could imagine that audiences would pay to see Negro performers in any other role than that of Mississippi River roustabouts; but there was lots of talent and ambition. I often heard the younger and brighter men discussing the time when they would compel the public to recognize that they could do something more than grin and cut pigeon-wings.

1912, James Weldon Johnson, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man:

They all tried to be polite, and Russ grew quite friendly with one of the bellboys who brought them ice water. He asked that boy if he knew how to cut the pigeon wing, and the boy grinned very broadly.

1922, Laura Lee Hope [pseudonym], Six little Bunkers at Mammy June's:

(idiomatic, US, dated) To dance with graceful or fancy movements.


cushion dance

I'm aa for the cushion dance; I wad na give a baubee for a baa withoot that.

1839 September, Personal Narrative of Tristram Dumps, Esq., “The New Monthly Magazine”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), volume 62, number 225, page 132:

The famous 'cushion dance' was physically safer, though its association with flirtatious interaction ensured a measure of controversy.

2013, Christopher Marsh, Music and Society in Early Modern England, page 338:

The company in the emblem appears to be of a higher status than the villagers who dance the cushion dance in Tortworth, but the way in which the man approaches the seated woman, holding the cushion in one hand and doffing his hat with the other while he bows, is likely similar to the village version.

2017, Allison Levy, Playthings in Early Modernity, page 45:

They all take partners and places for a cushion dance.

2019, “Dot”, in Dion Boucicault, editor, America's Lost Plays, Vol. I: Forbidden Fruit and Other Plays, page 149:

(historical) A dance in which one person carries a cushion around the room, placing it before someone he or she wishes to kiss, after which kiss the chosen person takes up the cushion and continues the dance.


throw it back

throw it back (third-person singular simple present throws it back, present participle throwing it back, simple past threw it back, past participle thrown it back)

throws it back (present singular third-person)
throwing it back (participle present)
threw it back (past)
thrown it back (participle past)

(dance, slang) To arch the back and thrust the hips backwards.


skidance

freestyle skiing
freestyle skiing#English

(skiing, dance) A freestyle skiing event, a form of performance dance on alpine skis, performed across flats and choreographed to music.


one-step

A ballroom dance that was popular at the beginning of the twentieth century


Zaouli

Originated in the 1950s, reportedly inspired by a girl named "Djela Lou Zaouli", meaning "Zaouli, daughter of Djela".

A traditional dance of the Guro people of the central Ivory Coast.


ethnochoreology

en-noun

ethnochoreology (usually uncountable, plural ethnochoreologies)

Ukrainian ethnochoreology has its own profile, including an emphasis on certain issues, and a lack of emphasis on others.

2011, Andriy Nahachewsky, Ukrainian Dance: A Cross-Cultural Approach, McFarland & Company, page 2:

Ethnochoreology, the sister discipline of ethnomusicology, is the study of dance or other human movement practices within the context of culture, society, and history.

2019, Catherine E. Foley, “Ethnochoreology”, in Janet Sturman, editor, The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Music and Culture, SAGE, page 843:

Drawing on our combined experiences with Irish traditional music and dance, we explore the dialectic between research and practice, insider and outsider, self and other, and ethnomusicology and its sister (or, more aptly, queer little brother) discipline of ethnochoreology.

2020, Aileen Dillane, Nic Gareiss, “The Lion, the Witch and the Closet: Heteronormative Institutional Research and the Queering of 'Traditions'”, in Gregory Barz, William Cheng, editors, Queering the Field: Sounding Out Ethnomusicology, Oxford University Press, page 236:

The interdisciplinary study of the cultural and social aspects of dance.


footplay

So we look at the fight, and what do we see? We see that the best fighter combines footplay with fist-work.

1921, The Army Quarterly and Defence Journal:

Quite “beside himself,” he dances up and down the Corso, seeking to engage Princess Brambilla in wild and inspired footplay, but she is not to be found.

1984, Professor of English and Comparative Literature Tobin Siebers, Tobin Siebers, The Romantic Fantastic:


Tanzhaus

Borrowed from German Tanzhaus (literally “dance house”).

bor+

Especially in the Rhineland, hundreds of men and women danced to utter exhaustion. Lasting until the beginning of the fifteenth century, this epidemic carried over into the Jewish ghettos, where a Tanzhaus was found.

2017, Velvel Pasternak, Behind the Music, Stories, Anecdotes, Articles and Reflections, page 205:

(historical) A late Middle Ages Jewish European dancehall


ballet mom

A mother who teaches ballet or is a ballet dancer.


oriental dance

en-noun

oriental dance (countable and uncountable, plural oriental dances)

Calque of Arabic رَقْص شَرْقِيّ (raqṣ šarqiyy), equivalent to oriental + dance.

calque

رَقْص شَرْقِيّ


border morris

A vigorous style of traditional English dance originating from villages along the border between England and Wales, performed by a team of dancers usually with their faces disguised with black makeup.


rond de jambe

/ɹɔn də ˈʒɑmb/

Borrowed from French rond de jambe (literally “circle of the leg”).

bor+

(ballet) The movement of a leg in a semicircular motion, either on the ground (par terre) or in the air (en l'air).


port de bras

From French port de bras (literally “carriage of the arms”).

bor

As a physical presence, nevertheless, he can bourree with the best of them and packs a mean port-de-bras.

1991 April 6, Ron Caldwell, “Kind of Stranger”, in Gay Community News, page 16:

(ballet) An exercise in which the arms are moved to different positions, sometimes also incorporating upper-body movements.


buchaechum

The show’s stage design features bojagi, traditional Korean patchwork. The audience members are also presented with Korean traditional dance, including buchaechum, or “fan dance,” performed by a group of female dancers using fans painted in different colors.

2013 July 18, Claire Lee, “Popular TV drama revisited onstage”, in The Korea Herald:

Interspersed with musical numbers, including a serene solo by Chung-Eun Han for the daegeum, or bamboo flute, the program also showcased “Buchaechum,” a fan dance.

2013 August 6, Gia Kourlas, “In Drums and Fans, the Spirit of Korea”, in The New York Times:

A Korean fan dance, usually performed by groups of female dancers, originating from various traditional and religious Korean dances.


circle dance

Coordinate term: round dance

The circle dance is characterized not only by the circle formation (which other dances may share) but by the fact that couples or individuals keep progressing around the circle and dancing with new couples or individuals […]

1950, Lloyd Shaw, The Round Dance Book: A Century of Waltzing, page 371:

A style of social dance done in a circle, semicircle or a curved line to musical accompaniment.


tsifteteli

Borrowed from Greek τσιφτετέλι (tsiftetéli), from Turkish çiftetelli.

bor+

A sensuous dance of Turkish origin, that is found in many of the territories of the former Ottoman Empire.


Hokey Pokey

Unknown, compare the earlier-attested names for similar group circle dances from which the modern dance seems to have evolved, hinkumbooby from the 19th century and hankin booby from the 16th.

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:

(US, Canada, Australia, preceded by definite article) A group dance performed in a circle, in which people move a variety of their body parts in and out of the middle, and shake them about.


Texas Tommy

The tango, the Texas Tommy, Walking the Dog, the one step, the fox trot, the shimmy, and all their out-growths, had their origin in the palaces of lust on the Barbary Coast of San Francisco.

1930, Jefferis & Nichols, Safe Counsel or Practical Eugenics, page 200:

A dance move popular in the early 20th century, and now in swing dancing, in which the lead passes the follower's hand behind the follower's back and pulls them into a turn.


walking the dog

Any of various dances, or dance moves, that mimic dog walking.


twerkathon

In America, we like to blame pop for the ills in society – just look at the savage attacks critics have launched against Britney Spears' recent “Work Bitch,” or Miley Cyrus' infamous twerkathon.

2013 September 17, Jake Folsom, “Scandinavian Pop”, in Washington Square News, New York University, page 2:

More than a month removed from Miley Cyrus's “twerkathon” at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, it's hard to get the painful image out of my mind.

2013 October 2, Matthew Walter, “Celebrities create negative influence”, in The Corral, Parkway Central High School, Chesterfield, MO, page 19:

There was a twerkathon onstage, inciting one of the loudest crowd reactions we've experienced in our four years at Beauty Bar.

2015 June 4, Mike Prevatt, Spencer Patterson, “10 Years of Beauty Bar”, in Las Vegas Weekly, page 19:

(slang) An energetic display of twerking, particularly to an audience.


twerkalicious

en-adj

twerkalicious (comparative more twerkalicious, superlative most twerkalicious)

more twerkalicious (comparative)
most twerkalicious (superlative)

/ˌtwɝkəˈlɪʃəs/

From Nicki Minaj's twerkalicious video for "Anaconda" to Jason Derulo's butt-obsessed "Wiggle," pop culture caught booty fever this year.

2014 December 20, “Booty: By The Numbers”, in Billboard, page 65:

Sure enough, there was Serena Williams, dancing away in a twerkalicious cameo during the song “Sorry.”

2016 May 9, Cindy Boren, “Serena Williams explains how she ended up twerking in Beyonce’s ‘Lemonade’”, in The Washington Post:

Big Freedia threw down downtown Tampa's most twerkalicious dance party ever.

2021, Ray Roa, "Hallelujah", Creative Loafing, 18 March 2021 - 24 March 2021, page 41


twerktastic

twerktastic (comparative more twerktastic, superlative most twerktastic)

more twerktastic (comparative)
most twerktastic (superlative)

It's a subject that's never far from the surface of cultural discourse here, and it's been a particularly sensitive subject because of two of the biggest pop cultural stories of the last few weeks: Miley Cyrus and her twerktastic VMAs performance, […]

2013 October 8, Tom Hawking, “New York Conversation”, in The Music, Melbourne, Australia, page 75:

This is not to say that she’s [Beyoncé] not serving up some expected sultry and playful sex appeal, which is found in spades on “XO” (written and produced by The-Dream and OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder) and the twerktastic “Yoncé.”

2014, Frontiers, 8 January 2014 - 21 January 2014, page 47

Nothing can compare to Miley's twerktastic performance last year, but with that butt-filled opening I think things came fairly close.

2014 August 26, Matt Sowell, “Buzz List Page: VMA Edition”, in The George-Anne, Georgia Southern University, page 11:

(slang) Excellent in a way involving twerking; ideal for or conducive to twerking.


shimmy shake

Some of the so-called best people in the profession are using the shimmy shake in song, dance and pantomime.

1930, Jefferis & Nichols, Safe Counsel or Practical Eugenics, page 209:

A jazz dance originating in the 1910s in which the shoulders, breasts, hips, and knees were rapidly shaken.


Suzie Q

A dance move, originating in the USA in the 1930s, in which the feet perform alternating cross-steps and sidesteps with a swivel action.


pas de trois

Borrowed from French pas de trois (literally “step of three”).

bor

(dance) A dance performed by three dancers.


pas de quatre

Borrowed from French pas de quatre (literally “step of four”).

(dance) A dance performed by four dancers.


swordography

Blend of sword + choreography. By surface analysis, sword + -o- + -graphy.

surf

Do you know what? I had so much fun. The swordography... you know, I think we needed more swordography, to be honest. Loved the sword fight.

2023, 31:26 from the start, in Strictly Come Dancing, season 21, episode 3, spoken by Zara McDermott:

(theater, dance) Choreography using (prop) swords.


Ring a Ring o' Roses

(music, dance, games) A traditional children's game involving dancing in a ring around a person in the middle.


demi-caractère

(about a work for the stage or a performer's part in it, dated) Which, in the historical French nomenclature, was halfway between serious (sérieux) and comic (comique); typically, where the protagonists or the plot were not noble enough compared to those derived from mythology or history, but could still convey serious emotions (see for example the 1886 Camille Bellaigue quotation about Bizet's opera Carmen under French demi-caractère)


ladies' chain

(dance) A figure in square dance, in which the women cross to the opposite side, taking each other's right hands as they go, and their left hands are then taken by the men on the opposite side.


courtesy turn

In the beginning, the Eight Chain thru is taught with smooth arm-around-waist courtesy turns at each end.

1969, Square Dance, volumes 24-25, page 40:

Many of the calls associated with square dance are also heard in contra dance, but the latter is often associated with more courtesy turns (in which the gent moves backward, allowing the lady to turn around) and less swinging.

2015, Simon J. Bronner, Encyclopedia of American Folklife, page 266:

Women meet in center, clasp right hands, pass right shoulders, and give left hand to opposite man. Man puts his right arm around woman's waist and turns her with a courtesy turn.

2015, Anne M. Pittman, Marlys S. Waller, Cathy L. Dark, Dance a While, page 546:

(dance) A square dancing and contra dancing move in which the man puts his arm around the waist of the woman and turns her around by moving backwards while she moves forward.


zombie dance

Michael Jackson's Thriller (music video)

Of the first sense, popularized by Michael Jackson in the music video Thriller (1983).

The Minneapolis police did not share the fun spirit at a "zombie dance party” held in ]uly 2006 in Minneapolis, arresting six people dressed as zombies for carrying devices that looked like WMDs—which turned out to be backpacks with homemade stereos in them so the zombies could dance.

2008, Shawn McIntosh, Marc Leverette, Zombie Culture: Autopsies of the Living Dead, page 15:

Through the zombie dance sequence, Gaga shows us that poignancy, pathos and pain ultimately lead to the discovery of the beauty found within our agonizing life experiences.”

2013, Amber L. Davisson, Lady Gaga and the Remaking of Celebrity Culture, page 12:

Before he can answer, everyone starts busting zombie moves—because who doesn't love a zombie dance?

2016, Pete Kalu, Zombie Xl: The Boy Who Got Sick of Warming the Bench:

In 2007, more than three hundred inmates, many of whom were imprisoned for murder, performed a truncated version of Jackson's zombie dance from "Thriller."

2017, Sarah Juliet Lauro, Zombie Theory: A Reader:

(dance) A type of dance in which participants use dance moves that mimic the undead, often combined with a masquerade and costumes.

The repetition of moves from the zombie dance in the quotidian market scene and in the ag'ya illustrates the influence or integration of elements of vodou culture in the everyday.

2006, Journal of Haitian Studies - Volumes 12-13, page 20:

Figure 4: Zombie dances at Cumina ceremonies 3: the possessed hurling himself through the dancing crowd blindly

2010, John Blacking, Joann W. Kealiinohomoko, The Performing Arts: Music and Dance, page 300:

The beginning of the zombie dance is driven by the hypnotic rhythms of multiple drums.

2011, Stephanie Leigh Batiste, Darkening Mirrors:

For example, the 2017 documentary short Kale Zonbi or whipping Zombie represents images of what are described in promotional materials as "a ritual dance, slaves and masters: it's the zombie dance.

2023, Lucy Swanson, The Zombie in Contemporary French Caribbean Fiction, page 169:

(dance) A ritual Caribbean dance in which participants enter a trance state and symbolically die and are born again.


Lambeth Walk

Originally the name of a comic Cockney sketch and song, c. 1901, and later popularised as a dance in the 1937 theatrical production Me and My Girl and 1939 movie The Lambeth Walk; punning on Lambeth Walk, a street in the London suburb of Lambeth.

On her behalf he made a tour of Ireland introducing new dances, and was the first to demonstrate the Lambeth Walk, an adaptation of a dance from Lupino Lane's production "Me and My Girl."

1938 April 9, The West Australian, Perth, page 23, column 4:

The "Lambeth Walk" has become very popular in Kalgoorlie. When Rene Esler and Jerry McMorrow introduced it at a dance there, it proved a great success, and was repeated several times during the evening.

1938 October 26, The Daily News, Perth, page 11, column 5:

Boy, you should have seen me doin', doin' the Lambeth Walk.

1951 August 20, The Daily Telegraph, Sydney, page 12, column 2:

(preceded by definite article) A dance popular in the late 1930s in which the dancer imitates the exaggerated jaunty walk of a comic Cockney character of theatrical shows.

Lambeth Walk
Me and My Girl
The Lambeth Walk


slue-foot

For, up a narrow little path which ran down athwart the face of the palisade came Uncle John Swafford with Robert Samuel on his arm; and behind them followed, grinning, the slew-foot Jim Swafford, with a blanket on his shoulder.

1907 April 20, The Wagga Wagga Express, NSW, page 6, column 4:


third position

(ballet) A position in which one foot is placed in front of the other so that the heel of the front foot is near the arch of the rear foot.


first position

(ballet) A position with the heels together and the toes going outwards.


second position

(ballet) A position in which the feet point in opposite directions, with heels spaced a short distance apart.


fourth position

(ballet) A position in which one foot is placed approximately a short distance in front of the other. The heels may be aligned ("open fourth position") or the heel of the front foot aligned with the toe of the back foot ("closed fourth position").


fifth position

(ballet) A position in which the feet form two parallel lines, with the heel of the front foot in contact with the big toe of the other, and the heel of the back foot in contact with the last toe of the front foot.


eskista

Ahmed was also appreciated for his talents as a showman, because he had no equal in letting loose the famous eskista, with the heaving quiver of the torso and shoulders, of which Ethiopians are so fond. Eskista is the dance of the Amharas, enhancing amorous repartee and expressing collective jubilation.

2002 August 1, Frank Tenaille, Music is the Weapon of the Future: Fifty Years of African Popular Music, →ISBN, page 168:

One of Ethiopia's most popular traditional dances, eskista, which is said to have originated from the lower highlands of Ethiopia's Amhara region, exemplifies the type of multi-functionality that Martin (1967) acknowledges as it is performed in many different settings of the Ethiopian community.

2018 February 20, Adesola Akinleye, Narratives in Black British Dance: Embodied Practices, →ISBN, page 195:

The Amhara people of Ethiopia have the Eskista, a celebratory dance that centres around movement in the shoulders and is said to be inspired by the movements of a snake.

2023 April 4, Araba Ofori-Acquah, Return to Source: Unlock the Power of African-Centered Wellness, →ISBN, page 52:

A folk dance of Ethiopia's Amhara people characterized by intense shoulder, chest, and neck movement.


ghost dance

One of the dances of the Ghost Dance religion.


dhaanto

A style of traditional music and a folk dance of the Somali people.


dabke

Borrowed from North Levantine Arabic دَبْكة (dabka) and South Levantine Arabic دَبْكة (dabka).


slut drop

A dance move consisting of dropping into a squat with one's legs apart


Black Bottom

(dance, music) A dance which became popular during the 1920s amid the Jazz Age.


finger-snapping

(music, dance) Of a piece of music or a dance, characterized by the snapping of fingers.