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About This Quiz
Dancing is one of the best things humans enjoy. It's fun, it's free, it's exercise, it's a way of bonding with others. It can be by turns reassuring, romantic, entertaining, challenging, and even beautiful. Before kids can speak in full sentences, they are usually delighted to dance: even in their cradles, they will bop along to a good beat. Many animals use dancing to attract a mate, and certainly many humans try that particular tactic, albeit with enormously varying success. Even so, dancing is a way to bring us all together in celebration, fun and flirtation.Â
As Sir William Lucas says in Jane Austen's beloved novel, "Pride and Prejudice," "What a charming amusement for young people... There is nothing like dancing, after all. I consider it as one of the first refinements of polished societies."Â Still, we mustn't forget the reply from Mr. Darcy: "Every savage can dance."Â
The difference between dancing, and dancing well, can be a very substantial one. Good dancing technique will elevate something clumsy or ridiculous into something beautiful and transfiguring - and that means study, practice and knowing the craft.Â
Dancers, like experts in any other field, typically study for 10 or more years to become really good, and in so doing they pick up a vast vocabulary. Let's see if you know it!
What is the name of the ballet term defined as "a bending of the knees outward by a dancer, with the back held straight"?
Flip
Drop
Plie
A plie is basically a sort of upright dip where you move just your knees. It's the easiest move in ballet.
Step
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What is a pirouette?
A 360-degree spin
A pirouette is found in many kinds of dancing. It is basically a spin or whirl round and round.
A turn
A 720-degree spin
A fake spin
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What sort of dance is "stripping the willow"?
A Caledonian reel
Stripping the willow is one of the easiest and simplest reels. It requires at least six people, ideally eight - and can include up to 100.
A Lindy hop
A jazz move
A country and western dance
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What is the name for a "beating movement of the legs"?
Wiggle
Ballet
Taper
Battement
A battement is when one leg is moved from the other and then back again. Sounds violent.
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What is triple-step?
It's a waltz.
It's a triplet that lands on four beats.
It's three steps that use two beats.
Triple-step takes two beats and can go "quick-quick-slow," "one-and-two" or "three-and-four"
It's a really fast foxtrot.
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What is the right word for when a straight leg draws a circle on the floor?
Rond
A rond is where the toe of a straight leg draws a circle on the floor. Similar to "round."
Round
Circle point
A fling
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During a walk in Latin dance, which part of the foot hits the floor first?
Heel
Ball
Toe
Most forms of dance have a walk, but Latin dance is unusual for having one where the toe hits first.
Any of the above, depending on the dance
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What is an allemande?
A French waltz
A samba that is from a place besides Spain
A German dance
It's from Germany, but it's also a move in country music where dancers link arms or hands and turn together.
A Flemish dance
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What is the name for a pose in which one leg is raised in back or in front with knee bent, usually with one arm raised?
Attitude
This is another pose in ballet and some other dances - but it's also good to have the right attitude when you dance!
Arabesque
Assemble
Arastre
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Where does Morris dancing come from?
England
Morris dancing is a group dance from the 1500s. It had characters including a fool and a boy on a hobby horse
Wales
Scotland
Ireland
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What is a pas de deux?
A dance for four
A dance for two
A pas de deux is a dance for two that has an entree, an adagio, solo sections and a joint coda.
A dance for three
A dance for six
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What is the name of a famous soft shoe dance created at the Cotton Club?
The chicken dance
The wiggle
The shim-sham
The shim-sham is a little bit like the Charleston... if you have bad knees!
The oopsy-daisy
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Which of these is not a kind of swing dance?
Balboa
Jitterbug
Lindy
Hoppity
Swing includes things like East Coast, West Coast, Lindy, ragtime jazz, jitterbug, boogie woogie, etc.
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What instrument is used during a tarantella?
Piano
Bell
Triangle
Tambourine
The tarantella requires that women use a tambourine, which provides rhythm and also a little extra music.
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What dance, typically performed by women in a row, involves high kicks to a very famous piece of music?
Polka
Can-can
The can-can was considered very risque when it was invented, as it made the skirt fly up and allowed some viewing of what was under it!
Quadrille
Salsa
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What is a barrida?
A leg sweep
A barrida is a pretty sexy move - an elaborate leg sweep - during probably the sexiest dance of all. Everybody tango.
A knee bend
An elbow bend
An arm sweep
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What do they call the highest-ranked dancer at the Paris Opera?
Etoile
It literally means the star - etoile. What a lofty goal!
Haut
Meilleur
Conduire
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What is a dancer doing if they are "en travesti"?
Dressing as another gender
This is a French term that is also used in the theater.
Dancing naked
Dancing with someone else's partner
Dancing alone at a partner dance
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What is an ocho?
Figure eight
Argentine tango includes a figure-eight movement called an ocho, from the Spanish word for eight.
Two pirouettes
A spiral pattern on the floor
A dance of eight people
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What is a patada?
A toe tap
A kick
Patada is just the Spanish word for kick. It is a kind of fancy salsa kick.
A bend in the leg
A circle of arms
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What dance is the predecessor of the cha-cha?
Mambo
The cha-cha started as an offshoot of the mambo but went via the triple mambo first, which is where the "cha-cha-cha" part comes from.
Polka
Tango
Salsa
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What is it called when a dancer can appear to be suspended in the air in a jump?
Float
Elastic
Ballon
It comes from a variant spelling of balloon, since it means floating like one.
Suspend
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What does the kicking leg do in a fan kick?
Sweep under the body
Go over the head
Encircle their partner
Sweep in front of the body
A fan kick is in modern jazz. The leg sweeps in front of the body.
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In tap dance, what is a bell or click?
When you tap your heels together in the air
This is the ruby slippers move, only done while airborne.
When you tap your heels on the floor
When you tap your toes together
When you tap one toe twice rapidly
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In tap dance, what is the difference between a brush and a spank?
One is left to right, the other vice versa
One is forward, the other backwards
A brush is scuffing the ball of the foot along the ground forward. A spank is the reverse.
One is two feet, the other one
One is silent, one makes a sound
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What is it called when a couple struts together with high kicks?
Cakewalk
This is a pre-Civil War dance developed by slaves competing for a cake. That is the same origin as the phrase "takes the cake."
Sidewalk
Topwalk
Fancy walk
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What is an enrosque?
A tap
A twist
An enrosque is a tango move that means twist. The tango is very dramatic.
A wiggling of the hips
A grinding movement
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Part of the rumba comes from Africa. Where is the rest from?
Spain
Cuba
The rumba's rhythms can be traced to tribal African ceremonies - but with a Spanish flavor.
Mexico
California
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What is the jump move called in which the legs open in second position in the air?
Ciseaux
It's another ballet term that is not too advanced.
Comparsa
Amague
Efface
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What is the name of the party at which Irish or Scottish dance is performed?
Fling
Ball
Ceili
A ceili is a dance for Irish or Scottish folk music. It is usually a riotously fun affair with set dances where people dance in groups of 6, 8, or even 100
Whoop
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What is a premier danseur?
The male chorus line
The male dance captain
The female principal
The male principal
This comes from French. It literally means "male boss."
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What is it called in a dance for two when the leader supports the follower's weight while one foot or both remains on the floor?
Drop
Dip
It's one of the easiest moves - but making it look good takes years! Sometimes two hands provide support; sometimes more is added by the flyer linking their leg around the lead's supporting leg.
Lean
Dibble
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Why did the turkey trot become popular?
It was denounced by the Vatican.
The turkey trot means four hopping steps on one leg, then the other. The Vatican tried to get rid of it, which of course made it a huge hit.
It was banned in college.s
It was the only legal way for men and women to touch in certain societies.
It had the best name.
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What is dancing on pointe?
It means right up on the tippy toe.
Dancing on blocked shoes "sur les pointes" is very difficult to get right. It isalso called "full point."
It means on regular tiptoe.
It means tapping your toe.
It means dancing with the foot pointed, not flexed.
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In ice dancing, what is a quad?
A spin jump with four rotations
The quad is probably the toughest legal move in ice dancing, and almost no one can land one.
A spin jump with three rotations
A spin jump by a couple where each does two rotations
A jump where the person does a backflip with a spin
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You Got:
/35
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