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folk dance

(Encyclopedia)folk dance, primitive, tribal, or ethnic form of the dance, sometimes the survival of some ancient ceremony or festival. The term is used also to include characteristic national dances, country dances...

dance

(Encyclopedia)dance [Old High Ger. danson=to drag, stretch], the art of precise, expressive, and graceful human movement, traditionally, but not necessarily, performed in accord with musical accompaniment. Dancing ...

folk art

(Encyclopedia)folk art, the art works of a culturally homogeneous people produced by artists without formal training. The forms of such works are generally developed into a tradition that is either cut off from or ...

folk song

(Encyclopedia)folk song, music of anonymous composition, transmitted orally. The theory that folk songs were originally group compositions has been modified in recent studies. These assume that the germ of a folk m...

folk music

(Encyclopedia)folk music: see folk song.

folk drama

(Encyclopedia)folk drama, noncommercial, generally rural theater and pageantry based on folk traditions and local history. This form of drama, common throughout the world, declined in popularity in the West (althou...

morris dance

(Encyclopedia)morris dance or morrice dance, rustic dance of the north of England that had its origin in country festivals, such as those of May Day and Whitsunday. Reference to it in English literature is made as ...

folk medicine

(Encyclopedia)folk medicine, methods of curing by means of healing objects, herbs, or animal parts; ceremony; conjuring, magic, or witchcraft; and other means apart from the formalized practice of medical science. ...

modern dance

(Encyclopedia)modern dance, serious theatrical dance forms that are distinct from both ballet and the show dancing of the musical comedy or variety stage. By the late 20th cent., distinctions among modern da...

morrice dance

(Encyclopedia)morrice dance: see morris dance. ...