Ballet is a specific dance form and technique. Works of dance choreographed using this technique are called ballets, and may include dance, mime, acting, and music (orchestral and sung). Ballets can be performed alone or as part of an opera. Ballet is best known for its virtuoso techniques such as pointe work, grand pas de deux and high leg extensions. Many ballet techniques bear a striking similarity to fencing positions and footwork, perhaps due to their development during the same periods of history, but more probably, because both arts had similar requirements in terms of balance and movement. Its unique positions and movements had their beginnings in courtly dance and are shaped the way they are because of the fashions worn at that time. Ballet's curved arms were to accommodate the full puffy sleeve and the turn-out of the feet enabled one to move without hinderence by one's high heeled shoe (and was found to make moving sideways much easier).

There are five basic positions of the feet and arms. These are common in all training methods and are universally known and accepted. From these positions, ballet movements are created. top^

Lyrical dance is a fusion of ballet and jazz dance techniques. Lyrical dance challenges choreographers and dancers to use motion to interpret music and express emotion. A lyrical dancer's movements attempts to show the meaning of the music.

Lyrical dance is a unique dance form in that it has no particular history. It is the coming together of ballet, jazz, and modern, for the most part and is performed to music with lyrics. The lyrics of a song are the driving force for the inspiration of the movement. Choreography is often emotional, gripping, and delicate all at the same time. Lyrical dancers at Breaking Pointe will learn performance quality through expression and unique choreography. top^

Jazz dance has two meanings, depending on the era. Both dance forms are related by evolution.

• Until the middle of the 1950s, jazz dance in shows meant mostly tap dance, because jazz was the music and tap was the main dance of the era. American "tap dancing" has its roots both in the "Irish" folk dance tradition and in the African dance tradition.

Also, during the jazz era, a popular form of jazz dance was Swing dancing and its related dances Cakewalk, Black Bottom, Charleston, Lindy Hop, all forms of dance commonly danced to jazz music.

Another essential root of jazz dance comes from the [African American Vernacular Dance] from the late 1800's up until the mid 1900's. After the 1950's, pioneers such as Kathrine Dunham took the essence of caribbean traditional dance and made it into a performing art.

• Since the fifties, with the growing domination of other forms of entertainment music, jazz dance evolved with broadway choregrapher into a new, smooth, modern Broadway style that is taught today and known as Modern Jazz, while tap dance continued to evolve on its own.

An early popular "jazz dancer" was vaudeville star Joe Frisco in the 1910's. He danced in a loose-limbed style close to the ground, with eccentric steps, and juggled his derby and cigar. Jazz dance is a form of dance commonly used in Broadway shows and movies. Jazz is more a contemporary kind of dance as compared to ballet, for instance. Even though jazz dancing might look easy and fun when the dancers do it, the dancers have to be in really good shape, and practice sometimes six hours a day. Some traditional musical jazz numbers are All That Jazz and Chicago.

Both Jazz dance and modern dance techniques are based on the basics of the old ballet tradition, even though both forms where considered to rebellions against it. To excel in jazz dance, the dancer must master ballet techniques. In jazz dancing the movements are big and exaggerated and there is usually an attitude the dancer conveys to the audience. The attitude would depend on the dance. For example in a modern number like Livin' La Vida Loca, the dancer would probably be happy, and look like they were at a party having a really rockin' time. Jazz dancing is also used in modern dancing as on MTV. Las Vegas showgirls are also jazz dancers.

Just about every dance school teaches jazz, as it is the most popular dance form for amateur dancers. The essence of jazz dance is entertainment to the people, a form of dancing which is easy to understand for anyone seeing it. As the famous modern choreographer and pioneer Alvin Ailey said "The dance came from the people, and should always be given back to the people".

Famous jazz directors and choreographers include Bob Fosse, Gus Giordano, Gwen Verdon, Jack Cole, and Eugene Louis Faccuito (also known as Luigi).

Well known Jazz dances include All That Jazz, Can-can, Damn Yankees, The Red Mill.

Jazz dance has appeared in various forms. However, these variations are related by common roots, namely tap, jazz music, and African-American rhythms and dance.

During the Jazz Era, popular forms of jazz dance included:

* swing dancing and the related Lindy Hop, Black Bottom, Charleston, and Cakewalk
* the performance style popularized by Bob Fosse’s work (e.g. “Chicago,” “Cabaret,” "The Pajama Game")

Jazz has now become an essential part of musical theatre choreography and serves as a base which is easily flavored by and interwoven with the dance style appropriate for the show (e.g. contradancing). Swing dancing and cabaret-style jazz dance thrive in dance schools and clubs and in the theatre. top^

Tap dance was born in the United States during the 19th century, and today is popular all around the world. The name comes from the tapping sound made when the small metal plates on the dancer's shoes touch a hard floor. This lively, rhythmic tapping makes the performer not just a dancer, but also a percussive musician.

Its evolutionary grandparents may well have been:

1. African dance to drum rhythms
2. African welly boot dance
3. Irish Sean-nós step dancing
4. Spanish flamenco, where nails are hammered into the heel and the front part of the dancers' shoes, so that the rhythm of their steps can be heard
5. Step dancing
6. Clogging, for example from Lancashire, where there may be no accompanying music, just the noise of the shoes. top^

Hip Hop dance refers to dance styles primarily danced to hip hop music, or that have evolved as a part of the hip hop culture. Hip hop dance can be divided into old school and new school, but the separation between the two is somewhat ambiguous and thought to be evolving with the passing of time. Currently hip hop dance forms have emerged to be independent on the original culture, and many people - girls and boys - are dancing it today without having or having just a little connection to the original culture. For the original dance form in hip hop culture which created the other sub-genres please see the document about Breakdance.

Hip hop dances are often considered street dances, because of how they were formed and are being practiced. top^

Modern dance is a dance form developed in the early 20th century. Although the term Modern dances has also been applied to a category of 20th Century ballroom dances, Modern dance as a term usually refers to 20th century concert dance.

In the early 1900s a few dancers in Europe started to rebel against the rigid constraints of Classical Ballet. Shedding classical ballet technique, costume and shoes these early modern dance pioneers practiced free dance.

In America Loie Fuller, Isadora Duncan, Ruth St. Denis and Martha Graham developed their own styles of free dance and laid the foundations of American modern dance with their choreography and teaching.

In Europe Rudolf Laban, Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, Alvin Ailey and Francois Delsarte developed theories of human movement and methods of instruction that lead to the development of European modern and Expressionist dance. top^