Art is a big family of human aesthetic activities, and its members include literature, fine arts, music, dance, drama, movies, folk art and acrobatics. Various arts reflect social life and express people's thoughts and feelings, but the reflection and expression of art is not the abstract reflection and expression of general concepts, but the reflection and manifestation of individual concrete images and aesthetics. The so-called aesthetic reflection and expression means that artists choose, summarize and process social life according to their own aesthetic tastes and ideals, and creatively reflect and express according to the characteristics and laws of art.
In the historical development of society, people have created various art forms. The main difference between these art forms is that they have their own material carriers and different artistic expression means. The material carrier of literature is language and writing; The material carrier of art is paper, canvas, pigment and oil painting pigment, and its main means of expression are color, line, composition and modeling; The material carrier of music is sound; The material carrier of drama is the action (performance) of people on the stage. Besides ballet, language, singing and action are the main means of expression. The material carrier of the film is to shoot people's performances on film with scientific and technological methods and project them on the screen with electro-light; The material carrier of Quyi is the performance of one or two or three people on the stage, and its main means of expression are speaking and singing. Acrobatics and dance have the same material carrier-the human body is its main artistic expression tool, and most acrobatic varieties, like dance, are mainly expressed by human body movements, posture modeling and composition changes. Acrobatics is also a performing art, and actors also create certain roles. But unlike dance, it doesn't emphasize the development process of characters' emotions, and there are generally no plot events. But through the performance of difficult skills, it shows a general character strength of courage, perseverance and wisdom. So acrobats are more ornamental and entertaining.
Dance movements in dance works should also have certain skills, and dancers should have high-level skills such as jumping, rotating, tumbling, softening and controlling. However, performing high-level skills in dance works is not an end in itself, but a means to express characters' thoughts and feelings and shape their character and mental outlook. If, in dance works, the means is the purpose, the superb skills of the actors are not based on reflecting life and expressing the thoughts and feelings of the characters, or the corresponding dance action skills are not based on the dance content, but on showing the dance skills and abilities mastered by the actors, then the dance works will fail because of the disconnection between content and form, or the lack of artistic integrity, and the dancers' own skills will fall into acrobatic skill performance and lose the basic character of dance art.
Dance appreciation is a kind of spiritual activity when people watch dance performances, and it is the whole process of feeling, experiencing and understanding dance works. So it is essentially a cognitive activity. But it is different from the general cognitive activity, but a special cognitive activity of dance works. Dance appreciation refers to the audience's understanding of social life, characters' thoughts and feelings and dancers' aesthetic evaluation of this life phenomenon through the dance images created in dance works. In the process of appreciating dance works, the audience will often connect with their own life experiences, arouse emotional resonance and arouse relevant impressions and experiences in memory. As well as a series of imaginative thinking activities such as imagination and association, to enrich and supplement the dance image in the dance works and make it more complete, vivid and distinctive. Therefore, we can experience a broader life content and profound ideological implications in the process of watching dance works.
People who appreciate this aesthetic activity must have certain subjective conditions, that is, they must have certain dance knowledge, dance appreciation level and cognitive ability, so that dance appreciation activities can be carried out normally and smoothly. This is just as Marx said: "If you want to enjoy art, you must be an artistic person." "Only music can arouse people's sense of music; The most beautiful music is meaningless to the ear that does not dispute melody, and music is not its object ... "Therefore, it is necessary for us to understand the characteristics of dance art, the relationship between dance and other arts, the various factors that constitute the dance image, and the production process of dance image. As we said before, dance is an art that expresses people's feelings and thoughts and reflects social life with exquisite, organized and beautified human movements as the main means of expression. Judging from the sensory characteristics of dance works that attract viewers, it is a performing art that combines hearing (temporality) and vision (spaciousness).
Art is made up of different kinds of art. As one of the arts, dance is also a very broad world, and it is also composed of different kinds, styles and styles of dances. According to the function and use of dance, it can be divided into "practical dance" (self-entertainment) and "performance dance" (entertainment). Under each category, it is divided into traditional and popular according to "time", and then divided into two categories, namely four categories; According to its function and purpose, dance can be divided into two categories: life dance and artistic dance.
Then it can be further subdivided, but no matter which classification method, the boundaries are fuzzy, and the classification is as follows.
1, "practical" (entertaining yourself)
For the purpose of fitness, pleasure, puzzle solving and performance, the participants are often dancers and spectators, but they don't need spectators.
Traditional practical dance
Popular practical dance
2. "Performing" (entertaining the public)
For the purpose of performance or appreciation, participants are divided into performers and spectators.
Traditional performance dance
Popular performing dance
3. Lifestyle
Life dance is a dance activity that people carry out for their own needs.
Life dance includes: custom dance, religious sacrifice dance, social dance, self-entertainment dance, sports dance, educational dance and so on.
(1) Folk Dance: Also known as Festival Dance, it is a variety of mass dance activities held in festive festivals such as marriage, funeral, planting and harvest.
(2) Religious sacrificial dance: it is a dance form used for religious and sacrificial activities. Mainly used to pray for the protection of the gods, drive away disasters and diseases, turn evil into good, prosper people and animals, harvest crops, or thank the gods for their gifts; Sacrificial dance is a ritual dance form to sacrifice ancestors. In the past, people used it to express their nostalgia for their ancestors or hope that ancestors and gods would protect them.