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House is a style of street dance danced to house music. It is improvisational in nature and emphasizes fast and complex footwork combined with fluid movements in the torso.

History

House dance itself is a lot older than house music, which arose in the early 1980s upon the end of the disco era during the times of such nightclubs as Chicago's Warehouse, New York's The Loft and Paradise Garage. House dance takes from many different dance elements such as the Lindy era, African, Latin, Brazilian, jazz, tap, and even modern. House is related to many other forms, but not necessarily a directly correlated with these dance is the differentiation that is fundamental to realize. Contrary to popular belief, House dance is not a decendant of hip-hop. A lot of hip- hop dancers have crossed into house music in the early 80's and 90's to bring in a sequence of steps. House music is now a popular form of culture throughout the world in which people are now competing (sometimes even for cash prizes) and formulating groups to express their love of house music.

Characteristics

House dance has been debatingly broken down in 3 styles: Footwork, Jacking, and Lofting. It includes a variety of techniques and sub-styles that include skating, stomping, and shuffling. It also incorporates movements from many other sources such as whacking, voguing, Capoeira, tap, and Latin dances such as salsa. A wide variety of the movements came from jazz and bebop styles and even from African and Latin descent.

One of the primary elements in house dancing is a technique that came from Chicago that involves moving the torso forward and backward in a rippling motion, as if a wave were passing through it. When this movement is repeated and sped up to match the beat of a song it is called jacking, or "the jack." All footwork in house dancing is said to initiate from the way the jack moves the center of gravity through space.

In house dancing there is an emphasis on the subtle rhythms and riffs of the music, and the footwork follows them closely. This is one of the main features that distinguishes house dancing from dancing that was done to disco before house emerged, and current dancing that is done to techno as part of the rave culture.

Major contributors to the house dance scene in the US include Brian "Footwork" Green, Marjory Smarth, Caleaf Sellers, Ejoe Wilson, Terry Wright, Shannon Mabra, Tony McGregor, and many others before them that danced at places such as The Warehouse in Chicago, The Loft in NYC, Paradise Garage, and other places that are long forgotten.

References

Reynolds, Simon. "Generation Ecstasy: Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture." Routledge, 1999. pp. 1025-1039.
Sommer, Sally R. "C'mon to My House: Underground-House Dancing." Dance Research Journal, Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 72-86.

External links

The House Dance Project the most comprehensive guide to house
House History at Homestead history retold by some of the founders
HouseDancers.com social networking site for house dancers
House Dance International site for annual House Dance International festival

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 ==Characteristics==
-House dance has been debatingly broken down in 3 styles: Footwork, [[Jacking]], and Lofting. It includes a variety of techniques and sub-styles that include skating, stomping, and shuffling. It also incorporates movements from many other sources such as whacking, [[voguing]], [[Capoeira]], [[Tap dance|tap]], and [[Latin dance|Latin]] dances such as [[salsa (dance)|salsa]]. A wide variety of the movements came from jazz and bebop styles and even from African and Latin descent. Its also pretty gay.
+House dance has been debatingly broken down in 3 styles: Footwork, [[Jacking]], and Lofting. It includes a variety of techniques and sub-styles that include skating, stomping, and shuffling. It also incorporates movements from many other sources such as whacking, [[voguing]], [[Capoeira]], [[Tap dance|tap]], and [[Latin dance|Latin]] dances such as [[salsa (dance)|salsa]]. A wide variety of the movements came from jazz and bebop styles and even from African and Latin descent.
 One of the primary elements in house dancing is a technique that came from Chicago that involves moving the torso forward and backward in a rippling motion, as if a wave were passing through it. When this movement is repeated and sped up to match the beat of a song it is called ''jacking'', or "the jack." All footwork in house dancing is said to initiate from the way the jack moves the center of gravity through space.