Created in Italy during the Renaissance by the Medici family, ballet is the most stylized and formal dance form. Starting between the ages of 11 to 13, girls begin to train en pointe and dance on their toes with the pointe shoe: a silky pink shoe with a squared-off toe made out of a paper mache material. With many years of training, a ballerina can pirouette (spin) and dance with her partner on her toes. When men dance ballet, they learn how to leap and turn high in the air and take special partner lessons to dance a pas de deux ("a dance of two") with a ballerina. The Paris Opera Ballet and the Bolshoi Ballet are leaders in ballet today.
Developed by Martha Graham, Isadora Duncan and Paul Taylor, modern dance has become a favorite in the dancing world.This dance style was created to reveal emotion and to "humanize" the art form. The main idea of modern is to manipulate the space around you. The steps of modern can be extreme---slow movement versus quick, smooth versus choppy and large versus small. A few modern dance companies to note are Alvin Ailey and the Paul Taylor Dance Company.
Jazz can be seen as a combination of ballet and Broadway. The steps chasse, jete and pas de bourree are all from ballet while Charleston, Crazy Legs and Bee's Knees are elements of "old Hollywood." Jazz has high-energy and is performed with intense, usually quick music. The idea of "center control" is important to this dance style; without a secure center (abdominal area), a lot of the steps and movements would be difficult to do. A notable jazz dance company is Giordano Jazz Dance based in Chicago.
Hip-hop dancing covers a large spectrum; breaking, locking, popping and krumping can be categorized under this dance form. It is strenuous and mostly improvisational; a lot of people simply make up steps that go with the heavy beats of the music. There are currently no hip-hop "companies" per se, but dancers usually travel around in "crews" and compete against others. Jabbawockeez, Beat Freaks, Kaba Modern and Krump Kings are some distinguished crews.
Ballroom is a popular recreational activity, especially for people who have no previous dance experience. There are several tempos and styles within ballroom: Jive, Quickstep and Swing are quick; Waltz, Foxtrot and Blues are slower and sometimes slinky; and the Tango, Flamenco and Cha-Cha are somewhere in between. Each style has a certain set of steps that correspond with the timing of the accompanying music and the character of the dance. America's Ballroom Challenge is a popular competition that is aired on PBS.