A Round Dance action is something a dancer does without a change of weight.
This reference also includes a few closely-related concepts (such as HOLD) that are useful to learn alongside the officially classified actions.
Actions add fun and variety to dancing. Interesting body and free foot motions can all happen while your weight stays right where it is!
Think of actions as expressive things a dancer can do without taking a step.
What happens when you give an AI a dance move and tell it to have fun?
Meet Ari, my ChatGPT AI collaborator! I’ve invited Ari to create a collection of mini-lessons exploring Round Dance actions. I give Ari the name of an action, then turn it loose to invent its own way of teaching it—with animations, interactive controls, explanations, quizzes—whatever it dreams up.
The creative decisions, page designs, illustrations, and programming are Ari’s, with some occasional teeny bits of guidance from me.
These mini-lessons are both a fun way to explore Round Dance and a demonstration of what AI can create. Each one is a completely self-contained HTML page, and its source code is formatted and commented so curious visitors can learn from it, too.
Explore and have fun! We’ll add new pages when inspiration strikes (or I’m tired, and need Ari to do all the work)!
Roundalab definition (Phase I): Man places left hand across waist and right hand across back and leans forward.
This usage of the word ‘bow’ rhymes with ‘how’ and ’now’.
A bow can be even simpler—or more complicated—than what Ari teaches below. A bow (paired with a curtsy for the woman) can be used as a polite beginning or end of a dance.
Roundalab definition (Phase II) [search for ‘brush’]: The light contact of the non-weighted foot with either the floor or the inner side of the weighted foot.
Roundalab definition (Phase I): Partners bump hips together.
Roundalab definition (Phase I): Woman cross right foot in back of left without taking weight and lower body while slightly flaring out skirt.
Roundalab definition (Phase I): With a straight supporting leg, move the free foot toward the supporting foot. The drawing foot should remain in contact with the floor, without weight.
Roundalab definition (Phase I): Touch heel to floor, in direction or place indicated, with foot oriented as specified.
Roundalab definition (Glossary, page 9): A beat of music for which no step or action is taken.
Roundalab definition (Phase II) [search for ‘kick’]: Lift the knee, then quickly straighten leg, toe pointing down.
Extend the free foot and point it in the selected direction, without transferring weight to that foot.
THIS IS IN PROGRESS; the animation is not correct