Guard dance

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Dance guard

Today Gardetanz or guard dance sport is the Girl troops of the Revue from the 1920s and 1930s due years. Carnival clubs have taken up this idea and sent girls' guards onto the stage at their meetings . In the meantime there are also mixed guard dance groups , in which men also participate, and the so-called dance or solo marches. There are three age groups: youth guard (6-10 years), junior guard (11-15 years) and over-15 guard.

Dances and music

In Germany, in large groups to march music in 4 / 4 - stroke danced. At the same time, a different style of dance developed in the Netherlands and Belgium . Inspired by the Slavic, Slovenian and Bavarian folk music was here to polka -music in 2 / 4 dance -Stroke.

Today the following dances and dance styles are trained:

  • The march dance is a straightforward, elegant dance with diverse step combinations, ballet element variations and ever-changing images, e.g. B. diagonals, semicircles, V or star. This is complemented by parts such acrobatic balancing act , wheels and leg casts. In addition to the choreography, the focus is on synchronicity and precision. Professionally, the sequence of steps when marching begins with the left foot (see also step in step ). In the march dance, a distinction is made in the adult age group between the disciplines "female garden" and "mixed and male garden", with the mixed garden also requiring lifting figures. In the younger age groups, girls and boys dance as a mixed guard as well as in “female gardens” and “male gardens”. These groups are mostly referred to as junior guards or junior ballet.
  • In addition to the elements of the march dance , the Mariechen and couple dance consists of jumping steps and dance steps from classical ballet , supplemented by even more demanding gymnastic acrobatic parts such as arches , flickflack and splits (also lifting figures in couples dancing ). The level of difficulty of the entire dance is significantly higher than that of the group formations. Characteristic are the playful presentation and the cheerful charisma.
  • The show dance (also "show dance") is the discipline with less strict guidelines in terms of style and straightforwardness. It is kind of a mixture of all possible modern dance styles with the background of the basic marching dance elements. Show dances always have a theme, the presentation of which is the main focus. There are practically no limits to the choice of music, a wide variety of styles of music can be selected and edited to match the theme of the dance. The costumes that are specially made for the respective dance can be just as diverse and original. Smaller props or stage decorations are common in the show dance. The show dance is performed at the same tournaments, but is subject to different evaluation criteria than the march dances. Execution, creativity, costume, variety of steps, choreography, subject matter and originality are evaluated.

dress

The typical clothing is often based on uniforms from the 18th century : tricorn , wig , uniform jacket, lace jabot , plus a short skirt (often pleated ), including petticoat , tights , lace or frilled panties or body, (dance) lace-up boots.

Nevertheless, the fashion in the carnival dance sport has changed a lot. The tournament dancers have long since ceased to appear in traditional guard uniforms. In many places, but especially in the BDK, modern cuts, narrower cuts and elastic fabrics that accommodate acrobatic efforts have become established. However, there are still guidelines that must be strictly adhered to. Accordingly, a uniform consists of at least a body, a vest, a skirt, a hat (in the BDK) and dance boots. Lace pants and petticoats are optional.

Dance sport

Carnival dance tournaments are usually held on two tournament days at the weekend in up to six disciplines.

  1. Couple dance (dance duo)
  2. Female guard
  3. mixed guard
  4. Tanzmariechen
  5. Dance majors
  6. Show dance

The youth and junior competitions usually take place on Saturdays. The competitions in the adult class will follow on Sunday. The separate disciplines for female and mixed gardeners do not apply to youth and juniors. Both types of groups then compete in the same discipline and are assessed together.

Several associations organize tournaments for guard dance according to their own guidelines: While the Bund Deutscher Karneval (BDK) and the Rheinische Karnevals-Korporationen eV (RKK) also place great value on the carnival tradition when it comes to costumes, tournaments of the German Association for Guard and Schautanzsport (DVG) hats and wigs have long since disappeared. Another umbrella organization is the International Interest Group for Dance Sports (IIG) , which, in addition to guard dance, is also dedicated to many other dance sports beyond standard dance.

Contrary to popular belief, the guard dance has developed into a high-performance sport, at least within the tournament scene, which requires a training workload of often well over ten hours a week in order to achieve top tournament placements, especially in the soloist area.

Both the BDK and the RKK organize elimination competitions up to German championships. Other associations also organize European and world championships above the federal level.

Since March 2015 there has been a special trade magazine called "Garde & Show", which deals with the topics of training and health across all associations. In addition, soloists and groups are presented, tips and trends in all areas of sport are taken up and tournament reports from all associations are published. The magazine appears three times a year.

DVG:

There are three classes in the DVG (German Association for Guard and Show Dance). These are the student class, the youth class and the main class.

There are two sub-types of disciplines in these classes, each of which can be divided into new sub-categories. A distinction is made here between the classic guard dances and the show dances.

The guard dances include march and polka, which are danced as a group. There is also the couple dance and the solo dance.

The show dances include freestyle, character, modern, show duo and show solo. The dances Freestyle, Character and Modern are danced in groups.

At the tournaments there are rankings for all disciplines, on which mostly female athletes compete in the individual categories. Boys dance in the female group or, in rare cases, dance in the solo category. There is no division into boys and girls classes as described above in the DVG.

Evaluation criteria Guard dance

1. Deployment 2. Basic position 3. Uniform 4. Charisma 5. Variety of steps 6. Degree of difficulty 7. Depiction of the discipline 8. Precision and execution 9. Choreography

Evaluation criteria show dance

1. Topic 2. Originality 3. Creativity 4. Costume 5. Variety of steps and movements 6. Execution 7. Music 8. Choreography

Web links

Commons : Gardetanz  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files