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DANCER
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A performer who dances professionally
Synonyms:
dancer; professional dancer; terpsichorean
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("dancer" is a kind of...):
performer; performing artist (an entertainer who performs a dramatic or musical work for an audience)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "dancer"):
taxi dancer (a woman employed to dance with patrons who pay a fee for each dance)
tap dancer; tapper (a dancer who sounds out rhythms by using metal taps on the toes and heels of the shoes)
nautch girl (a professional dancing girl in India)
kachina (a masked dancer during a Pueblo religious ceremony who is thought to embody some particular spirit)
hoofer; stepper (a professional dancer)
dance master; dancing-master (a professional teacher of dancing)
chorine; chorus girl; showgirl (a woman who dances in a chorus line)
belly dancer; exotic belly dancer; exotic dancer (a woman who performs a solo belly dance)
ballet mistress (a woman who directs and teaches and rehearses dancers for a ballet company)
ballet master (a man who directs and teaches and rehearses dancers for a ballet company)
ballet dancer (a trained dancer who is a member of a ballet company)
Instance hyponyms:
Lola Montez; Marie Dolores Eliza Rosanna Gilbert; Montez (Irish dancer (1818-1861))
Nijinsky; Vaslav Nijinsky; Waslaw Nijinsky (Russian dancer considered by many to be the greatest dancer of the 20th century (1890-1950))
Nureyev; Rudolf Nureyev (Russian dancer who was often the partner of Dame Margot Fonteyn and who defected to the United States in 1961 (born in 1938))
Anna Pavlova; Pavlova (Russian ballerina (1882-1931))
Ginger Rogers; Rogers; Virginia Katherine McMath; Virginia McMath (United States dancer and film actress who partnered with Fred Astaire (1911-1995))
Salome (woman whose dancing beguiled Herod into giving her the head of John the Baptist)
Shawn; Ted Shawn (United States dancer and choreographer who collaborated with Ruth Saint Denis (1891-1972))
Moira Shearer; Shearer (Scottish ballet dancer and actress (born in 1926))
Ruth Saint Denis; Ruth St. Denis; Saint Denis; St. Denis (United States dancer and choreographer who collaborated with Ted Shawn (1877-1968))
Maria Tallchief; Tallchief (United States ballerina who promoted American ballet through tours and television appearances (born in 1925))
Tharp; Twyla Tharp (innovative United States dancer and choreographer (born in 1941))
Antony Tudor; Tudor (United States dancer and choreographer (born in England) (1909-1987))
Galina Sergeevna Ulanova; Galina Ulanova; Ulanova (Russian ballet dancer (1910-1998))
Gaetan Vestris; Vestris (Italian dancing-master for Louis XVI who was considered the greatest dancer of his day; he was the first to discard the mask in mime (1729-1808))
Alicia Alonso; Alonso (Cuban dancer and choreographer (born in 1921))
Astaire; Fred Astaire (United States dancer and cinema actor noted for his original and graceful tap dancing (1899-1987))
Balanchine; George Balanchine (United States dancer and choreographer (born in Russia) noted for his abstract and formal works (1904-1983))
Baryshnikov; Mikhail Baryshnikov (Russian dancer and choreographer who migrated to the United States (born in 1948))
Cunningham; Merce Cunningham (United States dancer and choreographer (born in 1922))
Agnes de Mille; Agnes George de Mille; de Mille (United States dancer and choreographer who introduced formal dance to a wide audience (1905-1993))
Duncan; Isadora Duncan (United States dancer and pioneer of modern dance (1878-1927))
Dame Margot Fonteyn; Fonteyn (English dancer who danced with Rudolf Nureyev (born in 1919))
Graham; Martha Graham (United States dancer and choreographer whose work was noted for its austerity and technical rigor (1893-1991))
Jamison; Judith Jamison (United States dancer and choreographer (born in 1944))
Karsavina; Tamara Karsavina (Russian dancer who danced with Nijinsky (1885-1978))
Eugene Curran Kelly; Gene Kelly; Kelly (United States dancer who performed in many musical films (1912-1996))
Dame Alicia Markova; Lilian Alicia Marks; Markova (English ballet dancer (born in 1910))
Leonid Fyodorovich Myasin; Leonide Fedorovitch Massine; Massine (French choreographer and ballet dancer (born in Russia) (1895-1979))
Arthur Mitchell; Mitchell (United States dancer who formed the first Black classical ballet company (born in 1934))
Derivation:
dance (move in a pattern; usually to musical accompaniment; do or perform a dance)
dance (move in a graceful and rhythmical way)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A person who participates in a social gathering arranged for dancing (as a ball)
Synonyms:
dancer; social dancer
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Hypernyms ("dancer" is a kind of...):
individual; mortal; person; somebody; someone; soul (a human being)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "dancer"):
clog dancer (someone who does clog dancing)
dancing partner (one of a pair of people who dance together)
folk dancer (someone who does folk dances)
raver (a participant in a rave dancing party)
waltzer (a dancer who waltzes)
Derivation:
dance (move in a pattern; usually to musical accompaniment; do or perform a dance)
dance (move in a graceful and rhythmical way)
Context examples:
By watching these stellar dancers, NASA's Kepler space telescope during its K2 mission has helped amass the most complete catalog of rotation periods for stars in a cluster.
(Kepler Watches Stellar Dancers in the Pleiades Cluster, NASA)
He then said that she was the daughter of a French opera-dancer, Celine Varens, towards whom he had once cherished what he called a "grande passion."
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
It chanced that out of one of the bundles there stuck the end of what the clerk saw to be a cittern, so drawing it forth, he tuned it up and twanged a harmony to the merry lilt which the dancers played.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The hulk of an ancient wreck burned with blue fires, in the light of which danced the hula dancers to the barbaric love- calls of the singers, who chanted to tinkling ukuleles and rumbling tom- toms.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
The two last dances before supper were begun, and Harriet had no partner;—the only young lady sitting down;—and so equal had been hitherto the number of dancers, that how there could be any one disengaged was the wonder!
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
To be urging her opinion against Sir Thomas's was a proof of the extremity of the case; but such was her horror at the first suggestion, that she could actually look him in the face and say that she hoped it might be settled otherwise; in vain, however: Sir Thomas smiled, tried to encourage her, and then looked too serious, and said too decidedly, It must be so, my dear, for her to hazard another word; and she found herself the next moment conducted by Mr. Crawford to the top of the room, and standing there to be joined by the rest of the dancers, couple after couple, as they were formed.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Like cosmic ballet dancers, the stars of the Pleiades cluster are spinning.
(Kepler Watches Stellar Dancers in the Pleiades Cluster, NASA)
As he had said, there was probably nothing at all extraordinary in the substance of the narrative itself: a wealthy Englishman's passion for a French dancer, and her treachery to him, were every-day matters enough, no doubt, in society; but there was something decidedly strange in the paroxysm of emotion which had suddenly seized him when he was in the act of expressing the present contentment of his mood, and his newly revived pleasure in the old hall and its environs.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
I am no dancer.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
While waiting and wishing, looking now at the dancers and now at the door, this dialogue between the two above-mentioned ladies was forced on her—“I think, ma'am,” said Mrs. Norris, her eyes directed towards Mr. Rushworth and Maria, who were partners for the second time, “we shall see some happy faces again now.”
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
