The objective of the thesis was to explore, what kind of dance style disco dance has been during the 2010s, and what kind of dance style it is now, at the beginning of the 2020s. Disco dance is a popular sport among its students, but the sport has not spread very widely in Finland. There are only few teachers that teach disco and disco is taught only in few cities, mainly in the biggest ones. There is not even any literature for the sport. For the sake of sport development of disco dance, the thesis author thinks it is important that information of the sport should be gathered so that anyone who is interested, could learn about it. This thesis is an opening of discussion to the matter and the first sport-specific analysis of disco dance there is.

The main research question was, how disco dance has developed as a competitive sport during 2010-2020? Video analysis was used as a research method. Author observed videos from Finnish championships, more precisely women’s performances from the solo category at the finals. Author analyzed jumps and balance skills (which consist of turns, illusions, and kicks) of the disco dance. The aim was to review, what kind of similarities and differences there were between the years in the use of the key skills (jumps and balance skills).

The core of the disco dance has been, and still is its speed, energy, and explosiveness. Analysis of the choreographies made it clear, that the competition programs consist of jumps and balance skills which are combined with variety of powerful feet and hand movements. In the research the biggest differences that had been happened in the disco during the years, was about how much and how the key skills were used in the competition program.

Especially the amount of using the big jumps had increased. Also, the skills were done more difficult than before, by adding extra turns and combinations to them. Dancers looked more unstoppable than before as well because of the quicker transitions, use of jumps that move in space and combining movements together so that they support one another. Nowadays disco dance is highly speedy dance style, which demands lot of physical skills from the dancer, such as body control, explosiveness, speed, stamina, and mobility. The competition choreography lasts for one minute, and during that time the dancer jumps approximately eight big jumps, does variety of many pirouettes, and changes the direction about over twenty times.