Dance

Dance

Dance, the movement of the body in a rhythmic way, usually to music and within a given space, for the purpose of expressing an idea or emotion, releasing energy, or simply taking delight in the movement itself. Dance is most commonly defined as a way of human expression through movement. dance can also be defined as a specific art movement, based on the expressive moves of the human body, dance is also much more. A number of theoretical definitions of dance define it as a conscious way of rhythmic movements of the body in a defined bounded space

 

Dance as a nonverbal language

 

The purpose of this anthropology of dance issue is to unfold various meanings and nuances of dance in contemporary societies, with different contributors with different examples from around the (dance) world illustrating how dance can be observed, investigated and theorized in all its variety.

Dance occupies an important place in the social structure of all human cultures throughout history. Cultural conventions partly determine the limits of expression. For example, the classical dance of India has more than 4,000 mudras, or gestures through which the dancer portrays complex actions, emotions, and relationships; these gestures are comprehensible to the audience because they have always been at the centre of Indian life and cultural traditions.

In classical ballet, however, the vocabulary of mimed gesture is quite small and is comprehensible to only a few informed spectators, thus considerably limiting its expressive range. Referring to the practical impossibility of communicating, through dance, the complex plots and relationships between characters .

While dance cannot communicate specific events or ideas, it is a universal language that can communicate emotions directly and sometimes more powerfully than words. The French poet Stéphane Mallarmé declared that the dancer, “writing with her bodyBecause dance movements are closely related to the gestures of ordinary life, the emotions they express can be immediately understood, partly through a visual appreciation of the gesture and partly through a sympathetic kinesthetic response

 

 

From the anthropological point of view, dance can be defined as a cultural practice and as a social ritual, whereby dance is seen as a means of aesthetic pleasure and a means for establishing ties and specific structure in the community.

 

 Dance as a social ritual can be considered in the light of the symbolic aspects of a specific culture and in the light of the processes of identification and differentiation through the meanings that it produces for the individuals in this culture.

 

 Dance always bears a specific meaning, which depends on the social setting in which it appears.

 

a.    For example: if in a particular dance a man turns a woman under his arm, in the literal sense, on the denotative level, this body movement conveys a meaning of a dance turn. But on the broader cultural, connotative level, this movement can talk about male domination and female subordination.

 

b.    In a certain segment of modern Western societies, women’s powerful and enthusiastic movement of hips and buttocks is labelled as obscene, excessive and signifying vulgarity and immorality, but this same movement in some segments of the same society indicates female confidence and self-esteem and serves as a  sign of female liberation and gender equality.

c.    Moreover, this very same hip and buttocks movement in ceremonial ritual dances of some African tribes can bear only the meaning of worship and glorification of woman’s uterus and thus of fertility of female being.

 

 

One argument like that dance as a specific language is a socially-historical phenomenon, dependent on the space and time in which it exists and dependent on the power structures that rule in that time. Dance is a learned cultural practice; Polhemus (1993: 8) says that societies create dances and that dance is actually a ‘metaphysics of culture’, because a culture of specific society is embodied in the forms of material and physical culture, and the latter is also stylized and schematized in the form of dance.

 

  

In the anthropological perspective, dance is dealt with as a cultural practice and a social life. There is much dancing all around the world. People dance for fun, pleasure, leisure, for money, for their jobs, for their self-expression, for the sake of tradition, for ritual purposes etc.

 

As such, dance should be examined as a part of everyday life, whether in Argentina, India, America, England, Jamaica, Senegal, Tanzania, New Zealand, Russia, Turkey, Slovenia or Australia.

 

Beside the presentation of dance in all these geographical contexts, different questions regarding dance in contemporary societies are also opened in this issue. In the context of globalization and some also in the context of the capitalist world market.

 

These dances – nowadays widely socially accepted – were at that time labelled as dances with entirely inappropriate moves, which could impair the morality of British society. In public discourses of that time one could find labels such as ‘degenerated and dirty moves’ or they were even described as ‘‘primitive, barbaric, eccentric and dissolute’’ dances.

 

Eg. Micheal Jackson

 

Regarding urban vernacular movement  in globalised Turkey at the edge of Europe and deals with multicultural issues of how difference is embodied and politicised in bodily movement in the gap between Istanbul’s Islamic and secular cultures.

 

An investigation of a northern Indian traditional dance, Kathak, in the globalised world is done by Sarah Morelli. She examines how the traditions of teaching this dance and the whole philosophy behind it have changed in modern conditions, due to the radical socio-political changes in India as well as due to the transplantation of this dance to America and its popularisation.

 

A similar case study of the transplantation of the Caribbean dances and culture to the British area is done the Caribbean migrants in London identify with music and dance from their Caribbean ‘homeland’. These dance-music practices help them to construct themselves as distinct from a dominant white culture.

 

 In a similar manner, A investigation the transplantation of the global dance culture, salsa, to the local Slovenian context. Their interest lies in examining salsa dance as a tool of interpersonal communication and as a global commodified popular culture when exploring the various social functions that salsa can perform in global, individualized, commercialized and highly competitive contemporary societies.

 

Yet another interesting perspective of contemporary dance practices such as  a new dance genre, flash mob dance, consisting of a collective dance event organized in public spaces through mobile phone and internet communication. She argues that such dance practices experience rapid global spread in consumer capitalism and effectively reconfigure urban spaces and performance sites

http://www.drustvo-antropologov.si/AN/PDF/2010_3/Anthropological_Notebooks_XVI_3_Pusnik.pdf

Basic steps and formations

Ballet and modern dance

The style and movement vocabulary of classical ballet is rooted in the five turned-out positions of the feet:

(1) heels touching and feet forming a straight line;

(2) heels apart and feet forming a straight line;

(3) one foot in front of the other with the heel against the instep;

(4) feet apart, one in front of the other; and

 (5) one foot in front of the other with the heel against the joint of the big toe.

Each ballet position https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TLSrI_hXEw&ab_channel=OpusArtehas a corresponding  position of the arms and hands.

 

 

Arabesque and attitude are positions in which the dancer stands on one leg. In arabesque the other leg (called the working leg) is stretched straight out to the back; in attitude, it is bent and may be extended to either the front or the back.

All of these steps may be performed in numerous enchaînements, or combinations, and with the dancers grouped in many different formations. In classical ballet the formations tend to be symmetrical, with circles or lines framing the main dancers at centre stage. 

Modern dance uses many of the steps and positions of classical dance but often in a very different style.

Folk dance

Many of the steps used in folk dance, a term historians use to describe European traditional dances, comprise small hops and skips; running steps; and more energetic Whether single or in pairs, dancers are usually grouped in circles (often two concentric circles moving at the same time) or lines. Within these groupings there are many specific formations; for example, four or more dancers hold hands and move in a circle, or dancers join hands to form an arch under which the others can pass.

Social dance

Except for display, social dances are rarely performed in any strict formation, although dancers may sometimes form themselves spontaneously into lines or circles.  Some of the best-known social dances are the waltz, fox-trot, tango, rumba, samba, and cha-cha.

 

The basic steps of the original rock and roll dances are performed in the traditional ballroom hold. Dancers may then “break” in order to perform different lifts and turns. For example, the man may hold onto the woman’s hand and pivot her under his arm, the woman may jump up with her legs straddling the man’s waist, or the man may catch hold of the woman’s shoulders and slide her between his legs.

 

Michael Somes and George Balanchine.

In most later rock dances, from the twist to disco, it is much rarer for people to dance as partners. There is also a greater stress on free arm and body movements than on set patterns of steps. Disco enthusiasts may incorporate elements of jazz, modern dance, and gymnastics into their repertoire, executing high kicks, turns, and even backflips.