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.
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