The Origins of The Dance
I was trying to distinguish for myself which kind of dances do I like and came up with the following list of origins of the dance. Most dances I can imagine have unequal mixture of these origins.
Ritual. A dance is the way to communicate something to other people or to the god(s). Rituals are mostly prescribed with moves a dancer has to make.
Sexual. A specific kind of a ritual with an intention to get close to a partner. Even animals have dances of this kind. Sometimes moves are prescribed, sometimes it is an improvisation.
Healthy. Sometimes we move ourselves to aid some processes in our bodies (blood circulation), activate energy centers etc. A good example is aerobics. Usually no moves are prescribed.
Game. Many people like games. A creative mind can make a game out of everything. Dancing is not an exception.
Ballet. The use of the bodies to create some visual dynamic pictures using some set of moves.
Myself I like dances that have mostly healthy and game origins and don't like everything else. Artistic ballet-type of dances are certainly very complicated but I usually enjoy 1 of 30 performances I see.
# posted by romka,
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
11:41
Didn't you miss the essence, dance as an expression of yourself?
The list makes me disappointed, because I personally think there is so much more in the dance.
For some people, a dance session is not a game/ballet/health/sexual/ritual thing, but a special moment when the soul gets to dance. If they have the soul. Very difficult to describe.
Also the thing about dancing in group or pair, it is a way of communication. If you a furious, you dance furiously (choose the right dance for that of course). So the emotional/expressive part is missing in the list.
You partially are right. Especially if you take Indian dances, where each dance is an encoded message. But I guess as a communication mean the speech is a way further.