Romka's Bits and Bites

complains, jokes, and recipes

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

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.