DANCE AS A WAY OF
LIFE
When did humans take the first dancing step
is anybody’s guess. Dance rarely leaves behind traces that are identifiable
over millennia. Artifacts of human history, such as tools or cave paintings, do
not convey the origin of this art form. However, it can be argued that
evolution of dance is linked to that of the humankind.
Dance has been integral part of ceremony,
rituals, celebrations and entertainment since the dawn of human civilization.
Archaeology delivers traces of dance from prehistoric times such as the
30,000-year-old Bhimbetka rock shelters paintings in India and Egyptian tomb
paintings depicting dancing figures from c. 3300 BC.
Natya Shastra (“Treatise of Act”), the
Sanskrit text attributed to Bharata, is one of the earliest document dedicated
to the performance arts. The first complete compilation is dated between 200
BCE and 200 CE, although estimates vary between 500 BCE and 500 CE. It is also
notable for its aesthetic Rasa theory, which asserts that entertainment is a
desired effect of performance arts but not the primary goal, and that the
primary goal is to transport the individual in the audience into another
parallel reality, full of wonder, where he experiences the essence of his own
consciousness, and reflects on spiritual and moral questions. This encyclopedic
treatise has influenced dance, music and literary traditions in India over many
millennia.
Dance may have been used as a precursor to
ecstatic trance states in healing rituals by many cultures, from the Brazilian
rainforest to the Kalahari Desert. Medieval Europeandanses macabres were thought
to have protected participants from disease; however; the hysteria and duration
of these performances sometimes led to death due to exhaustion.
Many contemporary dance forms can be traced
back to historical, traditional, ceremonial, and ethnic dances. Sri Lankan
dance goes back to the mythological times of aboriginal yingyang twins and
"yakkas" (devils). According to a Sinhalese legend, Kandyan dances
originated 2500 years ago, from a magic ritual that broke the spell on a
bewitched king.
Sufi whirling (or Sufi turning) is a form of
physically active meditation which originated among Sufis, and which is still
practiced by the Sufi Dervishes of the Mevlevi order and other orders such as
the Rifa'i-Marufi. It is a customary meditation practice performed within the
Sema, or worship ceremony, through which dervishes aim to reach the source of
all perfection. This is sought through abandoning one's egos or personal
desires, by listening to the music, focusing on God, and spinning one's body in
repetitive circles, which has been seen as a symbolic imitation of planets in
the Solar System orbiting the sun.
One of the oldest structured uses of dances
may have been in the performance and in the telling of myths. It was also
sometimes used to show feelings for one of the opposite gender. It is also
linked to the origin of "love making." Before the production of
written languages, dance was one of the methods of passing these stories down
from generation to generation.
The earliest record of dancing in European
culture is Homer’s "Iliad." It describes chorea an early Greek dance
form that evolved into a system expressive of all the different passions. For
example, the dance of the Furies, so represented, would create complete terror
among those who witnessed them. The Greek philosopher, Aristotle, ranked
dancing with poetry, and said that certain dancers, with rhythm applied to
gesture, could express manners, passions, and actions. The most eminent Greek
sculptors studied the attitude of the dancers for their art of imitating the
passion.
References to dance in Europe in the Middle
Ages are limited and fragmentary, being composed of some interesting depictions
in paintings and illuminations, a few musical examples of what may be dances,
and scattered allusions in literary texts. The most documented form of dance
during the Middle Ages is the carol also called the "carole" or
"carola." It was known from the 12th and 13th centuries in Western
Europe in rural and court settings. It consisted of a group of dancers holding
hands usually in a circle, with the dancers singing in a leader and refrain
style while dancing. The term "carol" was first used in England for
this type of circle dance accompanied by singing in manuscripts dating to as
early as 1300.
Circle or line dances also existed in other
parts of Europe outside England, France and Italy where the term carol was best
known. These dances were of the same type with dancers holding hand-in-hand and
a leader who sang the ballad. In Denmark, old ballads mention a closed Ring
dance which can open into a Chain dance. In Sweden too, medieval songs often
mentioned dancing. A long chain was formed, with the leader singing the verses
and setting the time while the other dancers joined in the chorus.
The same dance in Germany was called
"Reigen" and may have originated from devotional dances at early
Christian festivals. Dancing around the church or a fire was frequently
denounced by church authorities which only underscores how popular it was.
There are records of church and civic officials in various German towns
forbidding dancing and singing from the 8th to the 10th centuries. Once again,
in singing processions, the leader provided the verse and the other dancers
supplied the chorus.
Circle dances were also found in the area
that is present day Czech Republic. Descriptions and illustrations of dancing
can be found in church registers, chronicles and in 15th century writings.
Dancing was primarily done around trees on the village green but special houses
for dancing appear from the 14th century. In Poland as well the earliest
village dances were in circles or lines accompanied by the singing or clapping
of the participants.
The modern folk dances in the Balkans
consist of dancers linked together in a hand or shoulder hold in an open or
closed circle or a line. Chain dances of a similar type to these modern dance
forms have been documented from the medieval Balkans. Tombstones as early as
from 12th century depict dancing figures and inscriptions.
During the Renaissance period, there was a
distinction between country dances and court dances. Court dances required the
dancers to be trained and were often for display and entertainment, whereas
country dances could be attempted by anyone. At Court, the formal entertainment
would often be followed by many hours of country dances which all present could
join in. Dances described as country dances such as Chiarantana or Chiaranzana
remained popular over a long period - over two centuries in the case of this
dance.
Ballet has its origins in the Italian
Renaissance courts of the 15th and 16th centuries where it was known as
balletto. Once it spread to France, this formalized dance form came to be known
as ballet. By the 18th century ballet had migrated from the royal court to the
Paris Opera. Ballet as we know evolved by the 20th century, with all the
familiar conventions of costume, choreographic form, plot, pomp, and
circumstance firmly fixed in place.
In India, during the reign of the last
Mughals and Nawabs of Oudh, dance fell down to the status of 'nautch', an
unethical sensuous thing of courtesans. Later, linking dance with immoral
trafficking and prostitution, British rule prohibited public performance of
dance. Many disapproved it.
Following India’s independence in 1947,
dance culture revived to regain its past glory. Classical forms and regional
distinctions were re-discovered, ethnic specialties were honored and by
synthesizing them with the individual talents of the masters in the line and
fresh innovations emerged dance with a new face but with classicism of the
past.
It was during the explosion of new thinking
and exploration in the early 20th century that dance artists began to
appreciate the qualities of the individual, the necessities of ritual and
religion, the primitive, the expressive and the emotional. In this atmosphere
modern dance began an explosion of growth. There was suddenly a new freedom in
what was considered acceptable, what was considered art, and what people wanted
to create. All kinds of other things were suddenly valued as much as, or
beyond, the costumes and tricks of the ballet.
After the explosion of modern dance in the
early 20th century, the 1960s saw the growth of postmodernism. Postmodernism
veered towards simplicity, the beauty of small things, the beauty of untrained
body, and unsophisticated movement. The famous "No" manifesto
rejecting all costumes, stories and outer trappings in favor of raw and
unpolished movement was perhaps the extreme of this wave of thinking.
Unfortunately lack of costumes, stories and outer trappings do not make a good
dance show, and it was not long before sets, décor and shock value re-entered
the vocabulary of modern choreographers.
By the 1980s dance had come full circle and
modern dance (or, by this time, "contemporary dance") was clearly
still a highly technical and political vehicle for many practitioners. Existing
alongside classical ballet, the two art-forms were by now living peacefully
next door to one another with little of the rivalry and antipathy of previous
eras.
At the same time, mass culture experienced
expansion of street dance. One of the most popular dance of this genre is the
break dance. The blend of Jamaican reggae and street dance created hip-hop.
Transcending beyond traditional stage and
street, dance has found way into sports. The two most notable sporting events
featuring dance are the women’s gymnastics and synchronized diving as was seen
in the recently concluded Rio Olympics. Finally, dance is becoming intertwined
with modern lifestyle as evident in movies (notably in Bollywood) to basement
parties (notably among Indian diaspora in the US and UK).
[SUBHODEV DAS]
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