Dance: A Creative Art Experience

2. The Province of Dance

Chapter 2 THE PROVINCE OF DANCE Dance as an art, when understood, is the province of every human being. Copyrighted Material Copyrighted Material H AVING MADE certain claims for dance, we must justify them. To justify them we must consider the essential nature of dance as an art and the values of art in general. To understand art fully and to appreciate the claims of dance as art, we must first appreciate the relations which have existed between man and his works-between the mind and its manifold expressions. The clarification of these relations will help us to understand the nature of dance as a separate art. The story of art covers the whole sweep of human life. It has changed as man has changed. It varies with his religion, his philosophy , and his social relations. When man appeared on earth, he came with no fund of intellectual knowledge or experience behind him. He was born into a world not designed for his needs. He was forced to rely upon his instincts and what intelligence he possessed to bring about an adjustment with the world in which he found himself. Gradually, because of the action and interaction between the powers inherent in his nature and the forces of his environment, he developed into a better-adapted, more sensitive, more rational, more communicative self. He learned to live in his world and with his fellows. In this slow process of civilization, art, an activity of man's own creation, has always been a significant influence. It has revealed a need that seems to be as fundamental as that of adaptation , a need that continually urges man to fashion his works as objects of beauty. It is when the spontaneous expressive efforts become modified by man's growing realization of their effect upon both himself and others, and are used consciously and 49 Copyrighted Material DANCE: A CREATIVE ART EXPERIENCE intentionally as expressive tools, that expressive acts become art. Unfortunately, art is popularly thought of only in terms of its highest productions, as masterpieces existing in galleries; and artists, consequently, have come to be considered a special class who practice their art professionally. Such views have made the creation of art seem remote from the life of the everyday man, and art something that can be enjoyed only after years of study and close contact with genius. It is, of course, true that the greatest art can be created and fully appreciated only by the expert few; but it is just as true that a genuine appreciation and even true artistic creation are possible to all. One of the problems confronting teachers of art education is the danger involved in too high a degree of specialization. At the same time it is necessary to maintain a real appreciation of the efforts of those who are the greater artists. Robert Henri makes a comforting statement for those not destined to be great in art when he says: "Art, when really understood , is the province of every human being. It is simply a question of doing anything well. It is not an outside, extra thing. When the artist is alive in any person, whatever his kind of mind may be, he becomes an inventive, searching, daring, self-expressive creature. He becomes interesting to other people. The world would stagnate without him-and the world would be beautiful with him.... He does not have to be a painter or a sculptor to be an artist. He can work in any medium. He simply has to find the gain in the work itself, not outside of it. Museums of art Copyrighted Material THE PROVINCE OF DANCE will not make a country an art country. But where there is the art spirit, there will be precious works to fill museums." ':. Although art has been explained in many ways, it cannot, as Yrjo Hirn convincingly shows, be reduced to the play impulse, or the impulse to attract, or the impulse to imitate, though all these purposes, no doubt, have some influence in the development of art forms. Rather, the impelling force in art creation is to be explained by the psychology of feeling and by the need of communication . Every high-strung emotional state which has not found its appropriate expression causes movement by which we instinctively try to get rid of the feeling...