Dance: A Creative Art Experience

1. A Cultural Survey of Dance

Chapter 1 A CULTURAL SURVEY OF DANCE Man fashions as he knows. Copyrighted Material Copyrighted Material E VERY AGE has had its dance, and the fact that dance has lived is evidence of its value. The universal interest in dance rests upon the fact that it carries on and systematizes an activity that is operative in everyone's experience. It is coexistent with life. Like the history of all the arts, the history of dance follows those changes in attitude and feeling and those fluctuations in man's concept of art which have given to every period its distinctive qualities. Its history therefore is one of changes in those points of view by which man has built his ideals rather than a chronicle of techniques and forms. The very nature of dance-the living, pulsating movement whose path is closed as the path of an arrow-makes a true history impossible. By reason of its nature, a dance remains only in the visual memory of the onlooker and in the kinesthetic memory of the dancer. For a dance to exist, immediacy of motor response to the mental life of the dancer is required. In dancing, as in acting, the artist must be present in the full possession of his personality. The interest in recording dances is evidenced by the many efforts of those who have studied this problem. We read of methods of recording dances (orchesography) that date as far back as the Egyptians and the Greeks. It would be interesting to know how successful their methods were. The more recent efforts either to revive ancient methods or to invent new ones have so far been ineffectual for general use. However, the rhythmical structure of a dance, and its design and spatial pattern, can be quite satisfactorily recorded. This recording is useful as a recall for its creator and as a form stimulus for other dancers. But the 3 Copyrighted Material DANCE: A CREATIVE ART EXPERIENCE most important elements of expression, the subtle and personal nuances, which so clearly reflect the emotional conditions and artistic intention of the dancer, cannot be so reproduced. In short, it is impossible for such an art medium as dance to be preserved as a form through the ages, for its very nature lacks the elements necessary to permanency. It may be, however, that in the future the motion picture will furnish some sort of solution to this problem. Space will not permit a thorough and detailed account of dance from its crude beginnings to its present development. Indeed, the scope of dance is so vast that to attempt a brief survey seems futile. Although such a study is closely related to our subject, it seems more pertinent to glance at the high points of man's cultural evolution and to try to gain some understanding of how dance came to be what it is, to observe the conditions under which it existed, and to note in passing the place it held in man's group and individual life. For this reason there is no attempt at classification or description of specific dances. Primitive The earliest expressive acts of man could have been none other than random, impulsive movements, unorganized except as they followed the natural laws of his functioning body structure. They were probably characterized by a passion for rhythm. Later in his development man acquired a group status. He began to realize that groups could live and work together with greater results than lone individuals could achieve. Gradually he came to feel himself 4 Copyrighted Material A CULTURAL SURVEY OF DANCE part of a larger unit, and this feeling must have had both a restraining and a stimulating effect upon his activities. His individual desire gave way to group customs, and his dancing began to reflect a widening range of human circumstances and adventure . He still danced his love, fear, hate, and anger, but with a difference-his dancing being regulated by the consciousness of his identity with a group. History informs us that in these early human societies, dance derived its major importance from its function as an integral part of the social and religious life. For primitive man there was no such thing as religion apart from life. Religion was life-it included everything. It was but natural that these dances dealt very directly with all the different phases of life. Since all important events in the life cycle...