Alexandra Hobbs
6/20/2012
Application Assignment #2
The Gestures of the Waltz
The waltz is a very structured and rigid dance that manages to evoke strong feelings of romance, intimacy, and sensuality through the use of specific gestures.
The waltz can be broken down into a large series of gestures and each gesture has
significant meaning. A deep understanding of the impact of each gesture requires the understanding of the two movements created by the gesture; the movement of the body reaching to an external object and the movement of the action of reaching making an impression on the body that performs that action. This loop of the gestures results in a physical impression on the body. In the case of dancing, this impression is the strengthening of specific muscles used to make that gesture and the strengthening of neuronal connections that allow the brain to remember that gesture. Thus, each movement or gesture in any dance is meaningful because it leaves a physical impression on the body performing it and it insinuates itself into the culture in which it is performed. There are many other external impacts dancing the waltz makes including emotional and sensual significances that affect both the dancers and the audience. These projected meanings apply to every minute gesture the dancers make. I will apply these emotional and sensual meanings to the most common gesture in the waltz and discuss the cultural consequences of the gesture.
To me, the most common gesture is one which involves the shoulder, neck and head of both dancers in the partner. In this gesture, both dancers shoulders face each other and their necks are elongated, but their heads are turned away from each other. Sometimes they are facing the same direction, sometimes they are not, like so:
I find this to be the most common gesture that occurs during the dancing of the waltz because it is shown in almost every picture when simply searching for images of the waltz online. It is even shown in paintings of the waltz proving it is such a common gesture that it almost defines the waltz. Here is an example of a painting of people performing the waltz:
They are clearly in the gesture of gracefully extending their neck and turning their faces away from each other. The implications of this gesture are both subtle and obvious. But, to understand these implications, we must go back to the history of the waltz.
As noted in the introductory project, the waltz was born in the suburbs of Germany and was not accepted by the prevailing religion, Christianity. Christian leaders found this style of dancing to be too intimate because it involved touching, something that had never been seen in a dance. As a result, the waltz found a balance between touching and maintaining an appropriate distance to show the movement was not sexual. In the traditional waltz, this is done by having limited movement of the hips and by this gesture of the dancers moving their upper bodies away from each other. Here is an example of a contemporary waltz competition that uses this gesture throughout most of the dance:
This gesture impacted the external audience (the audience watching the dancers) of the sixteenth century in two different ways. It horrified and offended the conservative Christian leaders and those who were afraid of the sensual because it evoked sexual and romantic feelings. These feelings were unacceptable to Christians because they were sinful. On the other hand, the waltz also started a revolution by breaking through the barrier of touching and facilitating the development of similar ballroom and partner style dances. Thus, it affected this more open minded audience differently. It evoked a sense of rebellion and creativity in some that spurred a transformation of dance into an intimate, partner sport.
Looking internally at the dancers that perform this dance, it is easy to see the emotion behind the movement. The dancers show an intimacy but almost recover from their closeness by pulling their upper-bodies away from each other. It’s almost as if they are saying, “we are in sync, we are intimate, but I’m not giving away everything just yet.” This emotional give-and-take is just as much a gesture for audience as it is for themselves. The gesture give the impression that they are aware of the audience and acknowledge them occasionally and move out of the intimate moment, especially when the gesture is slowly moved into after a quick, close section of the dance.
Audiences today would not find the waltz as scandalous as audiences did in the sixteenth century. The level of acceptable public affection and sexuality have changed drastically since the sixteenth century. The “dance” of grinding involves an enormous amount of physical contact and evokes very, very strong sexual feelings. The sixteenth century Christian leaders would die of embarrassment for today’s “grinders”.
What is most interesting about this gesture is how it has lasted through time and is still performed in waltz competitions today, as seen in the previous video shot in 2010. Although the gesture has been elaborated on, the basic gesture of gracefully moving away from one’s partner is still there. Here’s an example of another contemporary waltz competition gesture:
This lasting of this gesture shows how it has been ingrained into our culture. The gesture has been repeated and taught so much that it has shaped the dancing world. As Dr. Gill discusses in the lectures, each gesture makes an impact on the body performing it and makes a lasting impact on our culture. Because the initial waltz dancers performed this gesture in front of an audience of young and malleable dancers, the waltz dancers forever influenced the young dancers and their understanding of what the waltz should be. As a result, the gesture has moved through the generations, with slight elaborations, and has become a part of the identity of the waltz dancing culture.
In conclusion, the waltz gesture of moving one’s body away from one’s partner is a cultural standard in waltzing that has been elaborated on with time and change in values. It evoked different feeling in the sixteenth century than it does today. Back then, it tested the limits of acceptance of public intimacy and encouraged a change in dancing. Today, it does not evoke such strong feelings of unsuitable sensuality because the standards for acceptable touching have changed, as seen in “grinding”. All in all, the waltz has influenced dancing in many cultures across the world, toying with the boundary of unacceptable through this single gestures.
Suzanne Farrell once said, “I liked tap because I liked hearing the results of my movements.” Movement, and more specifically self-movement, is what allows each one of us to experience these results we hear, feel, smell, taste, and see (our five senses), and we can even go as far as to include our kinesthetic sense as part of these results. Our kinesthetic sense, or our sense of “proprioception”, allows us to describe our individual awareness of where we are in space and time, including each of our body parts. Our sense of proprioception enables us to consciously and unconsciously express and direct our energy more effectively. It lends itself to the idea of mind/body dualism, where we become one organic process and both our mind and body are engaged in order to create a dance, thereby creating movement.
Movement is the natural process by which we change places or positions according to various definitions that I have found. Tap Dance is a movement; a movement that embodies both the mind and the physical body in order to create this dance. The movement that occurs in tap dancing is based upon rhythmical patterns created by foot movement where metal taps are attached to the bottom of shoes at the heel and toes. When tap dancing we hear the metal against the hard surface, we feel the floor beneath us as we shuffle ball change, we feel our knees bent and fully flexible allowing us to move freely, we smell the air and sweat around us as we perform, we taste the sweat dripping down our cheeks and we even see the movement while in motion as we combine a series of combinations to enhance our current movement. We may not always be aware of the fact that all of our five senses are at play and we are moving based on those five senses. Because we do not always have this awareness of our senses, including our kinesthetic sense, we do not always make the necessary connections and relationships to further make sense of ourselves, our culture and of our environment.
I once saw a dance poster that read: “Dance enables you to find yourself and lose yourself at the same time.” This is to say that dance is a part of the conscious and unconscious aspects movement. Through tap dancing, an individual has the capability to make sense of one’s self and make sense of the world. Tap dancing in the United States was created through the fusion of the clogging culture in the British Isles and the rhythms of the drumming and dancing found in West African culture during colonial times. This particular dances illustrates the fact that tap dance transcends time and lets us understand the cultures that it evolved from. The slaves in the South in the United States used tap dancing and its movements as a mode of communication and the communication created through tap dancing established an identity and value. The identity being that the sound of tap shoes was “authentic” to the slaves and their culture and the value being that through the movement of the tap shoes a story and a mode of communication was heard. Tap dancing served a cultural purpose and a way to define themselves while being enslaved and discriminated against. This established an intertwining of movement and meaning as a part of tap dancing. By means of tap dancing, experiences, interactions, and relationships had the opportunity to be formed. This lends to the fact that “movement is basic to the establishment of meaning”.
To quote Albert Einstein, “We dance for laughter, we dance for tears, we dance for madness, we dance for fears, we dance for hopes, we dance for screams, we are the dancers, we create the dreams.” This quote ties in nicely with the fact that tap dancing helps to establish meaning. It helped to establish meaning between slaves and it helps to establish a meaning nowadays. Tap dancing communicates with the audience. The steps created tell a story through a beginning, middle and end. They elicit a call and response from the audience due to the fact that while the movement/dance is being performed the mode and tone by which the audience expresses their feelings about the dance suggest to the dancer his/her next step. If the audience does not enjoy the dance the tap dancer must either choose to acknowledge and be aware of this fact and alter his movements or not change his dance movements thereby communicating to the audience that he/she is either unaware of their emotions/reactions or that switching up the dance movement is too difficult of a challenge to overcome. Either way tap dancing, via its sound, provides meaning. Through its unique rhythm and the movements associated with tap dancing to create the unique sound help to make sense of all that is around.
Without dance in general, we are not challenging the brain, body or environment in any unusual way and are adhering to this “quotidian” aspect. When dancing, this daily movement is replaced with an “overplus” of movement that gives way to this “quality of incipience”. We are then becoming something other in dancing and changing those aspects that would otherwise not be changed (i.e. our brain, body, culture, experiences, environment). Life is about moving and without movement we are not emphasizing dimensions of non-conscious bodily processes. These non-conscious bodily processes are what assist in making sense of ourselves and our world. Martha Graham once said that “to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the same.” We must practice both in order to learn each component, but what would be even better is to learn both together. To learn how to tap dance is to learn another way to live life and a means to practice living life along with practicing learning to tap dance. Tap is intergenerational and multiracial as it encompasses varied cultural traditions and individual styles. Tap helps to gain awareness and knowledge of these aspects otherwise left to be discovered had an individual not desired to live life through tap dancing.
Tap is about the sound. The sound is what creates the meaning. The sound is what makes us get lost in the steps and rhythm. The sound is also what makes us notice the silence when not performing the harsh, hard-hitting, heavy, and fast movements. Tap dancing is unique in the fact that a song in the background is not needed to put on a show – the song is in the steps. The steps are the foundation to the sound, and in these steps we gain various elements. We gain a culture; we gain power; we gain self-movement; we gain vitality; we gain knowledge.
The Guajira’s Gestural Maintenance and Cultural Shift
In popular culture, we have a saying: there is more than the meets the eye. This saying when interpreted at its most simple level is a commentary on how things are often more complex than they seem and usually are deserving of a second look or more concentrated analysis. One such thing, that I have found deserving of a second look, or that has more than meets the eye is dance. From what I have learned thus far, dance is not only compromised of several different components, i.e. movements, gestures, but it also has a very complex and active presence in a variety of different contexts, i.e. sociological development (self or interactive), narrative/lyrical qualities, religious ideology, philological, surrealist theory, etc. I mean wow, be it ignorance, or supreme naivety, but I have never considered dance to be such a metropolitan subject. However, it is plan to see, that given the time and education, we can begin to understand the richness of dance as a sophisticated form of artistry and a fundamental building block in human development. Given that dance is so clearly complex, I find it rather far fetching (at this point) to expect that I will make any sort of intelligible sense if I just ramble on about all these different before listed components that affect dance, thus in my following analysis I will focus on one dance and how it relates to one component and how it relates to one idea.
In my first application I decided to do research on a dance called the Guajira. Now, for my investigation, I have yet to experience being taught the dance (TBC June 22nd), but I have still managed to find supreme relevance in how the Guajira relates to gestural movement and the sociological development of a specific ethnicity. The Guajira is no simple quote"e country dance/music as it appears, but rather a fundamental building block in the historical and sociological development of particular group’s identity in Cuba. Hence, the dance as it pertains to gesture and the formation of identity is a rich topic in which I will address.
To refresh; the guajira is a Cuban dance or musical style often associated with other dances such as the flamenco, rumba, or criolla. Despite, its popularization peaking in the 1930’s, Guajira has its roots tied in the colonial times with the arrival of Spaniards and other European settlers in the Caribbean. Now, these facts may seem frivolous, but when it comes to understanding how the Guajira functions, it is important to understand the historical context of the dance.
Gestural expression is a complex form of movement that occupies a number of different human activities and defines our interactions. It has come to my attention that gesture and movement, or inherent movement is often mistake for one another. In reality, gesture and movement are very different from one another. In my understanding, movement is the groundwork to cognitive reasoning and negotiation of our surroundings, whereas gesture is affected and tweaked to compliment (or react) to those surroundings. Since I am focusing on gesture, I speculate that the design of the Guajira is correlated to the cultural environment in which it developed. Moreover, it is important to understand how the cultural context related to the dance. This gives us a way to see how identity and gesture are linked and how this leads to dance’s malleability.
As discussed in lecture and in Noland’s Agency and Embodiment cultural conditions heavily effect the development of dance as well as performance. It is said that the cultural conditions that are present serve as a container in gestural improvisation and evolution. Further, movements are formed and interpreted due to their cultural context, which is how a certain movement is able to become a gesture. This gesture then becomes increasingly significant due to its cultural relativism. A gesture has the unique ability to convey something new and thus can even be thought to ‘create’ culture.
This seems far-fetched, but it is an idea that we (westerners) are actually very familiar with. For example, think about group preforming hip-hop dance; now imagine a group line dancing, jigging, hula-dancing. I speculate that for each of the preceding dances that you had a very strong image of particular culture or sub-culture performing each. Why is this, every human culture is capable of performing each of the gestural movements that make-up each dance, so why the strong associations? It is because gesture has the ability to build cultural context, and often this can be seen through the vehicle of dance.
Now, the guajira. Like those other dances, the Guajira very much developed due to its cultural environment. In Cuba during the time of the music’s origins, a new peasant class was developing. This ethnic group was made-up of peoples that were born to native peasants, but also had European ancestry. These peoples mainly worked and lived in rural areas and spent their lives farming and tending to animals, i.e sheephearding. Often viewed as ‘simple’ or unpure due to their mixed ancestory they became known as guajiros, a slang term meaning “country-folk.” Due to their segregation from the other ethnic groups and social classes in Cuba, these people began to evolve their own types of traditions, apart from popular Cuban culture. From this there was the development of lyrical poetry and music known as Guajira. This was both rhythmically and structurally unique to Guajiros. Later, specific gestures to accommodate performance began to evolve. Hence, the Guajira dance was created.
Modernly, the dance has shifted and changed (I imagine) quite a bit from its colonial rural Cuban origins. However, the very fact that the dance has shifted over time, only proves gesture’s kinship with cultural relativism and its impact on sociological development of people’s group identities. Over the hundreds of years since Guajira’s development there has been an apparent shift in prejudices, change in industry, and quite a bit of change in ethnic composition in Cuba and Latin American population. Groups mix, immigrate, leave, etc. Thus, over the years, the need to so clearly set boundaries between peoples and what specific things are associated with those peoples have shifted as well. The once strong association that Guajira music and dance had with the rural country population shifted as Cuban cultural evolved to be more metropolitan. The Dance, although still associated and based off of its rural origins is arguable no longer associated with the guajiros ethnic group, rather the music is categorized as Cuban.
As mentioned in Agency and Embodiment, Marcel Mauss developed the idea that through the awareness of body that peoples’ could find a way to re-discover their own experience and have a more empathetic experience with the other. Overtime, the interactions that Cuban peoples had with one another changed, this is time’s nature. Thus, gestural movements, shared and seen cross-culturally became more liable to change and reinterpreted. Gestures’ were adopted and, others borrowed, thus the dance (guajira) was able to maintain its association, but also play a role in gesture’s agenda to create new cultural paradigms. Hence, the dance became Guajira and the gestures of that dance were able to be taken on by whomever, not just one specific ethnicity. Contemporarily the Guajira can be a part of dances like Flamenco, rumba, and even have a presence in motion pictures like Dirty Dancing 2, because gesture has allowed it has shifted culturally and still maintain its Cuban spirit.
Hence, the Guajira will always be known as the “Guajira.” I highly doubt that there will be time where the dance is renamed “6/8 rhythm to Latin beat.” Our gestures develop from our surroundings and are activated by our social and interactional identities within that cultural. Gestures, in turn help us (or groups) define one another and offer a foreground to compromise and interact with one another as associations evolve over time. Thus, our performances for and in our cultures are instrumental in the development of new ideas and progression. Our gestures, as part of that performance, are developed as a way for us to “bargain” with the society (or context) in which they were originated. Moreover, via gesture and its tie to cultural relativism has proved that the Guajira, bumpkin-rural-originated, has a lot more to it than as it first appears.
This video is a modern Flamenco that strongly associates ITSELF with Guajira, a good example of the cross-cultural communication that gesture has over time.
Emily Fetterly
June 18, 2012
Dance, Religion and Culture
Professor Sam Gill
Application Assignment #2
As we have read in the Primacy of Movement by Sheets-Johnstone, movement is foundational to being alive because we are brought into this world with a body that has been made to move. When we see the movement of the arms or legs reaching, stretching, and squirming of an infant child, we see life itself at its most raw form. Even the very blood pumping through the human heart reflects movement; for if it were not so life would not occur. The Punta, the national dance of the country of Honduras, is a dance that is reflective of the movement of the circle of life. This dance is a celebration of the movement of life as seen in the beliefs of reincarnation the Garifunian people of Honduras.
With the roots of this dance reaching back to West Africa, the Garifunas dance the punta at the wakes of their loved ones. As I was researching this particular dance, I couldn’t help but see a connection to what we had been learning in class in regards to movement. As Professor Sam Gill stated in his lecture on the Primacy of Movement, “Life means moving from beginning to end” which I can see is reflected in the punta not only through the dance movement itself, but also through the tradition of the Garifuna people (1). Take a look at this video from this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5xOup3YaGo. As seen in the video, a group of Garifuna people gathered together to form a circle that mirrors the life from birth to death. Sets of drums are incorporated into the circle that brings the rhythm as the people sing and begin to dance. As I listened to the fast beat of the drums and watched the rapid foot movements of the dancers as well as the swift shaking of their hips, one word came to my mind to try to describe what I was hearing and that was: lively. The torso of the body seemed to remain motionless while the lower half of the body did all the hard work. I didn’t know one could move their feet so quickly and keep the control of the shaking of the hips so controlled and small. I felt like the fast paced beat of the drums resembled the heartbeat and the movement of the West African blood pumping through the veins of the dancers.
The small but rapidly controlled foot movements and hip shaking embodies the aspect of ancestral worship through reincarnation. They believe that when a person dies that person continues through the movement of life by transitioning into a “new life” from a person to an ancestor (2). The name punta means “new life,” and this is clearly seen in the movements made throughout the dance. The punta is said to symbolize fertility because when a person is transitioning from a person to an ancestor this takes place by that person’s spirit being reincarnated into the new life of a new born family member; therefore, the fertility dance is danced at the wakes of the deceased to help ensure that the deceased person’s spirit gets reincarnated (2).
The beliefs of the Garifuna people are a significant part of these peoples environment. It reminded me of when Professor Sam Gill referenced Johnson in the Movement and Meaning lecture when Johnson states: “ ’The key to my entire argument is that meaning is not just what is consciously entertained in acts of feeling and thought; instead, meaning reaches deep down into our corporeal encounter with our environment.’ “ (3). The punta is a dance that requires movement of the body that most definitely amuses the viewer’s and the dancer’s outlooks and views, but it is a deep thread woven into these peoples’ traditional environment. It means something to them because the patter of their feet and the quick shake of their hips invite interaction with their environment. It evokes remembrance of respect to their ancestors in West Africa who established the movements of the body in such a way, and the Garifuna people share in this communal established movement. As Professor Sam Gill said in his lecture on Movement and Meaning, “Meaning is grounded in felt and experienced qualities and in principled relationships all established in movement” (3). The punta means something to the Garifuna people because of the common traditional ground they stand on in their environment.
However, the punta can be danced traditionally as the video from above has shown, but can also nowadays be seen to be danced all over throughout Latin American and Caribbean countries. Punta rock has gained much popularity in Latin America and is now more of a dance that can be seen danced in social settings such as parties, holidays or celebrations (2). Today, non-traditional punta has developed more into a game that men and women play in what seems like a cock and hen situation. They compete to try to outshine the other in how fast they can shake their hips and buttocks as they tap their feet. This video is a good example of the nontraditional way of dancing punta: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNnddudFyDw. As I viewed this style of punta, I immediately saw similarities and differences. The “aliveness” was still very much a part of the entire movement as I saw represented in the rapidness of the movement, but I felt as if there was a shift between “being alive” and the “I can” quality of this movement. This was curious to me because of what we had learned in the Primacy of Movement lecture that Professor Sam Gill taught when he said, “They do not move to accomplish anything in the sense of some “I can,” but rather as being alive” (1). It reminded me of the “Anything you can do, I can do better” song from Annie Get Your Gun. Perhaps they were moving to show off an “I can” because they are celebrating being alive.
The meaning behind this non-traditional punta certainly is entertaining to watch and stimulates feelings and thoughts, but I think the environment has shifted from the traditional environment to a more modern environment. The speedy hip and buttocks movement of the dancer most definitely invites interaction to the environment, especially those with whom they are dancing. It means something to them because the bodies are moving, sharing, and engaging in the experience with others in the environment surrounding. They are celebrating life through this movement perhaps not directly through traditional culture, but through modern culture.
References
1. Gill, Sam. “Primacy of Movement.” Dancing, Culture, and Religion Lecture Series.
2. Griffin, Wendy. “Perspectives on Punta Dancing.” Honduras This Week. Standford Center for Latin American Studies, 1998. Web. http://www.stanford.edu/group/arts/honduras/discovery_eng/art/dance/punta2.html
3. Gill, Sam. “Movement and Meaning.” Dancing, Culture, and Religion Lecture Series.
Evan Sticca
Application Assignment 2
As previously stated, Chholiya has a significant historical background for the Kumauni people of Uttarakhand in Northern India, but it also has the power to symbolically transport the dancers back to the ancient days of the Kshatriyas through the process of self-othering. Dancers of Chholiya accomplish this in a variety of ways, including their dress, movement, occasion of the dance among many others. First, I refer you back to the first video of Chholiya that I posted.
I think the most immediately apparent aspect of self-othering in Chholiya is the use of traditional garb that is an identifier of the dancer’s village or regional background. As we will see later, the clothing in the first video is different from other traditional group’s clothing in other videos. This serves a purpose, the Kshatriyas were strictly divided based on region, and the clothing helped identify enemy from ally on the battlefield. In such a bellicose environment, the clothing was a sign of pride for victorious clans, and thus was worn proudly during joyous occasions. By donning the ancient garb of the Kshatriyas, the dancers of Chholiya transport their appearance back in time to their Kshatriya clan identity. Furthermore, the clothing of Chholiya is a warrior’s uniform. It is highly unlikely that anyone in modern day India identifies themselves as a warrior, being replaced by the more modern term of soldier. This alone helps to transport the mindset of the dancers back in time. Finally in the category of outward appearance are the weapons they carry. The men are armed with swords called tulwar and brass shields, the importance of which is that these weapons were only used in fighting other warriors. If an ancient Kumauni needed to go hunting he would use a bow and arrow or a spear, rather than the tulwar. The tulwar are elegant curved weapons designed to fight against an armored or shielded opponent, and the carrying of a tulwar signified the user was ready for battle. In Chholiya, they serve the same purpose, to identify the dancers as warriors ready for battle. Additionally, if the Chholiya is performed at a wedding or other occasion in which one male is being honored, the man of the hour will carry a special sword called khukri and rides a horse. This is symbolic in that only the best warriors or royalty could afford to arm themselves with khukri or afford horses to ride into battle. Specifically during weddings, the groom is called Kunwar meaning “king” in Kumaun dialect. Wearing the garb of their ancestors, dancers of Chholiya in a sense adopt an ancient identity that is integral for the dance.
The next aspect of Chholiya that has its roots in self-othering is the style of movement. In this first video, the male dancers arrange themselves in a circle surrounding a single female dancer. This is symbolic of the Kshatriyas protecting their women and even more symbolically their motherland. Additionally, if performed at a wedding, this circle version of Chholiya serves to protect the bride from any jealous demons waiting to hex the wedding. It is also important to note their circular motions and spinning during the dance. The dancers all proceed in a circle, spinning themselves while spinning in a larger circle. This is an image and movement seen throughout Indian mythology. The wheel within a wheel is a good omen, symbolizing protection and good luck for the future. This image is repeated in many folk tales, and even occurs outside of Indian tradition, such as in the Buddhist metaphor for the cycle of death and rebirth and even as the appearance of God in the book of Ezekiel. By alluding to such a universal image in mythology, the dancers transport the audience back to that mythological time. The first video listed is the actual full Chholiya ceremony, but the process begins much earlier in the day as depicted in the next videos.
The warriors and musicians first enter the village playing and dancing in pairs in miniaturized Chholiya. The paired up warriors go throughout the village and perform mock sword fights, thus rousing villagers to join the joyous procession and also to expel bad luck from every corner of the village. It is important to note that the dancing pairs start their mock fight by kneeling. This symbolizes how all warriors start off as inexperienced recruits. Their actions are initially lazy, merely parrying simple straightforward strikes. As the dance continues, the warriors quickly rise to their feet, symbolizing the mustering of both personal strength and mustering an army. Their strikes and parries quickly become more intricate, adding in flourishes and some circular motion. Finally, the dancers whirl around each other, recruiting their full circular momentum in striking. This last phase of the mock fight is symbolic of a warrior’s dedication to fight his enemy with all his might. When the mock fight is finished, the villagers will join up with the pair as they continue to the next location of the village and begin the process anew. In the next video, the dancers rouse some villagers in modern dress, even to the point that some pick up tulwar and shields of their own and briefly engage in mock fight gestures with each other. Chholiya is important to the whole community and its joyous nature entices everyone to participate and take on the ancient role of Kshatriyas.
Slowly the congregation grows and culminates when the warriors reach the location of the final ceremony, usually the bride’s house in the case of a wedding. The full Chholiya circle is then formed with the bride in the center surrounded by eight sword bearing warriors, then encircled by 14 musicians who are finally enclosed by the rest of the village. This bringing together of the community in the form of a circle is a brilliant and ancient strategy for uniting the village in joy. With closer inspection, the circular movement of Chholiya induces unity among the whole community, and has done so successfully since the ancient days of the Kshatriyas.
In ending the discussion of Chholiya, it is important to see the demographics of the dance and similarities to other culture’s dances. In Chholiya, the entire village is roused to the joyful cause of wishing a new couple a happy and lucky wedding. Men of all ages jump at the opportunity to reenact the glorious days of the Kshatriya warriors, for them it is a matter of pride in their cultural identity. In modern Western society, the closest thing we have to whole community involvement in wedding dance is the chicken dance. Even then, the audience is often begrudgingly dragged into this performance. The chicken dance seems phony because it lacks a connection to ancient culture. By engaging the audience with outward appearance of the dancers, their sleek circular movements, and the necessity of performance at an auspicious event, Chholiya transports them into the past identities of the Kshatriyas through self-othering.
Samantha Motsinger
RLST 3838
Application Assign. #2
June 20, 2012
African Gesture in Dance:
The Root of Latin America
Dance in the Latin American regions has evolved over the years into a fast-paced craze. This craze has taken over much of the dance world and even the music world that we see today. Salsa, which originated in Cuba, evolved from a melting pot of different Latin and Afro-Caribbean styles, techniques, and gestures. The word salsa “simply refers to the fusion of different rhythms” and since its creation in 1960 it has become extremely popular and has extended beyond its Latin roots. On a similar note, Samba as well has made its way into the dance scene in many different parts of the world. Recognized as a dance symbol of the Brazilian nation, the Samba gets its roots from Brazil and also in huge part it has been influenced via the slave trade from African nations and cultures. What I found so interesting in my research was that although these dances are so often recognized as Latin dances, their origins and roots come from the cultural expressions and traditions of Africa. As we delve deeper into these dance traditions, we can discover that just like the dances themselves, the names, specifically in this case the Samba, are defined as a variety of different types of music made by African slaves. What has become such a huge phenomenon here in the United States within our music, our dancing, and even sometimes our fashion sense is literally just the traditions and lifestyles within the African cultures. Things that are everyday life and are drenched in so much meaning to those of African decent, are just things we have become familiar with as a part of American culture. To get an understanding of these dance traditions I found it important to research into the African culture.
Dance within the African cultures is something that occurs as a collective group, rather than individually or in couples. Just like we see here in clubs today, these dances happen with large groups of people, all dancing to the same rhythm and beat. What is so unique about dance in the African culture however, is the fact that there is so much more to the dance than just the steps and movements; the actions are deliberate in celebrating the African culture and the people. A major difference with this type of dance is that you don’t often see any one on one dancing, which has become so common in our culture today. This is important to take note of, because the Salsa and the Samba are more often than not danced in couples, with of course a few exceptions such as the Rueda de Casino.
Dancing also very much exemplifies communal desires, values and brings about a collective creativity from the people. Traditional dances that are “performed” often are done so as a part of a larger cultural activity. The African nation uses specific dances to express certain feelings and emotions in any given circumstance. Like we see in “Gesture as Visible Action”, we often associate certain gestures to express a commonly understood meaning within our culture. Just as in the case of something as simple as throwing out a thumb on the side of the road to hitch a ride, African dances also have common gestures and movements known well within the culture and they are used as an act of communication.
Within cultural activities, we often see specific dances that express specific emotions. One example of a traditional dance is that of a Dance of Welcome. Within this tradition, this dance is to show respect and welcome to visitors, along with showing the visitors the attractiveness of those living within the specific village or dwelling place. “Yabara is a West African Dance of Welcome where a beaded gourde rattle is used within the dancing. It is thrown into the air to different heights by the female dancers to mark tempo and rhythm changes.” These dancers, who have likely been trained to put on this spectacular show of throwing these rattles in unison, dance within certain parameters and limits based on what distinguishes this Dance of Welcome from a Warrior Dance per say. In this sense the “dancer’s gesturing is the object of the dancing”. The specific movements are what distinguishes the dance, and give it a much deeper meaning that simply going through the motions.
Dancing, especially dancing that so intricately exemplifies a people or place is a powerful tool in understanding the changes and evolution of a culture or tradition. “Dancing can be and often is a powerful means by which society, normative culture, and religious principles are tested and changed.” Within the African culture, these specific dance sequences and gestures become a shared part of the culture and a set part of the practices of that culture. These gestures are the culture. They embody not only who the people are, but the essence of who the people have been over the course of years and years. Passed down from family member to family member to friend, these common gestures have become part of the traditional dances. The members within this culture carry on these gestures in the dances as a part of their history, and these practices can forever have an effect on the society as a whole and even on the individuals as well.
As an example, seen in the video above, we look at a these women dancing not as couple but in a large group. These movements move rhythmically and all in unison as well. Gestures and movements that have been practiced many times is essential to knowing the overall sequence of the dance, but also essential in dancing so in sync with others. Marcel Mauss argues that to understand gesturing it is important to understand how a certain society or culture’s ideals and values are embodied within what he calls “gestural patternings”. These gestures are the essence of the society, and they have literally been imprinted on the very being of each individual. His ideas are so extreme, that he even goes to say that they have been socially conditioned going beyond our mind, but into the “very tissues of the body”. This idea is fundamental in understanding the deeper meaning of these gestures, because just as these women dance, they gesture in a way that welcomes visitors into their society.
Aunjanique Collier
June 20, 2012
Dance, Culture, and Religion
Application Assignment #2
Many people in the American culture have heard the popular saying, “don’t judge a book by its cover.” To expand upon this quote, every topic is much more complex than what is observed on a surface level, requiring further analysis in order to gain an in depth understanding of the subject in question. Throughout the duration of this course I have learned that this saying is just as applicable to the subject of dance as it is to any other topic. Dance can be analyzed through many different dimensions such as moving, gesturing, and self-othering. For the purpose of my analysis, I would like to focus on the Kuda performed by the Tegrinya tribe of Eritrea and apply the concept of movement to the traditional dance. This dance is a perfect example of the way dancer becomes aware of themselves and their surroundings through movement.
According to Maxine Sheets-Johnstone movement is what defines our aliveness and allows us to interpret and make sense of our surroundings. Movement is to one aspect of ourselves that we are born with and do not have to learn in the way that we do with language and consciousness. Without movement, we would not be able indulge in our five senses, which as a result would make touching, smelling, hearing, tasting and seeing an impossible task. Dancing is a form of movement and even more explicitly, self-movement. It is the medium through which we are able to understand ourselves in relation to the world and also acquire awareness, knowledge and values.
As it relates to Kuda, those engaged in the dance are also making use of their kinesthetic sense. Also known as proprioception, this is the idea that we as humans are aware of our own bodies and the position of each body part in relation to others. This allows the dancers to maintain their relationship with their surroundings. Kuda is always performed in a group and in this context proprioception is immensely valuable so that the dancers are able to keep their distance from the others in the groups while also keeping the beat. This must be done unconsciously because, although the dance is relatively simple, the dance itself requires the most attention leaving no room for the dancers to think about these logistical aspects.
Kuda consists of a group of dances that shuffle their feet across the floor in a circular formation while moving in a counterclockwise direction. I have seen this dance done in a number of variations, from small groups to large, consisting of different age groups, and also different dance combinations. Many of the dances that I watched were very similar across the board, consisting of the counterclockwise shuffle ending in a “shim shim”, or the act of bouncing one’s shoulders and simultaneously slowly dropping to the floor. I recently saw a variation in this tradition where the dancers spun in a clockwise circle with their arms held straight out, then changing the direction of the larger circle. This provided me with an interesting perspective on self-movement as it relates to movement. From my perspective, I saw the larger circle as overarching movement, which was an example of each dancer changing their position in the circle. However, when each individual dancer twirled in a clockwise circle, I saw that as self movement because the action was committed by an individual.
This dance consists of two to four steps, always beginning with a counterclockwise shuffle and ending with a “shim shim”. This dance, like any other is a form of movement. In order to perform this dance, one is required to engage both mentally and physically.
This dance also engages the pattern of dancing which consists of movement to dancing back to movement. Before the dancers start the Kuda, they lightly jog onto the stage and wrap into a circle until the circle is completely formed. This act of jogging into the circle is not dancing, the dancers are only getting into formation, simply movement. When the dancers form the complete circle, they do not stop moving but their feet begin to shuffle across the floor in relation to the beat of the kraar and their arms move at their sides to the same rhythm. When the dance is complete, one of the dancers breaks the circle by shuffling out of the formation and the other dancers follow. At this point they are still dancing because they are in a shuffle to the beat but once the music stops, the dancers begin to jog again as opposed to shuffling. This act of switching from shuffling to jogging completes the pattern and brings the dance to a close.
Kuda, like any other dance, allows the dancer to simultaneously become aware of his or herself while also becoming lost in the dance. When I watched the dancers perform, they did not seem to be concentrating on each movement, instead they just moved to the beat of the song completely aware of what move came next without needing to think about it. At the same time, the dancers were aware of where they were in the formation and knew what their individual value to the dance was. Each dancer knew that the other dancers were counting on them to complete their part of the dance. This goes back to Maxine Sheets-Johnstone’s idea that dancing is both a conscious and unconscious action.
The most important aspect of this dance is that it represents Eritreans’ independence from Ethiopia which occurred 21 years ago. The dance is meant to represent freedom and each movement serves as a reminder of the struggle and ultimate gratification of the independence of Eritrea. My roommate and her mother, whom I gained most of my information about the dance from, informed me that many times the dance evokes and emotional response from the crowd in the form of cheering and sometimes even crying. This is evident in the videos that I watched and also posted last week. Because there is so much meaning behind the motions in Kuda, the dance serves as an example of the way movement can also translate meaning.
Here is another video of Kuda that is much more complex than the others. I find that this is an excellent video to portray dance as movement and suggest that you take a look. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WY1-k7sEJ4
Emily Read
20 June 2012
Professor Gill
Application Assignment #2
Gesturing and its Importance in Hip Hop and African Dance Traditions
One of the most crucial, fundamental aspects of both African dance and hip-hop dancing is gesturing. As defined by Adam Kendon in his book Gesture: Visible Action as Utterance, a gesture is a “visible action that has the features of manifest deliberate expressiveness” (Section 4: Gesturing, lesson 1). While reading the lectures about the elements of movement and gesturing, I paid more attention to the gestures of my own individual movements as a hip-hop dancer. Once I took the time to sit down and think about it further, I analyzed some choreography. These numbers were a combination of my own and of dances created by others. I immediately noticed that so much of an African or hip-hop dancer’s communication is done through means of small gestures and “call and response.” Both elements are a hugely important parts of hip-hop dancing!
By calling a dance a “street dance” or a “hip-hop” dance,” we can distinguish it from commercially developed dance styles such as Modern Dance or workout routines like Zumba. Sometimes hip-hop and street dancing requires a dancer to face another, to “battle” or portray some variety of message. The incorporation of another’s movements into how I dance has been something that I have done almost unconsciously. I began thinking, though: What drives these movements? How are stories of individual empowerment and competition revealed in these bold gestures and assertions of expertise?
While carefully remembering the choreography I have learning in the past as well as numbers I am currently working on, I noticed what can only be termed as “call and response.” During a carefully choreographed hip-hop dance, a person or group of persons would gesture with their bodies in a particular way, and the “opposing” group would respond. Within the context of hip-hop dancing, these gestures invite the audience to witness some kind of battle, or some kind of competition amid the dancers. This requires a lot of what we might call “swagger.” Swagger is, to me, a sense of excessive confidence and self-assurance. Below is one of my favorite examples of “swagger.” The choreography is by Emily Sasson of Cherry Creek Dance in Denver, and by watching it you will understand how important extreme confidence is to hip-hop dancing.
Furthermore, sometimes choreography specifically calls for a gesture such as touching the brim of your hat. In my understanding, this kind of gesture portrays an extreme sense of confidence, which is definitive of hip-hop dancing specifically.
Gesturing in hip-hop dancing can be manifested in a number of ways. Though most dancing within the hip-hop field is not overt, over the top or “in your face,” particular elements in dance battles incorporate wild movements such as spins on the head, flips, etc. The purpose of using such gestures is to establish dominance in a competition and show off a group’s skills. Some believe that hip-hop or street dancing refers to dancing in a street or using it to battle for ghetto or some other form of “urban” territory. Gesturing can also be manifested through facial expressions. The expression on a dancer’s face can convey either timidity or confidence. With street dancing or hip-hop dancing, confidence is crucial; therefore, it is crucial for a dancer to put on a confident appearance.
1934 French sociologist Marcel Mauss wrote an article entitled “Techniques of the Body;” this article focuses on the meaning of gestures and the different forms that they take. “He understood that there are three elements intertwined in these (gesturing) techniques: the mechanical/physical, the psychological, and the social” (Gill: Section 4, lesson 3). This exemplifies how a certain movement of the body can be associated with a number of different emotions. Strong movements in street and hip-hop dancing can convey a particular psychological message like overt confidence, or “swagger.”
While being an undergraduate at the University of Colorado at Boulder, I had the privilege of taking an African Dance Class. Gesturing and the element of “call and response” was definitely evident in that class. The African dance music, specifically the drums used, allow for a greater sense of call and response. African songs are sung by a soloist and then by a chorus. Like the music, dancers respond to a particular movement of a central individual. The drum is the “language” that the dancer interprets. Furthermore, African dance is visually stimulating and capable of arousing emotional responses as well as visual ones through the gestures. West African dance phrases, or sets of movements, overlap, creating a “call-and-response” pattern. Call and response is crucial not only to African dance, but to hip-hop because both thrive on the movements of others; each person involved makes movements in order to get a reaction out of others or to convey a certain message.
When I looked closer at the movements of a dancer, I took greater notice of the reasons behind such movements. So many gestures in hip-hop and street dancing have to do with portraying a sense of confidence and dominance. So much of an African, street, or hip-hop dancer’s communication is done through means of small gestures and “call and response.” Both elements are hugely important parts of hip-hop dancing!
Picture this: you walk into a studio, lined with mirrors, the light bouncing all around from the wide windows up above. Every person in the studio is in comfortable clothing, some loose some tight, laughing and chatting with one another about their weekend plans, where they want to go for happy hour, and the new book they just bought. The teacher makes herself known, gathering everyone together, preparing to start class. This being your very first contemporary dance class, you don’t know what to expect, and intimidated you head straight to the back of the room. Everyone else seems to know exactly what they are doing, and after a brief warm-up, the teacher cranks up the volume to an upbeat song, and something shifts. One by one, all the other students that were chatting about mundane activities transform before your eyes; using flowing gestures and expressive faces, you witness the deeper connection made between mind and body movement, and in turn you are able to make a deeper connection with every one of them.
Gesturing is considered two things: the actual bodily movement of a “gesture” (for “gesturing is a subset of movement”) as well as the deeper meaning behind it (or what Professor Gill refers to as “gesture in a rich sense”). Mauss adds one more important “element,” of understanding body techniques besides the “mechanical/physical” and “psychological” and that is the “social.” Culturally, we may recognize a dance style based on distinctive movements we have been exposed to throughout our lives. If we were to enter another culture, a particular dance style and its social purpose would be completely foreign to us.
On the visual level of gesturing, there are many movements that are distinctive to contemporary dance. The three main techniques are named after historical contemporary dance figures: Merce Cunningham, Martha Graham, and Jose Limon. All three of these teachers added to contemporary dance not only with the physical gestures, but also in their psychological reasoning behind the created movement. Cunningham focused on the structure of the body and its place in space and communication. The gestures that come from his influence have to do with “the ‘line of energy’ to promote easy, natural movement” (Blackfish).” Graham’s ideas formed the opposite of natural movements with creating contractions and tension in the body. This technique displays sharp and sudden gestures, with the release becoming the fluid and natural movement depicted by Cunningham. Graham also created visible levels of dance by using the floor as a tool. Limon, like Cunningham, was concerned with energy as well; but instead of the “line” of energy, he worked with the “weight” of energy. Adding another physical level to Graham’s floor is the use of air, gravity, and suspension. By utilizing all of these body techniques, both the physical and mental idea of release must be put into action to create effortless movement. Release places “emphasis on minimizing tension in the search for clarity and fluidity and efficient use of energy and breath” (Blackfish).” All these visual cues allow viewers to tangibly understand contemporary dance.
Adding to the visual cues is auditory cues that can be used by both the dancer and the audience. For the dancer, these cues might be small reminders to complete a turn or fall to the floor, and for both the audience and the dancer the gestures paired to the music have the power to lead into the more psychological realm of experiencing dance.
“The insipient energy of dancing in itself as foundational to creation and destruction; as prior to, yet enabling, the possibility of meaning; as the gesturing that initiates the complex gestural chains that constitute life and culture and religion (Gill).” How can one gesture create a series of movements, which can be deep enough to add meaning to “life, culture, and religion”? To understand gesture culturally and religiously, an outsider would mainly rely on social, visual and auditory cues: the gestures of dance being performed, the music accompanying the dance, and the costumes and setting the dance is executed in. But an insider of a culture would not need to classify all three of these foundations to understand the dance; the comprehension of the dance would come naturally, and the meaning would be psychologically significant to them. For example, many cultures including Egypt, Romania, and Native American, have a raindance. This raindance and the gestures that accompany them would look different in every one of these cultures. But to a member of one of these societies, each gesture would a have specific meanings (many referring to crops and harvest).
Contemporary dance gestures may not have as many cues culturally or religiously, but as far as giving meaning to life, the psychology behind the fluid connection between brain and body can be witnessed in any gesture in a contemporary dance routine. Another major body technique done by successful contemporary dancers used along with the methods by Cunningham, Graham, and Limon, is improvisation. Improvisation can be done in a solo routine as well as in a couple’s routine, and it is based off of touching, feeling, and working with energy. The idea of touch is widespread, but in all its physical (I touched this) and emotional (the story touched me) meanings, it is powerful and it is the building block of gesture. Successful improvisation comes from letting go of the physical embodiment of gesture and focusing on the emotional explorations and natural urges of gesture. When watching a contemporary routine, it is easy to witness the change between the solid planned out and practiced movements to the more fluid and free spirited improvisation. Another aspect of improvisation that is quite fascinating is that no two performances will be the same. Improvisational gestures are the way the mind is exploring its inner psyche and physically expressing it. In this video, the dancer, Allison, is using space, levels, music, and improvisation to show the happiness dance brings her and yet her sadness of saying goodbye. She also uses gesture and touch towards the audience and other dancers to make her unspoken emotions clear.
Gesture does not exist without at least one social (culture and religion), physical, or emotional element. Usually, it is a combination of all three that allow both the audience and the dancer to understand the complexity behind every movement. Along with the gestures that are recognizable, there are improvisational gestures that still hold meaning, although it usually becomes a more intimate one. The expression of a gesture, along with moving and self-othering, are details very unique to dance, making it an incredible tool to better understand ourselves and our place in the world.
Works Cited
1) Rico, Marie. “Dance Teaching.” Contemporary Dance Today. N.p., 2012. Web. 12 Jun 2012.
2) Blackfish Arts Academy. “What is Contemporary Dance?.” . Blackfish Academy, 2006. Web. 18 Jun 2012. .
3) Gill, Sam. “Lectures on Gesturing.” Dance, Religion, and Culture. University of Colorado Online Courses, Boulder. Lecture.
Lenore Silberman
6/20/2012
Application #2
Gesturing and Israeli Folk Dance
Although it may not seem evident at first, a great deal of insight can gained from a careful analysis of gesture, especially if one is to consider how such movements are created, portrayed, perceived, interpreted, and come to take on symbolic meaning overtime. This paper explores the notion of gesturing in regards to Israeli folk dance and will specifically discuss gesture in terms of the creation of Israeli national identity and Israeli culture. Although the country is rather young and has been in existence for slightly over 60 years, there is no denying the vast abundance of mixed history, religion, and culture present not just in the modern state itself, but also that similar presence is found deeply embedded within modern and traditional Israeli Folk Dance.
The history of Israel is not only remarkable, yet is unique in the sense that the young country is a modern and religious state. In addition, the history of Israel dates back to ancient times and till this day the history of the state itself continues to be highly contested. Referred to as the Holy Land, due to the historical religious nature associated with the state, Israel is home to Jews, Christians, and Muslims who all feel a deep sense of religious connection and belonging to the land. Not only is the state saturated with a variety of different religions, but the country is also extremely abundant in culture. Although smaller then some American states, the country is nevertheless extremely rich in culture. Israel is home to Jews from all over the world, and in the country’s early days Jews throughout the world were encouraged to find and to make their home—a central message, which was associated with the earlier Zionist movement. In some cases the country provided refuge to Jews expelled by Hitler. Arriving for a multitude of different reasons, people from all over the world migrated and soon populated the country, and such settlement allowed for the plentiful yet diversified cultures present in the modern state today.
A great deal of time was spent describing the ways in which gesture via dance creates identification. Israeli dance, unlike many other different forms of dancing, is premised on the notion of inclusion and unification, which is rather fascinating. As mentioned earlier, Israel in the beginning became populated with a variety of different cultures, religions, and even different languages, which were brought to the state by the country’s new inhabitants. “In order to integrate these peoples, the national culture would have to be created from scratch. For the national language, Hebrew, which was a dying language at the time, was revived. New music was composed. And, of course, Israeli Folk Dancing was created” (Alpert 1997). Therefore, it becomes clearer what Sam means when he refers to dance as often being at heart of social change. In this case in particular, Israeli Folk dance and the movements involved with this particular kind of dance, which in essence are gestural patterns, have played a large role in creating and defining Israeli identity. Not only has Israeli folk dance laid out the foundations necessary to define identity, but it has done so in a way that has continually emphasized the significance of a unified and shared Israeli identity.
This concept is rather remarkable if one gives careful consideration to this idea. As discussed in lecture and evident all over the world, is the ways in which dance, and most other activities for that matter, create an in-group and an-out group, which is similar to the idea of self-othering. However, this is precisely the opposite of Israeli folk dance. Israeli folk dance was created and is based upon the notion of inclusion, unity, and creating a sense community belonging. The creators of Israeli dance, via their emphasis on community development aimed to create a community in which Jews from all over the world would feel as if they belonged as a citizen of the State of Israel. I find this to be spectacular because today it isn’t very often that one can feel welcome, part of something, and in fact be included as a member of something, or a part of a group that one may very well be unfamiliar with. It then seems like gesture in regards to Israeli folk dance not only unites mind, body, and spirit allowing for one to grasp an understanding of their personal identity, but it also seems then, at least in the case of Israeli folk dance that gesture unites groups of people based on a common identity. However it is not just identity that is brought about via the gestures associated with dance.
Israeli folk dance has played a pivotal role in the development of Israeli culture, and has done so by honoring, respecting, and incorporating a great deal of cultures, while at the same time redefining and creating new cultural meaning. For instance, Israeli folk dance reflects a combination of Romanian, Yemenite, Latin, Arabic, Turkish, Eastern-European, Russian, and Moroccan culture. Today all these different cultures continue to be incorporated along with other forms of dancing, such as hip-hop and Latin dancing, which are becoming of popular influence. It was discussed in lecture that humans identify with land gesturally, that is they identify with their place of origin. It was mentioned that we act and portray our cultures through gestures, and in this case Israeli folk dance, it’s how we reveal our membership to a specific culture, and we share gestures with everyone in our community, and this is also true for Israeli dancers even though their communities are composed of varieties of cultures.
However, unlike the Australian aboriginals who identify themselves personally and culturally with specific tracks of land, Israeli’s no matter where they’re originally from identify themselves to Israel and Israeli culture in a much more all-inclusive manner. Furthermore, unlike the aboriginal jump dance discussed in class, which uses religion and culture to transform individuals into members of society while at the same allowing them to enact their identity, Israeli folk dance instead is culturally all-encompassing and is premised on the inclusion of multiple identities, yet at the same time allows one to become a member of Israeli society and identify themselves as Israeli no matter what tract of land they came from.
Therefore, in the case the gestures associated with Israeli folk dance do indeed pull in two opposite directions. Israeli folk dance is the expression of one’s personal identity and personal culture, but at the same time the dance also creates culture and identity, which then becomes inculturated within society. I hope that this discussion of gesturing gives one a better understanding of the ways in which Israeli folk dance and its associated gestures are unique and differ greatly from all other forms of dance, especially in regards to the creation of identity and culture.
Application Assignment #2
Gestures of Square Dancing
Introduction
In this project I will attempt to analyze Square dancing for the gestures which it contains, and what those gestures could possible mean. This task was made infinitely harder by the fact that I have not danced much in the past, let alone participated in square dancing. Although my experience in dance is limited I am steeped in American morals and values and will attempt to tackle this subject by first looking at system of morality square-dancing could possess in its gestures, and then look at the individual morals of the system and see if they possibly apply to gestures used in square dancing.
Square Dance – The Dance of Modern Judeo-Christian Morality
It does not take a genius to conclude that square-dance has evolved to encompass Judeo-Christian morals. The following image was taken from “The Square Dancers Handbook” and clearly demonstrates the point I am making. [3]
As you can see the rules are designed emulate the 10 Commandments found in Jewish and Christian Scripture. This country was established on Judeo-Christian ideals, so it is no wonder that the dance that defined this country was a Judeo-Christian dance. This merely gives us a context to work from, and does not answer the question as to what specific values square dancing teaches through its gestures.
The Square
Just like the graffiti artist moving their body to create paintings on a wall, square dancers align themselves in the shape of a square facing each other, as the basic position from which all other moves or gestures are performed. Why a square? Why not a circle or a triangle or any of the other shapes that a group of people can make while standing together? The square is symbolic in Christianity for multiple reasons. The square is associated with the number four. In Christianity the number four can represent the four corners of the Earth [2]. The number four can also symbolize the four Evangelists; Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John [2]. In more modern times it has come to represent a nimbus (or halo) where it represents a saintly person who is still living at the time the artwork was completed [1]. The number four can also represent the four seasons and thereby representing the Earth in general [2]. The picture below depicts Pope Paschal I in a mosaic in Santa Prassede, Rome from the early 9th century.
The square halo and what it represented was common imagery in early Christendom and was around before square-dancing came into being. This could be one reason that the square is used as a gesture in square dancing. The gesture of a group formed square could be used to teach the participants to be saintly while living their lives and having some fun.
The square as a gesture in square dancing could also be used to represent the four corners of the earth. The phrase “the four corners of the earth” is used multiple times throughout Christian scripture. One such place is in Isaiah 11:12 where it reads “And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.” The gesture of the square could be present in square dancing to teach individuals the idea of bringing all people together, and that square dancing is not for the Aristocrat or the slave but for every Christian to gather together and be one.
The first minute of the following video shows an overhead view of some folks doing a traditional square dance. In this video you can see the distinct formation and return back to the gesture of the group square.
Men Bow Women Curtsey
Whether you like the idea or not traditional square dance is set up to create formality and respect between the genders. It may be thought that there is no way that a dance which holds Christian morals and which comes from early America creates formality and respect between the sexes. I find it hard to believe myself!! Who knew that there was an attempt in our society in early America, to instill such values into people; yet one of the very first gestures that individuals perform in a square dance (after forming a square) is to bow and curtsey to their partner. These two gestures show respect and gratitude and when shown at the same time, are a sign of mutual respect. The following video shows the action of the bow and courtesy and in this particular dance this gesture is performed multiple times throughout the dance.
In both Christian and Jewish tradition Bowing (and the curtsey for women) is a gesture that is largely lost and no longer performed. Eastern Orthodoxy had several different degrees of bowing and each stage of the gesture contained a different meaning. [4]
Ultimately the bowing and curtsey that is performed in square-dance is to be a minor form of the bowing that is to be performed by individuals for God. This bowing and bended knee action of the curtsey could teach the individual the action involved in praying and bowing down to God.
Do-si-Do
Dosado as it is spelled in some cases is one of the basic movements of not only square dancing, but many other traditional folk dances like polka and some reels. This move is performed by circling ones partner while facing in one direction the entire time. The terms do-si-do or dosado are derived from the French word dos-à-dos which meant back to back. This wording comes from the fact that the partners find themselves back to back halfway through this series of gestures [5]. Traditionally this move was performed, and is still performed, with each individual having their arms folded across their chest. The gesture of folding arms across the chest is directly taken from early Christianity and is used in times of prayer. This gesture of folding arms also creates a situation where individuals performing the dosedo are able to touch bodies on the side or back, but are unable to engage in any inappropriate touching with arms or hands.
This gesture of folding arms not only teaches the gesture of Christian prayer, but also teaches the value of respectful touching in dancing, and in society. The following video vividly illustrates the point that is trying to be made with the entire gesture of the dosedo.
As the children in this video show in their action, the dosedo is a gesture that allows for respectful touching and movement around a partner of the opposite sex. The movement of the dosedo in this video is not much different than the gesture in the picture below, other than the children are moving around while performing the gesture.
I could not leave this serious discussion about religion and dance without leaving you with a bit of humor. While looking for images of square dancing I came across the following image and thought initially that it was a picture of people square dancing. Upon closer examination, I realized that the people were praying and that there was a funny little caption underneath.
The fascinating thing about this funny image, is that the gesture of the group involved is similar to the gesture that is performed in the square dance, when the whole group grabs hands and circles around. So next time you are square dancing you may want to ask yourself; is this just a fun little dance, or am I training my body for Christianity? Ciao.
Works Cited
1. “Halo.” Peter and Linda Murray, Oxford Dictionary of Christian Art (2004). Last viewed: June 2012
2. “Symbols in Christian Art and Architecture.” Walter E. Gast. . Last viewed: June 2012.
3. “The Square Dancers Handbook.” Grand Canyon Square Dance Association. May 9, 2009. Last viewed: June 2012.
4. “Bowing.” Wikipedia the free Encyclopedia. June 18 2012. Last viewed: June 2012
5. “Dosado.” Wikipedia the free Encyclopedia. March 30 2012.. Last viewed: June 2012.
Salp’uri: An Analysis of Dance Neurophysiology, the Primacy of Movement, and the Mind/Body Dichotomy within the Korean Folk Dance
Dr. Sam Gill’s “Movement” lectures and Maxine Sheets-Johnstone’s “Primacy of Movement” article address the common theme that all of our knowledge, whether about the world or ourselves, comes from our ability to move within our environment. From this somewhat broad concept, Sam focuses it on dancing, and establishes the effectiveness of recognizing that dancing is moving, yet differentiating between the two because moving is not necessarily dancing. Keeping this in mind, I will argue Salp’uri upholds the concept that dancing is moving by systematically comparing it to the five sense in order to discover which sense is the Salp’uri dancer’s sense, then I will explain the neurophysiology of dance and the ways it differs from general neurophysiology via a close reading of the mind/body dichotomy and the primacy of movement, and with these examinations I will, lastly, prove that Salp’uri dancers are aware of the primacy of movement per an analysis of the innate symbolism associated with Salp’uri as well as the dancer’s purposeful movements that demonstrates her self-awareness learned through kinesthetic experience.
Salp’uri is a Korean folk dance that is performed on three occasions. First, it was used to cleanse a shaman’s psyche from the “sal,” or curse, after she performed an exorcism; however, this application is rare nowadays. Second, it continues to be a way widows can come to peace with the death of their husband and, third, it is performed as entertainment because it is considered one of Korea’s most creative traditional dances.
Similar to the process Sam went through to discover which of the five senses the dancer’s sense is, I tried to do this with Salp’uri. I concluded that taste in a literal way is unlikely because neither banishing a “sal” nor reconnecting with a deceased loved one would create a distinctive flavor. Equally unlikely is smell because as entertainment the dancer is by herself on stage, so she could be aware of her own scent but, clearly, it is not essential to her dance. Furthermore, while sight is important to dance, expelling evil or offering peace to a late companion could easily be done with one’s eyes closed, and although music accompanies the dance in an artistic setting, music would not necessarily be part of a ritualized Salp’uri dance. Of the five senses, touch is the most plausible because the dancer is always in contact with the floor, and an essential component of the dance is holding a long white handkerchief because it symbolizes the purification of the mind. However, touch is often defined as occurring between two people, and Salp’uri is always danced solo. In the end, I was left in the same predicament as Sam until I applied his “kinesthetic sense,” or, scientifically, the neurophysiology of dance.
An important concept in the movement lectures pertaining to the neurophysiology of dance is the disproval of the mind/body dichotomy. In a commonsensical understanding, in other words a folk theory that is accepted as the norm although it is not necessarily true, we think of the mind and body as separate. For example, within Christianity, each person has a spirituality or mind that is contained inside of his or her physical body, and when we die, it is commonly assumed that our soul or mind will leave our body behind in order to ascend to heaven.
Returning to dance neurophysiology, this type is essential to dance because it treats the mind and body as one. That is, kinesthetic or bodily experience affects the proprioceptors, located in the muscles and ligaments, that afferently feed information to the brain through the sensorimotor system. Thus, when an afferent signal tells the brain that the muscle is, for example, stretched too far, an efferent signal is directed from the brain back to the proprioceptors to release the muscle to prevent injury. Therefore, these automatic impulses from the cooperation of the brain and sensorimotor system develop the primacy of movement, which is where general neurophysiology and the neurophysiology of dance differ. Specifically, when general neurophysiologists refer to the sensorimotor system they are only referring to the sensorimotor cortex, which is part of the brain, not the body, and, in this way, they can argue the mind and body are separate. However, dance neurophysiologists recognize the sensorimotor system as a whole, including the proprioceptors that sense bodily movement and, in this way, the mind and body are interconnected since the body is only able to move when the brain and sensorimotor system work together.
Logically, this differentiation between general and dance neurophysiologies leads us to the primacy of movement, which I understand to be the central way we experience life. However, it is not a conscious action; instead, one that is inherent to being alive because our bodily movement is controlled by our sensorimotor system via our proprioceptors and five senses, and teaches us the importance of our kinesthetic sense, or consciousness. Likewise, Sheets-Johnstone argues that we need to think of our mind and body as interconnected because “our sense of self, our self-awareness, our perceptions and perceptive knowledge, our ability to act in our world, our agency are founded on self-movement and the experience we acquire through moving in and interacting with our bodies and world.” In other words, this is the definition of the primacy of movement because everything we are in the world, including our sense of self, our self-awareness, and the knowledge we gain from our environment all come from our movement and interaction with it, and in these bodily experiences we are able to act and gain agency through our actions.
In regards to Salp’uri, although I realize and accept that the primacy of movement is non-conscious, I think Salp’uri is a unique type of dance in that it is used to understand life on a deeper level. A main goal of Salp’uri is to express introvertedness through physical movements. On the surface, this concept seems contradictory, but I wonder if the dancer is aware of her kinesthetic sense and realizes it is part of her inner being. In other words, she understands how significant her interaction with the world is and appreciates that the understanding of this importance comes from her movement within it. Thus, when she is dancing, she demonstrates her awareness of the interconnection between mind and body with outwardly controlled movements and limited physical mobility, which makes sense because if her inner being is supposed to be introverted, her outwardly movements should be reserved. Additionally, the dance has elements of jung-joong-dong, a serenely active yet silent thought process that could signify the development of understanding that the mind and body are linked. In other words, when she pauses she is symbolizing jung-joong-dong or her understanding that the primacy of movement affects her actions. Then when she chooses to move by snapping the arm and hand that hold the handkerchief, she is acknowledging how the primacy of movement is a continual loop since her movement will give her more self-awareness and knowledge of the world, which, consequently, will give her the agency to move again.
On the other hand, the dancer is admired for her strong human will because she is inspired by surges of strong emotions, understandable if dancing to banish a “sal” or coping with the recent death of a loved one. While this could be an argument against her awareness of her primacy of movement, I believe it is more evidence that supports my claim. After the outwardly event of a death, which can move her in physical and especially emotional ways, her self-awareness and knowledge that comes from the Salp’uri dance, meaning the bodily movement of coming to terms with her loss, gives her the ability to react to the tragedy and also the agency to decide in what manner she will react. In other words, the primacy of movement associated with Salp’uri is the way she accepts the death then offers peace to the deceased by leading them to heaven.
Thinking again about the mind/body dichotomy, Salp’uri is another example of the way mind and body are inseparable during dance because of the dancer’s ability to connect with the deceased spiritually from the mind of her soul and from the body through her movements, as well as neurophysiologically from her brain (mind) and from her proprioceptors (body). Therefore, I believe, I have proven that Salp’uri dancers require and maintain a sixth sense through their intense self-awareness that can only come from a complex understanding of the primacy of movement, shown by her acceptance that the mind and body are dependent on each other, and her realization that only through movement can she gain a deeper knowledge of her world.
– Works Cited –
Gill, Sam. “Dancing is Moving, but not all Moving is Dancing.” Dancing, Culture, and Religion Lecture Series, n.d. PDF file.
—. “Kinesthetic Sense – The Dancer’s Sense.” Dancing, Culture, and Religion Lecture Series, n.d. PDF file.
—. “Movement & Meaning.” Dancing, Culture, and Religion Lecture Series, n.d. PDF file.
—. “The Primacy of Movement.” Dancing, Culture, and Religion Lecture Series, n.d. PDF file.
Sheets-Johnstone, Maxine. “The Primacy of Movement.” Advances in Consciousness Research: The Primacy of Movement. Ed. Maxim Stamenov. Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2011. 131-39, 232-46. Print.
Understanding Cuban “Casino” Style Salsa Dancing and Gestural Patterns
As soon as she raised her neck and locked her eyes with his, their hands came up and met. Their feet stepped in and out quickly as their bodies moved together with the salsa music. Connected by not only their hands, they seemed to simply spin into place. At first, the patterns in which they move seem to decorate their bodies. But the more they danced, the gestures influenced the bodies of these salsa dancers. Evidently shaped to do so, the single couple spun each other into place.
There exists a simple understanding of casino style salsa dance as just a dance to salsa music. However, to view it that way would only be skimming the surface. After reading articles and blogs on Cuban casino style salsa and watching many videos, I believe a rich understanding of casino style salsa dance does include the salsa music, as well as the history and the culture of Cuba and the individual. While starting off watching videos of salsa dancers, I noticed they tend to continuously dance around each other, being very close then separating and stepping away from each other to do some freestyle.
In these video clips the same patterns are evident; the spinning close in together and the breaking away to freestyle dance. I believe casino salsa dance can be compared to a poem. Yes the dancers gesture and could be expressing themselves and communicating something, just as a poem is full of sentences or phrases written in words with a possible meaning. Yet these words that were created to say something, actually say more than what is just in plain sight. The words derive from the history and experience of the writer and of the time, place and language they are written in. Likewise, the gestural patterns say much more, they are an insight to the culture, and the individual. The existence of a poor understanding of casino style salsa dance as a simple dance to salsa music can emerge from a poor understanding of gesture as an expression and or communication.
To grasp a rich understanding of gesturing we must recognize that gesturing is much more than communication and expression; gesturing goes beyond this limited view. A rich understanding develops through analysis of our experiences and perceptions. Through gestures we can experience not only others, and the world around us but we can also experience ourselves. Carrie Noland replaces the term “movement” with the term “gesture” in “Agency and Embodiment: Performing Gestures/Producing Culture” to describe organized forms of movement and the ways in which subjects experience and change their worlds (4). An example of this can be seen when efforts are made to decipher or understand a dance that is unfamiliar. Looking only at the gestures as an expression is only a single story and does not provide a deeper understanding to the gestures and how powerful they really are. When dancers creating new gestures or alterations to existing gestures, they use what they already know. The only reason they are able to do so is because of the knowledge they have acquired from the experience of using the gestures. With the implication of kinesis being organized, gesture then provides an insight that movement is not simply an expression but is also influenced by culture (Noland, 7). To approach Cuban “casino” style salsa dance with this in mind, it is my approach to discuss the gestures present in this dance and how exactly they are shaped by culture, and furthermore discuss individual gestures and how they are able to be altered and what type of experience and perception this creates.
Through applying gesturing patterns to the casino style salsa dance I watched many videos. From the start, I instantly felt a connection to salsa dance in general. Realizing that I kept searching for dances that had a single couple and danced in a circle, I did research and found that what was calling to me was casino style. As I watched these videos I also realized that I was gesturing, lifting my shoulders and twisting my hips, as I watched the dancers master these gestural patterns. As they touched and connected I felt touched and connected. The depths of their gestures gave light to the cultural values that shined from their quick moving feet, twisting hips and arms. These gestures that I watched sunk in deeply and fueled a curiosity about just what aspects of the Cuban culture am I feeling? I feel that the gestures implicate a rich culture full of life and history from Cuba. As I have read, the casinos in Cuba were popular so people would go there to dance. Later having to move to community halls, the name of casino style stuck. I can feel the excitement, livelihood, and love of life and experiences through the gestures because of how quickly and smoothly the dancers touched each other. Surprisingly, this touch aspect to gesture that I was experiencing was strongest when the couple I was watching broke away from each other. No longer physically touching they danced on the same beat, moving together but each with a change, each with an alter to a familiar move that explored gesturing through using their bodies.
They are able to alter the gestures because of the knowledge they have already gained from performing them. I believe that the touch aspect was felt most deeply when they were not physically touching because of how their gestures seemed to implicate known patterns but with individual identity, that they were displaying an understanding of the world around them, of each other and of themselves; made possible only by their bodily investigation and experience of gesture.
Through a deeper understanding of gesture I am able to more deeply appreciate casino salsa dance. Having never been trained in dance or taken a salsa class, I was curious as to how being aware of gestural patterns would change my experience and interaction with those around me and the world if I were dancing, especially if I were to be learning casino style salsa dancing. After pondering over the possibilities of what that experience would be like, I realized that the gesturing I already know has shaped my body and will continue to do so, changing my world; that this is the very concept I am analyzing, that we use our bodies to experience gestures as a way to participate in, observe and change the world around us.
Works Cited:
Noland, Agency and Embodiment, “Introduction,” pp. 1-17
Noland, Agency and Embodiment, Marcel Mauss, pp. 18-54
Gill, Sam. “Gesture, Visible Action as Utterance” Dance, Religion and Culture Lecture Series.
Gill, Sam. “Gesture and Agency, Dancing as Gesturing” Dance, Religion and Culture Lecture Series
Gill, Sam. “Dancing as Techniques of Body: Marcel Mauss” Dance, Religion and Culture Lecture Series
Gill, Sam. “Gesturing and Touching” Dance, Religion and Culture Lecture
Series
Gill, Sam. “Touch and SalsAmigos Dancing” Dance, Religion and Culture Lecture Series
Hip hop dance is a growing dance culture in many different cities, countries and streets as of today. It has become such a fundamental dance that has been modernized and has been kept historical through the years and it is being portrayed in the cultural aspect a lot more, especially in the media today.
Hip Hop dance is a self expressive, complicated dance that utilizes gesturing and movement as a key component to defining oneself through physical movements that include hand and arm movements, leg movements and many other bodily movements. This particular dance, along with many others is crucially analyzed by many different dimensions of moving, gesturing and self-othering. This analysis will focus on movement as a fundamental key to this type of dance because it allows for this dance to even be possible. It will further explore movement in conjunction with gesturing to complete what hip hop dance is all about.
Without movement, hip hop dance would be absolutely nothing. Moving is a key to dance and as stated by Sam Gill, “….dancing is a kind of moving and always occurs in the context of human movement. Dancing certainly shares something of the qualities and importance of all human movement, while being discontinuous with other kinds of movement.” With this statement, Sam Gill states that dancing is a type of movement that exists in order to accomplish a certain type of dance. This lecture also goes into how all moving is not dancing, but dancing is moving. This is agreeable, yet in hip hop dance, there are so many questionable moves to whether it is just moving versus if it is considered as hip hop dance and this is true because of the culture of this type of dance. Movement is defined by Maxine Sheets-Johnstone as our aliveness and through movement, we are able to interpret our culture and our surroundings in life. This movement in hip hop dance is understood by so many different types of movements that we will explore.
Movement through reaching with the arms, stretching legs, grasping, movement in the hips, flipping upside down are all parts of hip hop dance that is seen in many dances. Break dancing consists of freezes and Bboying, popping includes waving and liquiding, Krumping is where you wobble, do arm swings and chest pop, Locking is essentially the robot dance, and the list goes on. As one can see, hip hop dance has all of these movements that represent this dance and movement is such a crucial aspect.
These movements portrayed in this video are mostly breakdancing and freezing although there are other elements included. I believe that through all of these movements, individuals are able to move in unison through many hand swings, flips in the air, intensive leg movements that make the moves dramatic. When they pop and lock, throughout this whole dance, there are not many repetitional moves because each dancer has their own type of specific move that defines them. Of course there are some repetitional fundamental moves, but these people are able to utilize their whole “crew” and they emphasize these movements. These movements require a lot of letting the body move the way that you desire it to. Using your body as an instrument is over time, self-othering. Many hip hop dancers let their bodies move, obviously with some control, many free-style dances are brought up with this idea. Like Twyla Tharp says, the dancers body becomes someone else but at the same time, she is the individual that is dancing. The body sometimes has a mind of its own and this contributes to many ideas of particular moves that hip hop dance consists of. This is understood as gestural patterns and the body is used as a tool for this. Sheets-Johnstone says that “We literally discover ourselves in movement…we grow into those distinctive ways of moving that come with our being the bodies we are.” She means that by the way that we move, we can really define ourselves and we discover new movements each and everyday. In hip hop dance, this statement is so apparent because of the new moves that are discovered and the ability continues to grow along with the flexibility of movement. The longer one has been dancing, especially hip hop, the more flexible and free the body is able to move. She also says that “we discover arms that extend, spines that bend, knees that flex, mouths that shut, and so on.” Hip hop dance does a lot of extending the arms, legs and bending the spine in ways where you could not even imagine.
While movement definitely takes place in hip hop dance, so does gesturing. Gesturing is known as moving a part of one’s body in order to express an idea. This is certainly practiced in hip hop dance because along with all of these movements, dancers are able to express how they feel towards one another in specific battles. Like in the first video, there are many hand gestures and facial remarks that are made between the two battling teams. This scene portrays the battle between the two crews and this gesture is known particularly as “call and response”. It is interesting to see this in action because there are many gestural remarks that are acted. Marcel Mauss emphasizes that gesturing is inseparable from touch. Hip hop dance is all about touch especially when you are dancing with a specific crew or a group of people. They are all incorporated and in sync, with movements that incorporate touching each other depending on the dance. The gestures utilized in hip hop dance can create space, body movements, attitudes of posture and actions respond to gesture.
Sam Gill says gesturing is “not a onetime movement, but rather an iteration of a movement pattern established through high repetition”. This means that hip hop is does not just consist of moving one way or another way but it is a dance that is made up of patterns that define dance to be categorized as hip hop. repetitious, yet always creative and new. It is routine but at the same time, improvisational in the movements because of the variety of dances that exist for hip hop. Since gestures are clearly reiterated and learned in hip hop, we are able to see similar movements but the important aspect of this type of dance is how the dancer makes it theirs. This is what the crowd responds to and this is where the respect between the dancers is gained. It is also stated that these gestures are mechanical/physical, psychological, and the social. There are no natural ways for adults to act, but there are techniques that they know to use. Through all of this we should all now know that using the body as an instrument is extremely important in the dance of hip hop especially because of the types of movements the body has to overcome in this dance.
Works Cited:
Gill, Sam. “Dancing is Moving, but not all Moving is Dancing.” Dancing, Culture, and Religion Lecture Series, n.d. PDF file.
Gill, Sam. “Lectures on Gesturing.” Dance, Religion, and Culture. University of Colorado Online Courses, Boulder. Lecture.
Gill, Sam. “Movement & Meaning.” Dancing, Culture, and Religion Lecture Series, n.d. PDF file.
Gill, Sam. “The Primacy of Movement.” Dancing, Culture, and Religion Lecture Series, n.d. PDF file.
Sheets-Johnstone, Maxine. “The Primacy of Movement.” Advances in Consciousness Research: The Primacy of Movement. Ed. Maxim Stamenov. Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2011. 131-39, 232-46. Print.
Hip hop dance is a growing dance culture in many different cities, countries and streets as of today. It has become such a fundamental dance that has been modernized and has been kept historical through the years and it is being portrayed in the cultural aspect a lot more, especially in the media today.
Hip Hop dance is a self expressive, complicated dance that utilizes gesturing and movement as a key component to defining oneself through physical movements that include hand and arm movements, leg movements and many other bodily movements. This particular dance, along with many others is crucially analyzed by many different dimensions of moving, gesturing and self-othering. This analysis will focus on movement as a fundamental key to this type of dance because it allows for this dance to even be possible. It will further explore movement in conjunction with gesturing to complete what hip hop dance is all about.
Without movement, hip hop dance would be absolutely nothing. Moving is a key to dance and as stated by Sam Gill, “….dancing is a kind of moving and always occurs in the context of human movement. Dancing certainly shares something of the qualities and importance of all human movement, while being discontinuous with other kinds of movement.” With this statement, Sam Gill states that dancing is a type of movement that exists in order to accomplish a certain type of dance. This lecture also goes into how all moving is not dancing, but dancing is moving. This is agreeable, yet in hip hop dance, there are so many questionable moves to whether it is just moving versus if it is considered as hip hop dance and this is true because of the culture of this type of dance. Movement is defined by Maxine Sheets-Johnstone as our aliveness and through movement, we are able to interpret our culture and our surroundings in life. This movement in hip hop dance is understood by so many different types of movements that we will explore.
Movement through reaching with the arms, stretching legs, grasping, movement in the hips, flipping upside down are all parts of hip hop dance that is seen in many dances. Break dancing consists of freezes and Bboying, popping includes waving and liquiding, Krumping is where you wobble, do arm swings and chest pop, Locking is essentially the robot dance, and the list goes on. As one can see, hip hop dance has all of these movements that represent this dance and movement is such a crucial aspect.
These movements portrayed in this video are mostly breakdancing and freezing although there are other elements included. I believe that through all of these movements, individuals are able to move in unison through many hand swings, flips in the air, intensive leg movements that make the moves dramatic. When they pop and lock, throughout this whole dance, there are not many repetitional moves because each dancer has their own type of specific move that defines them. Of course there are some repetitional fundamental moves, but these people are able to utilize their whole “crew” and they emphasize these movements. These movements require a lot of letting the body move the way that you desire it to. Using your body as an instrument is over time, self-othering. Many hip hop dancers let their bodies move, obviously with some control, many free-style dances are brought up with this idea. Like Twyla Tharp says, the dancers body becomes someone else but at the same time, she is the individual that is dancing. The body sometimes has a mind of its own and this contributes to many ideas of particular moves that hip hop dance consists of. This is understood as gestural patterns and the body is used as a tool for this. Sheets-Johnstone says that “We literally discover ourselves in movement…we grow into those distinctive ways of moving that come with our being the bodies we are.” She means that by the way that we move, we can really define ourselves and we discover new movements each and everyday. In hip hop dance, this statement is so apparent because of the new moves that are discovered and the ability continues to grow along with the flexibility of movement. The longer one has been dancing, especially hip hop, the more flexible and free the body is able to move. She also says that “we discover arms that extend, spines that bend, knees that flex, mouths that shut, and so on.” Hip hop dance does a lot of extending the arms, legs and bending the spine in ways where you could not even imagine.
While movement definitely takes place in hip hop dance, so does gesturing. Gesturing is known as moving a part of one’s body in order to express an idea. This is certainly practiced in hip hop dance because along with all of these movements, dancers are able to express how they feel towards one another in specific battles. Like in the first video, there are many hand gestures and facial remarks that are made between the two battling teams. This scene portrays the battle between the two crews and this gesture is known particularly as “call and response”. It is interesting to see this in action because there are many gestural remarks that are acted. Marcel Mauss emphasizes that gesturing is inseparable from touch. Hip hop dance is all about touch especially when you are dancing with a specific crew or a group of people. They are all incorporated and in sync, with movements that incorporate touching each other depending on the dance. The gestures utilized in hip hop dance can create space, body movements, attitudes of posture and actions respond to gesture.
Sam Gill says gesturing is “not a onetime movement, but rather an iteration of a movement pattern established through high repetition”. This means that hip hop is does not just consist of moving one way or another way but it is a dance that is made up of patterns that define dance to be categorized as hip hop. repetitious, yet always creative and new. It is routine but at the same time, improvisational in the movements because of the variety of dances that exist for hip hop. Since gestures are clearly reiterated and learned in hip hop, we are able to see similar movements but the important aspect of this type of dance is how the dancer makes it theirs. This is what the crowd responds to and this is where the respect between the dancers is gained. It is also stated that these gestures are mechanical/physical, psychological, and the social. There are no natural ways for adults to act, but there are techniques that they know to use. Through all of this we should all now know that using the body as an instrument is extremely important in the dance of hip hop especially because of the types of movements the body has to overcome in this dance.
Works Cited:
Gill, Sam. “Dancing is Moving, but not all Moving is Dancing.” Dancing, Culture, and Religion Lecture Series, n.d. PDF file.
Gill, Sam. “Lectures on Gesturing.” Dance, Religion, and Culture. University of Colorado Online Courses, Boulder. Lecture.
Gill, Sam. “Movement & Meaning.” Dancing, Culture, and Religion Lecture Series, n.d. PDF file.
Gill, Sam. “The Primacy of Movement.” Dancing, Culture, and Religion Lecture Series, n.d. PDF file.
Sheets-Johnstone, Maxine. “The Primacy of Movement.” Advances in Consciousness Research: The Primacy of Movement. Ed. Maxim Stamenov. Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2011. 131-39, 232-46. Print.
Emily Potter
App #2
June 20, 2012
Irish dancing: Movement
We experience movement as soon as we are born and take it with us for the rest of our lives. Movement is what keeps us going as humans. Maxine Sheets-Johnstone said, “In the beginning, we are simply infused with movement-not merely with a propensity to move, but with the real thing.” It is how we discover ourselves and how we grow into these distinct characteristics that make us who we are today. Movement is a foundation to our perception of ourselves. We learn movement when we reach our hands out to catch our fall, to increase power in our legs when kicking a ball or simply even walking across town to catch a taxi. Every movement is its own experience in itself and when we dance, we experience new movements.
However, though dancing consists of movements, not all movements are considered dancing. For example, the Firedance (though not a part of the actual irish dancing part of the show) from Riverdance , Maria Pages does not start truly “dancing” until she has finished her specific movements:
Yes, her arms are gracefully flowing above her and her wrists and fingers are bending and curving along with the music, but she is not dancing. These gestures are adding to the shadowy tease of the dance. The music is of slower rhythm and has a slower, “sexier” sound to it before it jumps into the “bouncy” rhythmic sound that begins the actual dancing. At about 1min:15sec, Page slightly begins a slower, more sultry kind of movement that almost becomes a slow dance. She then walks down the stairs (obviously not dancing down the stairs, but moving down them) to take her spot and dance. At 1:48 is where it all begins! Her movement finally then becomes dancing. Her feet passionately stomp to the beat and her skirt is whipped around her body with pure femininity. She not only is performing an attractive dance, but she is portraying herself as a dancer. Her movements that she creates into a dance is what makes her a dancer.
I quote Sam Gill in his Movement and Perception lecture when I say, “Dancing as self-movement with qualities of moving and interacting with the environment that are prescribed by culture and religion clearly has an impact on even our most basic experiences of perceiving the world in which we live.” If we grew up studying Tap dancing and Jazz music, we would more than likely distinct ourselves as specifically a Tap dancer. We would then surround ourselves with other Tap dancers and Tap cultures. However, if we grew up studying Irish dancing and Irish music, we would be Irish dancers in Irish culture. If the two cultures and dance styles came together, what would happen? Would there be a dance off of what dance style is better? In Riverdance, “The Dance” shows what would happen:
Tap dancers dancing to Jazz starts off the particular part of the show. It immediately introduces the audience to the culture and dance these particular dancers (most likely) grew up around. We notice their lively arm movements, and my personal favorite, the raw (actual) sounds of their shoes on the dance floor (not pre-recorded!!) To add to the culture is the Jazz musician appearing on stage, as well. Not only do we get a sense of the dance culture, but the music, too. The Irish dancers then come in and are oddly observed by the Tap dancers. It is then aware that both dance cultures are not the same. Both are skeptical of each other and try to understand one another. It begins as “making fun” of the other’s dance, takes of into a dance off, then ends in both dances working together as one. While they dance, the Tap dancers make fun of the Irish dancers. The Tap dancers immitate the other men. Suddenly, the Tap dancers are all of a sudden Irish dancers for a few seconds! Same with the Irish dancers; they become Tap dancers for a moment. However, thought these dancers are able to do another style of dance, their style is still their own that they grew up with. Though the Tap dancers are able to Irish dance for a moment, their own personal style of Irish dance still consists of a bit of Tap style. No matter how hard they try, the Tap dancers are still Tap dancers and the Irish dancers are still Irish dancers. And they couldn’t be happier about it.
Riverdance is not only about Irish dancing, but in essence, the story of the Irish culture and of the Irish immigration to America. The show not only displays the cultural dance, but other cultural dances as well. It hits on Flamenco, Russian and Tap. The other dances that the show proudly displays is based on the areas that the Irish immigrants were while coming to America. Personally, I think that Riverdance best sums up the dance history and culture of the Irish. As an Irish dancer, it is a show that I am very proud of (and have memorized like thousands of other Irish dancers). Though I have a personal connection to the show, Riverdance and Irish dancing shows off not only its dancing, but its movements; the movements of the dancers and the movements of Irish people coming to America.
“Sssh. Don’t tell anyone this. This is a secret. Imagine telling a beginner man he has to learn to find the rhythm of the music, watch out for navigational hazards on the dance floor, develop a strategy on the spot for dealing with them choosing from a repertoire of movements he has learned, then lead the woman to move in the intended direction with the intended speed while maintaining the connection, and then… He has to follow the woman’s response to his lead to determine the next move (within a millisecond, after all, this is not chess), and take responsibility for whatever goes wrong. And we wonder why there aren’t enough men in tango? Yet the surviving men keep trying. It must be that the rewards of tango are greater than its obstacles,” (1). This wonderful quote comes from the mouth of a tango instructor in Oregon by the name of Jay Rabe. Jay understands the intricate nature of the tango and relays how movement is a key component.
The tradition of the Argentine tango is as deep and rich as it’s musical counterpart. Both the tango and tango music originated around the same time and evolved hand-in-hand. Tango music is timed in quadruple meter and has many variations in the rhythm, varying from fast to slow multiple times throughout the song. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, dance is defined as moving rhythmically to music (2). From your lectures, it is clear that music is not a necessary component of dance, but in the case of the tango, movement to the changing rhythm of tango music is what makes this form of social dancing unique.
Tango in general has a plethora of styles and the Argentine tango is no different. Show tango, salon tango, tango orillero, and tango canyengue are just a few of the different styles danced in Argentina. Many dancers of the tango simply improvise it through learned movements and gestures. Though there are many variations, most share basic movements such as embracing, walking, and figures. These aspects determine the positioning of the body and therefore, the movement.
The closeness of the embrace is one of the tango’s distinguishing traits (although not every embrace needs to be close). There are several forms of embrace in the traditional Argentine tango but I will discuss two of the most common – the abrazo cerrado (or “V”) and the apilado (or “square”). The type of embrace used gestures the sensuality of the dance. The “V” embrace literally puts the dancers in a “V” shape, meaning that the left side of the man’s and right side of the woman’s chest are left open and they are not staring at each other straight on, making it one of the embraces with less contact. In contrast, the “square” embrace is very comparable to a hug with chests pressed together and facing each other (3). Both of these are popular due to the closeness of the dancers. Many other embraces exist ranging from the abrazo abierto where the dancers keep their arms touching while the rest of the body is at a distance, to the tango al reves where both dancers are facing the same direction.
(PICTURES)
The video below is a basic instructional video of the embrace by Sebastian Arce and Mariana Montes. Although long, they do a great job in the beginning describing the importance of a proper embrace to the general movement of the tango.
One topic of the lectures on movement talked about how walking and dancing are separate entities. That said, there is a clear difference between the walking that we saw Gene Kelly doing in Singing in the Rain and tango walking. In dancing the tango, walking is the most crucial part since much of the movement comes from the legs while the arms remain in the embrace for the majority of the time. The follower must be in sync with the leader as he or she steps forward, backward, diagonally, etc., which requires much more specific sensorimotor programs than walking.
In this video, the couple demonstrates the walk for the basic tango. Their knees remain bent enabling the dancers to move more fluidly and as they walk, they transfer their weight from one leg to the other as their legs come together. It is common for people who are familiar with the tango to add embellishments to their steps to make it more original and intricate. In the video below, you can see how some tango dancers add these fancier steps into their walk through various kicks, caressing the calf, crossing one leg over another, taps, etc.
The tango greatly differs from other types of social dance in that it is mostly improvised by the lead and not a set step pattern such as the fox trot. The lead does this by using different figures, which are essentially the elements of movement within the tango. Many of the basic figures fall into the following categories: cross, ocho, circular, sacada and entrada, gancho and enganche, boleos, and colgada and volcada. Using a cross figure involves crossing one leg over the other. Ocho is when the dancer, usually the follower, traces a figure eight on the floor with her foot. Circular movements involve different turns by both the lead and the follow. Sacada and entrada are when the dancers displace the other’s unweighted leg with his or her own. Gancho and enganche are figures where the dancers hook or wrap their leg around his or her partner. Boleos is when the follower suspends her leg in one sharp movement. And last but not least, colgada and volcada are when the follower leans against gravity and is supported by the leader (4). This video gives examples of some of the basic tango figures:
Once someone has a grasp of the basic types of figures, improving a tango dance (or following one) becomes much simpler. As Maxime Sheets-Johnstone wrote, we discover ourselves through movement, and consciousness, perception, and awareness are all grounded in movement. As an athlete myself, I like to think of figures as the skill set athletes use to perform. When learning how to play a sport such as lacrosse, you learn how to catch, throw, cradle, check, and shoot. When you put all of those skills together, you are playing lacrosse. Similarly, when you put various figures together, you create the tango. You don’t always have to “huddle” and decided which “play” to use, when you have the skill set then you can achieve the goal.
Listen to the tango song below. When people hear this music, particularly in Argentina, one’s mind usually associates it with the passion and sensuality of the tango dance. This ambiance is created through the way dancers move to this music and explore different embraces, walking patters, and figures through their kinesthetic sense. As Jay Rabe implied, the movements within the tango are no cakewalk for beginners. Both the lead and the follow have the challenge of maintaining the connection and passion with their partner through split-second movements, yet the reward of the beauty of the movement is much greater than the obstacle of it.
What comes to mind when you think of the word gesture—maybe a wave of the hand to symbolize hello? Or maybe you think of your arms outstretched to symbolize a hug? These are both correct interpretations yet very simplistic. We rarely delve any deeper than this, however gesturing encompasses much more than a simple movement. To understand the impact that gesture can have on an individual and the world its is necessary to understand that gesturing is a double process. It involves active displacement, which is the contraction of muscles, and information gathering, which occurs with the neuron receptors located along the muscles. Noland likens this to a graffiti writer where the process of the body reaching to the wall and the movement of the action writing on the wall in turn makes an impression on graffiti writer remaking the body. Gesture in this sense becomes a demonstration of the body and a reforms the body. Mauss went beyond Noland’s explanation of gesture to give a rich understanding of gesture. He argued that through gestural patterning society imprints itself on the muscle, tissue, and fibers of the people of that society and the physical act of these gestures is felt as being a part of the make up of the society. Dances can be considered along the same lines. Dances are identified by their gestural patterns. Each type of dance has a specific repetitious pattern of movement that identifies it as a specific genre. The repetition of gestural patterns will then imprint themselves onto the bodies of the dancers remaking the body into that of a dancer. Understanding this, it makes it easier to understand how a form of dance can go from a simple street dance to a widely known and accepted dance. When more and more people know a dance, such as the tango, it gains popularity and begins to become accepted by society at large. At this point, the gestural patterns of the dance seep into the muscles and neurology of the people thus remaking their bodies. The dance becomes an accepted part of the society and culture at large remaking the body of each individual but also at this point becomes a means by which members of society through altering the gestural patterns of the dance can create change in society.
In my first application, I focused on the Foxtrot, the most significant development in ballroom dance. In this application, I will focus on Foxtrot as it correlates to gestural movement. As I previously stated, the Foxtrot uses a combination of slow steps that utilize two beats of music and quick steps that use one beat of music. The dance was created with steps that permitted more flexibility and pleasure than previous dances. The fast pace energetic nature of the dance attracted teenagers of the 1920’s and the dance burst in popularity.
Before mentioning the specific gestures the standing position of both partners is extremely important. Both partners stand face-to-face witch shoulders square, head and chin up, shoulders relaxed, chest lifted, and weight over the balls of their feet. The man places his right hand on the woman’s waist with his elbow held high and his left hand holds his partners opposite hand extending outwards. Then from the perspective of the man (the leading partner), the first gesture includes the man pressing through the ball of his left foot brushing his leg forward with assurance. The gesture of the man sweeping his leg forward as he held a firm posture held a strong importance in the culture of this time. First, at this time men were still considered the breadwinners of the family and the dominant figure in society. The gesture kept with this tradition giving the man the power, (he was the one to initiate the dance) with the sweeping movement of his leg. The left foot then follows sweeping forward followed the by the same gesture only to the side. The long walking movements and turning movements are combined with a subtle rise and fall. The gestures are a succession of sweeping glides. The gestures of the Foxtrot were in direct imitation of the evolving culture dance of the time. At this time in London, fluent movements were dominating the dance stage and gaining popularity among the people. The marching like steps previously seen were fading away from popularity replaced with a fast paced tempo. The quick gestures insinuated itself into the tissues of the dancer’s body’s of the 1920’s. The gesture and speed of the sweeping foot molded the body and the physical act of the gesture performed by the people made them feel a part of society. As Noland argues, gesturing as dancing is the means by which culture imprints itself on society and thus a mechanism through which the members of the society through altering these gestural changes can effect change. The changes in the gestures from repetitious marching like actions to fast pace fluid movements explain the development of dance. The Foxtrot furthermore explains the significance that a repetitious gesture can have on a whole society. Lastly, it explains that a rich understanding of gesture has the ability to effect change in society.
“Please, just for me, forget the steps… Hold me, feel the music, and give me your soul. Then I can give you mine.”
There is a dance that can steal your heart with its passion and connect your soul to another for a small moment in time. It can allow you the freedom to let go and follow the beat of the music or even the beat of you heart. The tango, with its Argentinean roots, has spread all over the world and side stepped its way into our cities and dance clubs. There is an air of mystery about it and its sensuality keeps you mesmerized as you watch two total strangers somehow almost become one. Its movements and gestures are taught, learned, calculated, and executed the same way but its dancers are what create the tango’s ever-changing style. Because of this, the tango can mean something different to each and every person who experiences it. Though the gestures have become recognized patterns of movement, the idea is to branch out a little bit and put your own personal spin (no pun intended) on this Latin dance.
Though the tango was not the first dance to incorporate “closeness” among its participants (the Viennese Waltz was the first in the 1830’s), it represented a melding of different cultures from around the world that had all somehow ended up in Argentina. The tango holds its cultural roots from African dance. According to a census done in 1178, “30% of people living in Buenos Aires were African” [2]. It was mostly found in clubs around port cities that had a high count of working class citizens. The tango was not a “wealthy” man’s dance. In fact, the tango was originally performed as a representation of the relationship between the “prostitute” and her “pimp”[3]. This background explains why there is such a closeness and sensual nature to the dance. There is no specific date of when the tango was officially formed but, rather, it has been an ever-evolving dance that has its own “versions” in other Latin countries.
My interest in the tango comes from my own experiences of watching it on television and seeing versions of it on vacations that I have taken. The tango done in Mexico could be seen as similar to the tango done in the Dominican Republic but it has its small nuanced differences. I have always found this dance to be extremely beautiful and often envied the grace and elegance that tango dancers have. They are truly “in tune” with their bodies and with their partner’s body, as well. I was excited to see tango made an example in this portion of the class because the gestures and movements within the tango are important to the dance.
Gesturing was described in our lecture as “visible actions that have features of manifest deliberate expressiveness”. Our gestures become deliberate. This is true within dance. An example of mudras was used within the lecture. These intricate hand gestures are done in a certain manner to express a certain emotion, meaning, expression, etc. The tango is similar in this way. In the reading “Gesturing and Touching”, tango is described to have, “gestural aspects…which are comprised of the rules, conventions, and rhythms that provide distinction to the dance”. There are certain steps and movements that make the “tango” the “tango”. The almost precise movements and the leading arm forward are distinctive moves that distinguish it from other Latin dances. These gestures reflect different meanings that the dance holds for each dancer and for the dance itself. It is through these gestures that touch becomes so important and creates the ebb and flow of the lead and follower. They are, “inseparable through their interactive gestures” as was said in lecture. This means that each movement works together to create that illusion of “oneness”. The difference between the tango and other dances like it, (the Viennese waltz and the Polka) however, is that it leaves room for improvisation.
An interesting quote I found by Varo Tango, a tango dancer states that, “There are no wrong moves in tango, only new ones.” This fits perfectly into how patterned gestures are really only one aspect of the movement involved in tango dancing. There are other things such as touch that contribute to its beauty and passion. The tango is between two people and it is the style of the two dancers that will show in the final performance. So, though, the movements may be very similar, the dancers will ultimately make the dance their own. This dates back to the beginning of the dance’s presence in Argentina. Like it was mentioned before, the dance was originally portrayed as the relationship between “the pimp” and “prostitute”. This relationship, quite obviously, has sexual connotations connected with it, which is reflected within the dance. The male is dominant in the dance and leads the female, while they remain very close and the idea is to highlight the “touch”. Below is a video clip from “The Tango Lesson”. If you look closely, you can see certain patterned moves that the dancers will use but the relationship between the dancers creates a unique spin on each gesture/movement. They move as one though they both use different footsteps that work with each other. This idea will be discussed when reviewing the importance of touch within gesture.
The idea of touch and gesturing is extremely important for the tango. The link between touch and the relationship of the dancers are important so, naturally, touch would be important to the dance as well. Touching shows how the dancers will always be multiple because they are only interacting with each other. The lectures quote Manning when she writes that, “it is through touching you that my body is a body, for my body cannot be otherwise than singular and plural.” This is a beautiful way of describing how gesturing will always be incomplete because of touch. Because I am able to touch you, there is no way I can ever be one with you. I will always be with you or with me. This is haunting and reminds us that though we strive to find “oneness” with another through touch, we will never be able to. Through dance, we can see this struggle, especially within the tango. Because there is so much fire and passion fueling it, there is a desire to become one but because we can never go beyond a touch connection, there is no way to become this concepts of “one”.
When going back and reviewing how these specific qualities of the tango have affected it has created a deeper understanding of why the tango was so important for those who created it. It was an outlet of expression that united people and created a sense of closeness. Because this dance was influenced by many different cultures, it really does not have a “home base”, much like those who helped create it. It is a reflection of those different backgrounds that were able to find unity and common ground in an unfamiliar place. The dance is about closeness and harmony between the two dancers. Yes, tango has basic footwork that is attached with it but it is the uniqueness of each dancer’s touch that contributes to the richness that this dance has. It’s gestures remind us that we can never become “one” no matter how close we dance next to each other. That is its beautiful and haunting quality. The tango is now performed in many different Latin (and non Latin) countries and it’s overall theme if passion and grace are found around the world. These movements and gestures are what make the tango so popular. But what has cemented it in the halls of history is its ability to allow freedom between two people to get just close enough to almost become “one” though they will never be.
Sarah McSheehy
06/20/12
Application Project #2
Tap dancing and Gesture and Movement
As they say at the Hoofer’s Club in Harlem in the 1930s, where tap dancers gathered to practice their steps and compete: “Thou Shalt Not Copy Anyone’s Steps—Exactly!” (Hill, 3) I have noticed through my reading and viewing of tap dancers is the strong sense of competition. Most of the videos I see are some kind of light-hearted dance off that pits one dancer against the other. Not only does this creating an exciting atmosphere for the audience, but also when a new combination of taps is performed, you can see the excited reaction of the other dancer. As the primary dancer begins to move, you can see the other dancer watching intently which defines the culture of tap-dancing so succinctly. The way a tap dancer progresses is by battling and watching other dancers. They copy the move while also adding something new. This idea has carried from the very beginnings of tap on the plantations to modern day times. As with it’s sister dance, the jig, most of the movement of the dancer’s body is in the feet and legs. When you look at a dancer like Gregory Hines in the beginning of this video, I encourage you to close the visual portion and listen for a second. The number of taps he is able to achieve is astounding, and when turning back to the video, it is surprising that Hines seems to hardly be moving his feet.
Tap dancers must be so much more self aware to dance because they are confining the majority of their movement to the various parts of their feet. Most dancers see their feet as different parts of a drum kit. Savion Glover, for example imagined that “…the inside toe of the metal tap is the hi-hat, the outside toe of the tap is the snare, the inside ball of the foot is the top tom-tom, the outside rime of the tap [are the] cymbals, his left heel is the bass drum, and the right heel the floor tom-tom.” (Hill, 15) In operating this “instrument,” he must move with precision and therefore, must be concentrated with improvising a new choreography.
Tap dancers are a great example of the professor’s arguments that dancing doesn’t mime the story but rather contributes to the narrative. A tap dancer is usually more concerned with showing off speed and technique so they tend to try to create complex polyrhythm or tap out beats to go along with a piece of music. One cannot simply get out of bed and be a tap dancer, many of these gestures must be practiced hundreds of times in order to be performed in rapid-fire succession. Since the only real training for tap dancers is tap dancing, warm ups are suggested before a dancer starts. Since tap dancing requires precise movements, a loose body at the beginning really contributes to the success of the practice. Often, trainers have their dancers stretch out their entire body before beginning to dance. This prevents injury and also allows the arms to be more relaxed for balance.
While tap dancing does not normally involve physically touching bodies, I believe that an argument can be made for mental touching. One example of this brought up in the lecture discussions was when two dancers begin to dance the same choreography, they seem to become one, and on an audible level, two dancers tapping out the same rhythm will sound like one. For a small moment, the dancers are connected and perceived as one being. I also believe that mental groping happens a lot within a tap battle. As I understand it, groping is the mimicking of movements to better understand the world around us or to better understand what our limitations are. In a tap battle, a lot of dancers will play off of each other’s rhythms trying to imitate them. If a certain rhythm cannot be achieved, the dancer will work on the movements until it can be tapped out and then thrown back into another battle creating a kind of gestural circle. I also believe that practice also provides the dancer with mental groping. It is a common thing to practice tapping in front of a mirror. By doing so, the dancer can connect with what their feet are doing to the sound that is being produced allowing them to get a certain move through trial and error.
The early gestures of tap greatly affected the gestures of today’s tap dancing. While there are some differences, like the incorporation of hip hop moves and a wider range of arm movement including clapping hands and expressive movements, the framework and foundations remain the same. The movements in tap battles are also becoming more complex with more aggressive moves like sharp stomps forward and the use of both feet to create a louder sound. However, as seen in this video of tap dancers Sean and John, the dancers do not forget where tap dancing originated. Their Vegas show performs like a hybrid of vaudeville and modern performance.
These two dancers show a nice synthesis between the traditional tap dancing with the more outlandish movements of contemporary dances. Through the use of practiced gestures, the dancers convey a beat and help to spread more exciting dances.
Culture is built from combinations of traditions over time, coming together to enrich a people and enhance their way of life. A tradition is the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation. Holding on to and passing on traditions is not only what keeps culture alive, but also molds the way of life for the people of that culture. As a way of evoking emotion and feelings without verbal communication, gesturing is a learned silent language that one becomes accustomed to through exposure of the world around them. The rich traditions that make up Judaism contribute to the strength of Jewish culture, and are seen vividly throughout the gestures of the customary dance, the “Hora”.
The simple gestures used in the Hora display the happiness and celebration that this traditional circle dance represents. Sam Gill states “gesture imprints the values and distinctions of a society on the habitual bodily techniques of the individuals thus marking them as being of the society”. Performed in a circle, holding hands with your neighbor, the dance begins with everyone stepping forward toward the right with the left foot, then forward with the right to match. Then bringing the left foot back followed by the right, while continuously moving in a circle to the right. Although the simple steps of the dance don’t indicate the importance of gesture, the traditions in which they are performed use culturally distinctive gestures; particularly when performed in the Hasidic Jewish setting, being hoisted into the air on a chair during celebrations, and the use of the “inner circle” when dancing in large groups.
Jewish law practices a series of laws that restrict and prohibit certain actions. These actions are interpreted and followed differently by Jewish people varying in observance. Derived from the verse in Leviticus stating “None of you shall come near anyone of his own flesh to uncover nakedness”, Shomer Negiah is a law practiced by Orthodox Jews that prohibits someone from physical contact with members of the opposite sex, even a simple handshake. This inevitably conflicts with the nature of the hora, as holding hands is typically a requirement of the dance. When comparing an Orthodox celebration to a less observant one, the key difference is the dance floor. The majority of Orthodox Jews do not participate in mixed dancing, and there is often a separation placed in order to divide the dance floor. Not only is this ritual indicative of how gestures reflect the values of a society, but also places a barrier to what that gesture could potentially lead to. In his “Gesturing and Touching” lecture, Sam describes that “the socially prescribed gestural methods of touching another person serve to collect and absorb at the level of the tissues remarkable amounts of information about one’s dance partner”, due to the fact that “one feels and experiences the connection and the information absorbed often through the lightest physical touch”. As the law of Shomer Negiah is practiced to inhibit ones unlawful attraction, it hence guards touch from resonating within the dancers.
This silly acapella spinoff of the popular song “Can’t Touch this” brings humor to the serious matter of Shomer Negiah:
Traditionally accompanied by the song “Hava Naglia”, meaning “let us rejoice”, the Hora is performed in festivities of celebrations, such as weddings and bar/bat mitzvahs. One of the most signature aspects to the Hora at these functions is when the bride and groom (or bar or bat mitzvah) is lifted on chairs in the center of the circle, as the party-goers dance around the person of honor. To anyone who has ever been to one of these events before, the action of being hoisted into the air while all of your friends and family dance around you can be not only a focal point of the evening, but something Jewish children growing up looking forward to their entire lives. The gestures captured within the action performed indicate the feeling of happiness evoked in the performance of this dance. As people gather on the dance floor to start dancing the Hora, usually the largest and strongest men will convene in the middle as the designated “chair lifters”. Sitting on the chair anxiously awaiting their moment of excitement, the bride and groom get ready to experience a pinnacle moment built from tradition that they will remember for the rest of their lives.
This company, The Hora Chair LLC, designed a chair to specifically enhance this aspect of the Hora and add ease to the entire experience.
The upbeat and happy tones of this joyful dance are exhibited through the fast-paced moves and playful notions gestured in the Hora. Watching people dance the Hora displays to the onlooker the emotions that this dance represents and provokes. The values of the Jewish people have guided the built up traditions that engulf what makes this culturally meaningful dance. The quick moving circular steps and upward hand movements bring out happy feelings that enhance the joyous celebrations in which the Hora is performed.
Mazel Tov!
The Lindy Hop, although energetic and fun-filled, has historical foundations that are rooted in a number of cultural and racial conflicts. The original Lindy Hop was developed during the 1920’s and 1930’s, in African American communities during a time of insecure racial transitions. Because of this, the Lindy Hop is hugely rooted in African American culture and understandings.
From the Self-Othering perspective, the traditions and meanings of the traditional Lindy Hop are not only for ocular pleasure of the physical in itself, but rather that dance is a reflection of things unspoken. According to lecture, “What we see is not a simple literal presentation. It is a seduction – an appearance, a promise of something always unfulfilled – that invites comparison to facets of our human existence (Gill).” In this, the Lindy Hop is presented not only as an art form, but as a vehicle in which unspoken aspects of African American culture and struggle is addressed. This aspect of the physical body and movement as being indicative of cultural and racial issues is also explained through the theory that “life is inseparable from movement,” meaning that the Lindy Hop as a dance style directly reflects cultural aspects of the African American community and the racial struggles of that time period.
For participants of the traditional Lindy Hop, the physical body and the cultural implications of the dance in itself are particularly significant, considering the fact that skin color acted as a major factor in the division of those participating in the Lindy Hop. According Merleau-Ponty’s understanding of the “flesh ontology,” “the flesh of the world is the fabric that at once divides us and unites us with the world in which we live, the world beyond the bounds of our physical bodies, the world that we perceive and experience (Gill).“ This indicates that the development and embodiment of any given dance style is not a mere performance, nor is it only a personal expression, but is rather directly correlated with cultural and physical experience. In the case of the Lindy Hop, the style reflected a number of cultural messages and understandings that shaped much of the African American culture.
The traditional Lindy Hop also marked a significant way in which “hoppers,” and the African American subculture as a whole, was able to both indicate the presence of the Other, while also marking themselves as Others in a positive way, in order to solidify a cultural identity. According to lecture, “Dancing both gives rise to the very idea of otherness while it also grounds our connection with the other (Gill).” This was a very interesting point for me because it made me realize that the Self-Othering in Lindy Hop helped a cultural group determine a group identity, in order to be able to successfully navigate and make meaning out of their cultural and social situations. According to Black Hawk Hancock, the Lindy Hop acted as a “microcosm of how race operates in American society (Hancock 128).” Although the dance style may have appeared to be for pure entertainment, the implications of the dance were significantly more complex, and helped to address and alleviate many tensions African Americans felt during periods of unspoken oppression. Today, the Lindy Hop is less associated with any particular race, but these underlying meanings and self-othering continues to be a pervasive aspect of the Hop. According to modern-day professional Lindy Hopping couple, the “most important component of Lindy Hop is its roots in black history,” even though they are a British couple, and had not actually experienced black oppression within the United States. Because of this, it is clear that although the Lindy Hop has evolved from its traditional style of the 1920’s and 30’s, the cultural and racial implications of the Lindy Hop still permeate throughout the style.
The implications of the Self-Othering perspective in relationship with the traditional Lindy Hop are significant because the style itself was a way in which the African American community was able to navigate and maintain its identity during a time of notable struggle. According to lecture, “Dancing is a powerful way that individuals and groups obtain and maintain identity (Gill).” During periods of immense struggle, it is clear that the Self-Othering within the Lindy Hop culture acted as a way in which an American subculture was able to negotiate and forge a group identity that still remains a major aspect of the style today.
Below is a performance done by the Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers, in 1939.
In the following video, an interview with Frankie Manning, please note the costume choice of the hoppers, during the portion of the interview where clips from the film, Hellzapoppin’. The dancers all wear costumes indicating their social standing during the 1920’s and 30’s (maid and servicemen outfits). This is significant because the hoppers pointedly emphasize their economic standing as a marker of group identity.
Irish dance holds great traditional and culture importance for the Irish people. As a dance now so widely practiced across the world it is encouraging to see not only the traditional Irish roots still present, but also the presence of the self in each dancer. The connection between the body and the mind in dance can best be labeled as self-othering. Self-othering is present not just within Irish dance, but also within all types of dancing. Identity and value then become important parts of the Irish dancer upholding these traditions. An Irish dancer remains her/himself, while “comprehending the value, meaning, and importance of the world they are also creating,” within the movements (Gill). Through Irish dancing movement, specific dances, and dress is the process of self-othering understood.
Within Irish dance Irish culture emerges through the movements. After years of oppression from the English, the Gaelic League emerged beginning to uplift the culture, which can be seen within Irish dance specifically. Irish dance begun as often restricting because of the environment dancers would have to perform in. Early on doors were often unhinged and laid flat on the ground for dancers to perform on the hard service. A dancer was confined to such a small space that his/her hands and upper body had to remain very stiff in order to stay within the boundaries of the door. Now that there is proper floor used in dancing, dancers are encouraged to use the entire stage but the restriction of the body is still in place. Dance masters had their students compete with their hands firm and fisted by their sides to better showcase the steps. This is still of very high importance today. Self-othering is seen through these movements. Irish dancers are dancing within their own bodies but she does become another dancing in a traditional Irish way. Precision and discipline are of high importance in Irish dance, “but within these rules there is almost infinite room for variety and innovation,” (SoCal Irish Dance). This allows for Irish dancing to continue evolving, as I will describe in the specific dances below.
The four types of Irish dances are the jig, reel, hornpipe, and set dances. They are all still seen today in Irish dancing. The jig has many different variations some being performed in soft shoes and some in hard shoes. Here are two videos of my sister from this past weekend at a feis.
The first one is a treble jig, which is danced in hard shoes and tends to be slower tempo, which allows for more moves to be danced.
The second video is a slip jib, which is danced in soft shoes. It has a faster tempo then the treble jig but also looks more light and graceful.
The next dance the reel originated in Scotland. Irish dance masters brought the reel to its full potential. Generally it is very fast-paced and danced in soft shoes. The hornpipe evolved from the English and was first only danced by men. Now women also dance the hornpipe. It is a slower version of the reel that includes my favorite dance move in Irish dance, rocking. Here is a clip of rocking.
Finally, set dances are called this because they have remained set over time. These dances are danced in hard shoes. Because the tune is always the same in set dances, judges within competitions expect more. Here is a video of my sister from World’s in Ireland performing a group set dance—The Saint Patrick’s Day.
Set dance tunes are over two-hundred years old and were developed by dance masters. The jig, reel, and hornpipe all have many different variations by Irish dance schools, where’s set dances have stayed the same since the beginning. Self-othering can be seen in all these dances. Traditionally many things are still the same and dancers understand that, but they are still creating their own selves through these dances. In the set dances specifically touch and gesture are really relied on. Dancing together in a group effectively allows for self-othering to occur because they rely on each other to create meaning.
Irish dance wardrobe has morphed over the course of time. In the early 1800’s dancers would wear white socks, breeches, swallowtail coats and other non Celtic-originating garb. As the Irish began to step away from English influence Celtic designs began to emerge. Now most Irish dancing outfits are extremely complex. Celtic symbols such as knotts, the high cross, or designs from the Book of Kells can be found on the dresses. Each Irish dance school has a “school” dress. Below are a couple photos of my sister’s school dress. You can see it has the Claddaugh symbol as well as Celtic Knotts.
Solo dresses tend to be bright and flashy. Below is a picture of my sister in her solo dress.
Dancers usually wear wigs and if not there hair always tends to be curled. It is said that this is because back to the beginning of Irish Dance competitions would be held on Sundays. Girls would dress their best and would always curl their hair. Self-othering is present here by wearing traditional Celtic designs. In a way dancers are wearing the identities of their ancestors.
Self-othering allows dancers to create meaning of themselves, their environments, and to the Irish culture. A deeper level of identity begins to shine through because of the history of the movements. An Irish dancer literally gains experience of self through the dances culture and background.
Did not mean to submit it yet! I was still in the process of attaching the videos as well as my references… I will leave another comment below with them. Sorry about that!
Anyone who has traveled to the tropics of Hawaii has witnessed the art of the Polynesian dance form known as the Hula Dance. Whether is be after the pig roast at a luau, or in the lobby of your grandiose hotel, Hula dancing is a sight seen by most Hawaiian visitors. With grass skirts, percussion instruments, chanting, and undulating hips, perhaps the thing that most stands out during a traditional hula dance performance is the hand and arm gestures made by the hula dancer, because these gestures are what tell the story of the dance. Every hula motion has a specific meaning. Different gestures symbolize different things, from the waves of the ocean, to plants, animals, and even conflict and war. With expressive hands, a hula dancer can evoke a palm tree swaying in the breeze or even the perils of a shark.
Here are some examples of some basic hula gestures and symbols (wait until 40 sec mark):
While gesturing in hula dance can be very basic and is commonly viewed as the means to narrating a story, there is deeper meaning to gesturing than just that. There is a whole other message communicated to us from hula gestures that has nothing to do with the story that is being told, but rather, there is a more rich gesture that allows us to expand our bodies and our minds. But before diving in to the complexity within the rich gesture, it is important to first review the history of the hula dance to understand why we initially view hula gestures in simpler terms and then to understand the richness of the gesture.
While the origin of the hula dance is unknown, it is thought that the original hula dance was performed for a god or goddess, possibly the Volcano goddess, Pele, making the hula sacred to the people of Hawaii. As a kind of worship in religious ceremonies, it was used to give thanks to Hawaii’s ancient gods and chiefs. However due to Western influence, it is now used mostly for entertainment. In the early 1800’s, Christian missionaries changed the meaning of the hula. Christian history indicates that dancing was shunned in the Christian religion due to its association with “sensuality, sexuality, body, and sin” (Gill). For this very reason, Christian missionaries viewed hula as “devilish” and “against God”, and thus, they tried to convince the Polynesians of their wrongdoing by partaking in this form of dance. Because of this, hula almost disappeared as it was banned for being “vulgar, disgusting and sinful”. Hula continued to be taught and practiced in secret. However, with the reign of the new King, King Kamehameaha III, Hula was re-established by default in the 1830’s due to his support of religious freedom. Hula once again became a common occurrence seen in festivals and other celebrations.
Traditional hula dance is used to tell a story, making the purpose of “gesturing” in hula very similar to the purpose of gestures used in Bharata natyam, a South Indian Hindu form of dance. One aspect of Bharata natyam dance utilizes the abhinaya, which is “often referred to as the ‘storytelling’ aspect of the dance with an understanding that the dancer, through posture and gesture tells the classic stories” (Gill). Much like this Hindu dance, from the history of the hula we can see how the purpose of the gestures is rather mundane and is simply used to narrate the story. “This understanding pairs gesture with expressed meaning and sees gesture as primarily an act of communication” (Gill). Hand gestures in hula are used in place of language in order to “tell a story”. The dancers do not have to say aloud or even mouth what they are representing, but rather it becomes obvious from the motion of the hands what the dancer is trying to convey. For instance, when a hula dancer moves their arms in parallel, unison, wave-like motion, it becomes obvious that the gesture is representing the ocean. However, just because this gesture symbolizes the ocean, it does not necessarily mean much to us when it stands alone. It must be done in conjunction with other gestures or facial expressions or chanting of song in order to interpret the full understanding of the message. “Any single [hula gesture] has the potential for a very wide association with meaning elements (Gill). Thus, we cannot say that gestures are used as a direct means of communication because each gesture has too broad of meaning to be directly translated on its own.
We cannot limit the meaning of gestures to “visible actions that have the features of manifest deliberate expressiveness” (Gill), but rather, gesturing is much more “rich”. So what do we mean by “rich” in reference to gesturing. “The rich view of gesture sees it as having an enormous range of agentive powers that serve to create and shape ourselves and our environments” (Gill). This implies that gesturing is much more than just communicating/illustrating/narrating a story. Rather, rich gesturing involves influences from culture, society, environment, and exploration. These agents shape us in many different aspects, from the physiological to the psychological. “Our gestures actually remake the body of the one gesturing at the level of tissue. Our body movement, our postural attitudes, our actions; they all correspond with our gestural practices. We are, in the literal sense of evident at the level of tissue, our gestures” (Gill).
From view in the above clip of hula dancing, you can see how the girls knees are repetitively bending forward in a very fast motion, while the hips sway, and while the arms generate certain motions. Every movement made physically by the hips, the knees, and the hand gestures gets sent back to the brain for processing and expanding. Every movement made physically triggers different muscles, tendons, and ligaments that alter the physiology and physical shape of the body. Each of these things comes forth together to collectively shape the people, the environment, and ultimately, the culture from the gestural patterns. “Thus the repetition of the gesturing patterns of [hula dancing] remake the body of the [dancer] into a [hula dancer]” (Gill). This is what makes up the richer gestures.
References:
Gill, Sam. “Gesture and Agency, Dancing as Gesturing”. Dancing Culture Religion Lecture Series.
There has been one thing on my mind for the last couple of weeks and especially in the last few days. Fire. This got me thinking, what is it about fire that gets me so nervous. After some consideration it became clear. The movement. Fire’s movement is both fast, sly, graceful, unpredictable and powerful. As an entity of nature and science, I can appreciate the complexities of fires power and intrigue, but what happens, in terms of movement, when fire is introduced to dance? I became perplexed. This is why for my next investigation I have decided to cover the Samoan dance (siva) tradition known as fireknife, or ailao (siva sate).
Performed in an individualistic sense – the dance itself is the twirling of machete’s, rods, or tradition paddle weaponry, in fierce rhythmic patterns, set to drums. These twirling objects are then set on fire, exaggerating the motion of the twirl and the acrobatics of the performer. The dance is a very aggressive one and is preformed by men. Still popularly seen and preformed today, the dance emphasized small isolated movements of the hands and can be considered (in my opinion) a hard-core version of baton twirling.
The fireknife, as we know it, can be thought of as amelting pot of traditonas that have come to form a variation of a cultural dance tradition. Stemming from several different historical traditions in Polynesian culture. Broken down, the fireknife, or “ailao” tradition has two very distinctive lines of origins: historic/ceremonial and modern/entertainment. The ailio refers to a traditional mans dance of club twirling performed as a wartime ritual in classic Samoan culture and is mostly (but not always, as is the case with the Nafanua) performed by men. The dance was performed as a way to celebrate a victory, as Samoan island culture often warring with neighboring islands and ethnic groups. Traditionally the dance was either part a parade, men’s-only caberet, or feast ceremony. Across Polynesian culture, the dance began to stem several al different variations, one of which from Uvean culture required the end of the twirling clubs to be lit on fire and preformed at night as a group dance. This was called the kailao afi. The knife component, comes from the dance known as “Nafanua,” which is a from of ailao where the performer(s) use traditional machetes. The Nafanua, was a religious dance, which celebrated the fierce and victorious war-goddess, Nafanua.
How we have come to understand fireknife is accredited to a Samoan performer by the name of Letuli. He makes the claim that he ‘invented’ the fireknife dance which occurred in the 20thC. Letuli accredits himself to adding the fire component to the ailao, cementing his contribution in legend in his book “Flaming Sword of Samoa: The Story of the Samoan Fire Knife Dance.” That being said, it is important to emphasize that even if Letuli was the contemporary “creator” of the dance, that the fireknife, as a whole has its main roots tied to this tradition of ailao. Today, the dance has been popularized in Samoan culture and is usually a popular part of Hawaiian tourism and luah.
I suppose the reason why I have found myself interested in this dance goes beyond my anxiousness about the burning fires. The fireknife, I believe, is one of the most interesting and best examples of how a culture identifies itself through dance. The fireknife, as I have said before, is a exemplified melting pot of traditional and modern components that come together to form a dance. Considering that the origins are tied to island nations- I find it entirely appropriate that there is such a diverse and scattered history of the fire dance. This is because, over time, islands, because of their physical geography would lead to people forming distinctive sub-cultures and rituals that were distinctive to that location. Fireknife, as a mainstay in popular Hawaiian tourism, exemplifies that melding and evolution of traditions and modern invented showmanship, that come together to form a dance that is rich in gesture, tradition, and cultural significance and still is used to emphasize a sub-cultures unique motivations (tourist industry).
The dance is both ephemeral with the fire component and an exquisite example of othering. As its exclusiveness and individual celebration of guise and costume emphasize the importance of cultural values and traditions. As we saw in the lectures of reversibility, the dancer cannot completely ever separate from the modern self and goal of performer/ance, but as you see with the video examples, the use of costume, stage setting, and emotive acting, really illustrate how we can see a dance in terms of “dancer”, “dancing”, and “danced.” That said, I know there is still tons more to learn and research when it comes to fireknife! Let it burn.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Georgina, Dianna M. Performing Selves: The Semiotics of Selfhood in Samoan Dance. Washington State University. 2007.
A scholarly article. Traces and uses historical analytics as well as traditional and modern social values to evaluate the impact of dance in Samoan culture. The article both gives good background as well as contemporary discussion of the significance of dancing in terms of coming of age, and cultural identity.
Accredited site with an expert author. This article gives a brief and precise overview of fireknife. This is a good site, because it breaks down fireknife in modern terms and focuses on main points and the rituals history without delving too far into analytics.
Dancing Culture Religion 
Alexandra Hobbs
6/20/2012
Application Assignment #2
The Gestures of the Waltz
The waltz is a very structured and rigid dance that manages to evoke strong feelings of romance, intimacy, and sensuality through the use of specific gestures.
The waltz can be broken down into a large series of gestures and each gesture has
significant meaning. A deep understanding of the impact of each gesture requires the understanding of the two movements created by the gesture; the movement of the body reaching to an external object and the movement of the action of reaching making an impression on the body that performs that action. This loop of the gestures results in a physical impression on the body. In the case of dancing, this impression is the strengthening of specific muscles used to make that gesture and the strengthening of neuronal connections that allow the brain to remember that gesture. Thus, each movement or gesture in any dance is meaningful because it leaves a physical impression on the body performing it and it insinuates itself into the culture in which it is performed. There are many other external impacts dancing the waltz makes including emotional and sensual significances that affect both the dancers and the audience. These projected meanings apply to every minute gesture the dancers make. I will apply these emotional and sensual meanings to the most common gesture in the waltz and discuss the cultural consequences of the gesture.
To me, the most common gesture is one which involves the shoulder, neck and head of both dancers in the partner. In this gesture, both dancers shoulders face each other and their necks are elongated, but their heads are turned away from each other. Sometimes they are facing the same direction, sometimes they are not, like so:

http://www.rockinhorsedancebarn.com/
I find this to be the most common gesture that occurs during the dancing of the waltz because it is shown in almost every picture when simply searching for images of the waltz online. It is even shown in paintings of the waltz proving it is such a common gesture that it almost defines the waltz. Here is an example of a painting of people performing the waltz:

http://just-mygoal.blogspot.com/2011/02/history-of-waltz-dance.html
They are clearly in the gesture of gracefully extending their neck and turning their faces away from each other. The implications of this gesture are both subtle and obvious. But, to understand these implications, we must go back to the history of the waltz.
As noted in the introductory project, the waltz was born in the suburbs of Germany and was not accepted by the prevailing religion, Christianity. Christian leaders found this style of dancing to be too intimate because it involved touching, something that had never been seen in a dance. As a result, the waltz found a balance between touching and maintaining an appropriate distance to show the movement was not sexual. In the traditional waltz, this is done by having limited movement of the hips and by this gesture of the dancers moving their upper bodies away from each other. Here is an example of a contemporary waltz competition that uses this gesture throughout most of the dance:
This gesture impacted the external audience (the audience watching the dancers) of the sixteenth century in two different ways. It horrified and offended the conservative Christian leaders and those who were afraid of the sensual because it evoked sexual and romantic feelings. These feelings were unacceptable to Christians because they were sinful. On the other hand, the waltz also started a revolution by breaking through the barrier of touching and facilitating the development of similar ballroom and partner style dances. Thus, it affected this more open minded audience differently. It evoked a sense of rebellion and creativity in some that spurred a transformation of dance into an intimate, partner sport.
Looking internally at the dancers that perform this dance, it is easy to see the emotion behind the movement. The dancers show an intimacy but almost recover from their closeness by pulling their upper-bodies away from each other. It’s almost as if they are saying, “we are in sync, we are intimate, but I’m not giving away everything just yet.” This emotional give-and-take is just as much a gesture for audience as it is for themselves. The gesture give the impression that they are aware of the audience and acknowledge them occasionally and move out of the intimate moment, especially when the gesture is slowly moved into after a quick, close section of the dance.
Audiences today would not find the waltz as scandalous as audiences did in the sixteenth century. The level of acceptable public affection and sexuality have changed drastically since the sixteenth century. The “dance” of grinding involves an enormous amount of physical contact and evokes very, very strong sexual feelings. The sixteenth century Christian leaders would die of embarrassment for today’s “grinders”.
What is most interesting about this gesture is how it has lasted through time and is still performed in waltz competitions today, as seen in the previous video shot in 2010. Although the gesture has been elaborated on, the basic gesture of gracefully moving away from one’s partner is still there. Here’s an example of another contemporary waltz competition gesture:

http://bumpshack.com/2010/09/21/jennifer-grey-emotional-viennese-waltz-on-dancing-with-the-stars-video/
This lasting of this gesture shows how it has been ingrained into our culture. The gesture has been repeated and taught so much that it has shaped the dancing world. As Dr. Gill discusses in the lectures, each gesture makes an impact on the body performing it and makes a lasting impact on our culture. Because the initial waltz dancers performed this gesture in front of an audience of young and malleable dancers, the waltz dancers forever influenced the young dancers and their understanding of what the waltz should be. As a result, the gesture has moved through the generations, with slight elaborations, and has become a part of the identity of the waltz dancing culture.
In conclusion, the waltz gesture of moving one’s body away from one’s partner is a cultural standard in waltzing that has been elaborated on with time and change in values. It evoked different feeling in the sixteenth century than it does today. Back then, it tested the limits of acceptance of public intimacy and encouraged a change in dancing. Today, it does not evoke such strong feelings of unsuitable sensuality because the standards for acceptable touching have changed, as seen in “grinding”. All in all, the waltz has influenced dancing in many cultures across the world, toying with the boundary of unacceptable through this single gestures.
Katie Nooning
RLST 3838
Application Assignment #2
Tap: Moving
Suzanne Farrell once said, “I liked tap because I liked hearing the results of my movements.” Movement, and more specifically self-movement, is what allows each one of us to experience these results we hear, feel, smell, taste, and see (our five senses), and we can even go as far as to include our kinesthetic sense as part of these results. Our kinesthetic sense, or our sense of “proprioception”, allows us to describe our individual awareness of where we are in space and time, including each of our body parts. Our sense of proprioception enables us to consciously and unconsciously express and direct our energy more effectively. It lends itself to the idea of mind/body dualism, where we become one organic process and both our mind and body are engaged in order to create a dance, thereby creating movement.
Movement is the natural process by which we change places or positions according to various definitions that I have found. Tap Dance is a movement; a movement that embodies both the mind and the physical body in order to create this dance. The movement that occurs in tap dancing is based upon rhythmical patterns created by foot movement where metal taps are attached to the bottom of shoes at the heel and toes. When tap dancing we hear the metal against the hard surface, we feel the floor beneath us as we shuffle ball change, we feel our knees bent and fully flexible allowing us to move freely, we smell the air and sweat around us as we perform, we taste the sweat dripping down our cheeks and we even see the movement while in motion as we combine a series of combinations to enhance our current movement. We may not always be aware of the fact that all of our five senses are at play and we are moving based on those five senses. Because we do not always have this awareness of our senses, including our kinesthetic sense, we do not always make the necessary connections and relationships to further make sense of ourselves, our culture and of our environment.
I once saw a dance poster that read: “Dance enables you to find yourself and lose yourself at the same time.” This is to say that dance is a part of the conscious and unconscious aspects movement. Through tap dancing, an individual has the capability to make sense of one’s self and make sense of the world. Tap dancing in the United States was created through the fusion of the clogging culture in the British Isles and the rhythms of the drumming and dancing found in West African culture during colonial times. This particular dances illustrates the fact that tap dance transcends time and lets us understand the cultures that it evolved from. The slaves in the South in the United States used tap dancing and its movements as a mode of communication and the communication created through tap dancing established an identity and value. The identity being that the sound of tap shoes was “authentic” to the slaves and their culture and the value being that through the movement of the tap shoes a story and a mode of communication was heard. Tap dancing served a cultural purpose and a way to define themselves while being enslaved and discriminated against. This established an intertwining of movement and meaning as a part of tap dancing. By means of tap dancing, experiences, interactions, and relationships had the opportunity to be formed. This lends to the fact that “movement is basic to the establishment of meaning”.
To quote Albert Einstein, “We dance for laughter, we dance for tears, we dance for madness, we dance for fears, we dance for hopes, we dance for screams, we are the dancers, we create the dreams.” This quote ties in nicely with the fact that tap dancing helps to establish meaning. It helped to establish meaning between slaves and it helps to establish a meaning nowadays. Tap dancing communicates with the audience. The steps created tell a story through a beginning, middle and end. They elicit a call and response from the audience due to the fact that while the movement/dance is being performed the mode and tone by which the audience expresses their feelings about the dance suggest to the dancer his/her next step. If the audience does not enjoy the dance the tap dancer must either choose to acknowledge and be aware of this fact and alter his movements or not change his dance movements thereby communicating to the audience that he/she is either unaware of their emotions/reactions or that switching up the dance movement is too difficult of a challenge to overcome. Either way tap dancing, via its sound, provides meaning. Through its unique rhythm and the movements associated with tap dancing to create the unique sound help to make sense of all that is around.
Without dance in general, we are not challenging the brain, body or environment in any unusual way and are adhering to this “quotidian” aspect. When dancing, this daily movement is replaced with an “overplus” of movement that gives way to this “quality of incipience”. We are then becoming something other in dancing and changing those aspects that would otherwise not be changed (i.e. our brain, body, culture, experiences, environment). Life is about moving and without movement we are not emphasizing dimensions of non-conscious bodily processes. These non-conscious bodily processes are what assist in making sense of ourselves and our world. Martha Graham once said that “to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the same.” We must practice both in order to learn each component, but what would be even better is to learn both together. To learn how to tap dance is to learn another way to live life and a means to practice living life along with practicing learning to tap dance. Tap is intergenerational and multiracial as it encompasses varied cultural traditions and individual styles. Tap helps to gain awareness and knowledge of these aspects otherwise left to be discovered had an individual not desired to live life through tap dancing.
Tap is about the sound. The sound is what creates the meaning. The sound is what makes us get lost in the steps and rhythm. The sound is also what makes us notice the silence when not performing the harsh, hard-hitting, heavy, and fast movements. Tap dancing is unique in the fact that a song in the background is not needed to put on a show – the song is in the steps. The steps are the foundation to the sound, and in these steps we gain various elements. We gain a culture; we gain power; we gain self-movement; we gain vitality; we gain knowledge.
Lily Grace Nolan
Application #2
The Guajira’s Gestural Maintenance and Cultural Shift
In popular culture, we have a saying: there is more than the meets the eye. This saying when interpreted at its most simple level is a commentary on how things are often more complex than they seem and usually are deserving of a second look or more concentrated analysis. One such thing, that I have found deserving of a second look, or that has more than meets the eye is dance. From what I have learned thus far, dance is not only compromised of several different components, i.e. movements, gestures, but it also has a very complex and active presence in a variety of different contexts, i.e. sociological development (self or interactive), narrative/lyrical qualities, religious ideology, philological, surrealist theory, etc. I mean wow, be it ignorance, or supreme naivety, but I have never considered dance to be such a metropolitan subject. However, it is plan to see, that given the time and education, we can begin to understand the richness of dance as a sophisticated form of artistry and a fundamental building block in human development. Given that dance is so clearly complex, I find it rather far fetching (at this point) to expect that I will make any sort of intelligible sense if I just ramble on about all these different before listed components that affect dance, thus in my following analysis I will focus on one dance and how it relates to one component and how it relates to one idea.
In my first application I decided to do research on a dance called the Guajira. Now, for my investigation, I have yet to experience being taught the dance (TBC June 22nd), but I have still managed to find supreme relevance in how the Guajira relates to gestural movement and the sociological development of a specific ethnicity. The Guajira is no simple quote"e country dance/music as it appears, but rather a fundamental building block in the historical and sociological development of particular group’s identity in Cuba. Hence, the dance as it pertains to gesture and the formation of identity is a rich topic in which I will address.
To refresh; the guajira is a Cuban dance or musical style often associated with other dances such as the flamenco, rumba, or criolla. Despite, its popularization peaking in the 1930’s, Guajira has its roots tied in the colonial times with the arrival of Spaniards and other European settlers in the Caribbean. Now, these facts may seem frivolous, but when it comes to understanding how the Guajira functions, it is important to understand the historical context of the dance.
Gestural expression is a complex form of movement that occupies a number of different human activities and defines our interactions. It has come to my attention that gesture and movement, or inherent movement is often mistake for one another. In reality, gesture and movement are very different from one another. In my understanding, movement is the groundwork to cognitive reasoning and negotiation of our surroundings, whereas gesture is affected and tweaked to compliment (or react) to those surroundings. Since I am focusing on gesture, I speculate that the design of the Guajira is correlated to the cultural environment in which it developed. Moreover, it is important to understand how the cultural context related to the dance. This gives us a way to see how identity and gesture are linked and how this leads to dance’s malleability.
As discussed in lecture and in Noland’s Agency and Embodiment cultural conditions heavily effect the development of dance as well as performance. It is said that the cultural conditions that are present serve as a container in gestural improvisation and evolution. Further, movements are formed and interpreted due to their cultural context, which is how a certain movement is able to become a gesture. This gesture then becomes increasingly significant due to its cultural relativism. A gesture has the unique ability to convey something new and thus can even be thought to ‘create’ culture.
This seems far-fetched, but it is an idea that we (westerners) are actually very familiar with. For example, think about group preforming hip-hop dance; now imagine a group line dancing, jigging, hula-dancing. I speculate that for each of the preceding dances that you had a very strong image of particular culture or sub-culture performing each. Why is this, every human culture is capable of performing each of the gestural movements that make-up each dance, so why the strong associations? It is because gesture has the ability to build cultural context, and often this can be seen through the vehicle of dance.
Now, the guajira. Like those other dances, the Guajira very much developed due to its cultural environment. In Cuba during the time of the music’s origins, a new peasant class was developing. This ethnic group was made-up of peoples that were born to native peasants, but also had European ancestry. These peoples mainly worked and lived in rural areas and spent their lives farming and tending to animals, i.e sheephearding. Often viewed as ‘simple’ or unpure due to their mixed ancestory they became known as guajiros, a slang term meaning “country-folk.” Due to their segregation from the other ethnic groups and social classes in Cuba, these people began to evolve their own types of traditions, apart from popular Cuban culture. From this there was the development of lyrical poetry and music known as Guajira. This was both rhythmically and structurally unique to Guajiros. Later, specific gestures to accommodate performance began to evolve. Hence, the Guajira dance was created.
Modernly, the dance has shifted and changed (I imagine) quite a bit from its colonial rural Cuban origins. However, the very fact that the dance has shifted over time, only proves gesture’s kinship with cultural relativism and its impact on sociological development of people’s group identities. Over the hundreds of years since Guajira’s development there has been an apparent shift in prejudices, change in industry, and quite a bit of change in ethnic composition in Cuba and Latin American population. Groups mix, immigrate, leave, etc. Thus, over the years, the need to so clearly set boundaries between peoples and what specific things are associated with those peoples have shifted as well. The once strong association that Guajira music and dance had with the rural country population shifted as Cuban cultural evolved to be more metropolitan. The Dance, although still associated and based off of its rural origins is arguable no longer associated with the guajiros ethnic group, rather the music is categorized as Cuban.
As mentioned in Agency and Embodiment, Marcel Mauss developed the idea that through the awareness of body that peoples’ could find a way to re-discover their own experience and have a more empathetic experience with the other. Overtime, the interactions that Cuban peoples had with one another changed, this is time’s nature. Thus, gestural movements, shared and seen cross-culturally became more liable to change and reinterpreted. Gestures’ were adopted and, others borrowed, thus the dance (guajira) was able to maintain its association, but also play a role in gesture’s agenda to create new cultural paradigms. Hence, the dance became Guajira and the gestures of that dance were able to be taken on by whomever, not just one specific ethnicity. Contemporarily the Guajira can be a part of dances like Flamenco, rumba, and even have a presence in motion pictures like Dirty Dancing 2, because gesture has allowed it has shifted culturally and still maintain its Cuban spirit.
Hence, the Guajira will always be known as the “Guajira.” I highly doubt that there will be time where the dance is renamed “6/8 rhythm to Latin beat.” Our gestures develop from our surroundings and are activated by our social and interactional identities within that cultural. Gestures, in turn help us (or groups) define one another and offer a foreground to compromise and interact with one another as associations evolve over time. Thus, our performances for and in our cultures are instrumental in the development of new ideas and progression. Our gestures, as part of that performance, are developed as a way for us to “bargain” with the society (or context) in which they were originated. Moreover, via gesture and its tie to cultural relativism has proved that the Guajira, bumpkin-rural-originated, has a lot more to it than as it first appears.
This video is a modern Flamenco that strongly associates ITSELF with Guajira, a good example of the cross-cultural communication that gesture has over time.
Emily Fetterly
June 18, 2012
Dance, Religion and Culture
Professor Sam Gill
Application Assignment #2
As we have read in the Primacy of Movement by Sheets-Johnstone, movement is foundational to being alive because we are brought into this world with a body that has been made to move. When we see the movement of the arms or legs reaching, stretching, and squirming of an infant child, we see life itself at its most raw form. Even the very blood pumping through the human heart reflects movement; for if it were not so life would not occur. The Punta, the national dance of the country of Honduras, is a dance that is reflective of the movement of the circle of life. This dance is a celebration of the movement of life as seen in the beliefs of reincarnation the Garifunian people of Honduras.
With the roots of this dance reaching back to West Africa, the Garifunas dance the punta at the wakes of their loved ones. As I was researching this particular dance, I couldn’t help but see a connection to what we had been learning in class in regards to movement. As Professor Sam Gill stated in his lecture on the Primacy of Movement, “Life means moving from beginning to end” which I can see is reflected in the punta not only through the dance movement itself, but also through the tradition of the Garifuna people (1). Take a look at this video from this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5xOup3YaGo. As seen in the video, a group of Garifuna people gathered together to form a circle that mirrors the life from birth to death. Sets of drums are incorporated into the circle that brings the rhythm as the people sing and begin to dance. As I listened to the fast beat of the drums and watched the rapid foot movements of the dancers as well as the swift shaking of their hips, one word came to my mind to try to describe what I was hearing and that was: lively. The torso of the body seemed to remain motionless while the lower half of the body did all the hard work. I didn’t know one could move their feet so quickly and keep the control of the shaking of the hips so controlled and small. I felt like the fast paced beat of the drums resembled the heartbeat and the movement of the West African blood pumping through the veins of the dancers.
The small but rapidly controlled foot movements and hip shaking embodies the aspect of ancestral worship through reincarnation. They believe that when a person dies that person continues through the movement of life by transitioning into a “new life” from a person to an ancestor (2). The name punta means “new life,” and this is clearly seen in the movements made throughout the dance. The punta is said to symbolize fertility because when a person is transitioning from a person to an ancestor this takes place by that person’s spirit being reincarnated into the new life of a new born family member; therefore, the fertility dance is danced at the wakes of the deceased to help ensure that the deceased person’s spirit gets reincarnated (2).
The beliefs of the Garifuna people are a significant part of these peoples environment. It reminded me of when Professor Sam Gill referenced Johnson in the Movement and Meaning lecture when Johnson states: “ ’The key to my entire argument is that meaning is not just what is consciously entertained in acts of feeling and thought; instead, meaning reaches deep down into our corporeal encounter with our environment.’ “ (3). The punta is a dance that requires movement of the body that most definitely amuses the viewer’s and the dancer’s outlooks and views, but it is a deep thread woven into these peoples’ traditional environment. It means something to them because the patter of their feet and the quick shake of their hips invite interaction with their environment. It evokes remembrance of respect to their ancestors in West Africa who established the movements of the body in such a way, and the Garifuna people share in this communal established movement. As Professor Sam Gill said in his lecture on Movement and Meaning, “Meaning is grounded in felt and experienced qualities and in principled relationships all established in movement” (3). The punta means something to the Garifuna people because of the common traditional ground they stand on in their environment.
However, the punta can be danced traditionally as the video from above has shown, but can also nowadays be seen to be danced all over throughout Latin American and Caribbean countries. Punta rock has gained much popularity in Latin America and is now more of a dance that can be seen danced in social settings such as parties, holidays or celebrations (2). Today, non-traditional punta has developed more into a game that men and women play in what seems like a cock and hen situation. They compete to try to outshine the other in how fast they can shake their hips and buttocks as they tap their feet. This video is a good example of the nontraditional way of dancing punta:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNnddudFyDw. As I viewed this style of punta, I immediately saw similarities and differences. The “aliveness” was still very much a part of the entire movement as I saw represented in the rapidness of the movement, but I felt as if there was a shift between “being alive” and the “I can” quality of this movement. This was curious to me because of what we had learned in the Primacy of Movement lecture that Professor Sam Gill taught when he said, “They do not move to accomplish anything in the sense of some “I can,” but rather as being alive” (1). It reminded me of the “Anything you can do, I can do better” song from Annie Get Your Gun. Perhaps they were moving to show off an “I can” because they are celebrating being alive.
The meaning behind this non-traditional punta certainly is entertaining to watch and stimulates feelings and thoughts, but I think the environment has shifted from the traditional environment to a more modern environment. The speedy hip and buttocks movement of the dancer most definitely invites interaction to the environment, especially those with whom they are dancing. It means something to them because the bodies are moving, sharing, and engaging in the experience with others in the environment surrounding. They are celebrating life through this movement perhaps not directly through traditional culture, but through modern culture.
References
1. Gill, Sam. “Primacy of Movement.” Dancing, Culture, and Religion Lecture Series.
2. Griffin, Wendy. “Perspectives on Punta Dancing.” Honduras This Week. Standford Center for Latin American Studies, 1998. Web. http://www.stanford.edu/group/arts/honduras/discovery_eng/art/dance/punta2.html
3. Gill, Sam. “Movement and Meaning.” Dancing, Culture, and Religion Lecture Series.
Evan Sticca
Application Assignment 2
As previously stated, Chholiya has a significant historical background for the Kumauni people of Uttarakhand in Northern India, but it also has the power to symbolically transport the dancers back to the ancient days of the Kshatriyas through the process of self-othering. Dancers of Chholiya accomplish this in a variety of ways, including their dress, movement, occasion of the dance among many others. First, I refer you back to the first video of Chholiya that I posted.
I think the most immediately apparent aspect of self-othering in Chholiya is the use of traditional garb that is an identifier of the dancer’s village or regional background. As we will see later, the clothing in the first video is different from other traditional group’s clothing in other videos. This serves a purpose, the Kshatriyas were strictly divided based on region, and the clothing helped identify enemy from ally on the battlefield. In such a bellicose environment, the clothing was a sign of pride for victorious clans, and thus was worn proudly during joyous occasions. By donning the ancient garb of the Kshatriyas, the dancers of Chholiya transport their appearance back in time to their Kshatriya clan identity. Furthermore, the clothing of Chholiya is a warrior’s uniform. It is highly unlikely that anyone in modern day India identifies themselves as a warrior, being replaced by the more modern term of soldier. This alone helps to transport the mindset of the dancers back in time. Finally in the category of outward appearance are the weapons they carry. The men are armed with swords called tulwar and brass shields, the importance of which is that these weapons were only used in fighting other warriors. If an ancient Kumauni needed to go hunting he would use a bow and arrow or a spear, rather than the tulwar. The tulwar are elegant curved weapons designed to fight against an armored or shielded opponent, and the carrying of a tulwar signified the user was ready for battle. In Chholiya, they serve the same purpose, to identify the dancers as warriors ready for battle. Additionally, if the Chholiya is performed at a wedding or other occasion in which one male is being honored, the man of the hour will carry a special sword called khukri and rides a horse. This is symbolic in that only the best warriors or royalty could afford to arm themselves with khukri or afford horses to ride into battle. Specifically during weddings, the groom is called Kunwar meaning “king” in Kumaun dialect. Wearing the garb of their ancestors, dancers of Chholiya in a sense adopt an ancient identity that is integral for the dance.
The next aspect of Chholiya that has its roots in self-othering is the style of movement. In this first video, the male dancers arrange themselves in a circle surrounding a single female dancer. This is symbolic of the Kshatriyas protecting their women and even more symbolically their motherland. Additionally, if performed at a wedding, this circle version of Chholiya serves to protect the bride from any jealous demons waiting to hex the wedding. It is also important to note their circular motions and spinning during the dance. The dancers all proceed in a circle, spinning themselves while spinning in a larger circle. This is an image and movement seen throughout Indian mythology. The wheel within a wheel is a good omen, symbolizing protection and good luck for the future. This image is repeated in many folk tales, and even occurs outside of Indian tradition, such as in the Buddhist metaphor for the cycle of death and rebirth and even as the appearance of God in the book of Ezekiel. By alluding to such a universal image in mythology, the dancers transport the audience back to that mythological time. The first video listed is the actual full Chholiya ceremony, but the process begins much earlier in the day as depicted in the next videos.
The warriors and musicians first enter the village playing and dancing in pairs in miniaturized Chholiya. The paired up warriors go throughout the village and perform mock sword fights, thus rousing villagers to join the joyous procession and also to expel bad luck from every corner of the village. It is important to note that the dancing pairs start their mock fight by kneeling. This symbolizes how all warriors start off as inexperienced recruits. Their actions are initially lazy, merely parrying simple straightforward strikes. As the dance continues, the warriors quickly rise to their feet, symbolizing the mustering of both personal strength and mustering an army. Their strikes and parries quickly become more intricate, adding in flourishes and some circular motion. Finally, the dancers whirl around each other, recruiting their full circular momentum in striking. This last phase of the mock fight is symbolic of a warrior’s dedication to fight his enemy with all his might. When the mock fight is finished, the villagers will join up with the pair as they continue to the next location of the village and begin the process anew. In the next video, the dancers rouse some villagers in modern dress, even to the point that some pick up tulwar and shields of their own and briefly engage in mock fight gestures with each other. Chholiya is important to the whole community and its joyous nature entices everyone to participate and take on the ancient role of Kshatriyas.
Slowly the congregation grows and culminates when the warriors reach the location of the final ceremony, usually the bride’s house in the case of a wedding. The full Chholiya circle is then formed with the bride in the center surrounded by eight sword bearing warriors, then encircled by 14 musicians who are finally enclosed by the rest of the village. This bringing together of the community in the form of a circle is a brilliant and ancient strategy for uniting the village in joy. With closer inspection, the circular movement of Chholiya induces unity among the whole community, and has done so successfully since the ancient days of the Kshatriyas.
In ending the discussion of Chholiya, it is important to see the demographics of the dance and similarities to other culture’s dances. In Chholiya, the entire village is roused to the joyful cause of wishing a new couple a happy and lucky wedding. Men of all ages jump at the opportunity to reenact the glorious days of the Kshatriya warriors, for them it is a matter of pride in their cultural identity. In modern Western society, the closest thing we have to whole community involvement in wedding dance is the chicken dance. Even then, the audience is often begrudgingly dragged into this performance. The chicken dance seems phony because it lacks a connection to ancient culture. By engaging the audience with outward appearance of the dancers, their sleek circular movements, and the necessity of performance at an auspicious event, Chholiya transports them into the past identities of the Kshatriyas through self-othering.
References
“Folk Dances of North India” – http://www.culturalindia.net/indian-dance/folk-dances/north-india.html
“Choliya Dance – Folk Dances of Kumaon” – http://www.euttaranchal.com/uttaranchal/music_cinema/choliya_dance.php
“Choliua Dance” – http://www.himalaya2000.com/uttarakhand/dances/choliya.html
“Chhaliya Mahotsava” – http://chhaliyamahotsava.com/home.htm
Samantha Motsinger
RLST 3838
Application Assign. #2
June 20, 2012
African Gesture in Dance:
The Root of Latin America
Dance in the Latin American regions has evolved over the years into a fast-paced craze. This craze has taken over much of the dance world and even the music world that we see today. Salsa, which originated in Cuba, evolved from a melting pot of different Latin and Afro-Caribbean styles, techniques, and gestures. The word salsa “simply refers to the fusion of different rhythms” and since its creation in 1960 it has become extremely popular and has extended beyond its Latin roots. On a similar note, Samba as well has made its way into the dance scene in many different parts of the world. Recognized as a dance symbol of the Brazilian nation, the Samba gets its roots from Brazil and also in huge part it has been influenced via the slave trade from African nations and cultures. What I found so interesting in my research was that although these dances are so often recognized as Latin dances, their origins and roots come from the cultural expressions and traditions of Africa. As we delve deeper into these dance traditions, we can discover that just like the dances themselves, the names, specifically in this case the Samba, are defined as a variety of different types of music made by African slaves. What has become such a huge phenomenon here in the United States within our music, our dancing, and even sometimes our fashion sense is literally just the traditions and lifestyles within the African cultures. Things that are everyday life and are drenched in so much meaning to those of African decent, are just things we have become familiar with as a part of American culture. To get an understanding of these dance traditions I found it important to research into the African culture.
Dance within the African cultures is something that occurs as a collective group, rather than individually or in couples. Just like we see here in clubs today, these dances happen with large groups of people, all dancing to the same rhythm and beat. What is so unique about dance in the African culture however, is the fact that there is so much more to the dance than just the steps and movements; the actions are deliberate in celebrating the African culture and the people. A major difference with this type of dance is that you don’t often see any one on one dancing, which has become so common in our culture today. This is important to take note of, because the Salsa and the Samba are more often than not danced in couples, with of course a few exceptions such as the Rueda de Casino.
Dancing also very much exemplifies communal desires, values and brings about a collective creativity from the people. Traditional dances that are “performed” often are done so as a part of a larger cultural activity. The African nation uses specific dances to express certain feelings and emotions in any given circumstance. Like we see in “Gesture as Visible Action”, we often associate certain gestures to express a commonly understood meaning within our culture. Just as in the case of something as simple as throwing out a thumb on the side of the road to hitch a ride, African dances also have common gestures and movements known well within the culture and they are used as an act of communication.
Within cultural activities, we often see specific dances that express specific emotions. One example of a traditional dance is that of a Dance of Welcome. Within this tradition, this dance is to show respect and welcome to visitors, along with showing the visitors the attractiveness of those living within the specific village or dwelling place. “Yabara is a West African Dance of Welcome where a beaded gourde rattle is used within the dancing. It is thrown into the air to different heights by the female dancers to mark tempo and rhythm changes.” These dancers, who have likely been trained to put on this spectacular show of throwing these rattles in unison, dance within certain parameters and limits based on what distinguishes this Dance of Welcome from a Warrior Dance per say. In this sense the “dancer’s gesturing is the object of the dancing”. The specific movements are what distinguishes the dance, and give it a much deeper meaning that simply going through the motions.
Dancing, especially dancing that so intricately exemplifies a people or place is a powerful tool in understanding the changes and evolution of a culture or tradition. “Dancing can be and often is a powerful means by which society, normative culture, and religious principles are tested and changed.” Within the African culture, these specific dance sequences and gestures become a shared part of the culture and a set part of the practices of that culture. These gestures are the culture. They embody not only who the people are, but the essence of who the people have been over the course of years and years. Passed down from family member to family member to friend, these common gestures have become part of the traditional dances. The members within this culture carry on these gestures in the dances as a part of their history, and these practices can forever have an effect on the society as a whole and even on the individuals as well.
As an example, seen in the video above, we look at a these women dancing not as couple but in a large group. These movements move rhythmically and all in unison as well. Gestures and movements that have been practiced many times is essential to knowing the overall sequence of the dance, but also essential in dancing so in sync with others. Marcel Mauss argues that to understand gesturing it is important to understand how a certain society or culture’s ideals and values are embodied within what he calls “gestural patternings”. These gestures are the essence of the society, and they have literally been imprinted on the very being of each individual. His ideas are so extreme, that he even goes to say that they have been socially conditioned going beyond our mind, but into the “very tissues of the body”. This idea is fundamental in understanding the deeper meaning of these gestures, because just as these women dance, they gesture in a way that welcomes visitors into their society.
I had some pictures as well but they didn’t post with my previous try…here are the links at least
Aunjanique Collier
June 20, 2012
Dance, Culture, and Religion
Application Assignment #2
Many people in the American culture have heard the popular saying, “don’t judge a book by its cover.” To expand upon this quote, every topic is much more complex than what is observed on a surface level, requiring further analysis in order to gain an in depth understanding of the subject in question. Throughout the duration of this course I have learned that this saying is just as applicable to the subject of dance as it is to any other topic. Dance can be analyzed through many different dimensions such as moving, gesturing, and self-othering. For the purpose of my analysis, I would like to focus on the Kuda performed by the Tegrinya tribe of Eritrea and apply the concept of movement to the traditional dance. This dance is a perfect example of the way dancer becomes aware of themselves and their surroundings through movement.
According to Maxine Sheets-Johnstone movement is what defines our aliveness and allows us to interpret and make sense of our surroundings. Movement is to one aspect of ourselves that we are born with and do not have to learn in the way that we do with language and consciousness. Without movement, we would not be able indulge in our five senses, which as a result would make touching, smelling, hearing, tasting and seeing an impossible task. Dancing is a form of movement and even more explicitly, self-movement. It is the medium through which we are able to understand ourselves in relation to the world and also acquire awareness, knowledge and values.
As it relates to Kuda, those engaged in the dance are also making use of their kinesthetic sense. Also known as proprioception, this is the idea that we as humans are aware of our own bodies and the position of each body part in relation to others. This allows the dancers to maintain their relationship with their surroundings. Kuda is always performed in a group and in this context proprioception is immensely valuable so that the dancers are able to keep their distance from the others in the groups while also keeping the beat. This must be done unconsciously because, although the dance is relatively simple, the dance itself requires the most attention leaving no room for the dancers to think about these logistical aspects.
Kuda consists of a group of dances that shuffle their feet across the floor in a circular formation while moving in a counterclockwise direction. I have seen this dance done in a number of variations, from small groups to large, consisting of different age groups, and also different dance combinations. Many of the dances that I watched were very similar across the board, consisting of the counterclockwise shuffle ending in a “shim shim”, or the act of bouncing one’s shoulders and simultaneously slowly dropping to the floor. I recently saw a variation in this tradition where the dancers spun in a clockwise circle with their arms held straight out, then changing the direction of the larger circle. This provided me with an interesting perspective on self-movement as it relates to movement. From my perspective, I saw the larger circle as overarching movement, which was an example of each dancer changing their position in the circle. However, when each individual dancer twirled in a clockwise circle, I saw that as self movement because the action was committed by an individual.
This dance consists of two to four steps, always beginning with a counterclockwise shuffle and ending with a “shim shim”. This dance, like any other is a form of movement. In order to perform this dance, one is required to engage both mentally and physically.
This dance also engages the pattern of dancing which consists of movement to dancing back to movement. Before the dancers start the Kuda, they lightly jog onto the stage and wrap into a circle until the circle is completely formed. This act of jogging into the circle is not dancing, the dancers are only getting into formation, simply movement. When the dancers form the complete circle, they do not stop moving but their feet begin to shuffle across the floor in relation to the beat of the kraar and their arms move at their sides to the same rhythm. When the dance is complete, one of the dancers breaks the circle by shuffling out of the formation and the other dancers follow. At this point they are still dancing because they are in a shuffle to the beat but once the music stops, the dancers begin to jog again as opposed to shuffling. This act of switching from shuffling to jogging completes the pattern and brings the dance to a close.
Kuda, like any other dance, allows the dancer to simultaneously become aware of his or herself while also becoming lost in the dance. When I watched the dancers perform, they did not seem to be concentrating on each movement, instead they just moved to the beat of the song completely aware of what move came next without needing to think about it. At the same time, the dancers were aware of where they were in the formation and knew what their individual value to the dance was. Each dancer knew that the other dancers were counting on them to complete their part of the dance. This goes back to Maxine Sheets-Johnstone’s idea that dancing is both a conscious and unconscious action.
The most important aspect of this dance is that it represents Eritreans’ independence from Ethiopia which occurred 21 years ago. The dance is meant to represent freedom and each movement serves as a reminder of the struggle and ultimate gratification of the independence of Eritrea. My roommate and her mother, whom I gained most of my information about the dance from, informed me that many times the dance evokes and emotional response from the crowd in the form of cheering and sometimes even crying. This is evident in the videos that I watched and also posted last week. Because there is so much meaning behind the motions in Kuda, the dance serves as an example of the way movement can also translate meaning.
Here is another video of Kuda that is much more complex than the others. I find that this is an excellent video to portray dance as movement and suggest that you take a look. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WY1-k7sEJ4
Emily Read
20 June 2012
Professor Gill
Application Assignment #2
Gesturing and its Importance in Hip Hop and African Dance Traditions
One of the most crucial, fundamental aspects of both African dance and hip-hop dancing is gesturing. As defined by Adam Kendon in his book Gesture: Visible Action as Utterance, a gesture is a “visible action that has the features of manifest deliberate expressiveness” (Section 4: Gesturing, lesson 1). While reading the lectures about the elements of movement and gesturing, I paid more attention to the gestures of my own individual movements as a hip-hop dancer. Once I took the time to sit down and think about it further, I analyzed some choreography. These numbers were a combination of my own and of dances created by others. I immediately noticed that so much of an African or hip-hop dancer’s communication is done through means of small gestures and “call and response.” Both elements are a hugely important parts of hip-hop dancing!
By calling a dance a “street dance” or a “hip-hop” dance,” we can distinguish it from commercially developed dance styles such as Modern Dance or workout routines like Zumba. Sometimes hip-hop and street dancing requires a dancer to face another, to “battle” or portray some variety of message. The incorporation of another’s movements into how I dance has been something that I have done almost unconsciously. I began thinking, though: What drives these movements? How are stories of individual empowerment and competition revealed in these bold gestures and assertions of expertise?
While carefully remembering the choreography I have learning in the past as well as numbers I am currently working on, I noticed what can only be termed as “call and response.” During a carefully choreographed hip-hop dance, a person or group of persons would gesture with their bodies in a particular way, and the “opposing” group would respond. Within the context of hip-hop dancing, these gestures invite the audience to witness some kind of battle, or some kind of competition amid the dancers. This requires a lot of what we might call “swagger.” Swagger is, to me, a sense of excessive confidence and self-assurance. Below is one of my favorite examples of “swagger.” The choreography is by Emily Sasson of Cherry Creek Dance in Denver, and by watching it you will understand how important extreme confidence is to hip-hop dancing.
Furthermore, sometimes choreography specifically calls for a gesture such as touching the brim of your hat. In my understanding, this kind of gesture portrays an extreme sense of confidence, which is definitive of hip-hop dancing specifically.
Gesturing in hip-hop dancing can be manifested in a number of ways. Though most dancing within the hip-hop field is not overt, over the top or “in your face,” particular elements in dance battles incorporate wild movements such as spins on the head, flips, etc. The purpose of using such gestures is to establish dominance in a competition and show off a group’s skills. Some believe that hip-hop or street dancing refers to dancing in a street or using it to battle for ghetto or some other form of “urban” territory. Gesturing can also be manifested through facial expressions. The expression on a dancer’s face can convey either timidity or confidence. With street dancing or hip-hop dancing, confidence is crucial; therefore, it is crucial for a dancer to put on a confident appearance.
1934 French sociologist Marcel Mauss wrote an article entitled “Techniques of the Body;” this article focuses on the meaning of gestures and the different forms that they take. “He understood that there are three elements intertwined in these (gesturing) techniques: the mechanical/physical, the psychological, and the social” (Gill: Section 4, lesson 3). This exemplifies how a certain movement of the body can be associated with a number of different emotions. Strong movements in street and hip-hop dancing can convey a particular psychological message like overt confidence, or “swagger.”
While being an undergraduate at the University of Colorado at Boulder, I had the privilege of taking an African Dance Class. Gesturing and the element of “call and response” was definitely evident in that class. The African dance music, specifically the drums used, allow for a greater sense of call and response. African songs are sung by a soloist and then by a chorus. Like the music, dancers respond to a particular movement of a central individual. The drum is the “language” that the dancer interprets. Furthermore, African dance is visually stimulating and capable of arousing emotional responses as well as visual ones through the gestures. West African dance phrases, or sets of movements, overlap, creating a “call-and-response” pattern. Call and response is crucial not only to African dance, but to hip-hop because both thrive on the movements of others; each person involved makes movements in order to get a reaction out of others or to convey a certain message.
When I looked closer at the movements of a dancer, I took greater notice of the reasons behind such movements. So many gestures in hip-hop and street dancing have to do with portraying a sense of confidence and dominance. So much of an African, street, or hip-hop dancer’s communication is done through means of small gestures and “call and response.” Both elements are hugely important parts of hip-hop dancing!
Monica Gauthier
Application Assignment 2
Gesturing and Contemporary Dance
Picture this: you walk into a studio, lined with mirrors, the light bouncing all around from the wide windows up above. Every person in the studio is in comfortable clothing, some loose some tight, laughing and chatting with one another about their weekend plans, where they want to go for happy hour, and the new book they just bought. The teacher makes herself known, gathering everyone together, preparing to start class. This being your very first contemporary dance class, you don’t know what to expect, and intimidated you head straight to the back of the room. Everyone else seems to know exactly what they are doing, and after a brief warm-up, the teacher cranks up the volume to an upbeat song, and something shifts. One by one, all the other students that were chatting about mundane activities transform before your eyes; using flowing gestures and expressive faces, you witness the deeper connection made between mind and body movement, and in turn you are able to make a deeper connection with every one of them.
Gesturing is considered two things: the actual bodily movement of a “gesture” (for “gesturing is a subset of movement”) as well as the deeper meaning behind it (or what Professor Gill refers to as “gesture in a rich sense”). Mauss adds one more important “element,” of understanding body techniques besides the “mechanical/physical” and “psychological” and that is the “social.” Culturally, we may recognize a dance style based on distinctive movements we have been exposed to throughout our lives. If we were to enter another culture, a particular dance style and its social purpose would be completely foreign to us.
On the visual level of gesturing, there are many movements that are distinctive to contemporary dance. The three main techniques are named after historical contemporary dance figures: Merce Cunningham, Martha Graham, and Jose Limon. All three of these teachers added to contemporary dance not only with the physical gestures, but also in their psychological reasoning behind the created movement. Cunningham focused on the structure of the body and its place in space and communication. The gestures that come from his influence have to do with “the ‘line of energy’ to promote easy, natural movement” (Blackfish).” Graham’s ideas formed the opposite of natural movements with creating contractions and tension in the body. This technique displays sharp and sudden gestures, with the release becoming the fluid and natural movement depicted by Cunningham. Graham also created visible levels of dance by using the floor as a tool. Limon, like Cunningham, was concerned with energy as well; but instead of the “line” of energy, he worked with the “weight” of energy. Adding another physical level to Graham’s floor is the use of air, gravity, and suspension. By utilizing all of these body techniques, both the physical and mental idea of release must be put into action to create effortless movement. Release places “emphasis on minimizing tension in the search for clarity and fluidity and efficient use of energy and breath” (Blackfish).” All these visual cues allow viewers to tangibly understand contemporary dance.
Adding to the visual cues is auditory cues that can be used by both the dancer and the audience. For the dancer, these cues might be small reminders to complete a turn or fall to the floor, and for both the audience and the dancer the gestures paired to the music have the power to lead into the more psychological realm of experiencing dance.
“The insipient energy of dancing in itself as foundational to creation and destruction; as prior to, yet enabling, the possibility of meaning; as the gesturing that initiates the complex gestural chains that constitute life and culture and religion (Gill).” How can one gesture create a series of movements, which can be deep enough to add meaning to “life, culture, and religion”? To understand gesture culturally and religiously, an outsider would mainly rely on social, visual and auditory cues: the gestures of dance being performed, the music accompanying the dance, and the costumes and setting the dance is executed in. But an insider of a culture would not need to classify all three of these foundations to understand the dance; the comprehension of the dance would come naturally, and the meaning would be psychologically significant to them. For example, many cultures including Egypt, Romania, and Native American, have a raindance. This raindance and the gestures that accompany them would look different in every one of these cultures. But to a member of one of these societies, each gesture would a have specific meanings (many referring to crops and harvest).
Contemporary dance gestures may not have as many cues culturally or religiously, but as far as giving meaning to life, the psychology behind the fluid connection between brain and body can be witnessed in any gesture in a contemporary dance routine. Another major body technique done by successful contemporary dancers used along with the methods by Cunningham, Graham, and Limon, is improvisation. Improvisation can be done in a solo routine as well as in a couple’s routine, and it is based off of touching, feeling, and working with energy. The idea of touch is widespread, but in all its physical (I touched this) and emotional (the story touched me) meanings, it is powerful and it is the building block of gesture. Successful improvisation comes from letting go of the physical embodiment of gesture and focusing on the emotional explorations and natural urges of gesture. When watching a contemporary routine, it is easy to witness the change between the solid planned out and practiced movements to the more fluid and free spirited improvisation. Another aspect of improvisation that is quite fascinating is that no two performances will be the same. Improvisational gestures are the way the mind is exploring its inner psyche and physically expressing it. In this video, the dancer, Allison, is using space, levels, music, and improvisation to show the happiness dance brings her and yet her sadness of saying goodbye. She also uses gesture and touch towards the audience and other dancers to make her unspoken emotions clear.
Gesture does not exist without at least one social (culture and religion), physical, or emotional element. Usually, it is a combination of all three that allow both the audience and the dancer to understand the complexity behind every movement. Along with the gestures that are recognizable, there are improvisational gestures that still hold meaning, although it usually becomes a more intimate one. The expression of a gesture, along with moving and self-othering, are details very unique to dance, making it an incredible tool to better understand ourselves and our place in the world.
Works Cited
1) Rico, Marie. “Dance Teaching.” Contemporary Dance Today. N.p., 2012. Web. 12 Jun 2012.
2) Blackfish Arts Academy. “What is Contemporary Dance?.” . Blackfish Academy, 2006. Web. 18 Jun 2012. .
3) Gill, Sam. “Lectures on Gesturing.” Dance, Religion, and Culture. University of Colorado Online Courses, Boulder. Lecture.
Lenore Silberman
6/20/2012
Application #2
Gesturing and Israeli Folk Dance
Although it may not seem evident at first, a great deal of insight can gained from a careful analysis of gesture, especially if one is to consider how such movements are created, portrayed, perceived, interpreted, and come to take on symbolic meaning overtime. This paper explores the notion of gesturing in regards to Israeli folk dance and will specifically discuss gesture in terms of the creation of Israeli national identity and Israeli culture. Although the country is rather young and has been in existence for slightly over 60 years, there is no denying the vast abundance of mixed history, religion, and culture present not just in the modern state itself, but also that similar presence is found deeply embedded within modern and traditional Israeli Folk Dance.
The history of Israel is not only remarkable, yet is unique in the sense that the young country is a modern and religious state. In addition, the history of Israel dates back to ancient times and till this day the history of the state itself continues to be highly contested. Referred to as the Holy Land, due to the historical religious nature associated with the state, Israel is home to Jews, Christians, and Muslims who all feel a deep sense of religious connection and belonging to the land. Not only is the state saturated with a variety of different religions, but the country is also extremely abundant in culture. Although smaller then some American states, the country is nevertheless extremely rich in culture. Israel is home to Jews from all over the world, and in the country’s early days Jews throughout the world were encouraged to find and to make their home—a central message, which was associated with the earlier Zionist movement. In some cases the country provided refuge to Jews expelled by Hitler. Arriving for a multitude of different reasons, people from all over the world migrated and soon populated the country, and such settlement allowed for the plentiful yet diversified cultures present in the modern state today.
A great deal of time was spent describing the ways in which gesture via dance creates identification. Israeli dance, unlike many other different forms of dancing, is premised on the notion of inclusion and unification, which is rather fascinating. As mentioned earlier, Israel in the beginning became populated with a variety of different cultures, religions, and even different languages, which were brought to the state by the country’s new inhabitants. “In order to integrate these peoples, the national culture would have to be created from scratch. For the national language, Hebrew, which was a dying language at the time, was revived. New music was composed. And, of course, Israeli Folk Dancing was created” (Alpert 1997). Therefore, it becomes clearer what Sam means when he refers to dance as often being at heart of social change. In this case in particular, Israeli Folk dance and the movements involved with this particular kind of dance, which in essence are gestural patterns, have played a large role in creating and defining Israeli identity. Not only has Israeli folk dance laid out the foundations necessary to define identity, but it has done so in a way that has continually emphasized the significance of a unified and shared Israeli identity.
This concept is rather remarkable if one gives careful consideration to this idea. As discussed in lecture and evident all over the world, is the ways in which dance, and most other activities for that matter, create an in-group and an-out group, which is similar to the idea of self-othering. However, this is precisely the opposite of Israeli folk dance. Israeli folk dance was created and is based upon the notion of inclusion, unity, and creating a sense community belonging. The creators of Israeli dance, via their emphasis on community development aimed to create a community in which Jews from all over the world would feel as if they belonged as a citizen of the State of Israel. I find this to be spectacular because today it isn’t very often that one can feel welcome, part of something, and in fact be included as a member of something, or a part of a group that one may very well be unfamiliar with. It then seems like gesture in regards to Israeli folk dance not only unites mind, body, and spirit allowing for one to grasp an understanding of their personal identity, but it also seems then, at least in the case of Israeli folk dance that gesture unites groups of people based on a common identity. However it is not just identity that is brought about via the gestures associated with dance.
Israeli folk dance has played a pivotal role in the development of Israeli culture, and has done so by honoring, respecting, and incorporating a great deal of cultures, while at the same time redefining and creating new cultural meaning. For instance, Israeli folk dance reflects a combination of Romanian, Yemenite, Latin, Arabic, Turkish, Eastern-European, Russian, and Moroccan culture. Today all these different cultures continue to be incorporated along with other forms of dancing, such as hip-hop and Latin dancing, which are becoming of popular influence. It was discussed in lecture that humans identify with land gesturally, that is they identify with their place of origin. It was mentioned that we act and portray our cultures through gestures, and in this case Israeli folk dance, it’s how we reveal our membership to a specific culture, and we share gestures with everyone in our community, and this is also true for Israeli dancers even though their communities are composed of varieties of cultures.
However, unlike the Australian aboriginals who identify themselves personally and culturally with specific tracks of land, Israeli’s no matter where they’re originally from identify themselves to Israel and Israeli culture in a much more all-inclusive manner. Furthermore, unlike the aboriginal jump dance discussed in class, which uses religion and culture to transform individuals into members of society while at the same allowing them to enact their identity, Israeli folk dance instead is culturally all-encompassing and is premised on the inclusion of multiple identities, yet at the same time allows one to become a member of Israeli society and identify themselves as Israeli no matter what tract of land they came from.
Therefore, in the case the gestures associated with Israeli folk dance do indeed pull in two opposite directions. Israeli folk dance is the expression of one’s personal identity and personal culture, but at the same time the dance also creates culture and identity, which then becomes inculturated within society. I hope that this discussion of gesturing gives one a better understanding of the ways in which Israeli folk dance and its associated gestures are unique and differ greatly from all other forms of dance, especially in regards to the creation of identity and culture.
Resources:
http://israelidance.berkeley.edu/history.html
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_folklore_research/v044/44.1roginsky.html
Click to access etd-Newstadt-20070416.pdf
Click to access culturalformation.pdf
http://etd.ohiolink.edu/view.cgi/Schmidt%20Amy.pdf?osu1213619443
http://projects.csail.mit.edu/ifd/
(^ A video index of hundreds of Israeli folk-dance videos and many of the ones I used for research for this assignment)
Application Assignment #2
Gestures of Square Dancing
Introduction
In this project I will attempt to analyze Square dancing for the gestures which it contains, and what those gestures could possible mean. This task was made infinitely harder by the fact that I have not danced much in the past, let alone participated in square dancing. Although my experience in dance is limited I am steeped in American morals and values and will attempt to tackle this subject by first looking at system of morality square-dancing could possess in its gestures, and then look at the individual morals of the system and see if they possibly apply to gestures used in square dancing.
Square Dance – The Dance of Modern Judeo-Christian Morality
It does not take a genius to conclude that square-dance has evolved to encompass Judeo-Christian morals. The following image was taken from “The Square Dancers Handbook” and clearly demonstrates the point I am making. [3]
As you can see the rules are designed emulate the 10 Commandments found in Jewish and Christian Scripture. This country was established on Judeo-Christian ideals, so it is no wonder that the dance that defined this country was a Judeo-Christian dance. This merely gives us a context to work from, and does not answer the question as to what specific values square dancing teaches through its gestures.
The Square
Just like the graffiti artist moving their body to create paintings on a wall, square dancers align themselves in the shape of a square facing each other, as the basic position from which all other moves or gestures are performed. Why a square? Why not a circle or a triangle or any of the other shapes that a group of people can make while standing together? The square is symbolic in Christianity for multiple reasons. The square is associated with the number four. In Christianity the number four can represent the four corners of the Earth [2]. The number four can also symbolize the four Evangelists; Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John [2]. In more modern times it has come to represent a nimbus (or halo) where it represents a saintly person who is still living at the time the artwork was completed [1]. The number four can also represent the four seasons and thereby representing the Earth in general [2]. The picture below depicts Pope Paschal I in a mosaic in Santa Prassede, Rome from the early 9th century.
The square halo and what it represented was common imagery in early Christendom and was around before square-dancing came into being. This could be one reason that the square is used as a gesture in square dancing. The gesture of a group formed square could be used to teach the participants to be saintly while living their lives and having some fun.
The square as a gesture in square dancing could also be used to represent the four corners of the earth. The phrase “the four corners of the earth” is used multiple times throughout Christian scripture. One such place is in Isaiah 11:12 where it reads “And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.” The gesture of the square could be present in square dancing to teach individuals the idea of bringing all people together, and that square dancing is not for the Aristocrat or the slave but for every Christian to gather together and be one.
The first minute of the following video shows an overhead view of some folks doing a traditional square dance. In this video you can see the distinct formation and return back to the gesture of the group square.
Men Bow Women Curtsey
Whether you like the idea or not traditional square dance is set up to create formality and respect between the genders. It may be thought that there is no way that a dance which holds Christian morals and which comes from early America creates formality and respect between the sexes. I find it hard to believe myself!! Who knew that there was an attempt in our society in early America, to instill such values into people; yet one of the very first gestures that individuals perform in a square dance (after forming a square) is to bow and curtsey to their partner. These two gestures show respect and gratitude and when shown at the same time, are a sign of mutual respect. The following video shows the action of the bow and courtesy and in this particular dance this gesture is performed multiple times throughout the dance.
In both Christian and Jewish tradition Bowing (and the curtsey for women) is a gesture that is largely lost and no longer performed. Eastern Orthodoxy had several different degrees of bowing and each stage of the gesture contained a different meaning. [4]
Ultimately the bowing and curtsey that is performed in square-dance is to be a minor form of the bowing that is to be performed by individuals for God. This bowing and bended knee action of the curtsey could teach the individual the action involved in praying and bowing down to God.
Do-si-Do
Dosado as it is spelled in some cases is one of the basic movements of not only square dancing, but many other traditional folk dances like polka and some reels. This move is performed by circling ones partner while facing in one direction the entire time. The terms do-si-do or dosado are derived from the French word dos-à-dos which meant back to back. This wording comes from the fact that the partners find themselves back to back halfway through this series of gestures [5]. Traditionally this move was performed, and is still performed, with each individual having their arms folded across their chest. The gesture of folding arms across the chest is directly taken from early Christianity and is used in times of prayer. This gesture of folding arms also creates a situation where individuals performing the dosedo are able to touch bodies on the side or back, but are unable to engage in any inappropriate touching with arms or hands.
This gesture of folding arms not only teaches the gesture of Christian prayer, but also teaches the value of respectful touching in dancing, and in society. The following video vividly illustrates the point that is trying to be made with the entire gesture of the dosedo.
As the children in this video show in their action, the dosedo is a gesture that allows for respectful touching and movement around a partner of the opposite sex. The movement of the dosedo in this video is not much different than the gesture in the picture below, other than the children are moving around while performing the gesture.
I could not leave this serious discussion about religion and dance without leaving you with a bit of humor. While looking for images of square dancing I came across the following image and thought initially that it was a picture of people square dancing. Upon closer examination, I realized that the people were praying and that there was a funny little caption underneath.
The fascinating thing about this funny image, is that the gesture of the group involved is similar to the gesture that is performed in the square dance, when the whole group grabs hands and circles around. So next time you are square dancing you may want to ask yourself; is this just a fun little dance, or am I training my body for Christianity? Ciao.
Works Cited
1. “Halo.” Peter and Linda Murray, Oxford Dictionary of Christian Art (2004). Last viewed: June 2012
2. “Symbols in Christian Art and Architecture.” Walter E. Gast. . Last viewed: June 2012.
3. “The Square Dancers Handbook.” Grand Canyon Square Dance Association. May 9, 2009. Last viewed: June 2012.
4. “Bowing.” Wikipedia the free Encyclopedia. June 18 2012. Last viewed: June 2012
5. “Dosado.” Wikipedia the free Encyclopedia. March 30 2012.. Last viewed: June 2012.
Salp’uri: An Analysis of Dance Neurophysiology, the Primacy of Movement, and the Mind/Body Dichotomy within the Korean Folk Dance
Dr. Sam Gill’s “Movement” lectures and Maxine Sheets-Johnstone’s “Primacy of Movement” article address the common theme that all of our knowledge, whether about the world or ourselves, comes from our ability to move within our environment. From this somewhat broad concept, Sam focuses it on dancing, and establishes the effectiveness of recognizing that dancing is moving, yet differentiating between the two because moving is not necessarily dancing. Keeping this in mind, I will argue Salp’uri upholds the concept that dancing is moving by systematically comparing it to the five sense in order to discover which sense is the Salp’uri dancer’s sense, then I will explain the neurophysiology of dance and the ways it differs from general neurophysiology via a close reading of the mind/body dichotomy and the primacy of movement, and with these examinations I will, lastly, prove that Salp’uri dancers are aware of the primacy of movement per an analysis of the innate symbolism associated with Salp’uri as well as the dancer’s purposeful movements that demonstrates her self-awareness learned through kinesthetic experience.
Salp’uri is a Korean folk dance that is performed on three occasions. First, it was used to cleanse a shaman’s psyche from the “sal,” or curse, after she performed an exorcism; however, this application is rare nowadays. Second, it continues to be a way widows can come to peace with the death of their husband and, third, it is performed as entertainment because it is considered one of Korea’s most creative traditional dances.
Similar to the process Sam went through to discover which of the five senses the dancer’s sense is, I tried to do this with Salp’uri. I concluded that taste in a literal way is unlikely because neither banishing a “sal” nor reconnecting with a deceased loved one would create a distinctive flavor. Equally unlikely is smell because as entertainment the dancer is by herself on stage, so she could be aware of her own scent but, clearly, it is not essential to her dance. Furthermore, while sight is important to dance, expelling evil or offering peace to a late companion could easily be done with one’s eyes closed, and although music accompanies the dance in an artistic setting, music would not necessarily be part of a ritualized Salp’uri dance. Of the five senses, touch is the most plausible because the dancer is always in contact with the floor, and an essential component of the dance is holding a long white handkerchief because it symbolizes the purification of the mind. However, touch is often defined as occurring between two people, and Salp’uri is always danced solo. In the end, I was left in the same predicament as Sam until I applied his “kinesthetic sense,” or, scientifically, the neurophysiology of dance.
An important concept in the movement lectures pertaining to the neurophysiology of dance is the disproval of the mind/body dichotomy. In a commonsensical understanding, in other words a folk theory that is accepted as the norm although it is not necessarily true, we think of the mind and body as separate. For example, within Christianity, each person has a spirituality or mind that is contained inside of his or her physical body, and when we die, it is commonly assumed that our soul or mind will leave our body behind in order to ascend to heaven.
Returning to dance neurophysiology, this type is essential to dance because it treats the mind and body as one. That is, kinesthetic or bodily experience affects the proprioceptors, located in the muscles and ligaments, that afferently feed information to the brain through the sensorimotor system. Thus, when an afferent signal tells the brain that the muscle is, for example, stretched too far, an efferent signal is directed from the brain back to the proprioceptors to release the muscle to prevent injury. Therefore, these automatic impulses from the cooperation of the brain and sensorimotor system develop the primacy of movement, which is where general neurophysiology and the neurophysiology of dance differ. Specifically, when general neurophysiologists refer to the sensorimotor system they are only referring to the sensorimotor cortex, which is part of the brain, not the body, and, in this way, they can argue the mind and body are separate. However, dance neurophysiologists recognize the sensorimotor system as a whole, including the proprioceptors that sense bodily movement and, in this way, the mind and body are interconnected since the body is only able to move when the brain and sensorimotor system work together.
Logically, this differentiation between general and dance neurophysiologies leads us to the primacy of movement, which I understand to be the central way we experience life. However, it is not a conscious action; instead, one that is inherent to being alive because our bodily movement is controlled by our sensorimotor system via our proprioceptors and five senses, and teaches us the importance of our kinesthetic sense, or consciousness. Likewise, Sheets-Johnstone argues that we need to think of our mind and body as interconnected because “our sense of self, our self-awareness, our perceptions and perceptive knowledge, our ability to act in our world, our agency are founded on self-movement and the experience we acquire through moving in and interacting with our bodies and world.” In other words, this is the definition of the primacy of movement because everything we are in the world, including our sense of self, our self-awareness, and the knowledge we gain from our environment all come from our movement and interaction with it, and in these bodily experiences we are able to act and gain agency through our actions.
In regards to Salp’uri, although I realize and accept that the primacy of movement is non-conscious, I think Salp’uri is a unique type of dance in that it is used to understand life on a deeper level. A main goal of Salp’uri is to express introvertedness through physical movements. On the surface, this concept seems contradictory, but I wonder if the dancer is aware of her kinesthetic sense and realizes it is part of her inner being. In other words, she understands how significant her interaction with the world is and appreciates that the understanding of this importance comes from her movement within it. Thus, when she is dancing, she demonstrates her awareness of the interconnection between mind and body with outwardly controlled movements and limited physical mobility, which makes sense because if her inner being is supposed to be introverted, her outwardly movements should be reserved. Additionally, the dance has elements of jung-joong-dong, a serenely active yet silent thought process that could signify the development of understanding that the mind and body are linked. In other words, when she pauses she is symbolizing jung-joong-dong or her understanding that the primacy of movement affects her actions. Then when she chooses to move by snapping the arm and hand that hold the handkerchief, she is acknowledging how the primacy of movement is a continual loop since her movement will give her more self-awareness and knowledge of the world, which, consequently, will give her the agency to move again.
On the other hand, the dancer is admired for her strong human will because she is inspired by surges of strong emotions, understandable if dancing to banish a “sal” or coping with the recent death of a loved one. While this could be an argument against her awareness of her primacy of movement, I believe it is more evidence that supports my claim. After the outwardly event of a death, which can move her in physical and especially emotional ways, her self-awareness and knowledge that comes from the Salp’uri dance, meaning the bodily movement of coming to terms with her loss, gives her the ability to react to the tragedy and also the agency to decide in what manner she will react. In other words, the primacy of movement associated with Salp’uri is the way she accepts the death then offers peace to the deceased by leading them to heaven.
Thinking again about the mind/body dichotomy, Salp’uri is another example of the way mind and body are inseparable during dance because of the dancer’s ability to connect with the deceased spiritually from the mind of her soul and from the body through her movements, as well as neurophysiologically from her brain (mind) and from her proprioceptors (body). Therefore, I believe, I have proven that Salp’uri dancers require and maintain a sixth sense through their intense self-awareness that can only come from a complex understanding of the primacy of movement, shown by her acceptance that the mind and body are dependent on each other, and her realization that only through movement can she gain a deeper knowledge of her world.
– Works Cited –
Gill, Sam. “Dancing is Moving, but not all Moving is Dancing.” Dancing, Culture, and Religion Lecture Series, n.d. PDF file.
—. “Kinesthetic Sense – The Dancer’s Sense.” Dancing, Culture, and Religion Lecture Series, n.d. PDF file.
—. “Movement & Meaning.” Dancing, Culture, and Religion Lecture Series, n.d. PDF file.
—. “The Primacy of Movement.” Dancing, Culture, and Religion Lecture Series, n.d. PDF file.
Sheets-Johnstone, Maxine. “The Primacy of Movement.” Advances in Consciousness Research: The Primacy of Movement. Ed. Maxim Stamenov. Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2011. 131-39, 232-46. Print.
Erika Heilman
Assignment #2
Understanding Cuban “Casino” Style Salsa Dancing and Gestural Patterns
As soon as she raised her neck and locked her eyes with his, their hands came up and met. Their feet stepped in and out quickly as their bodies moved together with the salsa music. Connected by not only their hands, they seemed to simply spin into place. At first, the patterns in which they move seem to decorate their bodies. But the more they danced, the gestures influenced the bodies of these salsa dancers. Evidently shaped to do so, the single couple spun each other into place.
There exists a simple understanding of casino style salsa dance as just a dance to salsa music. However, to view it that way would only be skimming the surface. After reading articles and blogs on Cuban casino style salsa and watching many videos, I believe a rich understanding of casino style salsa dance does include the salsa music, as well as the history and the culture of Cuba and the individual. While starting off watching videos of salsa dancers, I noticed they tend to continuously dance around each other, being very close then separating and stepping away from each other to do some freestyle.
In these video clips the same patterns are evident; the spinning close in together and the breaking away to freestyle dance. I believe casino salsa dance can be compared to a poem. Yes the dancers gesture and could be expressing themselves and communicating something, just as a poem is full of sentences or phrases written in words with a possible meaning. Yet these words that were created to say something, actually say more than what is just in plain sight. The words derive from the history and experience of the writer and of the time, place and language they are written in. Likewise, the gestural patterns say much more, they are an insight to the culture, and the individual. The existence of a poor understanding of casino style salsa dance as a simple dance to salsa music can emerge from a poor understanding of gesture as an expression and or communication.
To grasp a rich understanding of gesturing we must recognize that gesturing is much more than communication and expression; gesturing goes beyond this limited view. A rich understanding develops through analysis of our experiences and perceptions. Through gestures we can experience not only others, and the world around us but we can also experience ourselves. Carrie Noland replaces the term “movement” with the term “gesture” in “Agency and Embodiment: Performing Gestures/Producing Culture” to describe organized forms of movement and the ways in which subjects experience and change their worlds (4). An example of this can be seen when efforts are made to decipher or understand a dance that is unfamiliar. Looking only at the gestures as an expression is only a single story and does not provide a deeper understanding to the gestures and how powerful they really are. When dancers creating new gestures or alterations to existing gestures, they use what they already know. The only reason they are able to do so is because of the knowledge they have acquired from the experience of using the gestures. With the implication of kinesis being organized, gesture then provides an insight that movement is not simply an expression but is also influenced by culture (Noland, 7). To approach Cuban “casino” style salsa dance with this in mind, it is my approach to discuss the gestures present in this dance and how exactly they are shaped by culture, and furthermore discuss individual gestures and how they are able to be altered and what type of experience and perception this creates.
Through applying gesturing patterns to the casino style salsa dance I watched many videos. From the start, I instantly felt a connection to salsa dance in general. Realizing that I kept searching for dances that had a single couple and danced in a circle, I did research and found that what was calling to me was casino style. As I watched these videos I also realized that I was gesturing, lifting my shoulders and twisting my hips, as I watched the dancers master these gestural patterns. As they touched and connected I felt touched and connected. The depths of their gestures gave light to the cultural values that shined from their quick moving feet, twisting hips and arms. These gestures that I watched sunk in deeply and fueled a curiosity about just what aspects of the Cuban culture am I feeling? I feel that the gestures implicate a rich culture full of life and history from Cuba. As I have read, the casinos in Cuba were popular so people would go there to dance. Later having to move to community halls, the name of casino style stuck. I can feel the excitement, livelihood, and love of life and experiences through the gestures because of how quickly and smoothly the dancers touched each other. Surprisingly, this touch aspect to gesture that I was experiencing was strongest when the couple I was watching broke away from each other. No longer physically touching they danced on the same beat, moving together but each with a change, each with an alter to a familiar move that explored gesturing through using their bodies.
They are able to alter the gestures because of the knowledge they have already gained from performing them. I believe that the touch aspect was felt most deeply when they were not physically touching because of how their gestures seemed to implicate known patterns but with individual identity, that they were displaying an understanding of the world around them, of each other and of themselves; made possible only by their bodily investigation and experience of gesture.
Through a deeper understanding of gesture I am able to more deeply appreciate casino salsa dance. Having never been trained in dance or taken a salsa class, I was curious as to how being aware of gestural patterns would change my experience and interaction with those around me and the world if I were dancing, especially if I were to be learning casino style salsa dancing. After pondering over the possibilities of what that experience would be like, I realized that the gesturing I already know has shaped my body and will continue to do so, changing my world; that this is the very concept I am analyzing, that we use our bodies to experience gestures as a way to participate in, observe and change the world around us.
Works Cited:
Noland, Agency and Embodiment, “Introduction,” pp. 1-17
Noland, Agency and Embodiment, Marcel Mauss, pp. 18-54
Gill, Sam. “Gesture, Visible Action as Utterance” Dance, Religion and Culture Lecture Series.
Gill, Sam. “Gesture and Agency, Dancing as Gesturing” Dance, Religion and Culture Lecture Series
Gill, Sam. “Dancing as Techniques of Body: Marcel Mauss” Dance, Religion and Culture Lecture Series
Gill, Sam. “Gesturing and Touching” Dance, Religion and Culture Lecture
Series
Gill, Sam. “Touch and SalsAmigos Dancing” Dance, Religion and Culture Lecture Series
Hip hop dance is a growing dance culture in many different cities, countries and streets as of today. It has become such a fundamental dance that has been modernized and has been kept historical through the years and it is being portrayed in the cultural aspect a lot more, especially in the media today.
Hip Hop dance is a self expressive, complicated dance that utilizes gesturing and movement as a key component to defining oneself through physical movements that include hand and arm movements, leg movements and many other bodily movements. This particular dance, along with many others is crucially analyzed by many different dimensions of moving, gesturing and self-othering. This analysis will focus on movement as a fundamental key to this type of dance because it allows for this dance to even be possible. It will further explore movement in conjunction with gesturing to complete what hip hop dance is all about.
Without movement, hip hop dance would be absolutely nothing. Moving is a key to dance and as stated by Sam Gill, “….dancing is a kind of moving and always occurs in the context of human movement. Dancing certainly shares something of the qualities and importance of all human movement, while being discontinuous with other kinds of movement.” With this statement, Sam Gill states that dancing is a type of movement that exists in order to accomplish a certain type of dance. This lecture also goes into how all moving is not dancing, but dancing is moving. This is agreeable, yet in hip hop dance, there are so many questionable moves to whether it is just moving versus if it is considered as hip hop dance and this is true because of the culture of this type of dance. Movement is defined by Maxine Sheets-Johnstone as our aliveness and through movement, we are able to interpret our culture and our surroundings in life. This movement in hip hop dance is understood by so many different types of movements that we will explore.
Movement through reaching with the arms, stretching legs, grasping, movement in the hips, flipping upside down are all parts of hip hop dance that is seen in many dances. Break dancing consists of freezes and Bboying, popping includes waving and liquiding, Krumping is where you wobble, do arm swings and chest pop, Locking is essentially the robot dance, and the list goes on. As one can see, hip hop dance has all of these movements that represent this dance and movement is such a crucial aspect.
These movements portrayed in this video are mostly breakdancing and freezing although there are other elements included. I believe that through all of these movements, individuals are able to move in unison through many hand swings, flips in the air, intensive leg movements that make the moves dramatic. When they pop and lock, throughout this whole dance, there are not many repetitional moves because each dancer has their own type of specific move that defines them. Of course there are some repetitional fundamental moves, but these people are able to utilize their whole “crew” and they emphasize these movements. These movements require a lot of letting the body move the way that you desire it to. Using your body as an instrument is over time, self-othering. Many hip hop dancers let their bodies move, obviously with some control, many free-style dances are brought up with this idea. Like Twyla Tharp says, the dancers body becomes someone else but at the same time, she is the individual that is dancing. The body sometimes has a mind of its own and this contributes to many ideas of particular moves that hip hop dance consists of. This is understood as gestural patterns and the body is used as a tool for this. Sheets-Johnstone says that “We literally discover ourselves in movement…we grow into those distinctive ways of moving that come with our being the bodies we are.” She means that by the way that we move, we can really define ourselves and we discover new movements each and everyday. In hip hop dance, this statement is so apparent because of the new moves that are discovered and the ability continues to grow along with the flexibility of movement. The longer one has been dancing, especially hip hop, the more flexible and free the body is able to move. She also says that “we discover arms that extend, spines that bend, knees that flex, mouths that shut, and so on.” Hip hop dance does a lot of extending the arms, legs and bending the spine in ways where you could not even imagine.
While movement definitely takes place in hip hop dance, so does gesturing. Gesturing is known as moving a part of one’s body in order to express an idea. This is certainly practiced in hip hop dance because along with all of these movements, dancers are able to express how they feel towards one another in specific battles. Like in the first video, there are many hand gestures and facial remarks that are made between the two battling teams. This scene portrays the battle between the two crews and this gesture is known particularly as “call and response”. It is interesting to see this in action because there are many gestural remarks that are acted. Marcel Mauss emphasizes that gesturing is inseparable from touch. Hip hop dance is all about touch especially when you are dancing with a specific crew or a group of people. They are all incorporated and in sync, with movements that incorporate touching each other depending on the dance. The gestures utilized in hip hop dance can create space, body movements, attitudes of posture and actions respond to gesture.
Sam Gill says gesturing is “not a onetime movement, but rather an iteration of a movement pattern established through high repetition”. This means that hip hop is does not just consist of moving one way or another way but it is a dance that is made up of patterns that define dance to be categorized as hip hop. repetitious, yet always creative and new. It is routine but at the same time, improvisational in the movements because of the variety of dances that exist for hip hop. Since gestures are clearly reiterated and learned in hip hop, we are able to see similar movements but the important aspect of this type of dance is how the dancer makes it theirs. This is what the crowd responds to and this is where the respect between the dancers is gained. It is also stated that these gestures are mechanical/physical, psychological, and the social. There are no natural ways for adults to act, but there are techniques that they know to use. Through all of this we should all now know that using the body as an instrument is extremely important in the dance of hip hop especially because of the types of movements the body has to overcome in this dance.
Works Cited:
Gill, Sam. “Dancing is Moving, but not all Moving is Dancing.” Dancing, Culture, and Religion Lecture Series, n.d. PDF file.
Gill, Sam. “Lectures on Gesturing.” Dance, Religion, and Culture. University of Colorado Online Courses, Boulder. Lecture.
Gill, Sam. “Movement & Meaning.” Dancing, Culture, and Religion Lecture Series, n.d. PDF file.
Gill, Sam. “The Primacy of Movement.” Dancing, Culture, and Religion Lecture Series, n.d. PDF file.
Sheets-Johnstone, Maxine. “The Primacy of Movement.” Advances in Consciousness Research: The Primacy of Movement. Ed. Maxim Stamenov. Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2011. 131-39, 232-46. Print.
Hip hop dance is a growing dance culture in many different cities, countries and streets as of today. It has become such a fundamental dance that has been modernized and has been kept historical through the years and it is being portrayed in the cultural aspect a lot more, especially in the media today.
Hip Hop dance is a self expressive, complicated dance that utilizes gesturing and movement as a key component to defining oneself through physical movements that include hand and arm movements, leg movements and many other bodily movements. This particular dance, along with many others is crucially analyzed by many different dimensions of moving, gesturing and self-othering. This analysis will focus on movement as a fundamental key to this type of dance because it allows for this dance to even be possible. It will further explore movement in conjunction with gesturing to complete what hip hop dance is all about.
Without movement, hip hop dance would be absolutely nothing. Moving is a key to dance and as stated by Sam Gill, “….dancing is a kind of moving and always occurs in the context of human movement. Dancing certainly shares something of the qualities and importance of all human movement, while being discontinuous with other kinds of movement.” With this statement, Sam Gill states that dancing is a type of movement that exists in order to accomplish a certain type of dance. This lecture also goes into how all moving is not dancing, but dancing is moving. This is agreeable, yet in hip hop dance, there are so many questionable moves to whether it is just moving versus if it is considered as hip hop dance and this is true because of the culture of this type of dance. Movement is defined by Maxine Sheets-Johnstone as our aliveness and through movement, we are able to interpret our culture and our surroundings in life. This movement in hip hop dance is understood by so many different types of movements that we will explore.
Movement through reaching with the arms, stretching legs, grasping, movement in the hips, flipping upside down are all parts of hip hop dance that is seen in many dances. Break dancing consists of freezes and Bboying, popping includes waving and liquiding, Krumping is where you wobble, do arm swings and chest pop, Locking is essentially the robot dance, and the list goes on. As one can see, hip hop dance has all of these movements that represent this dance and movement is such a crucial aspect.
These movements portrayed in this video are mostly breakdancing and freezing although there are other elements included. I believe that through all of these movements, individuals are able to move in unison through many hand swings, flips in the air, intensive leg movements that make the moves dramatic. When they pop and lock, throughout this whole dance, there are not many repetitional moves because each dancer has their own type of specific move that defines them. Of course there are some repetitional fundamental moves, but these people are able to utilize their whole “crew” and they emphasize these movements. These movements require a lot of letting the body move the way that you desire it to. Using your body as an instrument is over time, self-othering. Many hip hop dancers let their bodies move, obviously with some control, many free-style dances are brought up with this idea. Like Twyla Tharp says, the dancers body becomes someone else but at the same time, she is the individual that is dancing. The body sometimes has a mind of its own and this contributes to many ideas of particular moves that hip hop dance consists of. This is understood as gestural patterns and the body is used as a tool for this. Sheets-Johnstone says that “We literally discover ourselves in movement…we grow into those distinctive ways of moving that come with our being the bodies we are.” She means that by the way that we move, we can really define ourselves and we discover new movements each and everyday. In hip hop dance, this statement is so apparent because of the new moves that are discovered and the ability continues to grow along with the flexibility of movement. The longer one has been dancing, especially hip hop, the more flexible and free the body is able to move. She also says that “we discover arms that extend, spines that bend, knees that flex, mouths that shut, and so on.” Hip hop dance does a lot of extending the arms, legs and bending the spine in ways where you could not even imagine.
While movement definitely takes place in hip hop dance, so does gesturing. Gesturing is known as moving a part of one’s body in order to express an idea. This is certainly practiced in hip hop dance because along with all of these movements, dancers are able to express how they feel towards one another in specific battles. Like in the first video, there are many hand gestures and facial remarks that are made between the two battling teams. This scene portrays the battle between the two crews and this gesture is known particularly as “call and response”. It is interesting to see this in action because there are many gestural remarks that are acted. Marcel Mauss emphasizes that gesturing is inseparable from touch. Hip hop dance is all about touch especially when you are dancing with a specific crew or a group of people. They are all incorporated and in sync, with movements that incorporate touching each other depending on the dance. The gestures utilized in hip hop dance can create space, body movements, attitudes of posture and actions respond to gesture.
Sam Gill says gesturing is “not a onetime movement, but rather an iteration of a movement pattern established through high repetition”. This means that hip hop is does not just consist of moving one way or another way but it is a dance that is made up of patterns that define dance to be categorized as hip hop. repetitious, yet always creative and new. It is routine but at the same time, improvisational in the movements because of the variety of dances that exist for hip hop. Since gestures are clearly reiterated and learned in hip hop, we are able to see similar movements but the important aspect of this type of dance is how the dancer makes it theirs. This is what the crowd responds to and this is where the respect between the dancers is gained. It is also stated that these gestures are mechanical/physical, psychological, and the social. There are no natural ways for adults to act, but there are techniques that they know to use. Through all of this we should all now know that using the body as an instrument is extremely important in the dance of hip hop especially because of the types of movements the body has to overcome in this dance.
Works Cited:
Gill, Sam. “Dancing is Moving, but not all Moving is Dancing.” Dancing, Culture, and Religion Lecture Series, n.d. PDF file.
Gill, Sam. “Lectures on Gesturing.” Dance, Religion, and Culture. University of Colorado Online Courses, Boulder. Lecture.
Gill, Sam. “Movement & Meaning.” Dancing, Culture, and Religion Lecture Series, n.d. PDF file.
Gill, Sam. “The Primacy of Movement.” Dancing, Culture, and Religion Lecture Series, n.d. PDF file.
Sheets-Johnstone, Maxine. “The Primacy of Movement.” Advances in Consciousness Research: The Primacy of Movement. Ed. Maxim Stamenov. Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2011. 131-39, 232-46. Print.
Emily Potter
App #2
June 20, 2012
Irish dancing: Movement
We experience movement as soon as we are born and take it with us for the rest of our lives. Movement is what keeps us going as humans. Maxine Sheets-Johnstone said, “In the beginning, we are simply infused with movement-not merely with a propensity to move, but with the real thing.” It is how we discover ourselves and how we grow into these distinct characteristics that make us who we are today. Movement is a foundation to our perception of ourselves. We learn movement when we reach our hands out to catch our fall, to increase power in our legs when kicking a ball or simply even walking across town to catch a taxi. Every movement is its own experience in itself and when we dance, we experience new movements.
However, though dancing consists of movements, not all movements are considered dancing. For example, the Firedance (though not a part of the actual irish dancing part of the show) from Riverdance , Maria Pages does not start truly “dancing” until she has finished her specific movements:
Yes, her arms are gracefully flowing above her and her wrists and fingers are bending and curving along with the music, but she is not dancing. These gestures are adding to the shadowy tease of the dance. The music is of slower rhythm and has a slower, “sexier” sound to it before it jumps into the “bouncy” rhythmic sound that begins the actual dancing. At about 1min:15sec, Page slightly begins a slower, more sultry kind of movement that almost becomes a slow dance. She then walks down the stairs (obviously not dancing down the stairs, but moving down them) to take her spot and dance. At 1:48 is where it all begins! Her movement finally then becomes dancing. Her feet passionately stomp to the beat and her skirt is whipped around her body with pure femininity. She not only is performing an attractive dance, but she is portraying herself as a dancer. Her movements that she creates into a dance is what makes her a dancer.
I quote Sam Gill in his Movement and Perception lecture when I say, “Dancing as self-movement with qualities of moving and interacting with the environment that are prescribed by culture and religion clearly has an impact on even our most basic experiences of perceiving the world in which we live.” If we grew up studying Tap dancing and Jazz music, we would more than likely distinct ourselves as specifically a Tap dancer. We would then surround ourselves with other Tap dancers and Tap cultures. However, if we grew up studying Irish dancing and Irish music, we would be Irish dancers in Irish culture. If the two cultures and dance styles came together, what would happen? Would there be a dance off of what dance style is better? In Riverdance, “The Dance” shows what would happen:
Tap dancers dancing to Jazz starts off the particular part of the show. It immediately introduces the audience to the culture and dance these particular dancers (most likely) grew up around. We notice their lively arm movements, and my personal favorite, the raw (actual) sounds of their shoes on the dance floor (not pre-recorded!!) To add to the culture is the Jazz musician appearing on stage, as well. Not only do we get a sense of the dance culture, but the music, too. The Irish dancers then come in and are oddly observed by the Tap dancers. It is then aware that both dance cultures are not the same. Both are skeptical of each other and try to understand one another. It begins as “making fun” of the other’s dance, takes of into a dance off, then ends in both dances working together as one. While they dance, the Tap dancers make fun of the Irish dancers. The Tap dancers immitate the other men. Suddenly, the Tap dancers are all of a sudden Irish dancers for a few seconds! Same with the Irish dancers; they become Tap dancers for a moment. However, thought these dancers are able to do another style of dance, their style is still their own that they grew up with. Though the Tap dancers are able to Irish dance for a moment, their own personal style of Irish dance still consists of a bit of Tap style. No matter how hard they try, the Tap dancers are still Tap dancers and the Irish dancers are still Irish dancers. And they couldn’t be happier about it.
Riverdance is not only about Irish dancing, but in essence, the story of the Irish culture and of the Irish immigration to America. The show not only displays the cultural dance, but other cultural dances as well. It hits on Flamenco, Russian and Tap. The other dances that the show proudly displays is based on the areas that the Irish immigrants were while coming to America. Personally, I think that Riverdance best sums up the dance history and culture of the Irish. As an Irish dancer, it is a show that I am very proud of (and have memorized like thousands of other Irish dancers). Though I have a personal connection to the show, Riverdance and Irish dancing shows off not only its dancing, but its movements; the movements of the dancers and the movements of Irish people coming to America.
Movement of the Tango
“Sssh. Don’t tell anyone this. This is a secret. Imagine telling a beginner man he has to learn to find the rhythm of the music, watch out for navigational hazards on the dance floor, develop a strategy on the spot for dealing with them choosing from a repertoire of movements he has learned, then lead the woman to move in the intended direction with the intended speed while maintaining the connection, and then… He has to follow the woman’s response to his lead to determine the next move (within a millisecond, after all, this is not chess), and take responsibility for whatever goes wrong. And we wonder why there aren’t enough men in tango? Yet the surviving men keep trying. It must be that the rewards of tango are greater than its obstacles,” (1). This wonderful quote comes from the mouth of a tango instructor in Oregon by the name of Jay Rabe. Jay understands the intricate nature of the tango and relays how movement is a key component.
The tradition of the Argentine tango is as deep and rich as it’s musical counterpart. Both the tango and tango music originated around the same time and evolved hand-in-hand. Tango music is timed in quadruple meter and has many variations in the rhythm, varying from fast to slow multiple times throughout the song. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, dance is defined as moving rhythmically to music (2). From your lectures, it is clear that music is not a necessary component of dance, but in the case of the tango, movement to the changing rhythm of tango music is what makes this form of social dancing unique.
Tango in general has a plethora of styles and the Argentine tango is no different. Show tango, salon tango, tango orillero, and tango canyengue are just a few of the different styles danced in Argentina. Many dancers of the tango simply improvise it through learned movements and gestures. Though there are many variations, most share basic movements such as embracing, walking, and figures. These aspects determine the positioning of the body and therefore, the movement.
The closeness of the embrace is one of the tango’s distinguishing traits (although not every embrace needs to be close). There are several forms of embrace in the traditional Argentine tango but I will discuss two of the most common – the abrazo cerrado (or “V”) and the apilado (or “square”). The type of embrace used gestures the sensuality of the dance. The “V” embrace literally puts the dancers in a “V” shape, meaning that the left side of the man’s and right side of the woman’s chest are left open and they are not staring at each other straight on, making it one of the embraces with less contact. In contrast, the “square” embrace is very comparable to a hug with chests pressed together and facing each other (3). Both of these are popular due to the closeness of the dancers. Many other embraces exist ranging from the abrazo abierto where the dancers keep their arms touching while the rest of the body is at a distance, to the tango al reves where both dancers are facing the same direction.
(PICTURES)
The video below is a basic instructional video of the embrace by Sebastian Arce and Mariana Montes. Although long, they do a great job in the beginning describing the importance of a proper embrace to the general movement of the tango.
One topic of the lectures on movement talked about how walking and dancing are separate entities. That said, there is a clear difference between the walking that we saw Gene Kelly doing in Singing in the Rain and tango walking. In dancing the tango, walking is the most crucial part since much of the movement comes from the legs while the arms remain in the embrace for the majority of the time. The follower must be in sync with the leader as he or she steps forward, backward, diagonally, etc., which requires much more specific sensorimotor programs than walking.
In this video, the couple demonstrates the walk for the basic tango. Their knees remain bent enabling the dancers to move more fluidly and as they walk, they transfer their weight from one leg to the other as their legs come together. It is common for people who are familiar with the tango to add embellishments to their steps to make it more original and intricate. In the video below, you can see how some tango dancers add these fancier steps into their walk through various kicks, caressing the calf, crossing one leg over another, taps, etc.
The tango greatly differs from other types of social dance in that it is mostly improvised by the lead and not a set step pattern such as the fox trot. The lead does this by using different figures, which are essentially the elements of movement within the tango. Many of the basic figures fall into the following categories: cross, ocho, circular, sacada and entrada, gancho and enganche, boleos, and colgada and volcada. Using a cross figure involves crossing one leg over the other. Ocho is when the dancer, usually the follower, traces a figure eight on the floor with her foot. Circular movements involve different turns by both the lead and the follow. Sacada and entrada are when the dancers displace the other’s unweighted leg with his or her own. Gancho and enganche are figures where the dancers hook or wrap their leg around his or her partner. Boleos is when the follower suspends her leg in one sharp movement. And last but not least, colgada and volcada are when the follower leans against gravity and is supported by the leader (4). This video gives examples of some of the basic tango figures:
Once someone has a grasp of the basic types of figures, improving a tango dance (or following one) becomes much simpler. As Maxime Sheets-Johnstone wrote, we discover ourselves through movement, and consciousness, perception, and awareness are all grounded in movement. As an athlete myself, I like to think of figures as the skill set athletes use to perform. When learning how to play a sport such as lacrosse, you learn how to catch, throw, cradle, check, and shoot. When you put all of those skills together, you are playing lacrosse. Similarly, when you put various figures together, you create the tango. You don’t always have to “huddle” and decided which “play” to use, when you have the skill set then you can achieve the goal.
Listen to the tango song below. When people hear this music, particularly in Argentina, one’s mind usually associates it with the passion and sensuality of the tango dance. This ambiance is created through the way dancers move to this music and explore different embraces, walking patters, and figures through their kinesthetic sense. As Jay Rabe implied, the movements within the tango are no cakewalk for beginners. Both the lead and the follow have the challenge of maintaining the connection and passion with their partner through split-second movements, yet the reward of the beauty of the movement is much greater than the obstacle of it.
1. http://www.verytango.com/quotes.html
2. http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/dance
3. http://movementinvitesmovement.wordpress.com/2011/02/15/the-embrace-v-vs-square/
4. http://www.rounddancing.net/dance/figures/tangoArg.html
What comes to mind when you think of the word gesture—maybe a wave of the hand to symbolize hello? Or maybe you think of your arms outstretched to symbolize a hug? These are both correct interpretations yet very simplistic. We rarely delve any deeper than this, however gesturing encompasses much more than a simple movement. To understand the impact that gesture can have on an individual and the world its is necessary to understand that gesturing is a double process. It involves active displacement, which is the contraction of muscles, and information gathering, which occurs with the neuron receptors located along the muscles. Noland likens this to a graffiti writer where the process of the body reaching to the wall and the movement of the action writing on the wall in turn makes an impression on graffiti writer remaking the body. Gesture in this sense becomes a demonstration of the body and a reforms the body. Mauss went beyond Noland’s explanation of gesture to give a rich understanding of gesture. He argued that through gestural patterning society imprints itself on the muscle, tissue, and fibers of the people of that society and the physical act of these gestures is felt as being a part of the make up of the society. Dances can be considered along the same lines. Dances are identified by their gestural patterns. Each type of dance has a specific repetitious pattern of movement that identifies it as a specific genre. The repetition of gestural patterns will then imprint themselves onto the bodies of the dancers remaking the body into that of a dancer. Understanding this, it makes it easier to understand how a form of dance can go from a simple street dance to a widely known and accepted dance. When more and more people know a dance, such as the tango, it gains popularity and begins to become accepted by society at large. At this point, the gestural patterns of the dance seep into the muscles and neurology of the people thus remaking their bodies. The dance becomes an accepted part of the society and culture at large remaking the body of each individual but also at this point becomes a means by which members of society through altering the gestural patterns of the dance can create change in society.
In my first application, I focused on the Foxtrot, the most significant development in ballroom dance. In this application, I will focus on Foxtrot as it correlates to gestural movement. As I previously stated, the Foxtrot uses a combination of slow steps that utilize two beats of music and quick steps that use one beat of music. The dance was created with steps that permitted more flexibility and pleasure than previous dances. The fast pace energetic nature of the dance attracted teenagers of the 1920’s and the dance burst in popularity.
Before mentioning the specific gestures the standing position of both partners is extremely important. Both partners stand face-to-face witch shoulders square, head and chin up, shoulders relaxed, chest lifted, and weight over the balls of their feet. The man places his right hand on the woman’s waist with his elbow held high and his left hand holds his partners opposite hand extending outwards. Then from the perspective of the man (the leading partner), the first gesture includes the man pressing through the ball of his left foot brushing his leg forward with assurance. The gesture of the man sweeping his leg forward as he held a firm posture held a strong importance in the culture of this time. First, at this time men were still considered the breadwinners of the family and the dominant figure in society. The gesture kept with this tradition giving the man the power, (he was the one to initiate the dance) with the sweeping movement of his leg. The left foot then follows sweeping forward followed the by the same gesture only to the side. The long walking movements and turning movements are combined with a subtle rise and fall. The gestures are a succession of sweeping glides. The gestures of the Foxtrot were in direct imitation of the evolving culture dance of the time. At this time in London, fluent movements were dominating the dance stage and gaining popularity among the people. The marching like steps previously seen were fading away from popularity replaced with a fast paced tempo. The quick gestures insinuated itself into the tissues of the dancer’s body’s of the 1920’s. The gesture and speed of the sweeping foot molded the body and the physical act of the gesture performed by the people made them feel a part of society. As Noland argues, gesturing as dancing is the means by which culture imprints itself on society and thus a mechanism through which the members of the society through altering these gestural changes can effect change. The changes in the gestures from repetitious marching like actions to fast pace fluid movements explain the development of dance. The Foxtrot furthermore explains the significance that a repetitious gesture can have on a whole society. Lastly, it explains that a rich understanding of gesture has the ability to effect change in society.
The Tango
Michelle Milko
“Please, just for me, forget the steps… Hold me, feel the music, and give me your soul. Then I can give you mine.”
There is a dance that can steal your heart with its passion and connect your soul to another for a small moment in time. It can allow you the freedom to let go and follow the beat of the music or even the beat of you heart. The tango, with its Argentinean roots, has spread all over the world and side stepped its way into our cities and dance clubs. There is an air of mystery about it and its sensuality keeps you mesmerized as you watch two total strangers somehow almost become one. Its movements and gestures are taught, learned, calculated, and executed the same way but its dancers are what create the tango’s ever-changing style. Because of this, the tango can mean something different to each and every person who experiences it. Though the gestures have become recognized patterns of movement, the idea is to branch out a little bit and put your own personal spin (no pun intended) on this Latin dance.
Though the tango was not the first dance to incorporate “closeness” among its participants (the Viennese Waltz was the first in the 1830’s), it represented a melding of different cultures from around the world that had all somehow ended up in Argentina. The tango holds its cultural roots from African dance. According to a census done in 1178, “30% of people living in Buenos Aires were African” [2]. It was mostly found in clubs around port cities that had a high count of working class citizens. The tango was not a “wealthy” man’s dance. In fact, the tango was originally performed as a representation of the relationship between the “prostitute” and her “pimp”[3]. This background explains why there is such a closeness and sensual nature to the dance. There is no specific date of when the tango was officially formed but, rather, it has been an ever-evolving dance that has its own “versions” in other Latin countries.
My interest in the tango comes from my own experiences of watching it on television and seeing versions of it on vacations that I have taken. The tango done in Mexico could be seen as similar to the tango done in the Dominican Republic but it has its small nuanced differences. I have always found this dance to be extremely beautiful and often envied the grace and elegance that tango dancers have. They are truly “in tune” with their bodies and with their partner’s body, as well. I was excited to see tango made an example in this portion of the class because the gestures and movements within the tango are important to the dance.
Gesturing was described in our lecture as “visible actions that have features of manifest deliberate expressiveness”. Our gestures become deliberate. This is true within dance. An example of mudras was used within the lecture. These intricate hand gestures are done in a certain manner to express a certain emotion, meaning, expression, etc. The tango is similar in this way. In the reading “Gesturing and Touching”, tango is described to have, “gestural aspects…which are comprised of the rules, conventions, and rhythms that provide distinction to the dance”. There are certain steps and movements that make the “tango” the “tango”. The almost precise movements and the leading arm forward are distinctive moves that distinguish it from other Latin dances. These gestures reflect different meanings that the dance holds for each dancer and for the dance itself. It is through these gestures that touch becomes so important and creates the ebb and flow of the lead and follower. They are, “inseparable through their interactive gestures” as was said in lecture. This means that each movement works together to create that illusion of “oneness”. The difference between the tango and other dances like it, (the Viennese waltz and the Polka) however, is that it leaves room for improvisation.
An interesting quote I found by Varo Tango, a tango dancer states that, “There are no wrong moves in tango, only new ones.” This fits perfectly into how patterned gestures are really only one aspect of the movement involved in tango dancing. There are other things such as touch that contribute to its beauty and passion. The tango is between two people and it is the style of the two dancers that will show in the final performance. So, though, the movements may be very similar, the dancers will ultimately make the dance their own. This dates back to the beginning of the dance’s presence in Argentina. Like it was mentioned before, the dance was originally portrayed as the relationship between “the pimp” and “prostitute”. This relationship, quite obviously, has sexual connotations connected with it, which is reflected within the dance. The male is dominant in the dance and leads the female, while they remain very close and the idea is to highlight the “touch”. Below is a video clip from “The Tango Lesson”. If you look closely, you can see certain patterned moves that the dancers will use but the relationship between the dancers creates a unique spin on each gesture/movement. They move as one though they both use different footsteps that work with each other. This idea will be discussed when reviewing the importance of touch within gesture.
The idea of touch and gesturing is extremely important for the tango. The link between touch and the relationship of the dancers are important so, naturally, touch would be important to the dance as well. Touching shows how the dancers will always be multiple because they are only interacting with each other. The lectures quote Manning when she writes that, “it is through touching you that my body is a body, for my body cannot be otherwise than singular and plural.” This is a beautiful way of describing how gesturing will always be incomplete because of touch. Because I am able to touch you, there is no way I can ever be one with you. I will always be with you or with me. This is haunting and reminds us that though we strive to find “oneness” with another through touch, we will never be able to. Through dance, we can see this struggle, especially within the tango. Because there is so much fire and passion fueling it, there is a desire to become one but because we can never go beyond a touch connection, there is no way to become this concepts of “one”.
When going back and reviewing how these specific qualities of the tango have affected it has created a deeper understanding of why the tango was so important for those who created it. It was an outlet of expression that united people and created a sense of closeness. Because this dance was influenced by many different cultures, it really does not have a “home base”, much like those who helped create it. It is a reflection of those different backgrounds that were able to find unity and common ground in an unfamiliar place. The dance is about closeness and harmony between the two dancers. Yes, tango has basic footwork that is attached with it but it is the uniqueness of each dancer’s touch that contributes to the richness that this dance has. It’s gestures remind us that we can never become “one” no matter how close we dance next to each other. That is its beautiful and haunting quality. The tango is now performed in many different Latin (and non Latin) countries and it’s overall theme if passion and grace are found around the world. These movements and gestures are what make the tango so popular. But what has cemented it in the halls of history is its ability to allow freedom between two people to get just close enough to almost become “one” though they will never be.
Resources:
[1] Gill, S. (2012). “Gesturing and touching”.
[2] The history of the tango dance in argentina. (2004). Retrieved from
http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/articles/argentina/the-history-of-the-tango-dance-in-argentina/24
[3]Guizar, F. (n.d.). El tango at a glance. Retrieved from http://www.tangoconcepts.com/history.html
[4] Gill, S. (Performer) (2012). Gesturing and touching. [Audio podcast].
email: michelle.milko@colorado.edu
Sarah McSheehy
06/20/12
Application Project #2
Tap dancing and Gesture and Movement
As they say at the Hoofer’s Club in Harlem in the 1930s, where tap dancers gathered to practice their steps and compete: “Thou Shalt Not Copy Anyone’s Steps—Exactly!” (Hill, 3) I have noticed through my reading and viewing of tap dancers is the strong sense of competition. Most of the videos I see are some kind of light-hearted dance off that pits one dancer against the other. Not only does this creating an exciting atmosphere for the audience, but also when a new combination of taps is performed, you can see the excited reaction of the other dancer. As the primary dancer begins to move, you can see the other dancer watching intently which defines the culture of tap-dancing so succinctly. The way a tap dancer progresses is by battling and watching other dancers. They copy the move while also adding something new. This idea has carried from the very beginnings of tap on the plantations to modern day times. As with it’s sister dance, the jig, most of the movement of the dancer’s body is in the feet and legs. When you look at a dancer like Gregory Hines in the beginning of this video, I encourage you to close the visual portion and listen for a second. The number of taps he is able to achieve is astounding, and when turning back to the video, it is surprising that Hines seems to hardly be moving his feet.
Tap dancers must be so much more self aware to dance because they are confining the majority of their movement to the various parts of their feet. Most dancers see their feet as different parts of a drum kit. Savion Glover, for example imagined that “…the inside toe of the metal tap is the hi-hat, the outside toe of the tap is the snare, the inside ball of the foot is the top tom-tom, the outside rime of the tap [are the] cymbals, his left heel is the bass drum, and the right heel the floor tom-tom.” (Hill, 15) In operating this “instrument,” he must move with precision and therefore, must be concentrated with improvising a new choreography.
Tap dancers are a great example of the professor’s arguments that dancing doesn’t mime the story but rather contributes to the narrative. A tap dancer is usually more concerned with showing off speed and technique so they tend to try to create complex polyrhythm or tap out beats to go along with a piece of music. One cannot simply get out of bed and be a tap dancer, many of these gestures must be practiced hundreds of times in order to be performed in rapid-fire succession. Since the only real training for tap dancers is tap dancing, warm ups are suggested before a dancer starts. Since tap dancing requires precise movements, a loose body at the beginning really contributes to the success of the practice. Often, trainers have their dancers stretch out their entire body before beginning to dance. This prevents injury and also allows the arms to be more relaxed for balance.
While tap dancing does not normally involve physically touching bodies, I believe that an argument can be made for mental touching. One example of this brought up in the lecture discussions was when two dancers begin to dance the same choreography, they seem to become one, and on an audible level, two dancers tapping out the same rhythm will sound like one. For a small moment, the dancers are connected and perceived as one being. I also believe that mental groping happens a lot within a tap battle. As I understand it, groping is the mimicking of movements to better understand the world around us or to better understand what our limitations are. In a tap battle, a lot of dancers will play off of each other’s rhythms trying to imitate them. If a certain rhythm cannot be achieved, the dancer will work on the movements until it can be tapped out and then thrown back into another battle creating a kind of gestural circle. I also believe that practice also provides the dancer with mental groping. It is a common thing to practice tapping in front of a mirror. By doing so, the dancer can connect with what their feet are doing to the sound that is being produced allowing them to get a certain move through trial and error.
The early gestures of tap greatly affected the gestures of today’s tap dancing. While there are some differences, like the incorporation of hip hop moves and a wider range of arm movement including clapping hands and expressive movements, the framework and foundations remain the same. The movements in tap battles are also becoming more complex with more aggressive moves like sharp stomps forward and the use of both feet to create a louder sound. However, as seen in this video of tap dancers Sean and John, the dancers do not forget where tap dancing originated. Their Vegas show performs like a hybrid of vaudeville and modern performance.
These two dancers show a nice synthesis between the traditional tap dancing with the more outlandish movements of contemporary dances. Through the use of practiced gestures, the dancers convey a beat and help to spread more exciting dances.
Works Cited:
Valis Hill, Constance. “Tap Dance in America: A Very Short History.” ita. International Tap Association, 2002. Web. 10 Jun 2012.
Application 2: Gesturing and the Hora
Culture is built from combinations of traditions over time, coming together to enrich a people and enhance their way of life. A tradition is the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation. Holding on to and passing on traditions is not only what keeps culture alive, but also molds the way of life for the people of that culture. As a way of evoking emotion and feelings without verbal communication, gesturing is a learned silent language that one becomes accustomed to through exposure of the world around them. The rich traditions that make up Judaism contribute to the strength of Jewish culture, and are seen vividly throughout the gestures of the customary dance, the “Hora”.
The simple gestures used in the Hora display the happiness and celebration that this traditional circle dance represents. Sam Gill states “gesture imprints the values and distinctions of a society on the habitual bodily techniques of the individuals thus marking them as being of the society”. Performed in a circle, holding hands with your neighbor, the dance begins with everyone stepping forward toward the right with the left foot, then forward with the right to match. Then bringing the left foot back followed by the right, while continuously moving in a circle to the right. Although the simple steps of the dance don’t indicate the importance of gesture, the traditions in which they are performed use culturally distinctive gestures; particularly when performed in the Hasidic Jewish setting, being hoisted into the air on a chair during celebrations, and the use of the “inner circle” when dancing in large groups.
Jewish law practices a series of laws that restrict and prohibit certain actions. These actions are interpreted and followed differently by Jewish people varying in observance. Derived from the verse in Leviticus stating “None of you shall come near anyone of his own flesh to uncover nakedness”, Shomer Negiah is a law practiced by Orthodox Jews that prohibits someone from physical contact with members of the opposite sex, even a simple handshake. This inevitably conflicts with the nature of the hora, as holding hands is typically a requirement of the dance. When comparing an Orthodox celebration to a less observant one, the key difference is the dance floor. The majority of Orthodox Jews do not participate in mixed dancing, and there is often a separation placed in order to divide the dance floor. Not only is this ritual indicative of how gestures reflect the values of a society, but also places a barrier to what that gesture could potentially lead to. In his “Gesturing and Touching” lecture, Sam describes that “the socially prescribed gestural methods of touching another person serve to collect and absorb at the level of the tissues remarkable amounts of information about one’s dance partner”, due to the fact that “one feels and experiences the connection and the information absorbed often through the lightest physical touch”. As the law of Shomer Negiah is practiced to inhibit ones unlawful attraction, it hence guards touch from resonating within the dancers.
This silly acapella spinoff of the popular song “Can’t Touch this” brings humor to the serious matter of Shomer Negiah:
Traditionally accompanied by the song “Hava Naglia”, meaning “let us rejoice”, the Hora is performed in festivities of celebrations, such as weddings and bar/bat mitzvahs. One of the most signature aspects to the Hora at these functions is when the bride and groom (or bar or bat mitzvah) is lifted on chairs in the center of the circle, as the party-goers dance around the person of honor. To anyone who has ever been to one of these events before, the action of being hoisted into the air while all of your friends and family dance around you can be not only a focal point of the evening, but something Jewish children growing up looking forward to their entire lives. The gestures captured within the action performed indicate the feeling of happiness evoked in the performance of this dance. As people gather on the dance floor to start dancing the Hora, usually the largest and strongest men will convene in the middle as the designated “chair lifters”. Sitting on the chair anxiously awaiting their moment of excitement, the bride and groom get ready to experience a pinnacle moment built from tradition that they will remember for the rest of their lives.
This company, The Hora Chair LLC, designed a chair to specifically enhance this aspect of the Hora and add ease to the entire experience.
The upbeat and happy tones of this joyful dance are exhibited through the fast-paced moves and playful notions gestured in the Hora. Watching people dance the Hora displays to the onlooker the emotions that this dance represents and provokes. The values of the Jewish people have guided the built up traditions that engulf what makes this culturally meaningful dance. The quick moving circular steps and upward hand movements bring out happy feelings that enhance the joyous celebrations in which the Hora is performed.
Mazel Tov!
Aleah Toyokura
RLST 3838
Application Assignment #2
Self-Othering in the Traditional Lindy Hop
The Lindy Hop, although energetic and fun-filled, has historical foundations that are rooted in a number of cultural and racial conflicts. The original Lindy Hop was developed during the 1920’s and 1930’s, in African American communities during a time of insecure racial transitions. Because of this, the Lindy Hop is hugely rooted in African American culture and understandings.
From the Self-Othering perspective, the traditions and meanings of the traditional Lindy Hop are not only for ocular pleasure of the physical in itself, but rather that dance is a reflection of things unspoken. According to lecture, “What we see is not a simple literal presentation. It is a seduction – an appearance, a promise of something always unfulfilled – that invites comparison to facets of our human existence (Gill).” In this, the Lindy Hop is presented not only as an art form, but as a vehicle in which unspoken aspects of African American culture and struggle is addressed. This aspect of the physical body and movement as being indicative of cultural and racial issues is also explained through the theory that “life is inseparable from movement,” meaning that the Lindy Hop as a dance style directly reflects cultural aspects of the African American community and the racial struggles of that time period.
For participants of the traditional Lindy Hop, the physical body and the cultural implications of the dance in itself are particularly significant, considering the fact that skin color acted as a major factor in the division of those participating in the Lindy Hop. According Merleau-Ponty’s understanding of the “flesh ontology,” “the flesh of the world is the fabric that at once divides us and unites us with the world in which we live, the world beyond the bounds of our physical bodies, the world that we perceive and experience (Gill).“ This indicates that the development and embodiment of any given dance style is not a mere performance, nor is it only a personal expression, but is rather directly correlated with cultural and physical experience. In the case of the Lindy Hop, the style reflected a number of cultural messages and understandings that shaped much of the African American culture.
The traditional Lindy Hop also marked a significant way in which “hoppers,” and the African American subculture as a whole, was able to both indicate the presence of the Other, while also marking themselves as Others in a positive way, in order to solidify a cultural identity. According to lecture, “Dancing both gives rise to the very idea of otherness while it also grounds our connection with the other (Gill).” This was a very interesting point for me because it made me realize that the Self-Othering in Lindy Hop helped a cultural group determine a group identity, in order to be able to successfully navigate and make meaning out of their cultural and social situations. According to Black Hawk Hancock, the Lindy Hop acted as a “microcosm of how race operates in American society (Hancock 128).” Although the dance style may have appeared to be for pure entertainment, the implications of the dance were significantly more complex, and helped to address and alleviate many tensions African Americans felt during periods of unspoken oppression. Today, the Lindy Hop is less associated with any particular race, but these underlying meanings and self-othering continues to be a pervasive aspect of the Hop. According to modern-day professional Lindy Hopping couple, the “most important component of Lindy Hop is its roots in black history,” even though they are a British couple, and had not actually experienced black oppression within the United States. Because of this, it is clear that although the Lindy Hop has evolved from its traditional style of the 1920’s and 30’s, the cultural and racial implications of the Lindy Hop still permeate throughout the style.
The implications of the Self-Othering perspective in relationship with the traditional Lindy Hop are significant because the style itself was a way in which the African American community was able to navigate and maintain its identity during a time of notable struggle. According to lecture, “Dancing is a powerful way that individuals and groups obtain and maintain identity (Gill).” During periods of immense struggle, it is clear that the Self-Othering within the Lindy Hop culture acted as a way in which an American subculture was able to negotiate and forge a group identity that still remains a major aspect of the style today.
Gill, S. Dancing as Self-Othering – 1: Javanese Wayang Kulit (PDF document). Retrieved from Lecture Notes Online Web Site: http://sam-gill.com/Lecture%20PDFs/Dancing%20as%20Self%20Othering%201%20Wayang%20Kulit.pdf
Gill, S. Dancing as Self-Othering – 3: Merleau-Ponty’s “Flesh Ontology” (PDF document). Retrieved from Lecture Notes Online Web Site: http://sam-gill.com/Lecture%20PDFs/Dancing%20as%20Self%20Othering%203%20Merleau-Ponty.pdf
Gill, S. Dancing as Self-Othering – 4 (PDF document). Retrieved from Lecture Notes Online Web Site: http://sam-gill.com/Lecture%20PDFs/Dancing%20as%20Self%20Othering%204.pdf
Hancock, Black. “Learning How To Make Life Swing.” Qualitative Sociology 30.2 (2007): 113-133. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 June 2012.
Samuels, Shayna. “Love, Life And The Lindy Hop. (Cover Story).” Dance Magazine 75.2 (2001): 53. Academic Search Premier. Web. 12 June 2012.
Below is a performance done by the Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers, in 1939.
In the following video, an interview with Frankie Manning, please note the costume choice of the hoppers, during the portion of the interview where clips from the film, Hellzapoppin’. The dancers all wear costumes indicating their social standing during the 1920’s and 30’s (maid and servicemen outfits). This is significant because the hoppers pointedly emphasize their economic standing as a marker of group identity.
Irish dance holds great traditional and culture importance for the Irish people. As a dance now so widely practiced across the world it is encouraging to see not only the traditional Irish roots still present, but also the presence of the self in each dancer. The connection between the body and the mind in dance can best be labeled as self-othering. Self-othering is present not just within Irish dance, but also within all types of dancing. Identity and value then become important parts of the Irish dancer upholding these traditions. An Irish dancer remains her/himself, while “comprehending the value, meaning, and importance of the world they are also creating,” within the movements (Gill). Through Irish dancing movement, specific dances, and dress is the process of self-othering understood.
Within Irish dance Irish culture emerges through the movements. After years of oppression from the English, the Gaelic League emerged beginning to uplift the culture, which can be seen within Irish dance specifically. Irish dance begun as often restricting because of the environment dancers would have to perform in. Early on doors were often unhinged and laid flat on the ground for dancers to perform on the hard service. A dancer was confined to such a small space that his/her hands and upper body had to remain very stiff in order to stay within the boundaries of the door. Now that there is proper floor used in dancing, dancers are encouraged to use the entire stage but the restriction of the body is still in place. Dance masters had their students compete with their hands firm and fisted by their sides to better showcase the steps. This is still of very high importance today. Self-othering is seen through these movements. Irish dancers are dancing within their own bodies but she does become another dancing in a traditional Irish way. Precision and discipline are of high importance in Irish dance, “but within these rules there is almost infinite room for variety and innovation,” (SoCal Irish Dance). This allows for Irish dancing to continue evolving, as I will describe in the specific dances below.
The four types of Irish dances are the jig, reel, hornpipe, and set dances. They are all still seen today in Irish dancing. The jig has many different variations some being performed in soft shoes and some in hard shoes. Here are two videos of my sister from this past weekend at a feis.
The first one is a treble jig, which is danced in hard shoes and tends to be slower tempo, which allows for more moves to be danced.
The second video is a slip jib, which is danced in soft shoes. It has a faster tempo then the treble jig but also looks more light and graceful.
The next dance the reel originated in Scotland. Irish dance masters brought the reel to its full potential. Generally it is very fast-paced and danced in soft shoes. The hornpipe evolved from the English and was first only danced by men. Now women also dance the hornpipe. It is a slower version of the reel that includes my favorite dance move in Irish dance, rocking. Here is a clip of rocking.
Finally, set dances are called this because they have remained set over time. These dances are danced in hard shoes. Because the tune is always the same in set dances, judges within competitions expect more. Here is a video of my sister from World’s in Ireland performing a group set dance—The Saint Patrick’s Day.
Set dance tunes are over two-hundred years old and were developed by dance masters. The jig, reel, and hornpipe all have many different variations by Irish dance schools, where’s set dances have stayed the same since the beginning. Self-othering can be seen in all these dances. Traditionally many things are still the same and dancers understand that, but they are still creating their own selves through these dances. In the set dances specifically touch and gesture are really relied on. Dancing together in a group effectively allows for self-othering to occur because they rely on each other to create meaning.
Irish dance wardrobe has morphed over the course of time. In the early 1800’s dancers would wear white socks, breeches, swallowtail coats and other non Celtic-originating garb. As the Irish began to step away from English influence Celtic designs began to emerge. Now most Irish dancing outfits are extremely complex. Celtic symbols such as knotts, the high cross, or designs from the Book of Kells can be found on the dresses. Each Irish dance school has a “school” dress. Below are a couple photos of my sister’s school dress. You can see it has the Claddaugh symbol as well as Celtic Knotts.
Solo dresses tend to be bright and flashy. Below is a picture of my sister in her solo dress.
Dancers usually wear wigs and if not there hair always tends to be curled. It is said that this is because back to the beginning of Irish Dance competitions would be held on Sundays. Girls would dress their best and would always curl their hair. Self-othering is present here by wearing traditional Celtic designs. In a way dancers are wearing the identities of their ancestors.
Self-othering allows dancers to create meaning of themselves, their environments, and to the Irish culture. A deeper level of identity begins to shine through because of the history of the movements. An Irish dancer literally gains experience of self through the dances culture and background.
Did not mean to submit it yet! I was still in the process of attaching the videos as well as my references… I will leave another comment below with them. Sorry about that!
References:
Click to access richens-haurin_brief_history_irish_dance.pdf
http://www.socalirishdance.com/Irishstepdance.php
http://www.examiner.com/article/the-art-of-the-irish-dance-costume
Gill, Sam. “Dancing as Self-Othering-4” Dancing, Culture, and Religion Lecture Series.
Gill, Sam. “Dancing as Self-Othering- 3: Merleau-Ponty’s ‘Flesh Ontology.” Dancing, Culture, and Religion Lecture Series.
Treble Jig
Group Set Dance- Saint Patrick’s Day
Slip Jig
Rocking on the ankles in the Hornpipe
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(School Dress with traditional Celtic designs)
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(Solo dress)
I did the exact same thing!! 🙂
Anyone who has traveled to the tropics of Hawaii has witnessed the art of the Polynesian dance form known as the Hula Dance. Whether is be after the pig roast at a luau, or in the lobby of your grandiose hotel, Hula dancing is a sight seen by most Hawaiian visitors. With grass skirts, percussion instruments, chanting, and undulating hips, perhaps the thing that most stands out during a traditional hula dance performance is the hand and arm gestures made by the hula dancer, because these gestures are what tell the story of the dance. Every hula motion has a specific meaning. Different gestures symbolize different things, from the waves of the ocean, to plants, animals, and even conflict and war. With expressive hands, a hula dancer can evoke a palm tree swaying in the breeze or even the perils of a shark.
Here are some examples of some basic hula gestures and symbols (wait until 40 sec mark):
While gesturing in hula dance can be very basic and is commonly viewed as the means to narrating a story, there is deeper meaning to gesturing than just that. There is a whole other message communicated to us from hula gestures that has nothing to do with the story that is being told, but rather, there is a more rich gesture that allows us to expand our bodies and our minds. But before diving in to the complexity within the rich gesture, it is important to first review the history of the hula dance to understand why we initially view hula gestures in simpler terms and then to understand the richness of the gesture.
While the origin of the hula dance is unknown, it is thought that the original hula dance was performed for a god or goddess, possibly the Volcano goddess, Pele, making the hula sacred to the people of Hawaii. As a kind of worship in religious ceremonies, it was used to give thanks to Hawaii’s ancient gods and chiefs. However due to Western influence, it is now used mostly for entertainment. In the early 1800’s, Christian missionaries changed the meaning of the hula. Christian history indicates that dancing was shunned in the Christian religion due to its association with “sensuality, sexuality, body, and sin” (Gill). For this very reason, Christian missionaries viewed hula as “devilish” and “against God”, and thus, they tried to convince the Polynesians of their wrongdoing by partaking in this form of dance. Because of this, hula almost disappeared as it was banned for being “vulgar, disgusting and sinful”. Hula continued to be taught and practiced in secret. However, with the reign of the new King, King Kamehameaha III, Hula was re-established by default in the 1830’s due to his support of religious freedom. Hula once again became a common occurrence seen in festivals and other celebrations.
Traditional hula dance is used to tell a story, making the purpose of “gesturing” in hula very similar to the purpose of gestures used in Bharata natyam, a South Indian Hindu form of dance. One aspect of Bharata natyam dance utilizes the abhinaya, which is “often referred to as the ‘storytelling’ aspect of the dance with an understanding that the dancer, through posture and gesture tells the classic stories” (Gill). Much like this Hindu dance, from the history of the hula we can see how the purpose of the gestures is rather mundane and is simply used to narrate the story. “This understanding pairs gesture with expressed meaning and sees gesture as primarily an act of communication” (Gill). Hand gestures in hula are used in place of language in order to “tell a story”. The dancers do not have to say aloud or even mouth what they are representing, but rather it becomes obvious from the motion of the hands what the dancer is trying to convey. For instance, when a hula dancer moves their arms in parallel, unison, wave-like motion, it becomes obvious that the gesture is representing the ocean. However, just because this gesture symbolizes the ocean, it does not necessarily mean much to us when it stands alone. It must be done in conjunction with other gestures or facial expressions or chanting of song in order to interpret the full understanding of the message. “Any single [hula gesture] has the potential for a very wide association with meaning elements (Gill). Thus, we cannot say that gestures are used as a direct means of communication because each gesture has too broad of meaning to be directly translated on its own.
We cannot limit the meaning of gestures to “visible actions that have the features of manifest deliberate expressiveness” (Gill), but rather, gesturing is much more “rich”. So what do we mean by “rich” in reference to gesturing. “The rich view of gesture sees it as having an enormous range of agentive powers that serve to create and shape ourselves and our environments” (Gill). This implies that gesturing is much more than just communicating/illustrating/narrating a story. Rather, rich gesturing involves influences from culture, society, environment, and exploration. These agents shape us in many different aspects, from the physiological to the psychological. “Our gestures actually remake the body of the one gesturing at the level of tissue. Our body movement, our postural attitudes, our actions; they all correspond with our gestural practices. We are, in the literal sense of evident at the level of tissue, our gestures” (Gill).
From view in the above clip of hula dancing, you can see how the girls knees are repetitively bending forward in a very fast motion, while the hips sway, and while the arms generate certain motions. Every movement made physically by the hips, the knees, and the hand gestures gets sent back to the brain for processing and expanding. Every movement made physically triggers different muscles, tendons, and ligaments that alter the physiology and physical shape of the body. Each of these things comes forth together to collectively shape the people, the environment, and ultimately, the culture from the gestural patterns. “Thus the repetition of the gesturing patterns of [hula dancing] remake the body of the [dancer] into a [hula dancer]” (Gill). This is what makes up the richer gestures.
References:
Gill, Sam. “Gesture and Agency, Dancing as Gesturing”. Dancing Culture Religion Lecture Series.
Gill, Sam. “Gesture as Visible Action”. Dancing Culture Religion Lecture Series.
Lily Grace Nolan
APP #3
FIREKNIFE: HOT BED OF TRADITION
There has been one thing on my mind for the last couple of weeks and especially in the last few days. Fire. This got me thinking, what is it about fire that gets me so nervous. After some consideration it became clear. The movement. Fire’s movement is both fast, sly, graceful, unpredictable and powerful. As an entity of nature and science, I can appreciate the complexities of fires power and intrigue, but what happens, in terms of movement, when fire is introduced to dance? I became perplexed. This is why for my next investigation I have decided to cover the Samoan dance (siva) tradition known as fireknife, or ailao (siva sate).
Performed in an individualistic sense – the dance itself is the twirling of machete’s, rods, or tradition paddle weaponry, in fierce rhythmic patterns, set to drums. These twirling objects are then set on fire, exaggerating the motion of the twirl and the acrobatics of the performer. The dance is a very aggressive one and is preformed by men. Still popularly seen and preformed today, the dance emphasized small isolated movements of the hands and can be considered (in my opinion) a hard-core version of baton twirling.
The fireknife, as we know it, can be thought of as amelting pot of traditonas that have come to form a variation of a cultural dance tradition. Stemming from several different historical traditions in Polynesian culture. Broken down, the fireknife, or “ailao” tradition has two very distinctive lines of origins: historic/ceremonial and modern/entertainment. The ailio refers to a traditional mans dance of club twirling performed as a wartime ritual in classic Samoan culture and is mostly (but not always, as is the case with the Nafanua) performed by men. The dance was performed as a way to celebrate a victory, as Samoan island culture often warring with neighboring islands and ethnic groups. Traditionally the dance was either part a parade, men’s-only caberet, or feast ceremony. Across Polynesian culture, the dance began to stem several al different variations, one of which from Uvean culture required the end of the twirling clubs to be lit on fire and preformed at night as a group dance. This was called the kailao afi. The knife component, comes from the dance known as “Nafanua,” which is a from of ailao where the performer(s) use traditional machetes. The Nafanua, was a religious dance, which celebrated the fierce and victorious war-goddess, Nafanua.
How we have come to understand fireknife is accredited to a Samoan performer by the name of Letuli. He makes the claim that he ‘invented’ the fireknife dance which occurred in the 20thC. Letuli accredits himself to adding the fire component to the ailao, cementing his contribution in legend in his book “Flaming Sword of Samoa: The Story of the Samoan Fire Knife Dance.” That being said, it is important to emphasize that even if Letuli was the contemporary “creator” of the dance, that the fireknife, as a whole has its main roots tied to this tradition of ailao. Today, the dance has been popularized in Samoan culture and is usually a popular part of Hawaiian tourism and luah.
I suppose the reason why I have found myself interested in this dance goes beyond my anxiousness about the burning fires. The fireknife, I believe, is one of the most interesting and best examples of how a culture identifies itself through dance. The fireknife, as I have said before, is a exemplified melting pot of traditional and modern components that come together to form a dance. Considering that the origins are tied to island nations- I find it entirely appropriate that there is such a diverse and scattered history of the fire dance. This is because, over time, islands, because of their physical geography would lead to people forming distinctive sub-cultures and rituals that were distinctive to that location. Fireknife, as a mainstay in popular Hawaiian tourism, exemplifies that melding and evolution of traditions and modern invented showmanship, that come together to form a dance that is rich in gesture, tradition, and cultural significance and still is used to emphasize a sub-cultures unique motivations (tourist industry).
The dance is both ephemeral with the fire component and an exquisite example of othering. As its exclusiveness and individual celebration of guise and costume emphasize the importance of cultural values and traditions. As we saw in the lectures of reversibility, the dancer cannot completely ever separate from the modern self and goal of performer/ance, but as you see with the video examples, the use of costume, stage setting, and emotive acting, really illustrate how we can see a dance in terms of “dancer”, “dancing”, and “danced.” That said, I know there is still tons more to learn and research when it comes to fireknife! Let it burn.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Georgina, Dianna M. Performing Selves: The Semiotics of Selfhood in Samoan Dance. Washington State University. 2007.
A scholarly article. Traces and uses historical analytics as well as traditional and modern social values to evaluate the impact of dance in Samoan culture. The article both gives good background as well as contemporary discussion of the significance of dancing in terms of coming of age, and cultural identity.
Thompson, Rene. The Story of the Samoan Fire Knife Dance. Tikiarticles February 2, 2012. Royal-tiki.com. http://www.royaltiki.com/Articles/History-And-Culture/The-Story-Of-The-Samoan-Fire-Knife-Dance.
Accredited site with an expert author. This article gives a brief and precise overview of fireknife. This is a good site, because it breaks down fireknife in modern terms and focuses on main points and the rituals history without delving too far into analytics.