Before I enrolled in “Appreciation of Dance” cultural studies class, I don’t think I had any appreciation of dance whatsoever. I thought dance was just something that weird people did to have fun, for entertainment, and to make money. After being in this class so far I’ve come to respect many aspects and values of dance “especially world dance”.
It seems as though dance is life or life is dance, in life we all have some sort of function, and so does dance. Dance has many functions and is an important role in society for social reasons. Folk dance is history past down from generations to generations. Not is it just dance, but its story-telling and a form of entertainment. Before I read this unit I didn’t understand or took into deep thought, the origins, insights, or understanding of why people in different cultures danced.
Every thing about dance is symbolic in some form, whether it is physical or dramatically displayed. The sounds, or background music of the dances most often controls the body movements, and styles of dance, which can also be accompanied by costumes, mask, make-up, and different settings.
Many of the different cultures dance for different reasons. Some of the dance cultures I’ve learned about where very interesting. Like Chinese dance; how their dance opera’s tell stories. Another is Polynesian dance in which some of their dances were used to attract the opposite sex. Dance in many different cultures is also used to teach history or custom by movement and songs. In the Philippines, women danced to show that they were moving into adulthood. Dance is used by many cultures for religious purposes. In Peru, religious dance was used to attract spirits and gods. The Peruvians would dance to the sun god for rains and sunshine to help their harvest.
The Essay on Artaud Theater Culture Life
Marc Bro tman Theory of Drama 11/15/00 TWO NIGHTS OF ARTAUD IS JUST NOT HEALTHY Cornell West writes, culture convinces you not to kill yourself. This, I ve come to realize, is a partial articulation of Atr aud s idea of culture -in-action (which also mandates his idea of metaphysics-in-action). Writing from a spiritual perspective, Artaud believes that something makes us live. This something is ...
Most ethnic/world dance is accompanied by sound. Sound is used to help control body movements and movement in general. For example, in Vietnamese dance, there is a lot of movement because the dancers move to make patterns. These patterns are used to entertain the audience. Another important aspect that is commonly tied in with dance are songs. In New Zealand, songs are the most important part of their dance culture. Movement is somewhat stationary and important, but the words/songs are the significant aspect in that fact that they tell stories of their culture and customs.
Another important aspect that I’ve learned about world dance is the use of costumes and mask. These play an important role that the dancers use to. Such an example would be the Japanese Priest Shrine dance, where the dancer use mask to exonerate a spirit, or person of magic. American Indians believed mask make them controlled by the spirit. In Bali, masks are used in the external fight of good and evil. So mask are commonly used in several different cultures of dance and are all symbolic in different ways.
