Week 8 assignment: essay – interrelationships reflection apa format | Applied Sciences homework help
- Representing or portraying a state of mind allows one to recognize that state. Inter- preting a state of mind gives one insight into that state. In any of the experiments above, did you find any examples that went beyond representation and interpreta- tion? If so, what made this possible? What does artistic form have to do with this?
FIGURE 10-2 Pavithra Reddy and Bijayini Satpathy in the Nrityagram Dance ensemble’s production Sriyah at the King’s Theatre as part of the Edinburgh International Festival. ©Robbie Jack-Corbis/Getty Images jac16871_ch10_254-275.indd 256 12/9/17 10:11 AM 257
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forM The subject matter of dance can be moving visual patterns, feelings, states of mind, narrative, or various combinations. The form of the dance—its details and structure—gives us insight into the subject matter. But in dance, the form is not as clearly perceptible as it usually is in painting, sculpture, and architecture. The vi- sual arts normally “sit still” long enough for us to reexamine everything. But dance moves on relentlessly, like literature in recitation, drama, and music, preventing us from reexamining its details and organization. We can only hope to hold in memory a detail for comparison with an ensuing detail, and those details as they help create the structure. Therefore, one prerequisite for thorough enjoyment of the dance is the develop- ment of a memory for dance movements. The dance will usually help us in this task by the use of repetitive movements and variations on them. It can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves: present once again details for our renewed consideration. Often the dance builds tension by withholding movements we want to have re- peated. Sometimes it creates unusual tension by refusing to repeat any movement at all. Repetition or the lack of it—as in music or any serial art—becomes one of the most important structural features of the dance. The dance, furthermore, achieves a number of kinds of balance. In terms of the entire stage, usually dancers in a company balance themselves across the space allotted to them, moving forward, backward, left, and right as well as in circles. Centrality of focus is important in most dances and helps us unify the shapes of the overall dance. The most important dancers are usually at the center of the stage, holding our attention while subordinate groups of dancers balance them on the sides of the stage. Balance is also a structural consideration for both individual dancers (Figure 10-5) and groups (Figure 10-3). FIGURE 10-3 Eleonora Abbagnato of the Paris Opera Ballet performing in Le Sacre du Printemps by Pina Bausch. Interpreting the ritual Rite of Spring, Igor Stravinsky’s dynamic symphonic piece almost caused riots in 1913. Bausch interprets the erotic joy implied in the music and in the rituals celebrated in ancient Greece. ©Julien Benhamou jac16871_ch10_254-275.indd 257 12/9/17 10:11 AM 258
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The positions of the ballet dancer also imply basic movements for the dancer, movements that can be maneuvered, interwoven, set in counterpoint, and modified as the dance progresses. As we experience the dance, we can develop an eye for the ways in which these movements combine to create the dance. Modern dance devel- ops a different movement vocabulary of dance, as one can see from the illustrations in Figures 10-1 and 10-7 to 10-16. Dance anD ritual Since the only requirement for dance is a body in motion, dance probably precedes all other arts. In this sense, dance comes first. And when it comes first, it is usually connected to a ritual that demands careful execution of movements in precise ways to achieve a precise goal. The dances of most cultures were originally connected with either religious or practical hunting or agricultural acts, all often involving magic. Some dance has sexual origins and often is a ritual of courtship. Since this phe- nomenon has a correlative in nature—the courtship dances of birds and many other animals—many cultures occasionally imitated animal dances. Certain movements in Mandan Indian dances, for instance, can be traced to the leaps and falls of western jays and mockingbirds that, in finding a place to rest, will stop, leap into the air while spreading their wings for balance, then fall suddenly, only to rise into the air again. Dance of all kinds draws much of its inspiration from the movements and shapes of nature: the motion of a stalk of wheat in a gentle breeze, the scurrying of a rabbit, the curling of a contented cat, the soaring of a bird, the falling of leaves, the sway of waves. These kinds of events have supplied dancers with ideas and examples for their own movement. A favorite movement pattern for the dance is that of the spiral nautilus: The circle is another of the most pervasive shapes of nature. The movements of planets and stars suggest circular motion, and, more mundanely, so do the rings working out from a stone dropped in water. In a magical-religious way, circular dances sometimes have been thought to bring the dancers—and therefore humans in general—into a significant harmony with divine forces in the universe. The plan- ets and stars are heavenly objects in circular motion, so it was reasonable for early dancers to feel that they could align themselves with these divine forces by means of dance. Ritual Dance Tourists can see rain dances in the American Southwest even today. The floor pattern of the dance is not circular but a modified spiral. The dancers, properly jac16871_ch10_254-275.indd 258 12/9/17 10:11 AM 259
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costumed, form a line and are led by a priest, who at specific moments spreads cornmeal on the ground, symbolizing his wish for the fertility of the ground. The ritual character of the dance is clearly observable in the pattern of motion, with dancers beginning by moving toward the north, then turning west, south, east, north, west, south, and ending toward the east. The gestures of the dancers, like the gestures in most rituals, have definite meanings and functions. For exam- ple, the dancers’ loud screams are designed to awaken the gods and arrest their attention, the drumbeat suggests thunder, and the dancers’ rattles suggest the sound of rain. Social Dance Social dance is not dominated by religious or practical purposes. It is a form of rec- reation and social enjoyment. Country dance—for example, the eighteenth-century English Playford dances—is a species of folk dance that has traces of ancient origins, because country people tended to perform dances in specific relationship to special periods in the agricultural year, such as planting and harvesting. These were peri- ods of celebration, when people in villages and farms came together to share good fellowship and thanksgiving. Folk dances are the dances of the people—whether ethnic or regional in origin— and they are often carefully preserved, sometimes with contests designed to keep the dances alive. The dancers often wear the peasant costumes of the region they represent. Virtually every nation has its folk dance tradition. The Court Dance The court dances of the Middle Ages and Renaissance developed into more styl- ized and less openly energetic modes than the folk dance, for the court dance was performed by a different sort of person and served a different purpose. Participat- ing in court dances signified high social status. Some of the older dances were the volta, a favorite at Queen Elizabeth’s court in the sixteenth century, with the male dancer hoisting the female dancer in the air from time to time; the pavane, a stately PERCEPTION KEY Dance and Contemporary Rituals 1. Contemporary rituals, especially weddings and state funerals, involve motion that can be considered dance motion. What other contemporary rituals involve dance motion? Do we need to know the meanings of the ritual gestures in order to appre- ciate the motion of the ritual?