BRIEF HISTORY OF DANCE Flashcards
“Dance is an activity which can take many forms and fill many different needs. It can be
recreation, entertainment, education, therapy and religion. In its purest and most basic form,
dance is art, the art of body movement.”
BARBARA METTLER
“Before man can do anything, he must draw breath, he must move. Movement is the source
and condition of life. To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful.
This is power, it is glory on earth and it is yours for the taking.”
AGNES DE MILLE
Dance differ from athletics or other daily activities because it focuses primarily on “an
aesthetic or
even entertaining experience”
MYERS
It provided a variety of functions throughout
history due to its multidimensionality.Although there have been immense comparative differences in period and culture, people still dance mainly for four reasons:
a. to please the Gods
b. to please others
c. to please themselves
d. to build community within an ethnic group or social interaction (Myers, 2005)
Dance can be seen among all the people and civilizations of the world. Dances thrived at
different periods of history and mostly were a result of intercultural exchange and contact.
ALEJANDRO AND SANTOS-GANA
a major form of religious ritual and social expression within primitive
cultures.
It was used as a way of expressing and reinforcing tribal unity and strength, as an approach
for courtship and mating and as means of worship, communication and therapeutic
experience. It was said that the first use of dance was a gesture in order to communicate.
DANCE
” man dance originally to supplicate the gods on all
important of occasions of life.”
KRAUS AND GAUFMAN
In its earliest forms, dance was often a celebration or ceremony. motions used in their dances were basic, everyday movements,form of social interaction for prehistoric
people. This can be seen by looking at rock art from the time.
PRE HISTORIC TIMES
funeral dances, dance-dramas, and even animal imitation
dances.
4/4 time signature.
Plato, Aristotle and Socrates strongly supported this art
as an integration of the body and soul.
ANCIENT GREEK
two kinds of
dance and music: (PLATO)
(1)the noble (fine and honorable)
(2)the ignoble (imitating what is
mean or ugly).
gave less importance to dancing.
Dance became brutal and
sensationalized: entertainers were slaves and captives from many
nationalities and it was used more often for gruesome purposes.
THE ANCIENT ROME
The Church was the sole custodian of learning and education as
well as the source of morals. When the first Christian emperors came, theatrical
entertainment was prohibited.
dance still existed and was performed within the Church during religious
ceremonies. The Christian fathers approved the use of dance, provided that its form
and intent were holy and profound.
- Dances became part of worship and church services.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
Although the Church had condemned dance as entertainment, some singers,
dancers, poets, actors, musicians and jugglers continue to wander.
performed in village squares, eventually welcomed in the castles and
chateaus of feudal lords.
beginning of social dancing.
- The peasants performed two basic types of dancing: The round dance and the
couple dance.
DARK AND MIDDLE AGES
