For research supporting my project, I looked into the history of dance and how it began and processed. This was really interesting for me as I have done dance for a long time, I found out lots of interesting facts. Here is what I discovered:
Dance history is
difficult to access because dance does not often leave behind clearly
identifiable physical artifacts that last over millennia, such as stone tools,
hunting implements or cave paintings. It is not possible to say when dance
became part of human culture. It has certainly been an important part of
ceremony, rituals, celebrations and entertainment since before the birth of the
earliest human civilizations. Archaeology delivers traces of dance from
prehistoric times such as the 9000 year old Bhimbetka rock shelters paintings
in India, and Egyptian tomb paintings depicting dancing figures from 3300 BC.
The origins of
the dances of Sri Lanka are dated back to the aboriginal tribes. The classical
dances of Sri Lanka (Kandyan dances) feature a highly developed system of tala
(rhythm), provided by cymbals called thalampataa. According to the legend, the
origins of the dance lies in an exorcism ritual known as the Kohomba Kankariya,
which was originally performed by Indian shamans who came to the island. The
Indian shamans came to the island upon the request of a king who was suffering
from a mysterious illness. The king was said to be suffering from a recurring
dream in which a leopard was directing its tongue towards the king, believed to
be as a black magic of "Kuweni" the first wife of the king
"Vijaya". After the performance of the Kohomba Kankariya the illness
vanished, and many natives adopted the dance. It was originally performed by
dancers who were identified as a separate caste under the Kandyan Fudel system.
They were aligned to the Temple of the Tooth and had a significant role to play
in the Dalada Perahera (procession) held each year by the temple. The dance
waned in popularity as the support for the dancers from the Kandyan kings ended
during the British period. It has now been revived and adapted for the stage,
and is Sri Lanka's primary cultural export.
It is unlikely
that any human society (at any rate until the invention of puritanism) has
denied itself the excitement and pleasure of dancing. Like cave painting, the
first purpose of dance is probably ritual - appeasing a nature spirit or
accompanying a rite of passage. But losing oneself in rhythmic movement with
other people is an easy form of intoxication. Pleasure can never have been far
away.
Rhythm,
indispensable in dancing, is also a basic element of music. It is natural to
beat out the rhythm of the dance with sticks. It is natural to accompany the
movement of the dance with rhythmic chanting. Dance and music begin as partners
in the service of ritual. This has continued through the centuries and is the
explanation of dance and music. Rhythm is part of dance and music.
In most ancient
civilizations, dancing before the god is an important element in temple ritual.
In Egypt the priests and priestesses, accompanied by harps and pipes, perform
stately movements, which mime significant events in the story of a god, or
imitate cosmic patterns such as the rhythm of night and day. At Egyptian
funerals, women dance to express the grief of the mourners.
Sacred occasions
in Greek shrines, such as the games at Olympia from the 8th century BC, are
inaugurated with dancing by the temple virgins. The choros is originally just a
dance, performed in a circle in honour of a god. In the 6th century it becomes
the centrepiece of Greek theatre.
An early
manuscript describing dance is the Natya Shastra on which is based the modern
interpretation of classical Indian dance. In India the formalized hand
movements of the priestesses in Hindu temples are described in documents from
as early as the 1st century AD. Each precise gesture is of subtle significance.
A form of classical dance based upon them - known as Bharata Nhatyam - is still
performed by highly skilled practitioners today.
Natyashastra is
the most detail and elaborate of all treatises on dramatic criticism and acting
ever written in any language and is regarded as the oldest surviving text on
stagecraft in the world. Written by the great dramatist of ancient India,
Bharata, Natyashastra is reckoned as the poetics of Indian drama. Bharata muni
in his Natyashastra demonstrates every aspect of Indian drama whilst covering
areas like covers music, stage-design, make up, dance and virtually every
aspect of stagecraft. With its kaleidoscopic approach, with its wider scope
Natyashastra has offered a remarkable dimension to growth and development of
Indian classical music, dance, drama and art. Hence it is certainly not an
overstatement to say that Natyashastra indeed laid the cornerstone of the fine
arts in India. The commentaries on the Natyashastra are known, dating from the
sixth or seventh centuries.
Ballet in
France: 16th - 17th century
A favourite
entertainment in Renaissance France and Italy involves ladies and gentlemen of
the court being wheeled into the banqueting hall on scenic floats from which
they descend to perform a dance. Such festivities are much encouraged by
Catherine de Médicis after she marries into the French royal family.
In 1581 a
significant step forward is taken by Catherine's director of court festivals,
Baltazar de Beaujoyeulx. For a wedding celebration he produces the Ballet
Comique de la Reine, combining dance (which he describes as being just
"geometric patterns of people dancing together") with the narrative
interest of a comedy. It is the first dramatic ballet.
This French and
Italian love of dance continues in the next century. At the court of Savoy, in
Turin, there is a strong tradition of lavish amateur ballets for any festive
occasion in the mid-17th century.
In France Louis
XIII, son of Marie de Médicis, loves to show off his talents in this line -
although, reports a contemporary, he "never performed anything but
ridiculous characters". The king's typical roles include a wandering
musician, a Dutch captain, a grotesque warrior, a farmer and a woman. His son
Louis XIV enjoys similar pleasures, but his roles have a little more classical
gravitas - a Bacchante, a Titan, a Muse and (presumably a favourite) Apollo
dressed as the sun.
The dancers in
court ballets are the courtiers themselves, and a large part of the pleasure
comes from watching one's friends prance about in spectacular costumes. The
English diarist John Evelyn sees Louis XIV dancing in Paris in 1651; he marvels
not so much at the dancing as at so many Sumptuously attired aristocrats.
But Louis XIV
himself is genuinely interested in dancing, and in 1661 he decides that his
colleagues are not up to scratch. He brings together the best Parisian dancing
masters to form the Académie Royale de Danse, where his friends' skills may be
honed. It is so successful that he follows it in 1669 with a similar Académie
Royale de Musique. These two institutions are merged to form the Paris Opéra
(still in existence today). From 1672 professional dancers are trained. The
institution settles down into what is recognizably a ballet company. The first
director, Pierre Beauchamp, choreographs many ballet sequences with music by
Lully and others, and he devises his own system for recording the steps. He is
often credited with inventing the five classic positions for the feet, but more
probably he is merely the first to record them. A spectacular ballet by Lully
and Beauchamp is Le Triomphe de l'Amour, first performed in 1681 with Beauchamp
dancing Mars accompanied by ladies and gentlemen of the court. Four months
later the same ballet is performed again, in a public theatre, with a
significant innovation - professional female dancers.
The female
ensemble is led by Mlle de Lafontaine, the world's first prima ballerina. She
stars in many other ballets over the next twelve years (earning the title reine
de la danse, "queen of the dance") before retiring into a convent.
Lafontaine and
her colleagues are constrained by the heavy dresses which convention forces
them to wear on stage, but the men suffer less restriction (when dancing heroic
roles their usual costume is akin to a Roman soldier's short tunic, coming half
way down the thigh). Virtuoso male dancing rapidly becomes one of the great attractions
of ballet. The first to demonstrate it is Jean Balon, who is with the Paris
Opéra from 1691 to 1710. Famous for his lightness and agility, his name is
possibly commemorated in the term "ballon" - still used today for the
moment when a dancer can seem to pause in mid-air during a jump.
History of
contemporary dance
Around 1980s,
the world "contemporary dance" referred to the movement of new
dancers who did not want to follow strict classical ballet and lyrical dance
forms, but instead wanted to explore the area of revolutionary unconventional
movements that were gathered from all dance styles of the world. Contemporary
dances therefore do not use fixed moves and instead try to develop totally new
forms and dynamics, such as quick oppositional moves, shifting alignments,
expressions of raw emotions, systematic breathing, dancing moves preformed in
non-standing positions (for example lying on the floor), and in general trying
to find the absolute limits of our human form and physique.
The origins of
this popular dance movement can be traced to several influential dance masters
such as Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham. They all wanted to
show to the world that contemporary dancers should embrace freedom, ignore old
dance conventions and explore the limits of the human body and visual
expression of feelings. Also, one of the precursors to the contemporary dance
can be found in the millennia's old techniques of Zen Buddhism and Indian
Health Yoga, which incorporates various dancing philosophies that closely
follow the principles of contemporary dance.
Dancer who
introduced and greatly popularized the contemporary dance to the worldwide
audience was Martha Graham (1894 - 1991). During her seven decade long career,
her modern dance and choreographies gathered the fame that is today compared to
the life works of legendary art geniuses such as Picasso, Stravinski and Frank
Lloyd Wright. Lester Horton was a very influential contemporary dance
visionary, who trained many famous modern dancers and managed to incorporate
the styles of Native American dance and modern jazz into his dance techniques.
Merce Cunningham
refined the work that his colleague Martha Graham formed, and expanded with
this his own improvements, choreographies and avant-garde dance techniques.
During his long career he was regarded as one of the greatest creative forces
in American dance, education dozens of worldwide famous dancers and thousands
professional dancers who preserved his style until today. Merce Cunningham, initially
a student of Martha Graham, accompanied his dance in April 1944, with music
that was composed and performed by John Cage, who said that Cunningham's dance
"no longer relies on linear elements nor does it rely on a movement
towards and away from climax. As in abstract painting, it is assumed that an
element (a movement, a sound, a change of light) is in and of itself
expressive; what it communicates is in large part determined by the observer
themselves." Cunningham continued to showcase his work until 1953, when he
formed Merce Cunningham Dance Company at the Black Mountain College in North
Carolina. Cunningham is considered the first choreographer to "develop an
independent attitude towards modern dance" and defy the ideas that were established
by it.Cunningham made over one hundred and fifty works for his dance company
and his pieces have been incorporated into ballet and modern dance companies
internationally. He is an inspiration to those who enjoy contemporary dance or
those who want to follow in his footsteps.
