Lord of the Dance and Realm of the Dance

By John Anderson and Mark Hofmeyer and Edited By:

Laura Pratt and Dr. Kay Picart

Shiva, the great Hindu god of destruction Worshipped in ____ Classically represented as Nataraja, Lord

of the Dance

The basic vehicle of dance is the human body What determines when and how people

dance? The story and history of dance greatly

differs between religions and cultures.

Judaism and dance

From the beginning there has always been a right and wrong kind of dance.

Miriam, sister of Moses King David Wrong Singing and dancing

Purity and Dance

The early Christians looked to keep their bodies sacred and pure because they anticipated the second coming.(41)

It was important to abstain from _____. As Basileios the Great said: Women who dance with lustful eyes and loud

laughter tend to excite the lust of the youths.(44)

To Dance or not to Dance.

How did many Christian feel about dance?

Dance Mania hits Europe in 1374

What happened during Europe in 1374?

Plato and Aristotle

Plato: ____________________________________________________________________

Man Should know how to dance _________(40)

Disliked actors “Performers were not actually feeling what they pretended to feel” (40)

The Yoruba of West Africa

Where was this dance directed?

What does the dancing body merge?

Ceremonies designed to induce possession.

What is an oriki?

Egungun festivals

Who was honored?

What is essential to the masquerade?

India and its dancing

What place does the body have in religious worship in India?

What does Hinduism suggest about the two realms?

Bharata natyam and Kathakali

What is Bharata natyam? What does it use? What si the dancer trying to achieve?

How is all of this accomplished?

Arousing certain emotional states in the audience.

These are called ____. How many fundamental Rasas are there? What are they? How many movements does the Natya

Shastra enumerate?

Kathakali

What is Kathakali? What do the performers concentrate on? How long are performances? How long are performers in the academy? Workings of divinity are made manifest

through the vehicle of the human body

Dance of the Realm

What is a court?

Do they exist today?

From Asanti…

Asanti (pronounced Ah-shan-ti, yes like the pop singer).

“Asanthene’s proudest title is “master of the music and the drums,” or “master of the dance”(71)

“By rhythmic and tonal mimicry the drummer can carry on an elaborate dialogue with the dancer”(71)

…to Louis XIV

“Louis found a way to control the obstreperous mobility of France, by structuring his court quite literally around the dance floor”(73)

“to succeed at court, a man of ambition had to be as accomplished in dancing as he was in riding, fencing, and fine speech”(74)

Branle

“protocol governing social occasions was rigid”

Men lined up behind the king, women up behind the Queen, and the company circled the floor.

“The order was so strictly by rank that anyone observing knew immediately who stood above whom at court” (79)

Question?

Examples of similar dances today? In an everyday persons social life?

Maintaining power structure with Dance

“two equilateral triangles within a circle signified supreme power”(75)

La Ballet de Nuit, Louis played Le Roi Soleil (the sun king)

“really playing Apollo, the Greek god who had passed into the allegorical conventions of Christian europe”(75)

Works Cited

Gerald Jonas, "Lord of the Dance," DPPM, pp. 36-69

Gerald Jonas, "Dance of the Realm," DPPM, pp. 70-109