DANCING
Early forms of dance
Dance has been a part of man from the primitive to the most cultured community, and appears to have evolved even before he began to speak or paint. While the primitive man performed the dance combining the reality with the deity, the cultured man performed the dance for pleasure and for the expression of art.
There are many different kinds of dancing throughout the world and throughout history. In ancient times dancing was common practice in harvest festivals and many of the earliest recorded dances were performed ritually, in prayer and in thanks for health and bounty.
During the primitive phase of man's evolution, the mind was used to create an energy field or matrix. Of course man did not understand this at any intellectual level . . . it was only understood at an instinctive or intuitional level.
His mind created this matrix through the act of ritual. These early rituals were a kind of drama or 'play' in which someone was dressed in animal skins to play the part of the animal the tribe wanted to capture. The animal skin was an important ingredient in this kind of sympathetic or 'correspondence' magic ritual. The emotions were intensified by a repetitive hypnotic beat or rhythm, and the tribe menacingly danced around their skin-clad victim
Ancient Chinese Ballroom Dance
From the Han Dynasty (206BC-220 AD) to the Wei Dynasty (220-265) and the Jin Dynasty (265-420), there was a kind of dance very popular on the parties of officials and aristocrats. People danced for social intercourse and making friends. The dance was just like today's ballroom dance.
On parties, the host will dance first. After the host finishes dance, he will invite one of the guests to dance continuously. After the second dancer ends his dance, another one will be invited to dance. Thus, the dance goes on and on.
During the dance, if one is invited, he or she should not decline, otherwise, he or she will be regarded as impolite. It is an insult to the one who offers invitation.
During the Tang dynasty (618-907), there was once another kind of ballroom dance very popular. The dance was called Da Ling, a custom on parties.
History of Aboriginal Dance
Unless you're from the land Down Under or have visited Australia or New Zealand, there is a good chance you're not familiar with the aboriginal culture. Australia's indigenous people lived on the red continent for tens of thousands of years before European settlers came upon the vast land. Like the story of other colonizers in other parts of the world, those white settlers brought disease and seized their lands. But perhaps the most crushing blow was the white man's threat to the aboriginal culture--a culture that at its center has dance.
One early form of ritual dance is mandala meditations a kind of active meditation that energizes the body while allowing the mind the wander freely.
Another early form of dance is folk dance. All across Europe and through parts of china and some basic kinds of folkdance developed in simple step patterns that create geometric shapes.
African music
The keys to understanding rhythm in African music have been identified in various ways: the beat of the big drum. Among all of the paths to explaining rhythm, whether it is created by the human body as in a drummer striking a drum or by a dancer moving her feet. Motion can also be defined as conceptual, that is "one who or something which imparts motion"
African rhythm is ultimately founded on drumming. Drumming can be replaced by hand-clapping or by the xylophone, what really matters is the act of beating; and only from this point can African rhythms be understood. Each single beating movement is again two-fold: the muscles are strained and released, the hand is lifted and dropped. Only the second phase is stressed acoustically; but the first inaudible one has the motor accent, as it were, which consists in the straining of the muscles. This implies an essential contrast between our rhythmic conception and the Africans' we proceed from hearing, they from motion
Kpelle people
The Kpelle people narrate many myths about the origin of song. One of those myths clearly illustrates that action and change are highly valued in Kpelle music performance. The myth tells of a young, argumentative boy who doubted what his elders were telling him, that the Mandingo traders who came to the local market had tails. He didn't believe them when they further elaborated that the reason the Mandingos came to the market in the morning before anyone else was so that they could sit down and hide their tails. The Mandingos were among the last to leave the market in the evening because they didn't want anyone seeing their tails when they stood up to leave. The feisty young boy decided to see for himself. He arrived at the market and climbed a píli tree in order to get a good view of the traders. As they began packing up their goods at the end of the day, the young boy saw their tails and couldn't help shouting in astonishment. Looking up and seeing the rude boy in the tree, one of the Mandingos snapped his fingers and thereby cast a spell that kept the boy attached to the tree from that day forward.
But the boy could express himself in songs that came forth whenever a leaf fell from the tree. The number of leaves that fell in a particular year represented the number of new songs that were created each year And people who narrate that story say that Kpelle people expect new songs to come all the time. Some songs are created and performed for only a short time. Others are readily adopted from neighboring communities as people borrow, change and perpetuate the songs, adding their own elaborations of melody, rhythm, and text.