According to a recent suggestion made by Joseph Jordania, dance together
with body painting and rhythmic music, was a tool used by the natural
selection's forces in the early ages of mankind's development for
putting human groups into a certain state of battle trance. He explains
that it was a very particular alternative state of consciousness. By it,
individual would lose their personal identity and acquire a new type of
identity, a collective one. According to Jonathan Pieslak's researches,
some contemporary military units have the habit of singing loud and
dancing in order to get ready for the perilous combat mission they are
about to embark on. Jordania says that dance's ability to induce this
state of trance comes from the past of the human development and it also
includes some sort of military drill which also relies on sharing
rhythmical and monotonous group activity.
Dance has existed from the beginnings of time. Perhaps it even appeared
before the very first tribes were formed, but most certainly dance grew
in popularity with the development of tribal life. So dance has always
been a part of people's lives, although they did sometimes perform more
than the entertainment function. Dances just had to be based on themes
such as death, birth, the revival of nature in springtime, marriage, the
teenagers' growing up, hunting, winning a battle or war with one's
neighbors. Dance was also used for worshiping gods, agriculture,
sexuality, chasing away evil spirits or for prosperity bringing rituals.
In time, dance lost all of these significances so that today it is only a
form of art. It also has a communicative function among the
participants. Aristotle explained the origins of rhythm by referring to
one's heart beats, the perfect metronome. Many types of dances appeared
throughout time, which had different meanings but one single purpose,
that of revealing the most elaborate movements, the moral conduct, the
manners and the elegance of the dancer. In the European culture the very
first record of dancing belongs to Homer. In his "Iliad", Homer
describes "chorea"(χορεία khoreia). The early ancient Greeks had turned
the dance art into a sort of system, encompassing and expressing all the
other different passions. For instance, the dance of the so-called
"Furies" could generally create a very realistic atmosphere of terror
and horrors, so that the audience was deeply moved. Dancing was ranked
by the famous Greek philosopher named Aristotle with poetry. He said
that certain dancers are able to apply rhythm to their gestures in such a
way that they could actually express actions, manners, passions. What
is interesting to know here is that the most prominent Greek sculptors
closely studied and observed dancers' attitude and movements in order to
find inspiration in their art works.
In the beginning, there wasn't any big difference between folk and
social dances but in time they gained some other aspects. The minuet was
from the 17th century on, a dance of elegance because it was practiced
at the aristocratic courts. Waltz
was quite popular during its age but also quite controversial because
of the close distance between the two dance partners. The two World Wars
have reshaped the entire dance fashion. So in the 20th century foxtrot
and shimmy appeared. From the Swing improvisations of the 40s Jitterbug
also appeared. Later on, in the 50s, rock-n-roll also appeared.
Ballroom dance can be either American, or international. In the American
style, there are rhythmical and smooth dances. The "rhythmical"
category of the American style is similar to the Latin-American one of
the international style, the same as the "smooth" category is similar to
the "standard" category. Ballroom dance could be considered a social
dance because it encourages social interaction, and also because
partners dance in pairs. The typical principles can be applied to any
type of dance, be it rock, disco or classical waltz and this is because
the ballroom dance has strict tempo of 3/4 or 4/4. Out of the
international or Latin-American dances the most notorious rhythms
include: meringue, salsa, mambo, bossa nova and many others. All these
can be included in the Latino section of the international class,
together with rumba, cha-cha-cha, samba, paso doble and jive. The
standard section includes Viennese Waltz, slow Waltz, Tango, Slow Fox,
Quick Step, etc.
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