Final Review
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8/22/2023 Introductions / Rethinking History
After reading today's blog post, we came to the conclusion that: since we all come from different backgrounds, we all have different perspectives. Having said that, our different backgrounds have helped us shape our viewpoints. Since some of us are business majors, we can use our knowledge of dance and our history in order to see how we have changed over time and how we can apply these changes to our future. As a nursing major I can apply this course because by learning about the evolution of people and medicine I can understand how to care for people with different needs. After reviewing the reading we have seen that history is not lineal and greatly depends on the viewpoint of the people who write it which is why we must reference multiple sources because we need to understand different perspectives. There are multiple facets that tie into a person's perspective of a time period. What one person associates with a certain time period might not be what another person associates with it. It is very easy to blend together, so it is important to understand how history builds on itself.
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8/24/2023 Why History ? / World View
Lana Fell
8/29/2023 First Humans: Dexterous Fingers
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8/31/2023 The Labyrinth
With the Mind's Eye
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9/5/2023 Paleolithic Period: A Ritual Dance
9/7/2023 Paleolithic Period
We think it is essential to understand this period because it is the foundation for dance today. We believe that the expression is rooted in history and how people moved in ancient times. In history dance was the earliest form of art that helped people connect to rituals and their emotions. It also showed the struggles of the time with food insecurity and how people dealt with issues that they faced in their everyday life. It also helps people to connect to every aspect of life from agriculture, to settlements, to burials.
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9/12/2023 Copper Age: Ritual Practices
As a class when we performed the individual "Animal Ritual" it was made up of different movements. For some of the rituals it gave life to the dance and allowed them to "bloom". It also shared the life cycle AKA known as the 3 stages of ritual. To be specific it shared the seperation of it turning into a butterfly, the transition from a coccon to a butterfly, and then the aggregation of actually being a butterfly.
Why is it important to recover the practice of rituals in modern times?
It is important to recover the practice of rituals in modern times because rituals are an important way for us to preserve our culture and history and make sure it continues with new generations as time progresses. Rituals help us celebrate milestones. They also provide a method of comfort and familiarity when life changes. Rituals can also be a way to connect communities.
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9/14/2023 Copper Age: Regional Cults and Rituals
Maggie Obregon and Gaby Silva-Pines
The Trundholm Sun Chariot is an
important piece because ultimately the bronze age would usher in a time
of cultural advance in Scandinavia and a period of stunning artistic and
technical achievements that could only imply opulence and success.
9/21/2023 Review & Mid Term Quiz
9/26/2023 Iron Age: Dokwasa / The Last Iron Master
Georgia Burtt
9/28/2023 Retention: Oggun, God of Metals
10/3/2023 Afrodiasporic History: Comparsa
Group Work
Cuban Comparsa / Carnival Band
10/5/2023 African Diasporic Retention: Carnival
- They celebrate Mardi Gras where they were lots of dress feathers jewellery and colors - specifically purple, gold, and green.
- They move very freely but still uses samba and street dancing
- They perform in rituals by creating luxurious floats and celebrating and dancing on the streets.
- They have a tradition for eating festive meals- specifically the king cake
Grace, Caro, Ana, Ali, Sheamus, Boxiang traditional African steps
My group and I created a dance where the women were surrounded and they
were doing a box dance because we are playing the drums and we are doing
traditional African steps. The men represented a fight within the dance
because martial arts plays a big part in doing the dance. We also paid
ties to its Brazilian decent.
10/10/2023 Ancient Egypt: The Apis Bull Ritual
- Alyssa, Sarah, Marcus, Max
The pharaoh was looked up to as a hierarchy or leader of the group. Also the idea of protecting the people and the land was important. and connected to the gods.
- Maggie, Gaby, Ashley, Ava, Drake
They're both mediators between spiritual and earthly realms. Same ritual and ceremonies. Both are religious leaders. They both have symbolic clothing.
- Lana, Georgia, Natalie, Sophia T, Jenny R
Group Work / Tableau
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10/12/2023 Ancient Egypt: The Myth of Hathor
1) What is the importance of Hathor from a dance history point of view?
She jumped and skipped around and she implemented a ritualistic music piece (her rattle). She was the goddess of art, so she influenced the respect and attention given towards performatic art within ancient Egypt. She also had men and women dancing together which was huge for the time period.
2) Why would the menit be an important object to characterize Hathor in an Ancient Egypt scene?
It was important because she used it as a percussive instrument for religious contribution. She offered it to the king and understood the importance of instrumentation in ritualistic settings.
3) What can we assume from the roles assigned to priests and priestesses?
Women were more performative and were lively members of the ancient
society, however, men were overseers of professional musicians who were
also predominantly male.
Hathor is important because it was an integral part of Ancient Egyptian's worship practices. It was their way to connect with the supernatural. They danced in her honor, and those dances we part of their religious rituals and celebrations. The menit necklace had a lot of protective qualities and it was thought to provide protection and nourishment like a mother care. It was often worn by women and it also represented the female form as well as their fertility and nurturing qualities. Priests and priestesses often served as religious leaders in their communities and they may have led religious rituals, ceremonies, and prayers. They were also seen as intermediaries between the divine and human realms. They often provided moral and ethical guidance to their followers.
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10/19/2023 Ancient Egypt: Myth of Osiris
The process of creating this tableau (based on the myth of Osiris), began with reading through the myth and setting out general motions we would add. Then, we went through each part and determined the movement that best matched the story. After those were mapped out, we then determined how to transitions would work as if we were reading through a tableau. This created a more flowy rather than blocky performance, clearly demonstrating the myth.
Coming up with the tableau for this
story was very interesting. It was a very simple process but it was
difficult to incorporate every single aspect of the story with one
single picture. As a group we still made the best of it being that we
designated specific characters to different people. As the story carried
along, we switched positions while also portraying different characters
along the way. Towards the end of the story, the whole group depicted it
well while also being able to play multiple roles.
Maggie, Gaby, Max
Frames for the Tableau
1. We thought about a king receiving his crown
2. The king getting murdered by getting stabbed in the stomach
3. The brother stealing the crown from him
4.Isis searching for her husband "birds eye view"
5.Stomping on the corpse while Isis is trying to protect it
6.Mummifying the king in fanning way
7.taking the crown from Set and giving it to Osiris son
8.Bowing to the new king
We came up with our dance movements pretty literally to describe the exact events that have happened. We though it would make the most sense to have a more rigid dance to show each part of the story.
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20/24/2023 Ancient Intersections: The Yemenites
10/28/2023 Ptolemic Processions
Procession Elements
The procession described bellow has been extracted from the accounts provided by Christian theologian and philosopher Clement of Alexandria. Many elements may be used to make a procession more significant than just "people walking in the same direction":
- A
special mode of transport, such as a ceremonial barge, elephant howdah, horse-drawn
carriage, or a palanquin carried on the shoulders of others. Cleopatra's
arrival to seduce Mark Antony on a perfumed barge has taken on legendary
proportion.
- Criers may march before the procession, yelling to clear the way for it.
- Order of precedence: even without showy display, a group of people walking forward may be said to form a procession if their order and placement clearly visualize a hierarchy or symbiotic relationship. For instance, one's nearness to the king or others of high rank had important political connotations when the royal family walked to or from the palace.
- Bearers of banners, fans, icons, treasure, or other eye-catching items, or leading exotic animals. This was a very important part of Roman triumphs, as booty gave the Roman populace visual proof of the warrior's success. Scent, provided by flower bearers or censers of incense.
- Skilled performers, such as acrobats or dancers.
- Special costumes: traditionally, the costumes of acolytes, footmen, ceremonial guards, or slaves help show off the wealth of the person staging a procession.
- Special lighting: candlelight vigils for the deceased or to show political solidarity often include a candlelit procession.
- The dispensing of gifts, at one time often food or money.
11/1/2023 Ancient Greece: The Athenian Chorus
Ajax by Sophocles
"Sophocles' Ajax" tells the story of the Greek hero Ajax, who, after being denied Achilles armor, is driven to madness and shame, leading to his eventual suicide. The play explores themes. of pride, honor, and divine intervention, ultimately revealing the tragic consequences of unchecked anger and hubris. The chorus sings about the events that will follow his death and how it will affect the ones around him.
11/2/2023 Ancient Rome: Pantomime
In Ancient Rome, new comedy offered a more lighthearted approach to theater compared to the more serious and tragic forms of theater at the time. The use of the flute enhanced the overall audience experience during both comedic and dramatic performances. In this new style of theater, the addition of music allowed for different comedic effects that were never seen before and allowed for music and comedy to go hand in hand. Using this musical accompaniment in comedy allowed for directors and performers to signify a new atmosphere, setting, or transition in the performance. This relates to how dancers use changing tones in their music and movements to evoke different meanings throughout their performances.
New comedy separated theater and dance allowing for dance to be reinterpreted. New Comedy had more components of dance other than just a chorus moving and acting together.
Anna Ava Drake Francesca Ananya
11/7/2023 Classic Period: Mesoamerica, India, China
Tang Dynasty
Classic Indian
11/8/2023 Middle Ages
We thought the medieval court dance was really beautiful and very socially intimate. We liked the interactions between each other and it is very interesting to see how dance was used as a mating ritual in the olden days, and it was very interesting to learn how woman were forced to be delicate as it was a sign of their purity or virginity.
11/14/2023 Early Modern Period: The Renaissance / Presentations
Presentation: Alyssa, Tatiana, Sarah, Seamus
Graham Modern Dance
Fundamental principles in Graham technique include contraction and release, opposition, shift of weight and spirals.
Presentation:Tori, Sophia, Erin, Lana
The Waltz
The Waltz originated in Austria and Germany in the 13th century as a folk dance, performed by people of the lower classes. It is a smooth dance that travels around the floor; it has rise and fall action, ¾ time and shoulders are moving smoothly parallel with the floor. The original Waltz was devised from rolling folk dance. It was created for folk dancers, not court. The waltz introduced free form positions of dances that sparked revolt and scandals from traditional lovers of ballroom dancing.
The Canary Dance
The Canary dance was a Renaissance dance inspired in an indigenous dance and song of the Canary Islands that became popular all over Europe in the late 16th and early 17th century.
The dance, which is most often choreographed for a single couple, has been characterized as "a fiery wooing dance" with either Canary origins or at least a Canary flavor from its "rapid heel-and-toe stamps" and distinctive music (Suton, p.50). It was also called frogs legs, because it was an energetic dance that featured jumps, stamping of the feet and violent movement, accompanied by music with syncopated rhythms (Thomas, 1980).
While there are choreographic works for the canario as a stand-alone dance in the dancing manuals of Fabritio Caroso, Cesare Negri, and Thoinot Arbeau (1967), it most frequently appears as a section of a larger dance or suite of dances (Suito, 50-52). Several Baroque composers (notably J.S. Bach) used the distinctive rhythm of the canary in a few pieces, such as the gigue of the French Suite in C Minor, and it also appears in one of the Goldber Variations (Variation 7).
In Spanish America, the canary could have influenced all the zapateo dances known in the area as part of a process of creolization of European culture.
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11/15/2023 Baroque & Rococo / Minuet & Contradanza/ Presentations
Presentation: Lana A., Ana, Ashley, Boxiang
The Royal Ballet of Cambodia
A traditional dance that originated in Cambodia and is deeply rooted in the country's cultural and religious heritage.
It is performed to ask for the gods to protect and bless the people of Cambodia
The tradition of the dance originated from and is maintained by the royal family
The ballet involves graceful movements, intricate hand gestures, and elaborate costumes. These motions convey stories, myths, and religious themes often accompanied by traditional music.
Presentation: Natalie, Jenny, Georgia
American Swing Dancing
- Swing dance is actually a group of dances that developed with the swing style of jazz music in the 1920s through 1940. Historically, “swing” referred to the style of jazz music that inspired the dance. During that time, hundreds of styles of swing dancing developed.
- Swing Dancing originated in Harlem, New York City in the late 1920s. It continued its popularity through to the late 1940s. The Swing Dance style that was widely danced was called Lindy Hop. The rhythms in Lindy Hop match the Jazz music swing beat.
- Hundreds of styles of swing dancing were developed; those that have survived beyond that era include Lindy Hop, Balboa, Collegiate Shag, and Charleston. Today, the best-known of these dances is the Lindy Hop, which originated in Harlem in the early 1930s.
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