There was a star danced

Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry, vol. 14, 3 (2014), 307-317, 2014

Humanity’s integration into the cosmos is fundamentally shaped by the perception of structured celestial movements: the rotation of the celestial sphere and the various regular paths of celestial bodies. Participating in these cosmic regularities has been an objective of human cultures since ancient times. Reproducing their structures may serve to participate in their power and to manipulate or to stabilize their effects. Dance as a rhythmic pattern of movement is a cultural expression especially prone to re-enacting the structured cosmic movements. Hence, ancient traditions have considered manifold relations between dance and ideas about the cosmos. Cultural traditions reporting “cosmic” aspects of dances refer to: (1) the dances of celestial bodies themselves, whose interpretations are based on concrete observations such as the apparent looping of the planets; (2) human dances which are in some sense related to celestial bodies or celestial events, e.g. by costumes which equip a dancer with celestial symbols; and (3) the creation of the cosmos, ascribed by some myths to dance, and the repeated ritual renewal, reassurance, and stabilization of the primordial cosmic order through dance. This article on the one hand considers the definition of “dance” and the elements which make dance a “cosmic dance”. On the other hand it considers which astronomical phenomena might particularly fuel the idea of a cosmic “dance”. Examples from different cultures worldwide serve as illustrations.

Dance Research: The Journal of the Society for Dance Research, 1992

2021

The Slovenian ethnochoreological tradition was mainly focused on the documentation and analysis of dance movement structures and their typology. Contextual approaches were given significantly less attention. In itself, this is not controversial, but it is problematic because that means that it has never undergone a critical shake-up of the dominant structural-analytical paradigm and the associated scientific and research work. The consequences for the development of Slovenian ethnochoreological science and, to a large extent, also its applied activities, were considerable.

Where, how and why was dance created and designed as a cultural category? Which dance is the oldest in the world? Is he still alive? Are they still dancing? All this and much more, based on the latest discoveries, methods and principles of research in the humanities! Amended and refined text! Without politics, ideology and prejudice!

The most ancient pieces of evidence about dance belong to an extensive corpus of images produced by our ancestors on a variety of objects (shelters, cave walls, rock outcrops, items made in baked clay and metal, pottery), with most diversified techniques (carving, painting, graffito, pecking), and going back to at least the late Paleolithic age. Since 1959, the year when French ethnologist Maurice Louis published in Les origines préhistoriques de la danse the earliest research about a limited group of dance scenes, the study of prehistoric visual sources has made a great progress. 1 In the course of over fifty years of research, post-Paleolithic rock paintings and carvings, found mostly in the sites distributed in the Alpine area (Valcamonica, Valtellina, Valais, Valle d'Aosta, Mt. Bego), have been subjected to a methodical and comparative analysis. The in-depth studies on some types of representations—such as the tools used in daily activities (ploughs, wagons, weapons, huts), the animal figures, or the symbolic concepts (cupmarks, labyrinths, solar symbols, shovels, geometrical figures, topographic " maps ")—have outlined interpretative hypotheses of great interest. On the contrary, in spite of the elaboration of an effective interdisciplinary method, the study of the gesture and dance has not advanced in the same way. It is sufficient to leaf through some recent manual of the dance history to notice that the space devoted to manifestations of the art of dancing in pre/proto-historic Europe is limited to only a few lines of text and some images. The reason for such a situation —cer-tainly not attributable to lack of data—has to do with issues of research logic. First of all, the analysis of the oldest documents concerning dance requires a competence in study of images rather than in the art of dancing. At least initially, the analytical method of dance representations and representations from prehistoric period do coincide. It is also indispensable to put aside the aesthetic issue: prehistoric depictions are not a product of the mentality searching for beauty and harmony as images have been codified in the Western culture. Nor does it suffice to explain, as many studies of history of ancient art have done, that the decoration of whole surfaces on an object came from the need to fill all its available space with images (horror vacui). Finally, a difficulty concerning the approach to the topic of prehistoric dance is, on the one hand, the issue of the meaning in " represented " gestures and dance; on the other, once a theory of prehistoric dance is drawn up, a question arises regarding the cognitive value and the level of " scientific nature " attributable to the scholarly interpretations. 2 If we consider the role of dance in the archaic world, we also discover the need to underline two essential elements: the social function and the magic-symbolic function, which we could define as " cosmic interaction ". 3 An extremely relevant event occurs at the very moment when a community member joins others in dancing: as the rhythmical movement prevails and each dancer refines the coordination of his/her movements with those of the partners, the perception of the self is gradually reduced to the point that each participant feels a transformation of his/her own individuality into the role of " cogwheel " within a perfect human mechanism of dancing ensemble. This process, induced by the rhythmical element is accompanied also at the most elementary level by the intense feeling of harmony, which comes to exist among all dancers. 311

Dance is a powerful Art form originated for the devotion toward God , Dance is a gesture reflected from the human body representing inner self .It is not only rituals but an art form. Historically the origins can be traced from the extant sculptures, paintings, literature, inscriptions and foreign accounts of the country as the major forms of sources. Mythological origins have also been based on the origins as discussed in the books that narrate the status of dance during the Vedic periods, as narrated in the epics, the Puranas and the literary accounts that followed. Dance has existed ever since mankind has come into existence. INTRODUCTION Dance as a ritual in the folk forms of India has been discussed in the article. Dance has originated as a ritual with the times as we historically see that there is the representation of the sculptures of dance in the places of worship be it temples or the Chaityas of the Buddhist. It is Interesting to note that dance has been an offering to the Lord from the times Since Shodasha or sixteen types of variety offerings were made to the Lord. There is also evidence to the fact that dance was part of the ritual activity in the temple since there was the accommodation of the Natya Mantapas or the Nat Mandir in most of the temples in History. These perhaps form the very basis of inquiry in the mind to know if dance and ritual were in any form related to each other An extension of the idea is that the classical dances were related undoubtedly. But are the folk and traditional forms also associated with Ritual It is interesting to note that the folk forms that were performed as part of the village annual fairs and festivities had to begin with an offering to the village Goddess. More often the performers were thought of to be the mediators between the God or Goddess and the people. They were subjected to many austerities and were required to lead a very chasteful life and only then permitted to perform the required ritualistic dance. The dancers were to hail from traditional families in most of the cases. Anybody or everybody were not allowed to perform these ritualistic dances. These were quite often associated with Masks. These (masks) were used to create an illusion in the minds of the onlookers as observed in the case of the characterization of roles in the traditional theatre, Spirit Propitiation, folk dance forms so that the performer stood out as a special and separate personality and was not just the ordinary man that they knew every day. Either they visualized the form of the character that was being enacted or they were used to

2018

Missing from standard reference works on Dante's Commedia are separate entries devoted exclusively to dance or dancing. Primary sources for the history of dance in the Italian Trecento derive from tablatures (musical notations), scattered iconographic images, and literary works, such as Boccaccio's Decameron and Dante's Commedia. Representations of dancing in these works invariably double as a symbolic language or meta-commentary on the surrounding narrative. The interpretation of dance's role in late medieval art and literature depends not only on the context but also on the type of dance depicted. This article focuses on the allegorical roles that dance plays in Dante the Pilgrim's salvific otherworldly experience in Purgatory and Paradise, including not only circular dance movements but also the position of the Pilgrim as the center point within a circle in three distinct episodes: Purgatorio 31.104 (with the four nymphs or cardinal virtues) and 31.132 (with the three nymphs or theological virtues) and in Paradiso 13.20-21 (with the twenty-four sapienti or wise men).