Re: The suggestion has been made that some dances have a fractal self-similar structure
- From: Roger Bagula <rlbagulatftn@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 02 Nov 2005 16:28:24 GMT
Classical dance? It is a part of the culture that you don't get a lot of in ordinary histories of the classical Greek period.
Like every other culture they had their music, and dances that went with it.
The big three of artistic culture are: Poetry, Music, Dance
All of these arts seem to have fractal structures/ information.
They seem to fit together as a "team", so that the pneumonic of poetry
sets the rhythm of the music that the dancers feet move to.
http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Dance.htm http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Dance2.htm http://www.annaswebart.com/culture/dancehistory/history/
Antiquity / Origin of Dance
Ancient Greeks believed that dancing was invented by the Gods and therefore they had associated it with their religious and worshipping ceremonies. They believed that the Gods offered this gift to some select mortals only, who in turn taught dancing to their fellow-men.
Greek mythology attributes the origin of dancing to Rea who taught this art to Kourites in Crete. Kronos had dethroned his father Uranus. Since he was afraid that he might also be dethroned by his own children, he was eating them as soon as they were born. His wife Rea, however, deceived Kronos when their last child Zeus was born. She hid Zeus in a dark cave in Crete and instead, she gave a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes to Kronos to eat. She also asked Kourites, who were armed half-gods, to dance a war dance around the cave, shouting and striking their shields with their swords, so that Kronos would not hear baby Zeus crying. When later Zeus dethroned his father, Kourites became the priests in the new world. Their decedents continued these war dances as part of their religious ceremonies.
The oldest Greek historical sources come from Crete where an ancient civilization, the Minoan civilization, flourished around 3000 - 1400 BC. The inhabitants of Crete cultivated music, song and dance, as part of their religious life and for their entertainment, as well. Sometime during the fifteenth century BC, Crete was overrun by invaders from mainland Greece, and eventually it was controlled by Mycenae.
Many archaeological findings show that the rich Cretan dancing tradition undoubtfully influenced Mycenaeans, who passed these dances, along with other elements of their cultural and traditional life, to mainland Greece.
Cretan dances were performed in open or closed circles. Cretans were usually dancing around a tree, an altar, or mystical objects in order to free themselves from the evil. Later on, they used to dance around a singer or a musician. Cretan sculptures illustrate dances in a circle around the lyre player, couple dances connected with cults, and the close swaying dance performed by large choruses of women in front of all people. Similar sculptures have been found in mainland Greece and Cyprus and are dated around 1400 - 1050 BC.
The role of dancing in ancient Greece
Phrases here and there in ancient texts show that dance was held in high regard, in particular for its educational qualities. Dance, along with writing, music, and physical exercise, was basic to the education system and many authors extol its virtues as means of cultivating both body and soul.
According to Athenaeus, in Arcadia, the expenses of teaching dancing to the young men were met from the civic purse. The pupils staged an annual display of their accomplished skills which all citizens attended. Lucian tells us that the Thessalians had such a high regard for the art of dance that they dubbed their eminent citizens (Üñ÷ïíôåò) protorchesteres (ðñùôïïñ÷çóôáß, lead dancers). In Sparta physical exercise was tantamount to a political creed. The Spartans danced mainly martial dances and drilled to the rhythm of marches. Girls too were taught similar dance experiences which they performed in public. The Spartans not only danced before battles, they also fought with rhythmic movements to the strains of flutes. All Athenian citizens were taught the art of dance and the youths of wealthier families had private tuition in dance, music and poetry from renowned instructors ïñ÷çóôïäéäÜóêáëïé).
The famous general Epameinondas had received such lessons in Thebes and was a talented flautist, lyre-player and, like the tragic poet Sophocles, an accomplished singer and dancer. In the "Symposium", Socrates not only declares his love of dance but his desire to perfect his skill, as well. The early poets were also known as orchestes (ïñ÷çóôÝò) since they not only trained the chorus in their plays but also gave private dance lessons. In both the "Laws" and the "State" Plato eloquently expresses his belief in the virtues of dance. For him, a man who cannot dance is uneducated and unrefined, while an accomplished dancer is the epitome of a cultured man: "Ï ÌÅÍ ÁÐÁÉÄÅÕÔÏÓ Á×ÏÑÅÕÔÏÓ ÇÌÉÍ ÅÓÔÁÉ, ÔÏÍ ÄÅ ÐÅÐÁÉÄÅÕÌÅÍÏÍ ÉÊÁÍÙÓ ÊÅÊÏÑÅÕÊÏÔÁ ÈÅÔÅÏÍ". In his detailed exposition on the education of the young music, bodily exercise and dance hold pride of place. He advocates that girls should be taught the same dance movements as the boys stressing that their teacher should be a woman and her instruction not tempered with Spartan severity.
General characteristics of ancient Greek dances
The distinctive character of the Greeks has been most completely expressed in the choral dance. The renowned researcher Curt Sachs remarks that in the ancient Greek sculptures the observer admires the joyous rhythm which binds together, into a harmony more than personal, movements that arise from an inner compulsion and accord with the law of the dancer’s own body. The Greek dances neglect the pelvis and elevate the beauty and the plasticity of the human body. On the other hand, dances of people with low cultural level are characterized by sexual elements and movements of the pelvis.
The dominant formation in all ancient Greek dances seemed to have been the circle, open, closed or spiralling. Only Athenaeus refers to dancers in straight lines, as well as a "square- dance" on which he does not elaborate. As a rule, men and women danced separately, rarely together. In the theatre, the members of the chorus and the principal actors were all men. Women danced women’s dances among themselves and dionysiac dances in the course of orgiastic bacchic festivals. Dancers were mainly amateurs, except for those engaged to entertain the diners at symposia who were considered to be of low social status.
musician
Even since the Minoan period, the music accompaniment of the dance plays a very important role in dancing. In fact, there was a single word - ìïõóéêÞ- for song, dance, and instrumental music; the evidence suggests that they never chanted without moving their bodies.
Known instruments of the ancient times were pieces of wood, metallic cymbals, bells and shell instruments which used to keep the rhythm of the dance. They also used sistron and tympani.
Minoans used string instruments, such as the kithara and the lyre, and wind instruments such as the avlos and the syrigs.
Types of dances
The dances of the ancient times are characterized as dances of war or dances of peace. The latter are distinguished in dances of theatre, religious and worshipping dances, martial dances, symposia dances, mourning dances, etc. Each type of presentation - tragedy, comedy, and satirical play - had its characteristic dances, some staid and solemn, some featuring lewd miming with phallic props. Dances cited in the ancient texts are the following:
• Pyrrihic dance was the most known among martial dances, part of the basic military education in both Athens and Sparta.
• Gymnopaedia was the main dance of the Lacedaemonians and was performed annually at the agora in Sparta. It must have been like present-day gymnastics.
• Geranos was danced in Delos. According to Plutarch, Theseus after having killed the Minotaur in the Labyrinth of Knossos, on his way back to Athens, he stopped at Delos. There, he offered a sacrifice to the goddess Aphrodite and he danced around the altar. This dance included serpentine movements, imitating the movements of Theseus inside the Labyrinth.
• Ierakio was a women's dance, danced in festivals honouring goddess Hera.
• Epilinios was a dionysiac dance danced on top of the vats while treading the grapes with their feet.
• Emelia was the dance of tragedy, enhancing the events enacted on the stage. Kordax was the dance of the comedy was looked down on, and in general regarded as unworthy of serious men. Sikkinis was the dance of the satirical drama, imitating the movements of cats and danced by Satyrs.
• Imeneos was the dance of the marriage. It was danced by the bride with her mother and friends. It was quick with a lot of twists and turns.
• Hormos is according to Lucian a common dance of the young men and women who dance one by the other forming a chain. The leader is a young man who shows his dancing and martial abilities through his movements. A young woman follows him providing an example of solemnity and decency to all other women dancers.
• Iporchima was a combination of dance and pantomime, singing and music. It comes from Crete. It was danced by boys and girls together singing choric poems.
Sources for the study of dancing
Our information about dance in ancient Greece is sufficient to enable us appreciate its role in the society but inadequate to provide us with an idea of how the dances were actually danced. In place of precise descriptions, we have the analytical writings of philosophers like Plato (427-347 BC) and Aristotle (384-322 BC) who left an elaborate literature of dance theory and criticism. In fact, the ancient Greeks pioneered the logical approach to dance, classifying its elements, and with their unique rationalism, organized its components into a unifying system.
Several texts existed describing dances, classifying them according to type and explaining their provenance, but very few have survived and these only from the late antiquity.
They include Plutarch's "Banquet Topics" (90 AD), Lucian's "Dialogue on Dance" (160 AD), Athenaeus' "Deipnosophistae" ( 215 AD) and Nonnus' "Dionysiaca" (500 AD). Phrases and names connected with dance, as well as references to dance occasions occur also sporadically in the works of Homer, Xenophon, Aristophanes and the tragic poets. Here is an excerpt from Iliad where Homer describes the representation depicted on Achilles' shield. It happens to be a reference to the mythical dance of the labyrinth, Theseus did on his way back from Crete:
Here young men and the most desired young girls were dancing, linked, touching each other’s wrists, the girls in linen, in soft gowns.... Trained and adept, they circled there with ease the way a potter sitting at his wheel will give it a practice twirl between his palms to see it run; or else, again, in lines as though in ranks, they moved on one another: magical
The diverse facts gleaned from the texts are supplemented by little information on the music and meter of the ancient Greeks, by representations of dancers on vases and relieves, by comparative studies on dance in other societies. Paintings and drawings on pottery, murals, etc. have been preserved and reveal information on dancing styling and formations. They also provide information on the dancers' costumes, jewelry, and objects they were holding while dancing.
For example, there are representations of men and women dancing with spoon-like objects. These objects and the way the dancers hold them remind very much of the spoons, in the spoon dance people from the area of Capadoccia (Asia Minor) still do today.
Spoon Dance, today
A basic source of information on the dance rhythms comes out of the meter of the ancient Greek poetry. In ancient languages, such as Greek, Latin and Sanskrit, the musical meter is based on the poetic meter, determined by the long and short syllables. Therefore, by recognizing these rhythms, one can get an idea about the rhythms of their dances.
Roger L. Bagula { email: rlbagula@xxxxxxxxxxxxx or rlbagulatftn@xxxxxxxxx }11759 Waterhill Road, Lakeside, Ca. 92040 telephone: 619-561-0814
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