Dance is the most sublime, the most exciting and the most

the finest of all arts, because it is not easy

a reflection of life or a distraction from it, but life itself.

(Havelock Ellis. "Dance of Life")

What is dance? What is the Divine art of Terpsichore what are its origins and principles of development? What, finally, is its appeal, which has not faded over the millennia? Have you ever asked these questions? But the answers to them can be very curious to many people. And not only for those who, by the nature of their profession, are engaged in choreography, but also for historians, art historians, sociologists and many others. Indeed, dance, as a purely public, social phenomenon, is a whole layer that reflects, through its methods and techniques, the historical, social and cultural development of human society. This layer is very interesting and not deep enough, in my opinion, "plowed" by modern science. Historians focused more on aspects of the economic and socio-political development of society, art critics pay much more attention to architecture or painting, and even on modern theatrical and especially pop stages, dance plays far from the first role in comparison with vocals or the same spoken genre. Why such disfavor? After all, choreographic art is perhaps the oldest in the world, it has survived millennia, having arisen in the human environment at a time when a civilized society with its economy and politics, in fact, did not exist yet. Why dance, which at the dawn of human history, on a par with cult and magic, was the most important of all types of mental and socio-cultural activities of people, has now receded into the background? When and why did this happen? We will try to understand all this variety of questions.

And back to the very first one. So what, finally, is dance? To answer this question, you need to get to the roots, to the origins. Let's roll up our sleeves and dig together. But first, we need a "shovel", i.e. the method with which we will classify and arrange the spines on the shelves. And there is this method. It's pretty simple - it's a logical selection method. In fact, let us reason logically, what could underlie the emergence of the art of dance in human society. What needs dictated the appearance of rhythmic body movements of one kind or another. It is clear that dancing is not something that a person cannot live without, like, for example, without food or water. Man, as a species, has passed a long and very difficult path of evolution, on which his main task was survival. Recently I managed to visit one of the most ancient sites of primitive man on the territory of Russia - the Akhtysh cave in the south of Krasnodar Territory, where the earliest cultural layers with traces of intelligent activity date back 300 thousand years ago, that is, they belong to the era of the Neanderthals, who then , about 50 thousand years ago, replaced in the cave the camp of Cro-Magnons, people of the modern type. After spending only half an hour in this gloomy, uncomfortable and dark cave with a low ceiling, damp walls and floor, where even in the hottest weather the temperature does not rise above 10-12 degrees Celsius and where predators could easily wander and snakes crawl, I very clearly I imagined how difficult life was for primitive people. This means that if the ancient man spent part of his precious time not on getting food or arranging everyday life, but on practicing these very rhythmic body movements, then this was really very important for him. What could be so important to our distant ancestors? Many are inclined to believe that these are ritual ceremonies. Yes, it makes sense. With gods and demons, jokes are bad. They must be constantly read, gratified, sacrificed, but, you must admit, for reverence and sacrifice it is not at all necessary to jump, jump, rotate and wriggle at a certain pace and rhythm. You can do everything much more efficiently and with less effort, which will still be needed on a hunt or in a war with neighbors. Most likely, the reason for the emergence of the dance lies somewhat deeper than it is commonly believed.

If you believe the numerous explanatory dictionaries and encyclopedias today, then you can generally define dance as an art form that reflects external manifestations of life in a figurative and artistic form, through the movements of the human body, facial expressions and pantomime. "Dance. Isn't he what we see ?! " asks P.Valeri in his work "Soul and Dance". Yes, it is, but not quite. Not everything can be explained only by a simple reaction of a person to the world around him. On this occasion, the great Goethe has an very opportunely interesting statement: "... what is the appearance of living nature, if not an ever-changing manifestation of the internal?" Brilliant! Let us remember these words. The well-known ballet master, People's Artist of the USSR Rostislav Zakharov develops the same idea in his work Composition of a Dance: “Dance is based on action. But there can be no action external without action internal... All external actions, expressed in movements, gestures, postures, dance steps, are born and formed inside - in thoughts, sensations, feelings, experiences. " So we have come, as it seems to me, to the source. The primary cause of the emergence of dance, as well as of a religious cult, was the psyche, the inner, spiritual world of a person. In my opinion, the cult did not give birth to dance, but appeared simultaneously with it. These were the very first external social manifestations of the increasingly complex inner psyche of a person at the dawn of his development as a species. It was these social phenomena, along with an increase in the volume of the brain, upright posture and articulate speech, that were the decisive factors of evolution that allowed modern humans to finally stand out from the wild. The great physiologist Pavlov believed that one of the main reflexes of a person is reflex of initiative... Psyche and became the initiator the emergence of the dance as a social phenomenon. Of course, at first it was closely intertwined with cult and magic, it was impossible to separate them from each other. The division and narrower specialization of these phenomena occurred much later. And the cult gradually took over supremacy. Why is that? Everything is very simple. At the earliest stages of the differentiation of human society, two privileged social groups emerged from the general mass of the tribal community: military leaders-leaders and spiritual leaders-shamans, medicine men, sorcerers. Naturally, for the most part, these were smart, energetic people, they very quickly realized the need to combine their efforts in preserving and multiplying their special social status. The main method of spiritual influence on darker and more primitive relatives at that time was a cult that imposed fear and reverence for gods, spirits and other higher powers. In the ancient world of the Stone Age, there was no force acting on the minds of people stronger than the fear of the unknown forces of nature, on which the cult was based. Dance in these conditions, it faded into the background and began only to "serve" the rituals, decorate them and enhance the factor of psychological and energy-emotional impact on the participants of cult rituals and ceremonies. We will talk about the impact of dance on the human body, but now we will return to the question of the reasons for its origin.

The emergence of dance, like any psycho-physical phenomenon, had its own mechanism. Let's try to recreate it. To do this, we will need to make a small, but absolutely necessary, excursion into ancient history in order to try to answer the question: when did the dance begin? Without going deeply into the problems of anthropogenesis, which go beyond the scope of the topic of interest to us, let's say briefly that the biological species of modern man Homo sapiens, to which we belong, is divided into two subspecies: Homosapiensneanderthalelaensis (Neanderthals) andHomosapienssapiens (Cro-Magnons).

The Mousterian culture created by the Neanderthals in the Early Paleolithic was the most developed of all that existed before the appearance of modern humans in Europe, and the Neanderthals themselves were the closest to us in terms of their mental development and biological structure, and in terms of brain volume, the classical Neanderthals even surpassed modern of people. So maybe they are the first "Invented" a dance? For the first time, the rudiments of spiritual culture are found in them. The reason for this conclusion is the emergence among the "Mousterians" of the custom of burying the dead, which is not observed in earlier hominids, not to mention the animal world, as well as the worship of bear skulls and lower jaws. However, it is difficult to assert definitely about the appearance of spiritual culture in the Mousterian era due to the absence of any signs and even images during this period. The same applies to the language of the Neanderthals. They probably had audio communication, but what kind? Recent research on surviving skeletons Homoheanderthalelaensis suggest that they could only make harsh sounds in falsetto, their larynx was less developed in comparison with modern humans. It is quite possible that the Neanderthals had a rather complex, in comparison with other biological species, system of sound communication, however, this underdevelopment of the larynx, apparently, prevented the appearance of an integral articulate speech in them, without which, in fact, there can be no full-fledged spirituality in a broad sense. For the emergence of such a complex socio-cultural process as dance art(as, indeed, of any other type of art) in society, a sufficiently high level of thinking, communication and spirituality must develop in order for an urgent need to appear, which initiates dance emergence as a material, motor realization of this new need. And the very structure of the body of the Neanderthals was not very suitable for dancing. Small in stature, muscular, stocky with short powerful legs, they stood firmly on their feet, but they were clearly not adapted for running, jumping and all kinds of light plastic movements. So dancers, apparently, they were unimportant and the emergence of a dance culture, in our understanding, most likely refers to the subsequent era of the Upper Paleolithic, the era of the dominance of a modern Man, or as it is often called - Cro-Magnon. Modern molecular analysis shows that Neanderthals were most likely a lateral, related branch of evolution, and not direct predecessors and progenitors of Homo sapiens sapiens. Now many scientists believe that it came from Africa, where its earliest traces are found about 100 thousand years ago. In Europe, it appears about 50 thousand years ago and for some time coexists with the Neanderthals. But, gradually ousting the Neanderthals and only to a small extent assimilating them, the Cro-Magnons, as a more developed species, conquer complete domination. Neanderthals, unable to withstand the competition, disappear from the historical scene forever. Excavations of the earliest European sites of Cro-Magnons show that during their coexistence with the Neanderthals, the latter were often included in the food chain of the new Man. Simply put, Cro-Magnons hunted Neanderthals like wild beasts, without making a big difference between them. This is confirmed by the finds of Neanderthal bones in heaps of food waste near the sites of the first modern humans. A person of a modern physical type brings with him into history undoubted and stable signs of cultural existence: articulate speech, images, signs, symbols, etc. All this gives that level of integrating connections, which is called culture. Thus, we unconditionally give the "copyright" to the "invention" of the dance to the "Homo sapiens". And this event happened most likely in the Upper Paleolithic era, simultaneously with the birth of the first cult beliefs and fine arts. All this happened so long ago, and there are so few archaeological and other source materials that it is probably impossible to assert anything, but logically, the most probable, in a chronological sense, time the emergence of dance traditions the Madeleine period is represented (15 - 10 thousand years ago).

It was during this period primitive art and, above all, cave painting reaches its highest level of development. The most famous and perfect cave galleries date from the Madeleine period: Lascaux, Altamira, Montespan. It is logical to assume that it was during this period, when the increasingly complex human psyche and communication initiated the emergence of a need for the visual arts, a need for other forms of art could arise - including dance evidence of this are the rock paintings in the caves of France and Spain, where out of 1794 drawings - 512 depict people in different poses and moments of movement, which are periodically repeated, in addition, about 100 drawings are dedicated to some kind of humanoid creatures. Considering that cave painting is very realistic, even photographic, the artist still could not think abstractly, he did not invent anything and painted what he saw with his own eyes, then you can ask - what did he see? If we discard the version of aliens or mutants, then, most likely, these are people dressed up in animals or some kind of spirits that they imitate.

Stop!!! So - in the most ancient drawings, which are essentially the earliest historical sources, imitation of animals or the spirits of nature is shown! But what is it? Try to depict without words any animal or natural phenomenon, as in the famous children's game, when some depict something, while others have to guess what it is. How will you imitate? You can imitate only sounds, facial expressions and body movements, but what is it like not the most early dance at its core! An indirect confirmation of the fact that the dance originated in the era of Madeleine is the fact that the appearance of the first musical instruments among people also belong to this period: for example, a flute made of reindeer horn from the Molodov camp and a hammer made of reindeer antler and tusk beaters. mammoth from the Mezin site. Therefore, we can talk about the beginning of the musical layer of primitive art. We have already mentioned the close intertwining of all genres of prehistoric art. Based on this, it can be argued with a high degree of probability that musical beginning was not separated from movement, gestures, facial expressions, exclamations, i.e. in fact - from dancing.

So, we have answered the first of the questions posed: when could the earliest dance culture emerge? In the Madeleine era of the Late Paleolithic about 15 - 10 thousand years ago. Unfortunately, dance does not leave behind such an objective and durable material monument, amenable to accurate dating, like painting or architecture, but this could hardly have happened much earlier - human society was simply not ready yet. Now let's go ahead and try to answer the next question: how did the birth of dance culture come about?

We have already said that dance art originated in the depths of the increasingly complex human psyche and became an external manifestation of a person's need for a certain kind of body movements. We meet with you with such needs constantly. For example, after a long sitting at the table, you want to get up, stretch, stretch your legs. We do it reflexively, at the level of instinct, without even thinking. Why are we doing this? Yes, we just feel much better after that! In addition to instinct and natural reflexes, a person has a bio-mechanical memory. We are able to memorize the bodily movements we like, after which we feel better and more cheerful, and we can reproduce them. A person cannot live without muscle movement! If some organ, due to one reason or another, is inactive for a certain time, then it will inevitably atrophy. That's where the dog is buried! We need movement to live! Everything in this world is in constant motion, everything vibrates and changes. Man is a child of this world and cannot exist separately from its objective laws. And one of the main laws of Mother Nature is the law of perpetual motion and change. “Nothing lasts forever,” “Everything flows, everything changes,” says popular wisdom. Therefore, a person was forced, in addition to the necessary production movements, listening to the voice of nature, to make additional movements to maintain his vitality. It would seem, why would he need this, because the primitive life was physically difficult and full of dangers, the person already received a lot of physical activity and clearly did not suffer from physical inactivity. But no!

Have you ever had cases when you, after a hard day's work, "running over" and "having troubled yourself", suddenly found yourself at a cool disco, and even in good company ?! And having danced and had fun there from the heart - how did you feel after that. Surely you had a feeling of joy, pleasure and, most importantly, of spiritual uplift, although physically you may be tired. But mentally, you received such an energy impulse that filled you with new strength and made the energy consumption justified for its acquisition. We are creatures with a complex and highly organized psyche, our feelings and thoughts have an impact on our energy fields and therefore the psychic, spiritual charge is even more important for us than the physical one, since it is our psyche that controls all physical processes in our body through bio-electrical impulses. I am convinced that it was this need for periodic mental recharging that initiated the earliest human needs for rhythmic body movements. Pay attention - not in simple, but in rhythmic body movements. Why is that? Because all our internal organs, the whole body and the nervous system are in constant vibration and pulsation, which have their own rhythm: the heart beats in a certain rhythm, the respiratory cycle is also carried out strictly rhythmically, etc. Therefore, psycho-energetic charging should also be carried out rhythmically, so as not to get into dissonance with the natural biological rhythms of the body. And this man was looking for a balance purely empirically, through trial and error. What's interesting is that this process continues to this day! I think you have more than once observed how a person, having heard the rhythmic, perky music he liked, began to involuntarily sway, trample and twitch to the beat of this music. In the same way, the ancient people, "created" almost on an unconscious level, until sooner or later, they did not develop a certain "complex" of rhythmic body movements -! They, of course, did not resemble much modern dances, but their tasks were different. In this case, we are not talking about dances that are familiar to us, but about the culture of the earliest forms of rhythmic body movements to a primitive, most likely voice and noise accompaniment, which can be classified as the very beginning of dance culture. It was inextricably linked with the emergence of magic and early forms of religion, as well as musical and visual culture. All these phenomena appeared, in my opinion, almost simultaneously and existed, at first, as a single complex of human mental activity, aimed at knowing the world around him and himself. In addition to everything, music and dance are able to exert on the human body not only physiological, but also a powerful emotional impact. Listening to good music and rhythmic motor recharging causes the body to release additional hormones of joy and pleasure - endorphins, which stimulate the entire nervous system. I know this from my own experience. This is why many people love to dance. In the process of merging music and body movement, they have great pleasure. This is another indirect reason. the emergence of dance culture. People liked to dance... They enjoyed it! And if you like something, you get pleasure from something, then you will always find time and opportunities for this.

So, it was not at all the needs of early religious rituals that initiated the emergence of dance art, this initiator was the very psyche of ancient man, his need for periodic rhythmic recharging and the growing need for knowledge of the world, self-expression and pleasure. And the representatives of the cult, people, as a rule, the most intelligent and developed for their time, quickly noticed what mental and emotional impact renders music and dance on a person and began to use it as a means of enhancing their influence on the minds and hearts of fellow tribesmen during the performance of rituals. Moreover, first dances most likely were group, and the crowd has a resonance effect, multiplying the degree of influence on each individual participant in the ceremony. Why do I think so? The so-called “herd effect” in common parlance seems to be familiar to everyone. The mass exerts a tremendous influence on the individual individual, subjugating his individual will and involving him in its process. It was impossible and senseless to resist this influence in a primitive society, an individual could not survive in a harsh world alone, without his own community. Therefore, everyone, in the end, had to accept the general rules of the game, which, as a rule, were established by the most intelligent and authoritative people - leaders and priests. By participating in group celebrations, ritual dances and rituals, in which almost all members of the community were involved, a person felt like a part of a common large whole, felt protected, energetically and emotionally recharged from it. Exactly group dances and dances most met the necessary requirements that the increasingly complex social life initially presented to emerging dance art .

Vice President of the Volgograd Federation of Contemporary Dance (VFST),

Senior Lecturer, Department of Choreography, Institute of Art Education, Voronezh State Pedagogical University;

head of the CFTS "Dynamo-Volgograd"

Chernikov Konstantin Petrovich

So where did the dance come from, how did a person develop a craving for movement to a certain rhythm? A very interesting article by Konstantin Petrovich Chernikov about what dance is and, in fact, its origin, will tell you about it perfectly.

Indeed, dance, as a purely public, social phenomenon, is a whole layer that reflects, through its methods and techniques, the historical, social and cultural development of human society. This layer is very interesting and not deep enough, in my opinion, "plowed" by modern science. Historians focused more on aspects of the economic and socio-political development of society, art critics pay much more attention to architecture or painting, and even on modern theatrical and especially pop stages, dance plays far from the first role in comparison with vocals or the same spoken genre. Why such disfavor? After all, choreographic art is perhaps the oldest in the world, it has survived millennia, having arisen in the human environment at a time when a civilized society with its economy and politics, in fact, did not exist yet. Why dance, which at the dawn of human history, along with cult and magic, was the most important of all types of mental and socio-cultural activities of people, has now receded into the background? When and why did this happen? We will try to understand all this variety of questions.

It is clear that dancing is not something that a person cannot live without, like, for example, without food or water. Man, as a species, has passed a long and very difficult path of evolution, on which his main task was survival.

This means that if the ancient man spent part of his precious time not on getting food or arranging everyday life, but on practicing these very rhythmic body movements, then this was really very important for him. What could be so important to our distant ancestors? Many are inclined to believe that these are ritual ceremonies. Yes, it makes sense. With gods and demons, jokes are bad. They must be constantly read, gratified, sacrificed, but, you must admit, for reverence and sacrifice it is not at all necessary to jump, jump, rotate and wriggle at a certain pace and rhythm. You can do everything much more efficiently and with less effort, which will still be needed on a hunt or in a war with neighbors. Most likely, the reason for the emergence of the dance lies somewhat deeper than it is commonly believed.

If you believe the numerous explanatory dictionaries and encyclopedias today, then you can generally define dance as an art form that reflects the external manifestations of life in a figurative and artistic form, through the movements of the human body, facial expressions and pantomime. Dance. Isn't he what we see? Yes, it is, but not quite. Not everything can be explained only by a simple reaction of a person to the world around him. What is the exterior of living nature, if not the ever-changing manifestation of the internal? The dance is action-based. But there can be no external action without an internal action. All external actions, expressed in movements, gestures, postures, dance steps, are born and formed inside - in thoughts, sensations, feelings, experiences. So we have come, as it seems to me, to the source. The primary cause of the emergence of dance, as well as of a religious cult, was the psyche, the inner, spiritual world of a person.

The psyche became the initiator of the emergence of dance as a social phenomenon. Of course, at first it was closely intertwined with cult and magic, it was impossible to separate them from each other. The division and narrower specialization of these phenomena occurred much later. And the cult gradually took over supremacy.

The primacy of the cult is explained by the fact that magicians and priests were smart people and creative in their own way, so it did not take much work for them to understand how to "cheat" and put pressure on their relatives, and the main motivator in this matter is fear of an unidentified force.

Under these conditions, dance faded into the background and only began to "serve" the rituals, decorate them and enhance the factor of psychological and energy-emotional impact on the participants of cult rituals and ceremonies. We will talk about the impact of dance on the human body, but now we will return to the question of the reasons for its origin.

When did the dance begin? Logically, the most likely, in a chronological sense, the origin of dance traditions is the Madeleine period (15-10 thousand years ago).

It was during this period that primitive art and, above all, cave painting, reached its highest level of development. It is logical to assume that it was during this period, when the increasingly complex human psyche and communication initiated the emergence of a need for the visual arts, a need for other forms of art could arise - including dance evidence of this are the rock paintings in the caves of France and Spain, where out of 1794 drawings - 512 depict people in different poses and moments of movement, which are periodically repeated, in addition, about 100 drawings are dedicated to some kind of humanoid creatures. Considering that cave painting is very realistic, even photographic, the artist still could not think abstractly, he did not invent anything and painted what he saw with his own eyes, then you can ask - what did he see? If we discard the version of aliens or mutants, then, most likely, these are people dressed up in animals or some kind of spirits that they imitate.

Ancient man painted imitation of animals and spirit. But if people did it then, what is it if not a dance? At the same time, the birth of music and musical instruments takes place. All types of art were very closely related, therefore, music was also associated with dance. The answer to the first question is given. Dance does not leave such an exact "monument" as painting or architecture, but the birth of dance could hardly have occurred earlier. The society was not ready. The next question is: how did the birth of dance culture come about?

We have already said that the art of dancing originated in the depths of the increasingly complex human psyche and became an external manifestation of a person's need for a certain kind of body movement. We meet with you with such needs constantly. In addition to instinct and natural reflexes, a person has a bio-mechanical memory. A person cannot live without muscle movement! If some organ, due to one reason or another, is inactive for a certain time, then it will inevitably atrophy. We need movement to live! Everything in this world is in constant motion, everything vibrates and changes. Man is a child of this world and cannot exist separately from its objective laws. “Nothing lasts forever,” “Everything flows, everything changes,” says popular wisdom. Therefore, a person was forced, in addition to the necessary production movements, listening to the voice of nature, to make additional movements to maintain his vitality. It would seem, why would he need this, because the primitive life was physically difficult and full of dangers, the person already received a lot of physical activity and clearly did not suffer from physical inactivity. But no!

We are creatures with a complex and highly organized psyche, our feelings and thoughts have an impact on our energy fields and therefore the psychic, spiritual charge is even more important for us than the physical one, since it is our psyche that controls all physical processes in our body through bio-electrical impulses. I am convinced that it was this need for periodic mental recharging that initiated the earliest human needs for rhythmic body movements. Pay attention - not in simple, but in rhythmic body movements. Why is that? Because all our internal organs, the whole body and the nervous system are in constant vibration and pulsation, which have their own rhythm: the heart beats in a certain rhythm, the respiratory cycle is also carried out strictly rhythmically, etc. Therefore, psycho-energetic charging should also be carried out rhythmically, so as not to get into dissonance with the natural biological rhythms of the body. In this case, we are not talking about dances that are familiar to us, but about the culture of the earliest forms of rhythmic body movements to a primitive, most likely voice and noise accompaniment, which can be classified as the very beginning of dance culture.

Among other things, listening to pleasant music and moving for your own pleasure produces the hormone of happiness, which is one of the indirect reasons for the emergence of dance.

The initiator of the dance art was the very psyche of an ancient man. The need for self-knowledge, the world, self-expression and pleasure. And the representatives of the cult did not miss the opportunity, using dance in rituals. Most likely they were massive, which amplified the effect through the “herd effect”. In primitive society, this effect was almost impossible to disobey, so the rules were dictated by the priests and leaders.

The first dances of antiquity were far from what is now called this word. They had a completely different meaning. With a variety of movements and gestures, a person conveyed his impressions of the world around him, investing in them his mood, his state of mind. Exclamations, singing, pantomime play were interconnected with dance. The dance itself has always, at all times, been closely connected with the life and everyday life of people. Therefore, each dance meets the character, the spirit of the people from whom it originated. With the change in the social system, living conditions, the nature and subject matter of art changed, and dance also changed. It was deeply rooted in folk art.

Dancing was very common among the peoples of the ancient world. The dancers strove to ensure that every movement, gesture, facial expression expressed some thought, action, deed. Expressive dances were of great importance both in everyday life and in public life.

For a man of primitive society, dance is a way of thinking and living. Hunting techniques are practiced in dances depicting animals; the dance is used to express prayers for fertility, rain and other vital needs of the tribe. Love, labor and ceremony are embodied in dance movements. Dance in this case is so connected with life that in the language of the Mexican Tarahumara Indians, the concepts of "work" and "dance" are expressed by the same word. Deeply perceiving the rhythms of nature, people of primitive society could not help imitating them in their dances.

Primitive dances are usually performed in groups. Round dance dances have a specific meaning, specific goals: to expel evil spirits, to heal the sick, to ward off trouble from the tribe. The most common movement here is stomping, perhaps because it makes the earth tremble and obey man. In primitive societies, squatting is common; dancers love to spin, twitch and jump. Horse racing and whirling bring dancers to an ecstatic state, sometimes ending in loss of consciousness. The dancers usually do not wear clothes, but they wear masks, elaborate headdresses and often paint their bodies. Stamping, clapping, and playing all kinds of drums and pipes made of natural materials are used as accompaniment.

Primitive tribes do not have a regulated dance technique, but excellent physical training allows the dancers to completely surrender to the dance and dance with absolute dedication, right up to frenzy. Dances of this kind can still be seen on the islands of the South Pacific Ocean, in Africa and in Central and South America.

Dance history

Dance history. Who were the first, how dance evolved in different eras and countries

Initially, the dance was a complex consisting of facial expressions, gestures, body and leg movements. In ancient times, facial expressions - the first language of mankind - were inextricably linked with the art of dancing. Moreover, all movements in ancient times were called nothing more than dances! The Greeks did not recognize dance only as a pretext for rhythmic movements and beautiful postures - on the contrary, they strove to ensure that each dance movement expresses some thought, action, deed, something said to the viewer. And Spanish dances, and to this day, through their super-expressiveness, can sometimes convey much more than ordinary human speech. It was believed that people in ancient times danced because the gods pulled people by the strings tied to their hands and feet. In reality, the dance took place because of the need of primitive people in communication, the transmission of any vital information. By copying the movements of animals, primitive people tried to penetrate thereby into the state of mind of this animal, to understand its "essence", which significantly helped primitive people when hunting, and therefore was a necessity for survival!

Primitive dance, of course, arose out of emotions and was directly related to the most acute experiences. Initially, a certain element of the game was also included in the dances: into nature, into another "I", into the "new" and well-forgotten "old". Primitive man was endowed with a few movements, but every day brought new difficulties, as a result of which algorithms of behavior and typification of new gestures were developed. One of the ways to replenish the ancient dance arsenal was to imitate the movements of animals. The basis of primitive dances was magic and ritual. The movements performed in the course of a ritual action were always somehow directed, had a strictly defined purpose. Dance here acted as a means of bringing oneself into a specific, different from everyday state. Thus, dance was a kind of channel into the unknown, acted as an opportunity to control the irrational aspects of human life.

Any dance among the ancients signified the connection of a person with powerful cosmic energies necessary for experiencing important, milestone events in his life: birth - entering adulthood - marriage - birth of offspring - hunting - war - death. That is, they danced not out of excess strength, but for their acquisition.

Totemic dances, lasting for several days, were usually the script of myths about fantastic travels from the life of the first ancestors. In the totemic dances of different tribes, their main feature is clearly manifested - complete assimilation to the totem. The vocabulary of totemic dance is determined by the nature of the plastic of a certain type of animal, bird, insect. These dances were always dynamic in their structure, they emphasized movements, not postures. In totemic dances, a person literally transformed, became more like the depicted animal than himself (that is, the outwardly dancing person acquired animal features). In these ancient dances, there were also scenes from hunting scenes, playing birds and animals. The most ancient people knew how to masterfully copy the habits of animals, as if reincarnating in them in a dance. Such reincarnation, in their opinion, helped to gain courage, endurance inherent in this or that animal. Each tribe had its own sacred animal, which was worshiped, in honor of which they danced until you drop. For this, it rewarded them in battle with all its valuable qualities, bringing good luck and victory. Each had from ten to thirty types of men's hunting dances, each with a special name, special songs, musical instruments, steps, figures and costumes of the participants. Each movement had its own sacred meaning.

In hunting dances, men trained their observation, learned to hunt down the beast, to disguise themselves, that is, psychological and physical preparation took place in the dance, which contributed to the success in hunting.

As for the female rites, they belonged to the most widespread in the art of the Upper Paleolithic. The rituals of fire and procreation, the vegetative forces of nature, the reproduction of animals and hunting luck were associated with the image of a woman in her forms. In some tribes in southwest Africa, only the Great Woman led the large procession of torches of fire during an unsuccessful hunt. In addition to female dance rituals associated with the cult of fertility, dances in which women were embodied in the image of one or another plant useful to the tribe were widespread.

Women performed military dances either with weapons in their hands, from time to time throwing them forward (which symbolized the pursuit of a fleeing enemy) and back (which had the goal of alienating their own husbands from danger). Often these dances were performed with ceremonial white brooms made from the tail of a buffalo or horse - women widely waved these objects throughout the dance (so that husbands "sweep" their enemies off the face of the earth). Military dances at all times were the most significant ritual actions of the tribe. They were performed without interruption, day and night, until the men returned from the campaign.

The most ancient and ubiquitous symbolic sign in the plastic of dance was a circle. Formation in a circle was considered a talisman against evil forces and guaranteed a successful outcome of the ceremony. In hunting dances, the circle meant a round-up, in agricultural dances, it symbolized fertility. In the circle they were treated and married. However, the circle is not the only known form of mass dancing. Lines were also a widespread form of dance performance, especially military ones. In the dances of the ancients, such complex figures as a labyrinth and a drawing of a crawling snake were also reproduced.

For primitive man, reality and fiction were equal. And it is no coincidence that ritual actions could last for several weeks - which means that it was vital!
But gradually the ritual beginning, where dance had a deep meaning, begins to be supplanted by a purely bodily, entertaining one. So there was a smooth transition from primitive dance to ancient dance.

In Greece, everyone danced: from peasants to Socrates. Dancing was not only included in the number of educational disciplines, but adults also willingly continued to learn it. All dances of antiquity were performed for the audience, and not for pleasure and their own amusement. It is estimated that the total number of ancient Greek dances is over two hundred. They can be conditionally classified into five groups:
- war dances - ritual and educational;
- cult moderates - emmelia, veil dance and caryatid dances, as well as birth, wedding and funeral dances;
- orgiastic dances;
- dances of public celebrations and theatrical;
- dances in everyday life.

Let's give a description of the most significant dance groups:

A) Militant dances
"Pyrrhus" is one of the brightest war dances. It was also known under the name "pyrrhic", "pyrrhic". It originated in Sparta. They began to study this dance at the age of five. In essence, pirriha is a virtuoso dance with swords and shields. Pyrrhicha was one of the favorite feast entertainment, especially when it was performed by dancers.

B) Cult dances
Emmelia is a very measured dance with slow rhythms, such as round dances and farandol.

The veiled dance and the caryatid dance are more lively. The caryatids are the very dancers who first used the technique of dancing on "pointe" in their dances. Indeed, pointe shoes were used in antiquity, but they did not look like modern ones. Antique pointe shoes are a stand at the ends of the toes, but barefoot, without any special shoes. Men danced like that.

C) Theatrical dances
Each of the three types of theatrical performances of the classical period had its own dance: emellia is characteristic of tragedy; for comedy - kordak; for satirical drama - Sikkanida.

Mimes (buffoons, clowns, acrobats, jugglers) were in charge of dancing as a spectacular entertainment. Not a single feast of rich and respectable citizens was complete without them. Let's list the characteristic features of the virtuoso mime dance:
- the technique is based on the eversion of the legs;
- dances on pointe and various jumps were practiced;
- a favorite manner - a sharp turn of the body into a plane perpendicular to the legs;
- for dancers, acrobatic cubistics (dancing on hands in a variety of poses) and virtuoso pyrrhic are typical;
- dances with cups and baskets are popular;
- a characteristic technique in Greek dances is to bend the hand upwards at a right angle.

The Greeks also had a whole system, a complex technique of playing with the hands in dances - chironomy. Hands have always spoken in a conventional language, the key to which, unfortunately, is now lost.
Ritual dances in Ancient Greece are very diverse, but they are conventionally divided into two main dance cults: "light" in honor of the god Apollo and "dark" in honor of the god Dionysus. We can observe the remains of ancient Greek ritual dances in honor of Apollo and other light gods in an ordinary children's New Year's round dance. The only difference is that the object of worship is not a statue, but a fir tree. The root connection of these rituals goes back to ancient times, when it was customary to carry out ritual cleansing before the New Year. However, in the ancient world there were other dance rituals that concentrated in themselves just everything that was expelled from the solemn Apollonian cult: a riot of gestures, the superiority of the body over the spirit. Everything dark and obscene spilled out in the holiday dedicated to Dionysus, the god of fertility.

The development of dancing in Ancient Rome, its difference from the ancient Greek dance.

While Greece celebrated each celebration with a wide variety of dances, the ancient Romans only used warlike and wild dances. If the ancient Greeks combined both the rational and the orgiastic principle in different types of their dances, then the ancient Romans in all respects were distinguished by a more rational mindset. This can confirm the fact that there is almost no detailed evidence of ancient Roman dances left.

Analysis of the culture of Ancient Rome shows us a clear division of it into the culture of the "elite" and the culture of ordinary masses of people. This is undoubtedly reflected in the development of dance culture. If we do not have any information about the dances of the elite, then there are many references to the dances of the slaves. Only later, during the reign of Numa Pompilius, the nymph Egeria gave the Romans new rules for new dances. These were Sali dances, for the performance of which twelve priests were chosen among representatives of noble families - they had to dance in temples, glorifying gods and heroes.
In addition, pyrrhic flourished in Rome. True, the word "pyrrhicha" has received a new meaning here - this is how the ensemble dance in general, as opposed to the solo dance, began to be called.

In Etruria, more civilized, all the arts flourished long before the founding of Rome - there were wonderful mimic actors and there were a wide variety of dances. From this country came to Rome dancers accompanying their bizarre dances on flutes - they were called histrions (from the word "histor", which means "mythical actor"). During their performances, they declared entire poems, and all the Roman youth began to imitate them. The Romans loved pantomime most of all: they still disliked the orgiastic beginning of the Dionysian festivities, and they left only the culture of a beautiful gesture from the Apollonian rhythms (ancient Roman facial expressions are used almost unchanged to this day). The passion of the Romans for pantomime and admiration for some performers reached the point that during the reign of Augustus, all of Rome was, as it were, divided into two hostile camps: some were adherents of the famous dancer and mime Pilad, others recognized only Bafilus.

Later, with the growth of the Roman Empire, the influence of Greece and the East led to the development of dance culture in the ancient Roman society and even to the emergence of dance schools. Most likely, their first founders were mimes.

The meaning and variety of dance in Ancient Egypt.

The monuments of art and literature that have come down to us prove that dance in Ancient Egypt was of no small importance. Almost no festival, no solemn religious ceremony was complete without dancing. Dance prevailed in Egypt as an expression of joy and was synonymous with the word "jubilation". Among the names of the dances of ancient Egypt, the most common ones are ib, mww, tereb, nebeb, the image of which is well preserved on the reliefs. The determinant of all dances is the figure of a person with a raised arm and leg. The mww dance apparently also served as a funeral dance.

Most of the sacred ancient Egyptian cults were surrounded by dance rituals. Graceful - solemn were the performances associated with the myth of Osiris and Isis, which continued for several days in a row. Such cult actions also include the dance that accompanies the women’s service in front of the sacred Egyptian bull Apis. The gods - patrons of fun, music and dancing among the Egyptians, in addition to Hathor, were also Nehemaut and the bearded dwarf Khatiy (he was depicted dancing and playing musical instruments in front of the goddess Hathor). Apparently, already in the era of the Ancient Kingdom, the religious dance of dwarfs played a prominent role in Egyptian rituals and were highly valued. There were also the so-called astronomical dances of the priests in Egypt, which depicted the movement of various celestial bodies, harmoniously distributed in the Universe. Let's try to briefly describe this unique, in our opinion, dance. It took place in the temple: around the altar, placed in the middle and representing the sun, priests dressed in bright dresses, representing the signs of the zodiac, smoothly moved and circled. According to Plutarch's explanation, at first they moved from east to west (resembling the movement of the sky), then from west to east (imitating the movement of the planets), then stopped as a sign of the immobility of the earth. This dance is a clear example of how various dance rituals formed in people not only an idea of ​​the planetary system and the harmony of eternal movement (as in this case), but also, in general, determined the spiritual development of each nation.

In view of the important role that dance played in Egyptian rituals, we can conclude that there were special institutions in Egypt where dancers were trained. In support of this, we came across several indications that the temple of Amun had its own choreographic school, which graduated priestesses - dancers.

Along with dances consisting of harmonious rhythmic movements, dances were very common in Ancient Egypt, which were direct exercises in dexterity, flexibility, and sometimes completely turning into purely gymnastic exercises. As for the costume, we found only information that the dancers wore a short apron, sometimes there was a belt around the waist, which was tied with a loop. Women danced either naked or in long and transparent dresses. But in ritual dances, the dancers had to be dressed (as they expressed reverence for a sacred animal or deity). The dancers' arms and legs have always been decorated with bracelets, the chest with a necklace, and the head with a ribbon or lotus flower. We also have information that they danced in Ancient Egypt to the accompaniment of musical instruments (harp, lyre, lute and double flute), singing and clapping.

The New Kingdom was dominated by a dance that is still very widespread in the East - the Almey dance, which was danced in long transparent fringed dresses to the sounds of tambourine or castanets.

Having thus examined the development, and having determined the significance of dance in the main states of antiquity, we have clearly seen that dance was a necessity for the spiritual development of every nation.

National dances of Spain and India as a reflection of the national character of these countries.

National dances are inextricably linked with the peculiarity of the national character of any people. It is not without reason that Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy wrote: "the soul of the people is in the dance." From this we can conclude: in order to unravel the soul of any people, it is enough just to get acquainted with its national dance in detail. Let's try on the example of two countries: Spain and India, through national dances to consider the national souls of the peoples of these countries.

Maximilian Voloshin at the beginning of the twentieth century wrote: "Spain always dances, dances everywhere. She dances ceremonial dances at the funeral at the grave of the deceased; she dances in the Seville Cathedral before the altar; dances on the barricades and before the death penalty; dances day and night ...".

We cannot talk about Spanish dances in general, since the folklore of each province is unusually unique and unique. So, for example, the North Spanish Basques are courageously - harsh and archaic, the Castilians are restrained - tense, the Aragonese, on the contrary, are infectious - cheerful and straightforward, but the dances of the south of Spain - Andalusia and Murcia - are especially passionate. But there were also such dances that were the same for the whole country. These dances included, first of all, the fandango dance. He is the national motive of Spain. The fandango music had a tremendous power over the soul and heart of every true Spaniard, as if a spark ignited their hearts. The dance began slowly, but gradually accelerated. Some dancers armed themselves with castanets, others just snapped their fingers, women beat time with their heels to the sound of guitars and violins. Fandango is danced in three steps, fast, like a whirlwind, very characteristic and temperamental. The classical fandango was a pair dance, built on the game of partners, in which any touch is prohibited, in a dispute, a competition consisting in the approach and distance of the dancing from each other, here the expressiveness of eyes and gestures plays an important role.

Let's briefly consider another national dance - bolero. This dance appeared only at the end of the 16th century and was invented by Sebastian Seretso (the famous choreographer during the reign of Charles III). Bolero is a kind of Spanish ballet, slowly but relentlessly asserting its position in the canons of classical dance. They said that "the fandango ignites, and the bolero intoxicates." Of course, speaking of Spanish characteristic national dances, we cannot fail to mention the famous flamenco. It is rather not a dance, but a whole group of dances. Flamenco originated from the southern province of Spain, Andalusia. Until now, it is not possible to accurately determine the meaning of the word "flamenco". Although there are many versions, the most appropriate in our opinion is that "flamenco" comes from the Latin word "flamma" (fire), since the dance is truly "fiery" in nature; was originally ritual and dates back to the time of the cult of fire. An interesting version is also that this word came from the name of the flamingo bird, since the costumes of the dancers emphasize the slimness of the figure, as well as the whimsical movements of this exotic bird. The dance itself is very peculiar, in it we do not find a trace of pantomime or concrete theatrical gestures. "Bailaor" (flamenco dancer) could dance alone, which emphasized his independence from the world. Bailaor expressed all the feelings characteristic of a collective dance on his own. In general, a single dance meant a silent collective action. Bailaor competes in this dance with himself - hence the amazing expressiveness and passion of the dance, deep feelings and mental work. Particular importance in the performance of all flamenco dances is attached to the movements of the hands, which were the language of the dance. Not without reason did Ovid say: "if there is a voice, sing, if soft hands, dance." The hands of women in flamenco are flexible, expressive, sensitive; fingers are in constant motion. In men, on the contrary, hand movements are strict, sublime, with clear plasticity; they cut through the air like a sword strike.
Based on the description of the main dances of Spain, we can identify three main components of Spanish dance: the proud staging of the body, reminiscent of a matador, the flexible and expressive curves of the dancers 'arms and the zapateado (the fractional thump of the dancers' heels). All this perfectly characterizes the national soul of the Spanish people, unusually passionate, expressive, emotional, hot and temperamental.

Features of the development of the dance culture of India (love orientation).

According to one of the legends, dance in India originated thanks to the god Shiva the Destroyer. Shiva himself was an excellent dancer and taught his wife Parvati the art of dance he loved most. He danced tandava - a more energetic form, and Parvati - lasya, more refined, graceful. Legends also tell that Brahma, the Creator, was very disturbed by the strife and disorder that reigned on Earth. Since the four Vedas were kept in strict secrecy by the brahmanas, he decided to create a fifth Veda, accessible to everyone. Brahma first taught the sage Bharata the art of theatrical action, to which Natyaveda was dedicated. Bharata showed his triune art - drama, music and dance - to Shiva. Remembering his own energetic dance, Shiva ordered a chief assistant from his retinue to teach Bharata the art of tandava. Bharata combined this art with the knowledge he already had and wrote "Natyashastra", an exhaustive work on the art of theater. Bharata and other sages spread this art among the peoples of the Earth.

Thus, these traditions clearly define the connection between the art of dance, music and drama with divinity and immortality. We can still see how strongly in India classical dance correlates with religion and mythology. This is most vividly reflected not only in the choice of embodied themes, but also in the manner of performing the dance. This, in turn, directly affects the formation of spiritual life in India.

Over the centuries, the central motive of the Vishncite cult was the desire of man to unite with the deity. The gods responded not only with reciprocity, but also with an "individual approach." The rias-lila dance, performed in Braj, an area in the region of Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, where, according to legend, Krishna was born and lived, depicts Krishna's ability to create in each of the gopis (cowherd boys) the illusion that she alone is dancing with him. This is how the allegory of the approach of the mortal soul to the deity with trust and love, traditional for the spiritual life of India, was expressed. Rias - lila is a beautiful dance, it is still performed today to the appropriate chants.

These multifaceted Indian deities, with numerous associated stories, form the thematic core of Indian dance. The dance not only expounds events, but also reveals their symbolic essence and affirms faith - by the power of verse, music and movement. All forms of classical dance in India have two aspects: Nritta and Nritya. Nritya can be described as pure dance, that is, abstract body movements consistent with hastas (hand gestures). Nritya is a combination of pure dance with a storyline. But the plot dance here was very different from the pantomime. This is not just an imitation of human behavior. Besides Nritta and Nritya, there is a third aspect in the Indian dance tradition. This is Natya, that is, a performance of action and gestures with and without dance. In general, this is a kind of dramatic art. All three of these aspects are considered, however, to be closely related to each other. Speaking about the art of dancing, in our opinion, it is necessary to note one of the most striking features of the development of the culture of India as a whole. This is a deep connection between different types of arts. If music, dance and drama were exceptionally close to dance culture, then literature, painting, sculpture and even architecture were also not divorced or isolated from the dance tradition. The role of literature in dance has been and continues to be extremely important, since, for example, nritya is the interpretation of poetry by dance. In India, there are even whole poems specially written to be performed in dance. The best example, in our opinion, is the classic work of the 12th century Sankrit literature "Guide - Govinda" by Jayadeva. Since dances originally occupied a large place in temple rituals, the architect provided a special area on the territory of the temple. The famous Brihadishwara Temple in Thanjavur District, Tamil Nadu has a large hall built exclusively for dance performances. The Temple of the Sun in Canarak, Orissa has a huge and intricately decorated Dance Hall, the Nata Mandal, whose proximity to the sea gives it an unearthly beauty.

The walls of temples in different parts of India, especially in the south and in Orissa, are decorated with various friezes and panels depicting dancers and musicians.

The main types of ballroom dancing in the 16th - 17th centuries

In Shakespeare's comedy Much Ado About Nothing, one of the characters, in our opinion, brilliantly characterizes the main dances that existed at the turn of the 16th - 17th centuries: “Courtship, marriage and repentance are the same as the Scottish gigue, measured dance and galliard: the first is ardent and haste, like a Scottish gigue, and just as full of imagination; marriage - decorously modest, like a measured dance, full of dignity and antiquity; and then repentance sets in and with its developed legs falls in the galliard faster and faster until it falls into the grave ". These were the main directions of dancing at the turn of the 16th - 17th centuries. It should also be noted that if until the end of the 16th century and partly in the 17th century, parterre, "low" dances (bass dance) dominated, which did not require jumping from the performers - branles, pavans, chimes, then the era of light "flying" French dances began.

1. Branle.

The school of ballroom dancing was formed during the Renaissance and it can be considered that the language, both folk and salon, was the fundamental beginning of the further development of the dance art. This dance was originally a folk dance, and its ballroom form was born from this peasant dance and was distinguished only by a large number of curtsies, smooth movements, while tapping prevailed in folk branle. The main movements of the branle entered the pavanta, chime and gavotte. The musical accompaniment of this dance consisted of rather monotonous beats of tambourines, sounds of a flute and monotonous singing of the dancers. If the elderly liked to dance a slow double swearing, middle-aged people danced a swearing with a reprise, then the young preferred a cheerful swearing with bouncing and legs forward in the air. Thus, plain language was the source of all the later salon dances.

2. Pavane.

Pavana is one of the oldest Spanish dances we know. Pavane and chimes in the 16th century were the main and most beloved dances. Only the appearance of the minuet made us forget first the chime, and then the pavanta. Pavana is believed to be of Italian origin, as Catherine de 'Medici was the patroness of everything Italian. The main merit of the pavana, in our opinion, is that in it for the first time public dances acquired certain forms, character and style of performance. Before the pavana, numerous scoldings differed from each other only in names. The pavana also had a specific goal - to show the society the majesty of the dancers and the richness of their costumes. The movement of the pavana was the move of a flaunting pea. Another difference between the pavana and the branle was that the pavana figures began from the beginning of the musical phrase, while in the branle there was only tempo. Pavana was danced simultaneously by one or two couples, there was also a strict order of their sequence, depending on the origin and social status. The ball was opened by the king and queen, then by other noble persons.

3. Minuet.

No dance of the 16th - 17th centuries was as popular as the minuet, which is a generally recognized example of salon dance art. Over the course of several centuries, the minuet either rose to the pinnacle of dance glory, or was temporarily forgotten, but never completely supplanted by another dance. Dance historians say that "the minuet is the dance of kings and the king of dances." At the turn of the 18th century, the aristocratic society expressed its attitude to the minuet in the following phrase: "He who dances the minuet well, does everything well." The main feature of the execution of the minuet was ceremony, gallantry and solemnity. The step of the minuet was very smooth and one movement flowed from the other. Pas grave - which means "important, majestic step" - is one of the main dance elements of the minuet. In the 18th century, at the time of the Baroque, a more dynamic, "fast minuet" appeared. But the minuet is portrayed somewhat differently at the balls of the 19th century. In these stage minuets, as in the famous minuet from Don Juan by Mozart, which has always been considered a classic example of this dance, a number of dance positions do not correspond to the true minuet of the 17th century. Which, in our opinion, does not in the least detract from the charms of the stage minuet, but on the contrary testifies to the enormous plastic richness of this dance. Having gone through many eras, the minuet, unfortunately, has not survived to this day, and we can only watch this dance on the stage.

Thus, having dwelt in detail on the description of the main ballroom dances of the 16th - 7th centuries, we were clearly convinced that among the most important features of the dances of this time, one can single out such as smoothness, regularity, importance, which, of course, was characteristic of the ideology of the entire life of that time. ...

Formation and development of dance culture in Russia

The concept of "dancing" to the Russians was given by the Poles, who arrived in Moscow during the Time of Troubles with Dmitry the Pretender. Before that, there were no "salon dances" in Russia, as in Western Europe. Women's round dances were held in the towers, and dances flourished among the people. In general, the attitude towards dancing was wary. "Skomoroshennye amusements", combined with dances, were considered "soul-destroying invention of the devil", "demonic game".

Under Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov, entertainers were invited for the royal amusement - Germans and Poles, among them were dancers. In 1673, "Orpheus", a play with singing and dancing, was performed in the comedy chamber in the Kremlin. In the prologue, Orpheus sang praises to the king and then danced with two pyramids. At this time, the love of dancing developed not only at the royal court, but also among the noble Moscow people who arranged their home theaters (Boyar Morozov, Prince Golitsyn, Dolgoruky).

The young Tsar Fyodor, who replaced Alexei Mikhailovich, was not a fan of entertainment. The love of dancing was supported only by the ruler Sophia, who gathered girls in her mansions and "arranged dances".

The turning point occurred during the reign of Peter I. After the replacement of long men's suits with short camisoles, Russian dances left the court life. Instead of them, Peter introduced foreign dances. By order of the tsar, under pain of severe punishment, all Russian girls were ordered to dance. Russian ladies and gentlemen learned the minuet, polonaise and country dance from captured Swedish officers. Peter himself, his wife Catherine and daughter Elizabeth took part in the dances and did it, according to contemporaries, quite gracefully. The attitude to dancing at this time was more like a serious, almost "state" business, which was reflected in the whole order of dance ensembles.

Thus, at this time in Russia "harmless" at first glance dances turned into a kind of weapon of social struggle against the "reactionary boyars". The inability to dance becomes shameful, so the boyars begin to subscribe to teachers (dance masters). At the assemblies, strictly developed rules of conduct were established, the manner of communicating with a lady in dance and even bows. There were also fast dances, including those of an improvisational nature. They said that Peter himself liked to change the figures, he deliberately scared and made fun of those who did not know how to dance.

One of the circumstances that characterize the attitude to dance is that now dance movements were no longer conditioned in any way: neither by ritual, nor simply by natural human corporeality, therefore, in our opinion, a deaf feeling of protest against obligations imposed from outside arises.

The introduction by Peter I of balls ("assemblies") aroused the displeasure of older people and great enthusiasm among young people. Since the Russian life of the pre-Petrine era evolved from day to day rather dreary: the main occupation was going to church and then sitting in a tower. Public entertainment was not practiced, only weddings were distinguished by extraordinary splendor. It is interesting, in our opinion, that the Russians never developed pair dances, this, in our opinion, can be explained by the peculiarities of the Orthodox faith, where there has never been a cult of the Mother of God, as in Catholicism. In addition, Orthodoxy imposed stricter moral requirements on a person, so the release of bodily energy was impossible in an explicit, open form. The attitude to Dionysian dances in Russia was very strict, they were considered a great sin.

Dance History

Folk dance

The history of dance is rooted in the depths of centuries - the primary source of folk dance was movements and gestures associated with sensory impressions from the surrounding world, and ritual mysteries with only them inherent in choreographic language and expressiveness were an integral part of the spiritual life of an ancient person.

The art of dance is the most ancient manifestation of the creativity of peoples, born simultaneously with the appearance of man as a natural physiological need for rhythmic movement.

The dance emerged from a variety of movements and gestures associated with labor processes and emotional impressions of a person from the world around him. Over the centuries, having undergone artistic generalization, dance acquired its own meaning, and each nation has developed its own dance traditions. Perhaps the history of dance is the same age as the history of mankind. We can only guess what the dances were like in the early eras. Natya Shastra is an early manuscript describing dance. It is the foundation of the modern interpretation of the classic Indian dance Bharathanatyam. In European culture, one of the first mentions of dance belongs to Homer in his Iliad - he describes chorea (Greek round dance, dance). The early Greeks transformed the art of dancing into a system expressing a variety of passions. For example, the dance of the Furies terrified everyone who witnessed it. The Greek philosopher Aristotle put an equal sign between dance and poetry and argued that dancers, thanks to body movements in a certain rhythm, can convey manners, passions and actions. Outstanding Greek sculptors studied the poses of dancers imitating certain states.

Historically, dance has served as part of religious rituals and public celebrations. Evidence for this is found in many documents from the prehistoric era. Probably, court dances have existed as long as royal courts. The variety of types of dances included folk, social, ballroom, religious and experimental and other forms. A large branch of this art was Theater Dance, which originated in the Western World. The origins of modern ballet, the dance we all know, go back to France in the sixteenth century - the Renaissance.

Ballet.

The preconditions for the emergence of ballet were a new way of thinking and the philosophy of the Enlightenment: now man becomes the center of the universe and can control his being with the help of arts and sciences. An excerpt illustrates this: “By using music that exactly imitated the proportional harmony of the planets, the man of the sixteenth century believed he could attract planetary influences. The dance itself was an imitation of the movement of the heavens. "

By the end of the 16th century, court ballet reached its peak: it was fully funded by the French monarchy, which used it to extol its own greatness. The ballets became part of lavish, huge festive extravaganzas that lasted for several days in a row and included all kinds of entertainment. In fact, all of these festivals were a way of self-aggrandizing the French Court.

By the beginning of the 18th century, ballet migrated from the French Court to the Paris Opera to the versatile theatrical figure Jean-Baptiste Lully, who “retained the basic concept of ballet - the complexity of the form in which dance is an integral and significant element”. During this century, ballet spread throughout Europe and from a sophisticated way of moving images during a major performance turned into a self-sufficient art of performance called ballet d'action ("effective ballet", ballet with a plot). This new form has almost completely outlived the artificiality inherent in court dance, and established a new law: "art should strive to express nature, nature." As a result, the costumes and choreography have become freer and more conducive to revealing the expressive talents of the body. The door opened to the world of naturalistic costumes and shoes without heels - pointe shoes, which provided the dancer with great opportunities when climbing toes.

The era of Romanticism at the beginning of the 19th century, with ballets that draw the viewer's attention to emotions, with fantasy and rich spiritual worlds, was the beginning of real work on pointe. And now the ideal ballerina (whose qualities were expressed then in the legendary Marie Taglioni), in her shoes, seemed to barely touch the surface of the stage and her ethereal spirit did not seem to know what the earth was. The now ascended stars of female dance have completely overshadowed the presence of poor male dancers, who in many cases have been renamed moving statues, existing only for ballerinas to lean on. This situation at the beginning of the twentieth century was slightly changed by the ascent of the star of Nijinsky from the Russian Ballet. By this time, the familiar ballet costumes, choreography, scenery, props had already developed, in a word, everything became almost the same as it is now.

Modern dance.

Russian ballet, having started a revolution in ballet art, tried to break the outdated forms of classical ballet. At present, the artistic possibilities of ballet technique and the accompanying music, scenery and multimedia are more ambitious than during the entire period of its existence. The boundaries defined by classical ballet are constantly expanding and blurring, and everything that appears in their place now barely reminds of traditional ballet terms such as "rotation".

New thinking has appeared. Dancers now take into account personality traits, ritual and religious aspects, primitiveness, expressiveness and emotionality. In this atmosphere, another round of development of modern dance took place. Suddenly, a new freedom arose in what was now considered acceptable, which was called the recognized art, in which many people henceforth wanted to create. All the trappings of the new art have become as important as the costumes of ballet - or even more valuable than them.

Most of the choreographers and dancers of the early 20th century were very negative about ballet. Isidora Duncan thought of him as an ugly senseless gymnastics. Martha Graham (Graham) singled out Europeanism and imperialism in him, which have nothing in common with the Americans. Meers Cunningham, despite using some of the basics of ballet technique to teach, approached choreography and performance from a standpoint directly opposite to traditional ballet.

The twentieth century undoubtedly became a time of separation from everything that ballet relied on - a time of unprecedented creative growth of dancers and choreographers, a time of shock, surprise and spectators who changed their idea of ​​dance, a time of revolution.

The sixties brought the development of postmodernism, which changed the course towards simplicity, the beauty of small things, untrained bodies and artless, simple movements. The famous "No" manifesto rejects all costumes, plots and "show" for the sake of raw, raw movement - this is probably the brightest extreme of this wave of new thought. Unfortunately, the lack of costumes, plots and props does not contribute to the success of the dance show - and after a short time, "scenery", "decoration" and "shock level" reappeared in the vocabulary of contemporary dance choreographers.

By the eighties, classical dance had returned to its starting point, and contemporary dance had become a highly technical weapon of professionals close to politics. Two forms of dance, contemporary dance and classical ballet, peacefully coexist, experiencing one to the other only the slightest bit of former dislike and almost not entering into rivalry. Today, the art of dance is riddled with creative competition and choreographers often strive to be called the most shocking of their work. However, there is still beauty in art, and modern dance amazes with such professionalism, strength and flexibility that have never been there until now.

Belly dance is one of the most ancient and mysterious forms of dance art. Its history is shrouded in riddles and secrets. Eastern culture has always attracted with its beauty and special charm.

Now there are many legends associated with the history of the emergence of belly dance and its performers. Everyone can imagine a flexible beauty moving harmoniously to rhythmic music. However, few people can confidently answer the question "where did belly dance come from?" and whether we understand it correctly.

VERSIONS OF ANIMAL DANCE ORIGIN. HISTORICAL ROOTS.

There is an interesting legend describing the appearance of belly dancing as an accident. Allegedly, once a bee flew under the developing clothes of a street dancer. The insect was bewildered by the beautiful scent of oils emanating from the girl. The dancer, without interrupting her performance, tried to get rid of the annoying bee, wriggling during the dance. The girl did this very gracefully and plastically, so casual spectators took it for a special kind of dance and were delighted. An intelligent girl, noticing success and attention, continued to move in a new and unprecedented way, showing beautiful lines of her body and arms. Many people liked this dance and began to spread.

Of course, this is just a legend. The history of the emergence of belly dancing lasted much longer than the performance of one beautiful girl. The roots of oriental dance go deep into history, and even now it is impossible to pinpoint the exact place of birth of belly dancing.

It is believed that the basis of belly dancing was ancient ritual dances, which carried a sacred meaning. They praised the feminine principle, fertility goddesses and women in general. The belly dance symbolized what was considered the divine destiny of every woman in the society of that time: the process of conceiving a child, bearing a fetus and childbirth itself. However, gradually the dance began to lose its sacred meaning and acquired a more secular direction.

If we talk about the place where belly dancing originated, then many researchers lean towards Ancient Egypt. However, it should be noted that many peoples contributed to the creation of this type of dance. Thus, the initially varied and rich Egyptian dance was supplemented by dancers from India. They were flexible and sophisticated bayaderes, with excellent choreographic training. Their hand movements were unique and carried special meaning. The close neighbors of the Egyptians also influenced: Persians, Syrians, Palestinians and some African countries. The Gypsy nomads also contributed. For centuries their own folk dances have been combined with Indian, Arab, Jewish and Spanish traditions. In Greece, dance expressed emotions more energetically, brightly and sharply. In Turkey, in parallel with the growth of the territory, more and more folk dances appeared, which gradually mixed with each other. Thanks to this, a wide variety of movements, new unusual rhythms and forms have arisen.

DISTRIBUTION AND POPULARIZATION OF THE BELLY DANCE. WRONG NAME.

Egypt was discovered by Napoleon for Europe. Sophisticated Europeans became interested in a new, unexplored culture. Interest was fueled by writers and artists who were the first to visit the mysterious country, who rushed to describe the beauty of the East in all colors, including the native beauties-dancers. The first travelers were not lagging behind, talking about Eastern culture as something magical, exotic and erotic. Therefore, the interest was high, and they were able to take advantage of this.

Already in 1889 Paris saw the so-called "oriental dance" for the first time. A few years later, one impresario of such shows decided to attract as many public as possible, using the frank and defiant name on the posters by the standards of that time - "Danse Du Ventre" ("belly dance"). The expected effect was achieved. Many were willing to pay any money to see half-naked exotic dancers. The idea and style of dance immediately fell in love with Hollywood. This had a strong influence on the further spread of "belly dancing". The popularity of the show with the participation of oriental dancers grew, and the name grew tightly to the very style of their dance.

Later, they tried to interpret this name in different ways, again giving the dance a deep meaning. For example, some adhere to the version that belly dancing means "the dance of life" (the belly was called life several centuries ago). And life is associated precisely with a woman, mother earth and fertility.

Also, bellydance could simply be a misinterpretation of the term baladi. It meant "homeland" in the broadest sense of the word. It was an Egyptian folklore style of dance that was danced in villages on various occasions, most often at home, with relatives.

At the moment, there are more than 50 styles of oriental dance. Each of them, to a different degree, is saturated with elements inherent in one or another folk dance, which formed the basis of "belly dance" many centuries ago.

EASTERN DANCE CLASS SCHEDULE



MONDAY

SUNDAY

COST OF CLASSES IN THE GROUP

TRIAL LESSON:

1
hour
RUB 600
RUB 200

2
hours
1 200 rub.
RUB 300

3
hours
RUB 1,800
RUB 400

SINGLE LESSONS:

1
hour
RUB 600

SUBSCRIPTIONS: *

1
hour a week
4-5 hours per month
RUB 2,000
RUB 1,900
438 rub / hour

2
hours a week
8-10 hours per month
RUB 4,000
RUB 3,200
369 rub / hour