Yassin\nSarr asked each of us to turn to someone that we don\u2019t already know and briefly\nshare the words that the idea of dance brings to mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Terra\nHarmatuk introduced our program with a brief history. It is believed that dance\nexisted long before we had the power of speech, when thoughts, desires, and\nemotions were expressed through actions. Much of what we know of ancient dance\nis from archeological finds; statues, murals, and etchings on cave walls,\ntemples, and tombs. The earliest depictions of primitive art in the recesses of\nancient caves and beneath ancient cliffs show Cro-Magnon men and women in the\nact of dancing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first recorded dancing is among the ancient civilizations of\nthe Middle East and India and among the aboriginal peoples of the Americas,\nAustralia, and Africa. The circle, thought divine by many ancient societies,\nwas seen as magical as it is the embodiment of perfection and symmetry and is\nthus in harmony with the universe. Various circle dances have been done by\nwomen since the beginning of time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In India the earliest archaeological evidence of dance is from 6000 BCE: a statuette depicting a beautiful dancing girl. In ancient India, every major temple supported priestesses who worshiped the deities through their sacred ritual dances and elaborate language of mime and gesture. These highly educated women were known as Devadasis<\/em>, a word meaning “female servants of God.” In Bharata’s Natyasastra, written in Sanskrit, there is mention of 108 types of dance<\/p>\n\n\n\n The figures in Indian sculpture and paintings were given the\nbodies and movements of dancers because the gods, and nature in her creative\naspects, were seen in the image of a dancer who brought the whole universe into\nexistence as the manifestation of the dance of Shiva, as Lord of the Dance. Nataraja\nthe Supreme Dancer is portrayed as a many-armed being balanced on one leg.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Archaeologists\nhave found reliefs showing a kind of dance or body languageof a\npre-Egyptian goddess of 4000 B.C.E. and from the First Dynasty of Egypt, around\n3000 B.C E. Scenes found in tombs date as far back as the New Kingdom,\ninvolving dancers at ceremonies, rituals, and celebrations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nfirst images of Chinese dancers have been found on 4500-year-old pottery. The\nearliest forms of dance grew out of religious rituals\u2014including dances of\nexorcism performed by a shaman. Drunken masked dances and courtship festivals\ndeveloped into forms of entertainment patronized by the court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a cultural form among Jewish people, dance has been mentioned\nin recorded history for more than thirty-five centuries. In Exodus, Moses led\nthe Jews across the Red Sea to freedom, then \u201cMiriam, the prophetess, the\nsister of Aaron and Moses, took a timbrel in her hand and all the women went\nout after her with timbrels and with dance.\u201d She was a religious leader, and\nthis was a ritual round dance, possibly learned from the priestesses of Isis in\nEgypt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While\nthe Jews lived in their homeland, dancing played an important role in social\nand communal festivals. Every vineyard had an area reserved for dancing and\nused exclusively by women. A special third Passover Seder, the Women’s Seder, a\nspiritual journey celebrating women, miracles, and the Prophetess Miriam, is\nheld in many Jewish communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the Americas, Australia and Africa, the aboriginal peoples danced both for spiritual reasons and for entertainment. There were dances with song and drumming to ensure, to celebrate, and to give thanks for a good hunt or a good harvest. Other dances were for healing, to vanquish the enemy, or to help the spirit cross after death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thus,\nover eons of time, dance evolved beyond sex, emotion, and survival to encompass\nthe mystical, magical, and spiritual worlds, including those of the gods and\nloved ones long dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\nhave been various religious groups throughout history that have used dance to\ninduce trance, to create an ecstatic experience, and to become closer to their\ngods and goddesses. Dance has been prohibited at different times, especially\nwhen the state and religion became one, but sometimes solely for religious\nreasons. As with any prohibition, people continued to dance in secret for both\nreligious and secular purposes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dancing continues to play a significant role in the rites of many modern religions. Japanese Shinto religious dances are performed for the enjoyment of ancestors and as a means of connecting with God. The Whirling Dervishes of Sufi Islam use dance ecstasy as a major element in their religious worship. So do some Hassidic Jewish sects, whose members dance in order to increase their contact with the mystical powers of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dance\nhas always been a means of expression, and every country, spiritual path, and\nculture has its own forms of dance which have a rich history. Today we will\nexperience several types of dance with ancient roots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Terra\nintroduced our first dancers, Rachael Thomas and Sneha Dontha. Both are high\nschool students who have been studying classical temple dances of southern\nIndia, called Bharata Natyam, for about ten years. The girls were exquisitely dressed\nin vibrantly colored traditional dance costumes of blouse and full pants cut\nfrom six yards of sari fabric. The girls were adorned with temple jewelry worn\nonly for dance performances, hair ornaments, and bands of bells on their\nankles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Rachael\nexplained the name: Bha<\/em> refers to facial expression, Ra<\/em>\nmeans the melody, and Ta<\/em> is rhythm; Natyam <\/em>is dance. The\nmovements are very precise and were prescribed approximately 2000 years ago.\nThe style combines artistic expression with a sense of spirituality. Hand\ngestures, intricate footwork, and vivid facial expression are accentuated by\ntheatrical makeup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before\nstarting their music, Rachael explained the gestures that Sneha demonstrated:\ntheir dance would be in praise of the elephant-headed god, Ganesh, the remover\nof obstacles and sufferings. We all gasped in recognition as Sneha\u2019s right arm\nswept out and back in imitation of a trunk. Other motions clearly represented\neating, sharing, supplication, praise, and animals, such as snake, bird, lion,\nand cow. Then Rachael and Sneha performed to traditional music consisting of\nvoice, strings, percussion, and flute. The audience was rapt as we watched the\nstories unfold, told by the girls\u2019 arms and bodily poses and by the rhythm of\ntheir bare feet pounding on the floor and the bells shaking on their ankles.\nThis art form attempts to raise the level of spiritual consciousness of its\nviewers, so they achieve the experience of joy or bliss, and the girls\nsucceeded in bringing us to this state today. (Dear Readers, I keep telling you\nthat reading these minutes is a poor substitute for experiencing such\ndelightful performances yourself!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Daryl\nintroduced Sangita Ghimire, age 13, and Ranjana Chimariya, age 12, both of whom\nare Bhutanese. Sangita and Ranjana were born in refugee camps in Nepal and have\nbeen in Syracuse for 6 months and 16 months, respectively. In the camps,\ndancing was a form of recreation, imitated from films.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\ngirls wore long tunic blouses with embroidery and sequins over full trousers.\nThey wore makeup befitting their dance, and bright toe polish. They explained\nthat their dance would tell the romantic story of a cute girl. We enjoyed\nwatching their fluid movements and the fun expressed in their performance.\nDaryl commented that we would like to be able to imitate the girls\u2019 hip action!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Terra\nintroduced Farha, a graduate student at the College of Environmental Science\nand Forestry who has been studying belly dance for four years. She currently\nteaches belly dance in Solvay and performs at Armory Square \u2019s Black Olive\nrestaurant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Farha\nexplained that there are many theories concerning the origin of belly dance; it\nhas variously been attributed to childbirth exercises, goddess worship, or\nsexual invitation. She briefly explained why these theories are false, and\nshe touched on the dance’s true roots as a social dance, comparing the stage\nand social styles of belly dance to those of salsa. For Farha, belly dance is\njoy in motion, and she always enjoys sharing this celebration of life. She has\nseen it create confidence, probably because it teaches positive control of\none\u2019s body, allowing the dancer to express her whole self instead of reducing\nher to an object of sex or motherhood. As one learns to move within her\nown body and claim her personal space, she learns to claim her world and her\nlife. Farha discussed several styles of belly dance, then told us that she\nwould be doing an Egyptian social dance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before\nbeginning her performance, Farha removed her robe (her “backstage\ncurtain”) to reveal a shiny black dress bordered with large sequin\nbangles, and a red and green hip wrap, and red and green hair ties. As she\ndanced, her feet, hips, and arms circled, swayed, and undulated. She explained\nthat beginners start by isolating various muscle groups, one at a time. With\nexperience, the dancer can combine arm, foot, and hip movements, eventually\nreaching a point that she can draw on a wide movement vocabulary with which to\ninterpret the music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In\nresponse to questions, Farha said she became interested in belly dance when a\nfriend got a DVD. She quoted Martha Graham, who said that dance is the language\nof the soul. Some souls speak ballet, but Farha\u2019s soul responds to belly dance.\nFarha<\/em> means \u201cjoy,\u201d and although it is\nnot her birth name, she chose it to reflect the love she has for this dance\nform and her desire to make people happy through her dancing. She expands on\nher knowledge of the dance forms by studying with experts whenever and wherever\nshe can. She sometimes dances with a sword or with a tray on her head. Yassin\nasked us to reassemble into groups of five women based on the color of the\nribbon attached to our name tags. Each of us chose one question about our\nexperiences with dance from five that were distributed. As our enthusiasm for a\nwide variety of dance forms was discussed, the conversations veered off in\nvarious directions and united us through sharing of our lives and interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally,\nYassin thanked everyone for coming and said that her fondest memory of this\nafternoon would be the knowledge that even in a refugee center, dance brings\njoy. She asked us to clap for ourselves, celebrating that we have so much in\ncommon that is revealed through our sharing and talking. Helen Hudson remarked\nthat with the male world \u201cbeating her down\u201d lately, she needed the sisterly\nlove that was so evident in today\u2019s gathering!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dancing has long played a significant role in the the rites of many religions, and we were treated to traditional dances of Indian and Arab cultures<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[22,41],"class_list":["post-7798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-programs","tag-hinduism","tag-spiritual-practices",""],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7798"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8930,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7798\/revisions\/8930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n