Dance: the fine art
It is natural to want to dance and move every time we listen to music. With the drumbeat of a military march, we want to march in time; the soft circles of a waltz have the power to make us feel like we are spinning forever; and a lullaby makes us numb our bodies. Dance is a natural expression and is a natural response to music that is heard externally or is sometimes, but rarely, in resonance with sounds of inner joy, to which only the individual is deprived.
Most people want to dance or enjoy dancing. It is a feature in the lives of most people around the world that they reveal the differences in their culture through the different types of music and the different styles of dance movement that they develop in their traditional art. There is a difference between country barn dancing or western formation with a country band and rap dancing with the intonation and sounds that go with it; between the metallic rhythm of tap dancers to the beat of a popular tune and the smooth, pointed feet of ballet dancers describing the patterns of a classical piece; the passionate guitar and heavy heel tapping of a Spanish flamenco and the soft swirls of an Austrian circle waltz to the beat of a violin.
Music provides the powerful influence we seek to express in movement and dance. Also, if our own emotions move, we can convey how we feel by injecting our emotions into our physical movements. If the music cheers us up, we can dance, but we wish we could fly and the best we can do is raise our arms and lift our bodies off the ground as best we can. If the music, on the other hand, is dark, we prefer to dress in gray garments and lower our heads to respond with deliberate and heavy movements to show what the music intends.
For the professional dancer, it is the music that dictates the mood and demands that the dancer give their body to that music, not only for their own pleasure, but for the sake of a larger purpose. Then the dancer surrenders to the music as if he were the director, seeking to make his body his complete or final instrument. Dancing to a rhythm without conscious thought is a pure reaction, it is not an art.
The dancers are agents of the music – there to express something of the spirit of their inspiration – of the composer. If we like the music we are asked to dance to, there is an easy relationship and harmony between the music, its source, and our bodies. Everything is in tune and the dancer can add the ingredient of his own intelligence and his feeling through his body language. If we are not attracted to music then the dancer is a puppet mother. In the future, using a dancer without a conscious desire to express the music will be seen as abuse of the dancer! It is not a true and fine example of the art form unless the music and the dancer are one.
If we hear a discordant sound and it is fashionable to move towards it, one must be very skillful or insensitive or perhaps both in wanting to express chaos and discord. The real jarring notes of life are too well known in reality to live without having to write everything in bold. Modern times are tough with little rhythm, melody, or harmony in any popular music.
In nightclubs, lighting vibrates jaggedly through the chaos and, for a dancer who is sensitive to the beauty and harmonies of inspired music, creates an unintelligent, purposeless, and insane atmosphere. There can be no reason why such occasions should not be prohibited due to noise, in order to preserve the health and hearing of all involved. The brains of all involved are damaged; To what extent, only the future will reveal. The participants do not deserve the name of dancers, but they are often enslaved by drugs and hypnotic drums.
Modern music is not harmonious. Thus, a dancer’s body must become jerky and tense, stretched to extreme tension, tested beyond its inherent strength, making demands that are acrobatic, exaggerated, unnatural, and generally unattractive. Beauty is the ingredient that is neglected, even forgotten. And in judging the outcome, anyone who witnesses such movement to such music may be left speechless by techniques that stretch the limits of the bodily capabilities, but leave the audience empty.
Music is best understood as food for the soul. This was and still is the classic approach to art that was dedicated to the purpose of delighting listeners, telling a story, honoring a great person, state, ideal, expressing the spirit of a nation, or in spiritual dedication to religious worship and glories. of God. Music was an expression that served to enrich listeners. In its best and most powerful form, music can stir the spirits of thousands, who for a time experience the pleasure of a feeling of unity beyond the diversity of human life.
The dancer depends on the music. Dance is music made visible!
Dance has always been a part of human culture and will undoubtedly continue to be. In times past, such as ancient Egypt, dancers were trained in the temples, dedicated to the gods, their art was sanctified, and they were used within the powerful ritual that was used in outside ceremonies and rituals to engage the people and amass group thought. . in pray. In ancient Indian traditions, temple dancers also held a place of respect and their music and dances were dedicated to the gods.
In ancient Greece, and indeed in all ancient civilizations, it was the same: there were the temple dances and the folk dances of the general population.
In our western culture we do not have such an equivalent system that allows everyone to have their place. In fact in our religion and Christian worship there is no place, and has never been considered one, to dance.
So in our way of life, we are the poorest. We can only resort to the dance of the masses – that which only expresses the spirit of the people – and this is always boring. But we have our classical music that has served to inspire many millions of people around the world. So, in this, we have a ‘conductor’, but where are the dancers who can make their bodies into instruments capable of expressing the exquisite sounds and spirit of such glorious arrangements of notes? There are thousands of skilled dancers but are they in tune with the spirit to fulfill the needs of the art?
There are many musicians trained in classical music and many dancers trained in classical dance. Surely they can support each other to act as twin arts in creating something truly beautiful?