On Thursday April 18, we watched a film by , about traditional African dance. I was amazed by the different dances performed and how they all held a strong symbol for the tribe they represent. The film portrayed various different tribes performing different dances for different reasons. The narrator of the film was extremely helpful with his descriptions of the people and the dances they were performing.
I really enjoyed the costumes of the different tribes, especially the Bobo tribe. They dyed their costumes bright vibrant colors. I was impressed that the dancer could perform such vigorous dances with those heavy looking costumes. Not the mention the extreme heat they have to deal with. From what I understand the performers were performing in temperatures in the high 90’s to 100 degrees. And to think we were complaining when it was 80 degrees the one day.
The dancing in all of the tribes was symbolic to a ritual and gave it all the more meaning to the viewer. I think it is wonderful that they use music and dance to honor their religion, their dead, and their land. Americans today seem to morn religion, like it is work or something. It is beautiful to see the African Dancers out their celebrating their religion. I think our religions should take some notes and make it beautiful and enjoying. Most Catholic services are dry and boring but to look at the Africans enjoying their religion and making it exciting
I really liked the tribe as well, with their tall costumes. Their dancing was to honor their dead. They were in tall dark costumes and they would go after the crowd if they got out of line. I was really impressed with their dancing because what an honor. I would love for people to dance and sing at my funeral. I want everyone to celebrate my life not morn my death. I feel that the tribe was doing that, they were celebrating that persons life by dancing. It was humorous too when they went after the different members of the crowd who got out of line.
...ating with each other and these are the same values that are being passed on to this generation. The dancers in South-central Los Angeles, uses this form of art to express their feelings and it a form of communicating just like their ancestors did back in there days. At the same time, it allows them to have a much deeper connection with their roots.
The stage performance of Rogers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma was a beautiful integration of book, song and dance. The three elements add richness and aesthetic quality in very distinctive ways. Dance is a form of expression using rhythmic movements of the body. Facial expressions and the use of body language through dance offer portrayals of feelings that compensate for dialogue. The choreography done by Agnes de Mille integrates dance into the lives of the frontiersmen (and women) of the Oklahoma territory. The 20th Century Fox film version released in 1955 had key differences than the current Broadway musical. One of the main differences other than a little extra dialogue was the utilization of dance. In the film dance was not used as a primary asset to the production. The impact of dance could be described by comparing the stage performance with the film.
They would dance contemporary to Holiday’s slower jazz songs, which were also her songs with the most serious stories told in them. Performing this style of dance helped to tell the story of hers songs. The dance truly helped to accentuate the message of the song “Strange Fruit.” This song describes the horrific lynchings that took place in the Jim Crow South. The contemporary choreography to this song showed the sadness and confusion that many people felt towards the lynchings. The dancers would come onto the stage in small groups of two or three, and I noticed many of them would do a slow, controlled grand battement followed by dropping their torsos to their feet when they brought their legs back down. They would then proceed to exit the stage, and be followed by the next group of dancers. When I watched this, I felt as though the dancers were showing the pain and despair that people felt before lynchings, and how they next lynching would happen soon
The film, Dances with Wolves, is masterfully produced to change the stereotypical view of Native Americans as brutal savages to a fixed view of them as normal human beings. Shift in perception is achieved by first grabbing the audience attention with an initial matched stereotype of cruel Indians. The audience is carried to a new frame of thought through the trustworthy character of Dunbar and his developing relationship with the Indians. In the end, Dunbar's dance with the wolves becomes a great learning experience for him in his life, as well as an eye-opening tool for the humbled American audience.
There are different cultures represented but the one that I liked the most and that in my opinion stand out the most was the Spain. When they talk to the man that comes from Spain he begins by explaining how garlic and tomato was the main food source for the people that lived in the fields during the Spanish War. Ashe was explaining his tone of voice showed passion and pride over how garlic is an important part of the food history of his country. Afterwards he is shown singing and dancing flamenco, a form of Spanish folk music, and garlic is everywhere he even has a necklace with a garlic charm. In addition to this later on in the film he is seasoning meat of course with garlic and other spices; when he is doing this flamenco music is playing in the background and the rhythm of his knife or cooking instrument follows the rhythm of the music. I was captivated by this scene just the art of cooking is beautiful and combined with the music was wonderful.
While studying the various cultural societies in Africa, one feature that stood out the most was that of rhythmic dependance and integration, particularly in the Ewe and Dagomba people. These two cultures, living not vastly far apart from one another geographically, both use drumming, dancing, and singing as a way to bring together their communities, fulfill spiritual practices and beliefs, and even instantiate individual power in their overall societal structures. Though they certainly have their own differences from one another, such as their overall uses for music and the acceptance of whom can even perform it, their similarities stuck out to me like a sore thumb.
Over the decades, this type of musical traditions have been kept by migrant families who perform this type of music and dance. The performers and listeners have managed to keep this musical tradition by doing events or celebrations. These migrant families keep the tradition going by showing their traditional music and dance to the new generations and passed down through heritage. By continuing to perform their musical traditions the migrant families will maintain their cultural ways and continue on for years and decades to
Considering descendants’ effort to bring this culture back in society, this entire dancing performance, masks, and the idea of interacting with the outside world must not have been merely correlated to their religious and spiritual ritual. It might have been their identity; a symbolic of their society which their ancestors had built and passed down to them.
In chapter ten, author Bruno Nettle takes the reader to the town of Browning, Montana, where he is about to witness a modern Native American ceremony. As he observes, he notices that only one-half of the people there are actual Native Americans. The rest are are white tourists and innocent observers just like himself. Eventually, somewhere around eighteen singing groups appear from different tribes and reservations. They will be summoning the dancers into what is known as the grand entry. Nettle notices that the overall style of the music remains the same among all of the different groups, or `drums.' People are able to interact by taking pictures, video and tape recording what goes on. In that respect, the event is similar to a high school or local sporting event. Throughout this chapter the reader is introduced to many aspects of Native American music including: ceremonial traditions, musical areas, societies, unity and diversity, ideas about music, musical instruments, and aspects of history.
The hoop dance is a story-telling ritual, universally adopted by the tribes of Native Americans. This spiritual dance originated as a custom of the Puebloan people in New Mexico. “ In its earliest form, the dance is believed to have been part of a healing ceremony designed to restore balance and harmony in the world”( Weiser 2). The practice of hoop dancing varies tribally, incorporating the indigenous culture of each clan. Symbolism is an essential part of the performance because of the meaning it gives to the dance. Native American ideology contains a prominent connection with the nature of life’s vitality.
There were six different dances in the performance, each one different in their own cultural way. Dances like “Oshun, Goddess of Love” were based on actual beliefs. Oshun is the goddess of the rivers, fertility, abundance, and love among the Yoruba people of Nigeria. The dance is a creative exploration of the meaning of Oshun as a force
Janet O’Shea, “ ‘Traditional’ Indian Dance and the Making of Interpretive Communities,” Asian Theatre Journal vol. 15, no. 1 (Spring 1998): 45-63.
I did not have to wait long for an opportunity to dance on stage because the teachers decided to put up a Kathak group dance for the Class Five’s form evening.
Have you ever thought about the history of dance, or how long human life has known it? Dance has been here longer than we actually think. We can take dance back all the way to 600 BC to Now. Dance has made very big changes overtime. It went from doing it in honor for only the dead or religious situations to now just doing it for fun. The way or different moves have also changed over this big course in time. It ways and moves have changed, and the outfits used to perform these different types of dances. There has been clean and dirty dancing all along, some of things in those dances have stayed, others haven’t. Dance has been a very great thing and will stay being a great thing during human life because it expresses a lot. It expresses itself, and a person can express their feelings, in the different kind of moves. It does take time to get to know the moves but you can get through.
African traditional dance has been one of the victims of colonialism modernity .Dances such as reed dance (umkhosi womhlanga) and wedding dance (amhubo) has been neglected, however they have not stopped practicing them but the way they are done is no longer similar than it was before .Maxwell Xolani Rani says that “modernity is having an adverse effect on traditional dance in Africa” (1996; 15).