Traditional Dance as the Way to Understand the Culture

“Dance has no language”- it is often said at the concerts and festivals. Indeed, in order to understand the beauty of the dance and what dancers want to express you do not need to know particular language, so Kazakhs, Russians, Koreans, Germans, Chinese etc. will perceive dance performance in the same way. Traditional dance involves not only dance performance, but traditional national music, costumes and attributes as well. So, through the traditional folk dances people can get acquainted with one or another’s culture. However, according to Bridget Rose Nolan (2008, 8) the nature of the traditional dances are very complex, and the question about to what extent such dances are traditional is arguable. She states that “dance is arguably one of the hardest forms of cultural expression to pass from one person to another unchanged, let alone from one generation to another through hundreds of years”. As Brennan (1999, 15)said “dance is, by its nature, ephemeral”. Brennan points that traditional dance itself underwent the process of evolution. Nevertheless, culture is learnt, so it can be changed and it changes slightly from one generation to another, and traditional dance as a part of culture changes as well. This will not be the eradication of culture. Therefore modern traditional dances can be regarded as part of culture and they can be considered as the way to understand particular culture. This paper is focused on this way, to be precisely, how traditional dances affect the understanding of culture. Firstly, the research problem will be described. Then essay will proceed to the description of the practical part, particularly, of the fieldwork, methods and expectations of the participant observation. Furthermore, there will be an an...

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...ered that choreography students do not identify with any culture, including their own one, during the dance performance. So, the expectations about the changes in the behavior by the influence of the folk costumes and attributes were met, though the expectations about the feelings of the other cultures were not met. Therefore, folk dances can present culture of the particular folk, but the performances of the folk dances not always involve the understanding of the culture.

Bibliography

Brennan, H. The Story of Irish Dance. Ireland: Mount Eagle Publications, 1999.

Haviland, William A., Harald E.L. Prins, Bunny McBride, and Dana Walrath. Cultural Anthropology: The Human Challenge. Wadsworth Publishing, 2011.

Nolan, B.R. "Tradition, Modernity, and Authenticity in Riverdance." American Sociological Association Annual Meeting. Boston, 2008. 1-17.