Dance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Dance - Essay Example a communicator, does not seem to have come all that from the time when grunts and gesticulations were the main ways of getting message across.†Ã‚ ¹ He opines that in our day to day life we mostly lean heavily on indirect gestures and charades. HDoubler in the introduction of his classic book Dance says that the basis of unrest is the necessity to live and the unrest is the activity that has a purpose, â€Å"working toward the restoration of harmony with environment or self as the case may be.†  ² The history of dance reveals that in prehistoric era it was unintentional movement to please gods and the performer had no idea that he was creating art. The movements were rhythmical sometimes whirling to go beyond the ego and to become one with the whole. Dance was the media to express the pent up feeling, emotions and beliefs. ³ The changes the people experienced through out the life span had also been the subject matter in primitive cultures. Changes of seasons and the changes that came about on the winning or loosing wars were all expressed in dances. With the development of cultures two kinds of dance emerged: social dances and magical and religious dances. â€Å"The medicine men of primitive cultures, whose power to invoke the assistance of a god were feared and respected, are considered by many to be the first choreographers, or composers of formal dances.†4. Christine Loma is of the view that existing theatrical aesthetic ignores the social context of dance; the existing aesthetic gives importance to form and content. She refutes the common theory of aesthetic and instead brings out the more ‘appropriate aesthetic’, as she suggests, which emphasizes context and intent instead of form and content. To her the role of community dance, be it ceremonial or ritual, is to reconcile past, present and future. In giving more importance to celebrations â€Å"we emphasize the relationship of self and community. We all are bearers of our community experience as individual