DANCE. Dancing consists in the rhythmical movement of any or all parts of the body in accordance with some scheme of • individual or concerted action which is expressive of emotions or ideas. Amongst primitive peoples it always has some accompani ment by means of which the rhythm is emphasized. In its simplest form this consists in clapping the hands, or beating a drum to mark the time ; more elaborate is the accompaniment composed of several drums each with its own rhythm, or of an orchestra of different instruments. Frequently every dance has its own song which is sung by the performers themselves or by the onlookers.
Among primitive peoples the range of movements employed in dancing is very wide. All parts of the body are used, head, back, hips, arms, fingers and even the facial muscles are brought into play as well as the feet. Some perf ormances demand great physi cal exertion, with leaping and many bodily contortions, as in the war haka of the Maori.' In others the dancers confine themselves to a monotonous movement of the hands and feet. Many ob servers have commented on the sameness and lack of beauty in savage dances, but such a condemnation is based upon the miscon ception that they are performed primarily for the pleasure of the spectator. Spectacular dances are not unknown, but generally the satisfaction of the dancers is of first importance.
Much has been written of the obscenity of primitive dancing and it has even been said that it is primarily sexual in intent. Evi dence from many parts of the world does not bear this out. To a certain extent all dancing is sexually stimulating, but, except in courtship dances, this stimulus may be regarded as a by-product. Nor is it true that all primitive dance movements are mimetic. Some are undoubtedly so, as the totemic dances in Australia (see ToTEmism), but in the Andaman islands there is no trace of any such significance. Often the movements seem to be artistic render ings of spontaneous actions resulting from some emotional state.
As a rule a dance is performed by a group or groups of people all of whom move in the same way. Solo dances are rare, though not infrequently there is a dance leader who has a special part to play. All the able-bodied adults of the community are expected to take part. Usually the sexes are segregated, though this is by no means universal, but the close embrace, customary in European round dances, is seldom countenanced. Sometimes certain dances are restricted to one sex. Unless the dance forms part of a secret ceremony, that section of the community which is not dancing acts as audience, and often performs the accompaniment. Children are seldom allowed to join their elders, but have dances and singing games among themselves.
Under certain conditions some individuals, such as those who are in mourning or in seclusion at puberty, are not allowed to dance. They are in an abnormal state and temporarily cut off from soci ety, and are therefore excluded from dancing, which is essentially a social occupation. It is for this reason too that a dance is so often a part of the ceremony which terminates a period of isola tion; by joining in its performance the individual re-establishes his membership of the group.
"The individual shouts and jumps for joy ; the society turns the jump into a dance, the shout into a song." Dancing is a general means of enjoyment, often of rejoicing. But, as indicated above, it is more than this. Consciously or unconsciously it is a means of reaffirming social unity and occurs on all occasions which are so cially important : at the close of Passage Rites (q.v.)—especially those of puberty and death; at the initiation and close of group activities such as fighting or the building of a communal house; or during inter-group activities such as the tribal corroboree Aus tralia, or the peace-making of the Andamans. The food supply is all-important to the community and thus among an agricultural people, for instance, seed and harvest time have social significance, and are therefore times of dancing.
But except on such occasions as the dance-meetings of local groups and the peace-making ceremonies of the Andamans, the sense of social unity is felt as a pleasurable accompaniment to dancing rather than as its conscious purpose. The significance of the dances to the dancers and their emo tional accompaniment have been very in sufficiently studied, and there has been much theorizing on little data. Many dances seem to be magical ceremonies by means of which human beings or natural phenomena are controlled. Thus the dances of the totemic ceremonies of central Australia are performed to promote the fertility of the animal species concerned, and many hunting and war-dances appear to be intended to influence the hunted game or the enemy, so they may be readily killed. The actions in such dances are mostly mimetic, and it is not uncommon for performers at important ceremonies to be killed if they make any mistake, prob ably because it is felt that such faults would detract from the efficacy of the dance. Accuracy of move ment like accuracy of words is essential to the success of magical rites. From the way in which a dance is performed omens are fre quently taken, any mistake or want of spirit being accounted evil.
The border-line between magic and religion is notoriously diffi cult to draw, but among some people dancing seems definitely to be a form of religious exercise akin to prayer.
Dancing as an incident in courtship is found among many spe cies of birds and animals. In all dancing there is an opportunity for pleasurable exercise, but some dances are designed to cre ate sexual excitement in both performers and onlookers. Thus in Torres Straits, the unmarried girls watch the bachelors dancing, and then each taps on the shoulder the one whom she has chosen ; and in Australia the occasional periods of organized sexual licence are led up to by dancing.
Auto-intoxication is induced either intentionally or incidentally by dancing, the best known examples of this being the wild ex cesses of the bacchanals and of the shamans of Siberia, who use dancing as a means of becoming inspired by their tutelary spirit. Similar "possession" is induced by priests among savage peoples, and the power to do this is often a sine qua non of priesthood. In a war dance the condition produced is not so extreme, but is akin to this. The warriors work themselves into a frenzy of hatred, and they feel themselves exalted. Though many war dances may have a supposed magical effect on the enemy, this exaltation, this sense of heightened valour, is often one if not the only reason for their performance.
Nothing will survive in any human society unless it has a func tional value. Within every individual in a community there is a conflict of desires. On the one hand there is a wish to be outstand ing; on the other the longing for a sense of group fellowship. To both these desires dancing at once provides satisfaction. The dancer can display himself to the best advantage and can do so in harmony with others. On certain occasions one or other of these two aspects may be stressed, as, for instance, the individual aspect in dances of courtship, the group aspect in war or peace dances, but, to a greater or less extent, both aspects are always present. Therefore, because dancing is entirely satisfying emotionally, it survives in the savage and civilized world when beliefs in its magical or religious efficacy have passed away.
(C. H. W.) The term "dancing" in its widest sense includes three things:— 0 ) the spontaneous activity of the muscles under the influence of some strong emotion, such as social joy or religious exultation; (2) definite combinations of graceful movements performed for the sake of the pleasure which the exercise affords to the dancer or to the spectator; (3) carefully trained movements which are meant by the dancer vividly to represent the actions and passions of other people. In the highest sense it seems to be for prose gesture what song is for the instinctive exclamations of feeling. At a Mexican feast to the god Huitzilopochtli the noblemen and women danced tied together at the hands, and embracing one another, the arms being thrown over the neck. This resembles the dance variously known as the Greek Bracelet or Brawl," Op,uos, or Bearsfeet ; but all of them probably are to a certain extent symbolical of the relations between the sexes. In a very old Peruvian dance of ceremony before the Inca, several hundreds of men formed a chain, each taking hold of the hand of the man beyond his immediate neighbour, and the whole body moving forwards and backwards three steps at a time as they approached the throne.
The rude imitative dances of early civilization are of extreme interest. In the same way the dances of the Ostyak tribes (Northern Asia) imitate the habitual sports of the chase and the gambols of the wolf and the bear and other wild beasts, the dancing consisting mainly of sudden leaps and violent turns which exhaust the muscular powers of the whole body. The Kamchadales, too, in dancing, imitate bears, dogs and birds. The Kru dances of the Coast Negroes represent hunting scenes; and on the Congo, before the hunters start, they go through a dance imitating the habits of the gorilla and its movements when attacked. The Damara dance is a mimic representation of the movements of oxen and sheep, four men stooping with their heads in contact and uttering harsh cries. The canter of the baboon is the humorous part of the ceremony. The Bushmen dance in long irregular jumps, which they compare to the leaping of a herd of calves, and the Hottentots not only go on all-fours to counterfeit the baboon, but they have a dance in which the buzzing of a swarm of bees is represented. The Kennowits in Borneo introduce the mias and the deer for the same purpose. The Australians and Tasmanians in their dances called corrobories imitate the frog and the kangaroo (both leaping animals). The hunt of the emu is also performed, a number of men passing slowly round the fire and throwing their arrows about so as to imitate the movements of the animal's head while feeding. The Gonds are fond of dancing the bison hunt, one man with skin and horns taking the part of the animal. Closely allied to these are the mimic fights, almost universal among tribes to which war is one of the great interests of life. The Bravery dance of the Dahomans and the Hoolee of the Bhil tribe in the Vindhya Hills are illustrations. The latter seems to have been reduced to an amusement conducted by professionals who go from village to village,—the battle being engaged in by women with long poles on the one side, and men with short cudgels on the other. There is here an element of comedy, which also appears in the Fiji club-dance. This, although no doubt origin ally suggested by war, is enlivened by the presence of a clown covered with leaves and wearing a mask. The monotonous song accompanying the club-dance is by way of commentary or ex piration. So, also, in Guatemala there is a public baffle or dance, in which all the performers, wearing the skins and heads of beasts, go through a mock battle, which always ends in the victory of those wearing the deer's head. At the end the victors trace in the sand with a pole the figure of some animal; and this exhibi tion is supposed to have some historical reference. But nearly all savage tribes have a regular war-dance, in which they appear in fighting costume, handle their weapons, and go through the movements of challenge, conflict, pursuit or defeat. The women generally supply the stimulus of music. There is one very picturesque dance of the Natal Kafirs, which probably refers to the departure of the warriors for the battle. The women appeal plaintively to the men, who slowly withdraw, stamping on the ground and darting their short spears or assegais towards L. . . In Madagascar, when the men are absent on war, the wo.. ' dance for a great part of the day, believing that this inspires their husbands with courage. In this, however, there may be some religious significance. These war-dances are totally distinct from the institution of military drill, which belongs to a later period, when social life has become less impulsive and more re flective. (The Greek ieapiraia represented the surprise by robbers of a warrior ploughing a field. The gymnopaedic dances imitated the sterner sports of the palaestra.) There can be little doubt that some of the characteristic movements of these primitive hunting and war-dances survive in the smooth and ceremonious dances of the present day. But the early mimetic dance was not confined to these two subjects; it embraced the other great events of savage life—the drama of courtship and marriage, the funeral dance, the consecration of labour, the celebration of harvest or vintage; sometimes, too, purely fictitious scenes of dramatic interest, while other dances degenerated into games. (The Greek Lenaea and Dionysia had a distinct reference to the seasons.) For instance, in Yucatan one man danced in a cowering attitude round a circle, while another followed, hurling at him bohordos or canes, which were adroitly caught on a small stick. Again, in Tasmania, the dances of the women describe their "clamber for the opossum, diving for shell-fish, digging for roots, nursing children and quarrelling with husbands." Another dance, in which a woman by gesture taunts a chieftain with cowardice, gives him an opportunity of coming forward and recounting his courageous deeds in dance. The funeral dance of the Todas (another Indian hill-tribe) consists in walking backwards and forwards, without variation, to a howling tune of "ha! hoo!" The meaning of this is obscure, but it can scarcely be solely an outburst of grief. In Dahomey the blacksmiths, carpenters, hunters, braves and bards, with their various tools and instruments, join in a dramatic dance. We may add here a form of dance which is almost pre cisely equivalent to the spoken incantation. It is used by the professional devil-dancer of the wild Veddahs for the cure of diseases. An offering of eatables is put on a tripod of sticks, and the dancer, decorated with green leaves, goes into a paroxysm of dancing, in the midst of which he receives the required infor mation. This, however, rather belongs to the subject of religious dances.
It is impossible here to enumerate either the names or the forms of the sacred dances which formed so prominent a part of the worship of ant equity. After the middle of the r 8th century there were still traces of religious dancing in the cathedrals of Spain, Portugal and Roussillon—especially in the Mozarabic Mass of Toledo.