The Art Of Dance: Culture, Spirituality, And Traditions

Dance may be perceived by some as merely choreography overlaid with music that governs the tempo and overall feel of the piece, however the art of dance is rooted in deeper facets such as culture, ritual, spirituality, and tradition. The culture and traditions that lead to certain dance styles and moves can be traced back somewhat to the economic and political status of the time period and location of the dance. For example, in Mary Wigman’s Hexantanz, or “Witch Dance” (1914), it’s not hard to deduce - by examining the music and ghostly wardrobe - that the work was heavily influenced by spirituality. Another, arguably less ghostly example of dance that reflects its peripheral culture is Martha Graham’s Primitive Mysteries (1931), which was choreographed after Graham’s trip to Southwest America, where in her creative mind sparked an interest in American Indian region (Bennahum, 81). Modern dance had changed it’s definitions not drastically, but accordingly as time went on. The term “modern dance” was coined during a time where the suitor of contemporary culture was modern dance, however the term evolved into one that was all-encompassing, meaning that it wasn’t only meant to reflect current times but all viewpoints (Au, 119). In Mary Wigman’s Hexantanz, or “Witch Dance” (1914), Wigman creates a ghostly appearance with wardrobe, positioning and movement on stage, and music (“Expressionistic Dance,” 1). In my own personal observation, I would argue that this ghostly image was largely due to the dancer’s loose-fitting garb that resembles the structureless figure of a ghost, as well as the dancer’s movements that bear little resemblance to any normal human movement. At certain points in the dance, the dance wails her arms wildly, clasps her knees, rotates her body, whips her hair, and signals ghostly beings, all under the backdrop of regular and rhythmic percussion that serves to accentuate her movements. Wigman, early student of Rudolf Laban, “by the late 1920s [she] had mesmerized audiences with her solo dances and choreographed important group works randing from the ritualistic (Celebration) to the lyrical (Shifting Landscape)” (Bennhaum, 78). This historical context of this movement was “the passage from physical education to modern dancing;” namely, the movement in which dances were essentially stripped down to their bare physical parts and modified so that these dance could be relatable by a culturally and racially diverse crowd (Benhaumm, 77). The repetitive and seemingly stiff movements of the dance look to me as if the movements were broken down and modified as to elicit a uniformly similar response in viewers. …show more content…
The style of the dance, overall, was reflective of Wigman’s interpretation of spirituality. The single dancer in this piece, to me, represents the aspect of spirituality that is individual. In relation to modern dance, Wigman certainly embodies the principle of modern dance that it should encompass all ideas; it wasn’t necessarily true, it seemed, that spirituality as she portrayed it was a cotemporary idea, however it should be included in the realm of modern dance based on the evolved definition. In Martha Graham’s Primitive Mysteries (1931), the picture and movements are much less mechanical and stiff than that of the dance discussed in the previous paragraph. She drew her inspiration for this dance from her journey through the American Southwest as well as the fundamental principles of movement (Au, 119). The aspect of this