Dance Appreciation Essay

Study Guide for Test#1
      Chapter One - Origins & Definitions

1.   The impulse to move is the raw material that cultures shape into evocative
            sequences of physical activity that we call DANCE.

What are three other definitions of dance?
a physical activity where both the participant and observer agree that it dance
rhythmic movement of feet and body to music
physical activity that involves time space and energy through symbolic meaning through physical expression

3. Dance is universal, but so intensely personal that to question or belittle other
              people’s dances is to challenge their right to be themselves.   Dance is so much a part of                 being human that it often is used as a metaphor for life, itself.   to live is to dance to dance is to live

4.   What do dance anthropologists explore?  
      All dance is charged with power.   Dance anthropologists explore idioms and   sources of
      the power of dance by viewing it in social & cultural contexts.   Meanings & values of
      importance to a group of people who share a world view or cultural heritage are encoded
      in the form, technique and structure of every dance.   “The entity of dance is not separable from the...concept of culture.”   Every dance is ethnic.

Besides the impulse to move, what are the raw materials of dance?
the dancing body, time, energy, and space

To what two realities does every dance affirm?
physical and spiritual; outer and inner life

7.   How do we know what dance might have been like in pre-historic times?
primal people/societies today and pictures on cave walls. lots found in france

8.   What were some of the functions of dance in primitive societies?
pray for favor, heal sick, ensure fertility, commemorate victories, preserve history, seasonal events

9.   How did the first Europeans to visit Tahiti (1767) view the dancing of the natives?   They               perceived it as lewd or sexually...