The Anthropology of Dance

Rating:
Summary: Very interesting reading
Review: That dance is universal in human culture is both expected and appreciated. Life without dance is akin to eating without tasting the food. But dance can take many forms, and one can make conclusions about a culture after examining its dances, and also study its function in going against cultural norms. Dance in every culture can be a celebration, an expression of ideology, or a rebellion against the same. The author in this book has given the reader an introduction to the anthropology of dance, and a appreciation of the wide variability of cultural attitudes towards dance.

The author calls dance the oldest of the arts and then addresses the natural question which arises when studying dance: how is it, as a pattern of movement in time and space, to be distinguished from other patterns of movement in time and space (a parade for example, or swimming, or playing tennis)? Also, can there be nonhuman dance? She gives as an example the movement of certain bird species. Any scientific/anthropological study of dance must of course find a working definition of dance that is mutually agreed upon, as the author states explicitly in this chapter. She eventually gives such a definition, namely that it is "patterned movement performed as an end in itself", but is also careful to note that cultural biases must be taken into consideration when analyzing dance from an anthropological perspective. Indeed, a too narrow definition of dance may result in the conclusion that there are some societies or cultures that do not have any forms of dance, even though they engage in organized events where "patterns of movement" are regularly done. The author gives several interesting examples that illustrate the difference between a scholarly definition of dance and what constitutes dance from the standpoint of the participants in a given culture.

The author's discussion on dance from the anthropological perspective is interesting, for she gives examples of how the influence of certain philosophical and psychological frameworks have influenced the study of dance. Some anthropologists for example only paid attention to dance since the neglecting of it would make their cultural studies incomplete. Others mentioned it only if it was relevant to the psychological state of the people within the studied culture. Thus some anthropologists viewed dance as being merely an extraneous activity for the society in question.

The author though is perhaps too cautious in the appraisal of the methodological techniques used to study cultures. Stating correctly that research must begin with observation, she laments the (supposed) fact that the use of concepts distorts what one does observe: "We draw parallels where perhaps there are none, and we categorize phenomena on the basis of perhaps misleading superficial characteristics". But scientific study is a certain well-defined activity, and studying cultures scientifically already assumes that a given set of rules and concepts is to be applied. The author should not feel guilty about the use of these methodologies. If one indeed is "distorting the facts", this will be brought out by further more in-depth studies, which could go on for quite some time.

An entire chapter of the book is devoted to methods and techniques, some of these being the dance notation that was developed by Rudolph Laban, Rauol Feuillet, and Joan and Rudolph Banesh. Mere syntactical systems are not enough though, as movement quality must be protrayed. The author is careful to note that the "Effort-Shape" strategy employed by Laban was in fact designed to do this. She comments on the use of film and video for capturing dance movement, and she clearly believes that the use of film and notation complement each other. But the author again here seems over-cautious when she mentions "the difficulty of shedding one's own cultural biases long enough to record others who are operating on the basis of different cultural biases". Field guides are also discussed as a method for studying dance.

The author also describes five potential areas for performing what she calls "structural analysis" of dance. This is a methodology that combines the "structural" and "functional" points of view. The former emphasizes the grammar of dance styles, while the latter is concerned with the contribution that dance makes to the well-being of a culture. One could then concentrate on the study of how dances change in a particular culture, as a gauge as to how the culture itself is changing. Or, secondly, one could study the "survival potential" of dances. As an example of this, the author discusses the work of Adrienne Kaeppler, who used the concept of a 'allomorphokine', which is essentially a particular dance movement that can be substituted for another with no change of "meaning". A dance with few allomorphokines will be rigid and less adaptable (to an eventual stage performance for example). A third area of investigation for structural analysis might be what the author calls 'native categories' for dance. This is a kind of linguistic analysis, and discovers and gives information on units or patterns that are significant to the "native speakers" of a particular dance movement. The fourth possible avenue of approach for structural analysis is what the author calls 'ethnochoreography', which involves the study of native conceptions of movement segmentation. Differences between cultures of a particular dance segment can then be studied, with these variations shedding light on the variations in the cultures themselves. The last approach she discusses for structural analysis is the examination of cultural norms regarding creativity. This in my opinion is probably the most important, for it is by creative ingenuity that a culture expands and grows. Dance is an excellent estimator and barometer of the creative vitality of a culture, and the first thing to examine when evaluating cultural health. If indeed individual creativity is stymied, that particular culture suffers. It remains to be shown whether dance is essential to a culture, but this book is a great help in answering that question. My prejudices and biases are that the answer to this question will be an overwhelming YES.