Ritual dance and myth. Ancient ritual dances

Art * Author * Library * Newspaper * Painting * Book * Literature * Fashion * Music * Poetry * Prose * Public * Dance * Theater * Fantasy Consolidated encyclopedia of aphorisms

Dance, vertezh. Start dancing, squatting... Dictionary of Russian synonyms and expressions similar in meaning. under. ed. N. Abramova, M .: Russian dictionaries, 1999. dance dance, dance, vertezh; start dancing, squatting; boogie woogie, waltz, variation, ... ... Synonym dictionary

Dance- Dance ♦ Danse A form of gymnastics that is also an art. The dance is aimed not so much at strengthening health as at achieving pleasure, and requires not so much strength as beauty and attractiveness. Usually dance... Philosophical Dictionary of Sponville

- (German Tanz). Genus, type of dance. Dictionary foreign words included in the Russian language. Chudinov A.N., 1910. DANCE German. Tanz, fr. dance. Basically a dance. Explanation of 25,000 foreign words that have come into use in the Russian language, with their meaning ... ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

White swans. Jarg. school Shuttle. Women's locker room in the gym. VMN 2003, 131. Boro dance. Jarg. corner. Shuttle. Wine. Baldaev 2, 74; BBI, 241; Milyanenkov, 245. Dance on the water. Jarg. they say Shuttle. iron. About the walk of a drunk man. Maksimov, 65, 415.… … Big dictionary of Russian sayings

dance- inspirational (Polonsky); wild (Gorodetsky); unbridled (Serafimovich); joyful (Serafimovich); measuredly joyful (Bryusov) Epithets of literary Russian speech. M: The supplier of the court of His Majesty, the partnership of the printing press A. A. Levenson. A.L... Dictionary of epithets

DANCE, dance, husband. (from German Tanz). 1. only units Plastic and rhythmic movements as art. The art of dance. dance theory. 2. A series of such movements, of a certain tempo and form, performed to the beat of a certain music. Waltz and mazurka ... ... Explanatory Dictionary of Ushakov

DANCE, nza, husband. 1. The art of plastic and rhythmic movements of the body. dance theory. Dance skill. 2. A series of such movements performed at their own pace and rhythm to the beat of the music, as well as musical composition in the rhythm and style of such movements... Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov

- (German tanz) - an art form in which the main means of creating an artistic image is the movement and position of the dancer's body. Dance art is one of the oldest manifestations folk art. Every nation has its own... Encyclopedia of cultural studies

Dance- maisterstva ўbіrats nagu and tago, like a partner stepped on ya ... Skepty's Elephant

dance- DANCE1, choreography DANCE, choreographic DANCE2, dance, dance, uncle. dance, hot jumper Dictionary-thesaurus of synonyms of Russian speech

Books

• Dance, Sapozhnikov S.. Your attention is invited to the book Dance of Sergei Sapozhnikov. . . …

We are absolutely right when
We consider not only life, but
And the whole universe like a dance

The unique phenomenon of dance arose from the need of a person to express his inner emotional structure, a sense of belonging to the world around him.

Without a mathematical education, a person felt that everything that exists in time is subject to rhythmic laws. In animate and inanimate nature, any process is rhythmic and periodic. Rhythm is an ontological characteristic. It was natural to perceive the Cosmos as majestic, harmonious, rhythmically organized.

Having made his body pulsate in accordance with cosmic rhythms, a person felt his inclusion in the structure of world existence. Primitive dance arose before music and existed initially to the rhythm of the simplest percussion instruments.

Rhythmically organized body movement has a strong influence on the subconscious, and then on the consciousness. This is a property of dance used in dance therapy today, rooted in ancient tradition ritual dances. Rhythm is associated with human muscle reactivity. Slave traders knew about this, transporting a large number of black slaves in the holds of ships: a dance provoked by percussion instruments, calmed the intermittent unrest among the slaves.

The ancient peoples had military ritual dances took place in powerful rhythmic forms. This led to the merging of the participants in the dance action and the audience in a single rhythmic pulse, which released an enormous amount of energy needed in military affairs. It has long been noticed that group rhythmic body movements lead to the appearance of a mystical feeling of kinship, the unity of people with each other. Therefore, many peoples have in their history dances built on the principle of a circle, dancing in a circle, weaving hands on each other's shoulders or simply holding hands. Dance gave the necessary energy to experience important life events.

The dance had a pronounced ritual character, whether it was part of religious cult whether it served as a means of communication (domestic dances and dances of festivities), whether it was a magical dance-spell, etc. It has always been strictly built.

The semantically related words "ritual" and "rite" express the idea of ​​expressing the internal in the external ("to dress"), strict order and sequence ("row" = system). The semantic moment of the ritual consists in its striving for a certain ideal, which is a form-building element. Archaic dance rituals were not products of the free artistic creativity, but were a necessary element of a complex system of relationships with the world. Dance has always had as its goal the connection of a person with powerful cosmic energies, the location of influential spirits of nature. If the ritual ceased to satisfy, then it died and a new, more promising one was formed in its place.

Dance as part of a religious cult could provide entry into a special mental condition, different from the ordinary, in which various kinds of mystical contacts with the world of spiritual energies are possible. Some religious thinkers define such dance cults as an attempt (essentially mechanical) of a breakthrough to higher spirituality, the return of spiritual intuition, a sense of the fullness of being, lost in connection with the metaphysical catastrophe that befell mankind at the dawn of history. The consequence of this fatal event for a person was a break with God and the eternal painful search for the return of the former harmony with oneself and the world.

Totemic dances, which could last for several days, were complex multi-act actions, aimed at assimilation to their powerful totem. In the language of the North American Indians, the totem literally means "his kind." Totemic myths are tales of fantastic ancestors, whose descendants ancient people considered themselves to be. A totem is not just any animal, but a creature of a zoomorphic species, capable of taking the form of an animal and a person. Totemic rituals are associated with the corresponding myths that explain them. Like the crocodile dance. He (the leader of the tribe performing this dance) “... moved with some special gait. As the pace increased, he pressed more and more to the ground. His arms, stretched back, depicted small ripples emanating from a crocodile slowly sinking into the water. Suddenly, his leg was thrown forward with great force and the whole body began to twist and twist in sharp bends, reminiscent of the movements of a crocodile looking out for its prey. When he approached, it became even scary. (Queen E.A. Early forms dance. Chisinau, 1977)

The bushmen's rock paintings depict their favorite dance of the mantis grasshopper, which was their totemic creature. In one of the drawings, fantastic little men with the heads of grasshoppers are light and weightless in the dance, surrounded by heavy figures of people flapping to the beat of the dancers.

Totem dance rituals were addressed to the totem, a divine being that had a great influence on the existence of those who believed in it. ancient man, helped to gain strength, cunning, endurance and other qualities inherent in a particular totem, to enlist his support.

But this is not all that concerns the internal structure of the ritual dance. As V. Tyminsky suggests, the main thing lies in that sweet, mystical state that occurs a few hours after the start of the dance. It resembles drug intoxication from one's own movement, when the boundaries of reality become transparent and the second reality hidden behind them becomes just as perceived. "Man in the dances and art of antiquity was, as it were, the embodiment of the subconscious of the Universe." (V. Tyminsky. Refreshing blood of Makoma. Magazine "Dance". 1996. No. 4-5). Dance takes you to another plane of being. It is difficult for an observer from the outside to understand the outward senseless cruelty of Makoma's dance, a dance to exhaustion, to death: “They have been dancing for a day now. Their cries of fatigue are like growls. Eyes sparkle ecstatically. Only the insane can withstand such inhuman tension. Some, covered in blood, from exhaustion, collapse onto the stone of the cave, and the quiet women, stepping majestically, cover the lifeless with reed stalks and wipe the sweat and blood with ostrich feathers. However, the end of the dance is still far away. In this phenomenon, the apparent destructiveness, the illogicality of what is happening is striking: the dance of young men doomed to death, unable to withstand inhuman stress, as if there were not enough tests in real world. What did it consist of life meaning such a cruel confrontation between man and himself?

What exists at the phenomenological level in ugly, paradoxical forms for the mind, then has its own hidden inner mysterious logic. Rational thinking is powerless in this case, it is an area of ​​intuitive knowledge that opens up through the experience of this reality.

This dance also remains outside the aesthetic categories, for example, beauty as “excitation of pleasure from beautiful forms” (F. Nietzsche). Dance can be ugly, angular, abrupt, etc. But these are not those definitions in general, this is not the approach. Such a dance is life itself, its very truth, this is the unfolding of a myth, this is the life of a myth. Interestingly, many peoples performed this dance on special occasions - war, famine or some other disaster. So, it gave them strength, helped to overcome difficulties. This is not the only example that can be cited as an illustration of this topic. AT scientific literature such events are described in various peoples.

Women's ritual dances were widespread, especially in the Upper Paleolithic era. Most often they were associated with the cult of fertility. The performers depicted with the help of the plasticity of movement and the pattern of the dance some plant or animal useful for the tribe. Belief in the magic of women's dance was very great, therefore, along with men's military and hunting women's ritual dances, which were part of the overall ritual action, existed. These dances sought to ensure a rich harvest, victory in war, good luck in hunting, and protect against drought. They often contain elements of witchcraft. In women's dance, the magic of movement was combined with the magic of the female body. Nude female body, as an attribute of ritual dances, is found everywhere, even in the harsh climatic zone.

In more archaic cultures, there is a cult of a dying and resurrecting beast, especially popular among hunting tribes. Indeed, if the cult of the dying and resurrecting god, popular in agricultural cultures, reflected a spontaneous desire to propitiate the “demons of fertility” with the help of magic rituals, then for hunters the rites aimed at reproducing a game animal were of the same vital necessity. An important element of these ritual holidays was self-justification, an appeal to the spirit of the animal with a request not to be angry with people who were forced to kill him. People believed that after death the animal is resurrected and continues to live.

The rite is explained by myth, or myth manifests itself in ritual. One can trace the connection between the ritual and the myth about the dying and resurrecting gods that exist in many ancient cultures (for example, Osiris, Adonis, etc.). A feature of the structure of these rites is three-particular: allocation to some isolated space; further - the existence of a period of time during which various kinds of tests take place; and, finally, a return in a new status to a new social subgroup. The deaths that took place during these ritual ceremonies were not perceived tragically, there was hope for a return from the realm of the dead, a revival in the future.

The myth of the dying and resurrecting god is characteristic of the agricultural cultures of the Mediterranean. The rhythm of this myth reflects the periodicity of events in nature: the renewal of the world with the change of seasons. A drought or crop failure caused by the death of a god was replaced by renewal, a rebirth of nature associated with the rebirth of a god. These are the so-called calendar myths. This is reported in the myths about Osiris, Isis, Adonis, Attis, Demeter, Persephone, etc.

In ancient Egypt, the myths associated with the cult of Osiris were reflected in numerous mysteries, during which the main episodes of the myth were reproduced in dramatic form. The priestesses performed a dance depicting the search for the god, mourning and burial. The drama ended with the erection of the djed pillar, symbolizing the resurrection of God, and with it all of nature. The dance ritual was part of most of the sacred cults of Egypt. At the temple of Amon, there was a special school that trained priestesses-dancers, whose whole life was spent in dance. These were the first professional performers. The astronomical dance of the priests is also known, which depicted the harmony of the celestial sphere, the rhythmic movement celestial bodies in the Universe. The dance took place in the temple, around an altar placed in the middle and representing the sun. Plutarch has a description of this dance. According to him, at first the priests moved from east to west, symbolizing the movement of the sky, and then from west to east, which corresponded to the movement of the planets. With gestures and various kinds the movements of the priests gave an idea of ​​the harmony of the planetary system.

Already in Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece there were different directions dance art. In addition to ritual dances, everyday dances, dances of holidays, as well as dance Sport aimed at developing strength and agility. Consideration of the diversity of dance genres is a topic beyond the scope of this article. In this case, dance is of interest as a reflection of myth and the participation of dance rituals in sacred rites dedicated to the worship of deities.

According to Lucian, orgies in honor of the god Adonis, the so-called adonii, were held in the sanctuary of Aphrodite, the first day being devoted to mourning, and the second to joy over the resurrection of Adonis. In the myth and cult of Adonis, the symbolism of the eternal cycle and the unity of life and death in nature can be traced.

In honor of the goddesses Demeter and Persephone, the Eleusinian mysteries were held annually in Attica, symbolically representing the grief of a mother who lost her daughter, wanderings in search of her daughter. The myth reflects the mystical connection between the world of the living and the dead. The passions of Demeter converge with the bacchanalia of Dionysus.

The two deities Dionysus and Apollo are manifestations of the same deity. There is a legend about how the two brothers Dionysus and Apollo resolved the dispute over their spheres of influence. Bacchus (Dionysus) voluntarily yielded the Delphic tripod and retired to Parnassus, where the women of Thebes began to perform his mysteries. Power was shared in such a way that one reigned in the world of the mysterious and otherworldly, owning the inner mystical essence things, and the other (Apollo) - took possession of the sphere public life man, being a solar verb, he manifested himself as beauty in art, justice in public affairs.

Man is like two-faced Janus, contains two abysses: light and darkness. "Know yourself and you will know the universe." The cult of Dionysus and the cult of Apollo are different manifestations human soul, which also merge together, like Bacchus and Apollo in the Greek cult.

In the element of the Dionysian mystery, the transformation of man takes place, his return to the element of the world, which is alien to division and isolation. Everything is one. In an intoxicating dance, a person throws off his public clothes and feels his unity with other people. “From now on, listening to the good news of world harmony, everyone feels that he has not only united, reconciled and merged with his neighbor, but simply simply made up a single whole with him, as if the cover of Maya had already been torn and only miserable tatters are rinsing in the wind in front of face of the first principle. (F. Nietzsche. The birth of tragedy from the spirit of music. In collection. Poems and philosophical prose. SPb. 1993.)

Interestingly, the participants in the mysteries had the same clothes and did not have their own names. As if getting into a different reality, a person becomes different, loses his individuality. The rhythmic movements produced by the mysts contribute to a sense of harmony and greatest expression all its forces, merging into a single pulsating organism.

Crossing the boundaries in orgic ecstasy, sinking to the bottom of the elements, a new field of knowledge was opened, a new world of images, subject to other laws that have a different significance. This is perceived as the only truth, next to which the world generated by culture, existing according to the laws of beauty, seems to be a lie, the world of phenomena, hiding the thing-in-itself.

In a state of ecstasy, which is neither sleep nor wakefulness, contemplation is possible. spiritual world and fellowship with kind and evil spirits, as a result of which the highest knowledge is acquired, relating to the basis of the foundations of being.

In structure mythological consciousness dance had great importance. In ritual dances, a person communicated with the cosmos and realized his attitude to the world, in the dance the myth "breathed" and manifested itself in various dynamic phenomena.

L.P. Morina

Religion and morality in the secular world. materials scientific conference. November 28-30, 2001. St. Petersburg. SPb.

Ritual is a form of symbolic action that expresses the connection of the subject with the system of social relations and values, manifests itself in a regulated sequence of actions.

The unique phenomenon of dance arose from the need of a person to express his inner emotional structure, a sense of belonging to the world around him. Without a mathematical education, a person felt that everything that exists in time is subject to rhythmic laws. In animate and inanimate nature, any process is rhythmic and periodic.

Primitive dance arose before music and existed initially to the rhythm of the simplest percussion instruments. Rhythmically organized body movement has a strong influence on the subconscious, and then on the consciousness. This feature of dance, used in dance therapy today, is rooted in the ancient tradition of ritual dances. Archaic dance rituals were not products of free artistic creativity, but were a necessary element of a complex system of relationships with the world. Dance has always had as its goal the connection of a person with powerful cosmic energies, the location of influential spirits of nature. If the ritual ceased to satisfy, then it died and a new, more promising one was formed in its place. “A man in the dances and art of antiquity was, as it were, the embodiment of the subconscious of the Universe”

Among the ancient peoples, military ritual dances took place in powerful rhythmic forms. This led to the merging of the participants in the dance action and the audience in a single rhythmic pulse, which released an enormous amount of energy needed in military affairs. It has long been noticed that group rhythmic body movements lead to the appearance of a mystical feeling of kinship, the unity of people with each other. Therefore, many nations have in their history dances built on the principle of a circle, dancing in a circle, weaving hands on each other's shoulders or simply holding hands. Dance gave the necessary energy to experience important life events. For example, in the culture of the ancient Mayan peoples, the “Taking of the Cavil” dance, which literally means “dance of the taking,” was the most important part of the ceremony of accession to the throne in all Mayan kingdoms.

In more archaic cultures, there is a cult of a dying and resurrecting beast, especially popular among hunting tribes. Indeed, if the cult of the dying and resurrecting god, popular in agricultural cultures, reflected a spontaneous desire to propitiate the “demons of fertility” with the help of magic rituals, then for hunters the rites aimed at reproducing a game animal were of the same vital necessity. An important element of these ritual holidays was self-justification, an appeal to the spirit of the animal with a request not to be angry with people who were forced to kill him. People believed that after death the animal is resurrected and continues to live.

At the temple of Amun in ancient Egypt, there was a special school that trained priestesses-dancers, whose whole life was spent in dance. These were the first professional performers. The astronomical dance of the priests is also known, which depicted the harmony of the celestial sphere, the rhythmic movement of celestial bodies in the Universe. The dance took place in the temple, around an altar placed in the middle and representing the sun. Plutarch has a description of this dance. According to him, at first the priests moved from east to west, symbolizing the movement of the sky, and then from west to east, which corresponded to the movement of the planets. With the help of gestures and various types of movements, the priests gave an idea of ​​the harmony of the planetary system.

The dance has always had a pronounced ritual character, whether it was part of a religious cult, whether it served as a means of communication (domestic dances and dances of festivities), whether it was a magic dance-spell, it was always strictly built.

Totemic dances, which could last for several days, were complex multi-act actions, aimed at assimilation to their powerful totem. In the language of the North American Indians, the totem literally means "his kind." Totemic myths are stories about fantastic ancestors, whose descendants ancient people considered themselves to be. A totem is not just any animal, but a creature of a zoomorphic species, capable of taking the form of an animal and a person. To him, as to a divine being, dance rituals were turned. They had a great influence on the ancient man who believed in him, helped to gain strength, cunning, endurance and other qualities inherent in this or that totem, to enlist his support.

Dance, as part of a religious cult, could provide entry into a special mental state, different from the ordinary, in which various kinds of mystical contacts with the world of spirits are possible. And the main thing was that mystical state that came a few hours after the start of the dance. It resembled drug intoxication from one's own movement, when the boundaries of reality become transparent and the second reality hidden behind them becomes just as perceived. Dance takes you to another plane of being. It is difficult for the onlooker to understand what is happening. All this has its hidden inner, mysterious logic. Rational thinking is powerless in this case, it is an area of ​​intuitive knowledge that opens up through the experience of this reality.

Speaking of ritual dances, one cannot ignore shamanism. In addition to the ritual, it is also the most ancient system healing in the world. Shamanism is especially widespread in tribal cultures, which, developing at considerable distances from each other, created systems of beliefs that are strikingly similar to each other. A shaman is a person who, plunging into a special frenzied state of consciousness, acquires the ability to communicate with guarding and helping spirits and draw significant power from otherworldly sources. main goal shamanism is the treatment of the body and mind. It is also used for divination and to ensure good hunting and the prosperity of a tribe or village.
Shamanism is a complex phenomenon and is often mistakenly equated with magic, sorcery and sorcery. The ability to fall into an ecstatic trance, communicate with spirits, heal or predict the future does not make a person a shaman.

Archaeological and ethnographic data show that shamanism has existed for 20 to 30 thousand years. It is possible that in fact he is even older and was born at the same time as humanity. Traces of shamanism have been found all over the world, including very remote parts of the Americas, Siberia, Asia, Australia, northern Europe and Africa. In accordance with some modern theories certain forms of shamanism, which formed the basis of European magic and witchcraft, were practiced by the Celts and Druids.
If we turn to the work of the unique dancer Makhmud Esambaev, then in his creative baggage there are dance compositions, which can be classified as ritual dances.

The ritual dance of the ancient Incas "Peacock" is beautiful and original. Mysteriousness ancient civilization he conveyed with an unusual fit of the head, bizarre curves of the body, artsy plasticity.

E sambaev created his dances based on the motives he learned during his tours around the country and abroad. He studied folklore given people, studied with famous dancers and teachers, and was even invited to a ritual sacrifice festival in Brazil. Tours enriched his creative baggage with interesting choreographic performances, which reflected the characters of many peoples. “I have traveled to 100 countries, probably. Everywhere there is something remarkable and amazing” (Mahmud Esambaev).

One of the strongest in its emotional impact on the spectator's psyche, the most difficult to perform and the most beautiful dances in the pattern in the program of Mahmud Esambaev - brazilian dance Macumba. This is a story about self-sacrifice for the sake of love for people, about the struggle of a shaman hero who helps people escape from misfortune and death. Here is what Mahmoud says about this dance: “The magnificent Brazilian dancer Mercedes Baptista taught me Macumba. She not only dances well, she is seriously engaged in the history of the dance of her people. Mercedes told me about Macumba. This is an ancient dance, a dance of conjuration, a dance of self-sacrifice. It is danced when misfortune strikes the house. The child died, the owner died. It is clear to everyone: evil spirits have settled in the house, and they must be expelled. It's called a sorcerer. The sorcerer comes at night, bathed in the white light of the moon. Under his arm he carries a chicken as white as the moon. While uttering a spell, he cuts the chicken and smears his face with its blood. Then he starts dancing. During the dance, evil spirits enter the sorcerer and kill him. Evil spirits also die with him. "Makumba" brings happiness to the house in which it is danced.

"Makumba" is a kind of dance, very difficult not only for the performer, but also for the audience. According to the viewer, the dance from the very first minute was so captivating that it drove to a frenzy with swift movements, an unusual rhythm, some kind of wild exclamations, heartbreaking cries, lighting effects, inhuman music.

The dance itself was so masterfully choreographed that one can say about the reincarnation of Esambaev in the role of a sorcerer. There were cases when people brought their sick children, asked him to heal after this dance. That is, they believed so much that he was actually a sorcerer. And, probably, it was no coincidence that in the film "Sannikov Land" it was he who was offered the role of a shaman.

The exotic costume, a real one, presented to the artist in Brazil, was also extremely successful. He emphasized the ritualism of what was happening. A high headdress made of feathers of large birds, a tight-fitting short robe made of leopard skins. Above the waist and above the bare feet hang from the skins from the clothes, like real animal paws. The entire costume and bright make-up emphasized the ritual nature of what was happening, revealed the secret of what was happening, and emphasized the virtuosity of the performer.

The dance could not leave anyone indifferent. With this number, Mahmud Esambaev always came out in the final of the concert. After this dance, not a single number would be perceived, its impact on the audience is so strong.

Brazilians say Macumba brings happiness. Perhaps this is true. In May 1964, in the city of Kherson, a unique incident occurred with the young man Anatoly Barygin. Journalist Ruslan Nashkhoev wrote: "The Dance of Makumba" has begun. Everything is impetuous, movements and gestures become faster, it is more and more difficult to keep track of their lightning swiftness. The struggle is growing, the rhythm is accelerating. The nervous tension is such that it pours out into the hall like hot magma. I want to close my ears and eyes and shout: “Don’t kill yourself, stop!” And Macumba is gaining momentum. Already breathtaking, dry lips. The sorcerer monstrously rotates his head from side to side, rushing about wildly. And suddenly, uttering a wild cry, he falls dead, taking the evil spirits with him.

There was absolute silence, as if the hall was empty: people were coming to their senses. Finally, applause broke out. And then a cry was heard from the upper tier: “Mahmud! Voice!" This was shouted by Anatoly Barygin. Having survived a strong nervous shock, he regained his voice. But then he lost consciousness and fell. Finally the young man woke up. He spoke quickly, mixing words with tears. The message about this miraculous healing spread throughout our country. “Is this not a divine miracle, not a manifestation of the will of the Most High?” people said.

Let them say that miracles do not happen, but hardly anyone will deny the great miraculous power of real art.

Golushko Oksana Dmitrievna

Postgraduate student of the Academy of Education N. Nesterova

APPROVE
Head of Department,
Professor Rapatskaya L.A.

__________________________
"______" __________________ 2012

Ritual dance in the history of the development of various cultures

Graduation work on the program of professional
retraining "Choreographer"

Performed:
Program listener
professional
retraining
"Choreographer"
Borzova Yulia Vladimirovna

Scientific adviser:
candidate of pedagogical sciences, associate professor Naidenysheva G.E.

Moscow 2012
Content
Introduction……………………………………………..……. …....……..…………….3
Section 1. The history of the emergence and development of ritual dances among the peoples different cultures…………….………………….…………….……… ………………..5
1.1 The place and role of ritual dance in the history of the development of dance art…………………………………………………………………………..……5
1.2 Oriental dances…………………………………………………….……… 15
1.3 Indian dances. Bharatanatyam (Bhangra, Bollywood)…………… …...21
Section 2. Features of ritual dances of different cultures…………….…..28
2.1 Ritual “Dance of the Eagle” among Tuvans….……………………………….…28
2.2 Vietnamese ritual dance with du drum……..……………..…..35
2.3 New Zealand Haka Ka Mate………….…………………………………..37
2.4 Egyptian national dance Tanura…………………………………..40
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………...……45
Bibliography............. .............................. ..... ......................... ........................47

Introduction
It is known that the art of dance grew out of an ancient feeling that everything that exists is subject to the laws of rhythm. Already for our distant ancestors, rhythm was an integral attribute of being, any process in living and inanimate nature took place according to the laws of rhythm, and the harmony of the cosmos presupposed, first of all, its rhythmic organization. An attempt to subordinate the life of one's body to cosmic rhythms probably led to the emergence of primitive dance, which at first, most likely, did without music, confining itself to accompaniment of the simplest percussion instruments.
This dance gave rise to a mystical feeling of kinship, the unity of people with each other, which, in turn, gave the necessary energy to perform the most important social functions. Rhythmically organized body movements greatly facilitated difficult labor operations; these same body movements were an integral element of military ritual dances or dances that preceded a dangerous hunt. The mystical sense of kinship generated by the ritual dance sanctioned the most important initiatory events of a person's life, for example, marriage. Therefore, the ancient dance had a pronounced ritual character, and this circumstance preceded the appearance of religious, communicative, aesthetic and other functions of dance. More precisely, all these functions were represented by the ritual, but did not yet allow them to be separated from each other.
Ritual dance has always played an important role in ritual activities. In addition, the dance determined the culture of the movement and was a method of non-directive psychophysical training of community members. This thesis is focused on revealing some of the characteristic features of ritual dance in the history of the development of various cultures. To this day, in some countries, ritual dance has not lost its relevance. But basically, under the influence of various factors, the ritual dance developed into folk dances of different styles, already intended to be performed on stage rather than for ritual.
Relevance of the topic thesis is associated with the significant spread of ritual dances in our time, and the lack of the required amount of available information on this topic.
The object of study of the thesis is a ritual dance.
The subject of the thesis research is the features of ritual dances of peoples of different cultures.
The purpose of the thesis is to consider and study the features of ritual dances of peoples of different cultures.
The objectives of the thesis in connection with this goal are the study, study and systematization of ritual dances of peoples of different cultures.
The research methods of the diploma work are the study, generalization and analysis of special literature.

Section 1. The history of the emergence and development of ritual dances among peoples of different cultures
1.1. The place and role of ritual dance in the history of the development of dance art
The wide prevalence of dance in a non-professional, everyday environment is an indicator that it is the oldest of the arts. The fact that dance is indeed the oldest form of creativity of peoples is evidenced by the data that are associated with its origin.
The question of the origins and essence of dance, its role in the life of society was touched upon by the authors of various historical eras. So, Plato in the dialogue "Alcibiades", drawing a parallel between people and animals, argued that the movement is their essence, so the origin of the dance should be sought in the very nature of people. Researchers of times closer to us expressed different opinions on this issue. So, the Russian dance researcher of the XIX century.
S.N. Khudekov argued that dance appeared along with humanity, and first for entertainment and only then as a way of worshiping the gods. Moreover, he believed that the symbolism of dance suggested ways of forming human speech.
There are also absolutely correct statements that the dance obeys the rules of calculation, order, i.e., exists within the framework general laws universe. The simplest forms of dance movement and their combinations (pa) are measured in the same durations as music. The organization of the dance is subject to the laws of a certain musical system.
Modern research shows that the origins of the dance took place in part in the animal kingdom. In this case, we mean a variety of phenomena resembling dances in the life of different species of animals and birds.
So, according to ethologists, in animals and birds there are movements resembling a dance. They are more often associated with mating games and rivalry between individuals of the same sex. Of course, the so-called "dances" of birds and animals are just a form of biocommunication. At the same time, with the help of such a connection, important vital functions of certain biological species are realized. Biocommunication allows you to attract individuals of the opposite sex, through competition to identify the most viable marriage partner. However, unlike the actual human dance, "dances" in the world of animals and birds do not carry any "aesthetic" and "cognitive" function, they do not perform.

In human society, each dance corresponded to the character, the spirit of the people in which it originated. With the change in the social system, living conditions, its character and themes changed.
Dance originated with the advent of the first people. The life of primitive man was closely intertwined with nature and depended on its favor. This influenced the art of dance. Through dance, primitive man expressed his feelings. Dance also served as a means of communication between people and the outside world.
Folk dance, being one of ancient species folk art, was born out of the needs, ideas and interests by which the people lived. AT different periods the history of peoples, the dance was fed by different sources. So, at the initial (ancient) stage of history, ritual was such a source.
At this stage, the dance was part of a ritual that combined music, dance, singing and dramatic action.
The ritual also reflected a single worldview, i.e., the view of a person (and people) on the world around him and his place in it. The religious and mythological worldview was dominant in that era, and therefore was expressed, among other things, in the form of rituals. A variety of ritual actions, widely practiced at that time, were a reproduction of the deeds of gods, spirits, etc., however, the images that were used in this case had their origins in the surrounding world, primarily in wildlife. So, when the ritual was associated with the veneration of natural elements, then this natural element was reflected in it by specific means.
A variety of ritual dances are tied to rituals. An example and an echo of such ritual dances that have survived the centuries are, for example, the Ceylon fire dance, the Norwegian dance with torches, Slavic round dances (associated with the rites of birch curling, weaving wreaths, lighting fires), etc.
The rituals of antiquity reflected early religious beliefs, in particular totemism. Totemism is the belief in the supernatural relationship of people and certain types animals, birds, and sometimes plants and even inanimate phenomena. This is the basis for the veneration of totemic animals and birds and, as a result, its reflection in ritual dances. For example, the veneration of a bird as a totem was reflected in the dance of the eagle: the dancer-impersonator, personifying the eagle, depicted the eagle circling over prey, the fight with the enemy, etc. The object of the dance could also be those animals, birds, fish that the tribe hunted.
People believed that through dance they established connections with their gods, because they believed that the dance, along with donations of a different nature, would propitiate the gods, who, in turn, would help them in labor process, cure illness, send military luck, etc. Therefore, the so-called Neolithic art, examples of which are well known to scientists, such as Peña de Candamo in Spain, the cave of Cambarelle (Dordogne) in France, more often represented ritual scenes, of which dance was a part. Dance in the life of a person of a primitive and traditional society is a way of thinking and living. For example, during a dance depicting certain animals, they developed hunting techniques. In addition, the dance expressed prayers for fertility, for the sending of rain or the fulfillment of other urgent needs. Being a part of nature, people sensitively felt and perceived its rhythms, imitating its various manifestations in dance.
In primitive and traditional society there were no performers, artists in the proper sense of the word, although in some tribes there were a kind of professional dancers who had no duties other than to perform certain ritual dances. It was they who eventually became real masters of dance.
Primitive dances were usually performed in groups. The dances of the primitive and traditional society had very specific goals: to expel evil spirits, heal the sick, ward off misfortune from the tribe, and so on. This predetermined the most common, universal dance movement - stomping. Squatting, whirling, and jumping were also common.
Although the primitive tribes did not have a regulated dance technique, endurance, sufficient physical training allowed the dancers to completely surrender to the dance and dance with full dedication. Continuous jumps and whirling often brought the dancers to an ecstatic state, loss of consciousness. But this did not frighten people: they believed that in such a state it was possible to communicate with spirits. The dancers were usually dressed in special robes, masks, elaborate headdresses, and their bodies were ritually painted. Stomping, clapping, as well as playing the simplest musical instruments were used as accompaniment ( different kind drums, pipes, pipes, etc.).
Until recently, dances of a similar ritual nature were performed, and in some cases are still performed today. Such were and are widespread, at least among agricultural peoples, round dances around a tree (associated with the most ancient and universal cult of the world tree). Thus, a round dance around the Maypole as a form of greeting, a meeting of awakening nature is characteristic of all the peoples of Europe, and its origins can be traced back to the ancient Greek Dionysian festivities. The imitation of the struggle between winter and summer was reflected in the ancient Greek pagan rite, where the most important was the military dance. Another example of a typologically close dance is the Scottish male single dance with swords. A similar religious tradition of honoring nature is reflected in the dance around the fire, performed on the night of Ivan Kupala. The same applies to the South Slavic “kolo” (a kind of circular dance symbolizing the solar circle), circular dances-amulets of the Eastern Slavs (at the first pasture of cattle in the field, during pestilence, drought, at christenings, weddings, etc.), dances around the killed animal from the hunters, etc.
The fusion of dance and religious-magical performances persisted for a very long time, having survived an archaic stage in the development of society. So, in the dances of the peoples of the world (for example, Czechs, Slovaks) there are dances with jumping up: in accordance with the magical principle, like causes like, the higher the jumps, the higher useful plants will grow.
With a change in worldview (a change in beliefs, the emergence of the earliest scientific knowledge), the former worldview was eroded, resulting in the disintegration of the ancient syncretic complex, which once served as a spiritual support for the existence of early consciousness. Each of the components of this complex, losing its former functions, acquired an independent life. This applies to song, dance, game, which were once a single whole.
With the departure from the former, ancient ritual actions, with changes in social and industrial life, its complication, new content, reflecting new parameters and features of being, folk art was also filled with art. There was a change in the role of the former sources of dance, in particular nature. Thus, the peoples engaged in animal husbandry (or cattle breeding), as well as hunting, which has retained its significance since ancient times, reflected observations of the animal world in the dance. The nature and habits of animals, birds, and later domestic animals were conveyed with unusual expressiveness and figurativeness. In these dances, even if they had obvious ancient magical origins, the fact of the supernatural receded into the background and even simply disappeared into the depths of an already changed worldview. Nevertheless, the ancient ritual dances of many peoples of the world are still of great interest: the bison dance of the North American Indians, the Indonesian penchak (tiger), the Yakut bear dance, the Pamir eagle dance, the Chinese and Indian peacock dances. The Russian “crane” and “gander”, the Norwegian “cockfight”, the Finnish “bull dance”, etc. belong to the same circle. Nature (in a broad sense) was used here to create the plasticity of an artistic image or a choreographic characterization of a person, and not to propitiate it (as before).
The natural and climatic conditions of life, various natural phenomena served as a source of dance plasticity in such, for example, Russian dances as “pine”, “duck”, and ethnochoreography of a number of other peoples.
Despite the differences in historical nature, ethnic dances from different countries often had much in common in the rhythmic structure and pattern of movements. These similarities or differences were sometimes due to the geographic conditions mentioned.
The source that nourishes the folk art of dance was the labor activity of the people. In particular, the theme of the so-called labor dances reflected the labor process, its individual stages, the connections between people in labor, their attitude to labor and its products.
With the change and complication of production and social life the emergence of dances on the themes of agricultural work and life was connected: the dance of the reapers among the Latvians, the Hutsul “dance of the woodcutters”, the Belarusian “lyanok”, the Moldavian “poame” (grapes), the Uzbek “silkworm” and “buttermilk” (cotton), etc.
Although folklore dance could also be performed in cities, its origins were almost always connected with the countryside.
With the development of urban life, the emergence of handicraft and factory labor, new folk dances arose - the Ukrainian "cooper", the Estonian "shoemaker", the German "glass blowers' dance", the Karelian "how to weave cloth", etc.
The most important source of ethnic choreography was way of life people, their customs, morality, ethics. In the dance, it was reflected, transmitted by showing the conditional, playful nature of the relationship. These dances expressed the ideas and concepts that had developed among the people about social relations between people. They often used figurative, sometimes symbolic gestures, poses, used objects that helped express the relationship between the participants. The dances of this group include numerous quadrilles, lansier, game dances and round dances.
The household sphere also served as a source of content for folk dances. Man in his Everyday life constantly dealt with some household items, tools. It is not surprising that he often depicted them in his work to reproduce the atmosphere of the surrounding life. Dances of this plan are widely known among many peoples, although under different names, but similar in essence: “wattle”, “cabbage”, “street”, “canopy”, “gate”, “spindle”, “wheel”, etc. The name itself speaks of what underlies their imagery, plasticity, and mood.
Staying a part folk life, music, singing, folk theater and, of course, dance eventually made up what is called folklore. Therefore, ethnic dance has all those qualities, signs and functions that are characteristic of folklore as a whole.
One of the characteristic features or signs of the dance was its nationality. Professional choreographic art in many ways bore the imprint of the individuality of choreographers (especially outstanding ones). The aristocracy (the top of society) (for example, European countries in the era of feudalism) had fun with almost the same dances, which was a natural reflection of the same way of life. As for the common people, it was they who created and performed dances that reflected the peculiarities of their way of life, which was different from the aristocratic one.
At the same time, variability (variation) was inherent in folk dance: it was thanks to this property that samples of ethnic choreography were able to exist simultaneously in several versions (for example, in different areas of the ethnic group's settlement). The surrounding external ethnic environment also influenced the variability: the ethno-choreographic culture was a kind of continuity, because the dances of neighboring peoples (especially those close in character and way of life) are strongly influenced by each other.
Any choreographer knows the deeply emotional characterization of folk dance given by N.V. Gogol in the work "Petersburg Notes
1836”: “... A Spaniard dances differently than a Swiss, a Scotsman, like ... a German, a Russian, not like a Frenchman, like an Asian. Even in the provinces of the same state, the dance changes. ...Where did such a variety of dances come from? It was born from the character of the people, their life and way of doing things. The people, who have led a proud and abusive life, express the same pride in their dance; among a carefree and free people, the same boundless will and poetic self-forgetfulness are reflected in dances; the people of the fiery climate left the same bliss, passion and jealousy in their national dance.
The nature and content of the ethnic dance was determined by its purpose in the life of the people and by what it expressed and affirmed in an emotionally figurative form, and in what specific environment it was performed. So, the end of an important labor process could end with songs, as well as dances. Among farmers, holidays associated with spring, the rebirth of nature, etc., were celebrated with spring round dances in the bosom of nature. On the contrary, the dances at the bachelorette party, which reflected the girl's farewell to girlhood, girlfriends, are filled with sadness.
In dance different peoples rather typical feelings were recreated - national pride, dignity. Also very numerous were dances that reflected the military spirit, valor, heroism, readiness to defend their homeland, battle scenes are reproduced (“pyrrhic” dances of the ancient Greeks, combining dance art with fencing techniques and constituting an obligatory part of the Greek antique theatrical performance, Georgian “khorumi ” and “berikaoba”, Scottish “dance with swords”, Cossack dances, etc.).
But largest group made up those dances in which relationships between people were revealed. Their content was the expression of relationships in work, in everyday life, in public life, relationships between lovers, representatives of the older generation and the young, etc.
In dance folk art, the theme of love really occupied a prominent place. Moreover, in the earliest period of human history, dances of a similar content and orientation were frankly erotic, since they reflected the prevailing in that period pagan cults fertility. Later, with the loss of ancient beliefs, dances appeared that expressed the nobility of feelings, a respectful and respectful attitude towards a woman (this corresponds to the Georgian "kartuli", the Polish "mazu", the Russian "Baynovskaya quadrille").
These relationships are expressed in different ways: in some dances they appear conditionally (the symbolic nature of folk dance), in others - with the use of elements of dramaturgy.
A clear example of the conditionality of relations in dance could be some youth dances, in which a young man (in accordance with the norms of behavior existing in the tradition of a particular people) in a conditional form adopted in the dance, expressed his attitude towards the girl (first of all, attention and respect) . These relationships (and their reflection in the dance) could and should have been unchanged, therefore, they practically did not give a reason for dramatic development. That is why they were characterized by a static performance culture. The plasticity and composition of each figure of such a dance could be different and made it possible for the young man to show his attention to the girl in different forms, which, however, does not change throughout the dance, just as popular ideas about the proper nature of their relationship are unchanged. Thus, the nature of the relationship here was constant, and they were expressed each time in different ways.
The repetition of figures, but at the same time the freedom of improvisation (to convey the same image of relations using expressive means) - was typical feature folk, so-called household dances.
Equally characteristic are the dances in which the relations between the participants were developed using the means of dramaturgy and which thus demonstrated a dramatic development. An example of this was the well-known Russian pair dances: with each new knee, they showed a desire to dance their opponent (at the same time, the course and result of the dance performance are not entirely obvious).
Tradition was an important component of folk life, ensuring the preservation of folklore dance. Thanks to such a feature as continuity (transmission from generation to generation), the dance was able to remain a part of the life of the people, experiencing along with it temporal boundaries and various cultural, including other ethnic, influences, while maintaining its specificity.
Each nation has developed its own dance traditions, its own plastic language of choreography, which is created, among other things, thanks to the special coordination of movements, the chosen methods of correlation of movement with music. In some peoples, the construction of a dance phrase is synchronously musical, in others (for example, among the Bulgarians) it is not synchronous. The peculiarity of ethnic dance was also manifested in the way the movements of the body, arms, and legs correlated. So, the dances of the peoples Western Europe based on the movement of the legs (arms and the body, as it were, accompany them), in the dances of the peoples of Central Asia (and other countries of the East), the main attention was paid to the movement of the hands and the body.
AT folk dance the rhythmic beginning always dominated, which was emphasized by the dancer (meaning footsteps, clapping, ringing of rings, bells, etc.).
Folk choreography did not exist chaotically, but was born and developed according to the objective laws of the life of an ethnic group, this created an opportunity for the classification of ethnic dances. Choreography uses different types of classification of ethnic dances: ritual, everyday, plot, plotless dances, individual, pair, collective, etc.
1.2 Oriental dances

Oriental (Middle Eastern) dances are folklore dances born from the traditions of a particular part of the country of the East or its region, reflecting national characteristics, customs, habits, music, costumes, and the history of the community of people living there. The origin of oriental dances can be compared with the origin of life on earth - a lot of legends, conflicting information and theories, and not a single documentary evidence that everything was exactly this way and not otherwise. Mentions of dances, such as eastern ones, are found among the peoples of the Himalayan mountains and Tibet, in ancient Slavic writings, in ancient Egyptian drawings and among archaeological finds among extinct peoples who lived on the territory of modern Islamic states. According to one hypothesis, such dances appeared at the end of the Hittida civilization in Tibet, about 11 thousand years BC.
Hittida was a warlike civilization and at that time these dances were part of the male warrior dances. Thus these dances came to Pacifida, where they were picked up by women. Women radically changed the pattern of movement, made the dance mesmerizing and bewitching men. In this form, the dance appeared in Japan in the 5th millennium BC. About 4.5 thousand years BC dance, in a somewhat simplified form, began its journey around the world. He went through Vietnam, Korea, China, Turkey, Arabia, Africa, South America and came to the ancient Slavs 3.5 thousand years BC. The great priests and teachers of the Slavs changed the nature of the movements and the whole dance - from a tempting dance, a tempter, it turned into a dance for a beloved man. From the Kshatriya it became the dance of the Vaishyas. This dance was taught to many Slavic girls aged
15-17 years, this went on for about 1000 years.
About 2.3 thousand years BC the dance, modified by the priests, becomes ritual for the first time. It is performed only in the evening and is danced by the wife for her husband on the day of their wedding anniversary. During the resettlement of Slavic tribes to the south of Asia, about 300 years before the advent of Christianity, Slavic girls brought there a Slavic ritual version of the dance. So he was recognized by Turkey and the inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula. For almost 400 years (until the 1st century AD) the dance retained its esoteric meaning. Over the next 350 years (up to about the 5th century AD), the dance became known in all countries of the East, incl. in India, Ceylon, Japan, Afghanistan, as well as in Africa (Egypt, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Botswana, Nigeria), Europe (Spain, Italy), in the Far Eastern lands. Its origins can be traced on the frescoes of the ancient temples of Mesopotamia, which was located on the territory of Western Asia. The frescoes preserved beautiful images of dancing people. Similar frescoes, whose age dates back to about 1000 years before the birth of Christ, are also found in ancient Egyptian temples. It is believed that these frescoes describe an ancient ritual dance of African tribes dedicated to fertility and the birth of a new life - they were used to speed up and facilitate childbirth. The priestesses who danced in the temples sometimes served as "sacred prostitutes" who, through their dance, spoke to the spirit of the Great Goddess. Sacred and ritual dances later developed into folk dances of various styles under the influence of many ethnic groups. Thousands of folk dances that developed in the Middle East were dances for women, involving isolated movements of the hips and abdomen. Among the ancient Greek manuscripts, one can also find a description of the Nile dancers, who used various types of shaking and vibrations in their dance. Interestingly, in the old ethnic dances in Hawaii (Hula), which are separated by the ocean from Eurasia, elements of oriental dances are also observed. It is possible that some of the movements of oriental dances have been preserved in the dances performed by modern dancers. Usually a folklore dance consists of movements that a large number of people can learn. This dance in those days was intended to perform various social functions and was not intended for the stage.
Among the most famous folklore styles oriental dance we can distinguish Nubia, Beledi, Saidi, Khaliji, Dabka, Gavazi, Hagala, Bandari, Shamadan, Fellahi, Tribal, Sufi dance, Andalusian dance, Alexandrian dance, Pharaoh dance, Dulcimer dance, Tambourine dance, Weapon dance, Dance of the seven Veil Dance, Shawl Dance, Wing Dance, Darbuka Dance, Fire Dance, Snake Dance, Fan Dance and others.
In the 7th century AD behind oriental dances, the name "Arabic" took root almost everywhere, and all good dancers came to Arab countries to improve their professionalism. Arabic dances were performed only by women. Men did not dance these dances in front of an audience, but taught them to women as teachers and dance masters. In the 10th century AD they supplemented the Arabic dances with some pas from the Chinese and Thai ritual women's dances. Starting from the 12th century. AD and until today arabic dances did not change significantly. In many Western countries, any recourse to oriental (Middle Eastern) dance is often incorrectly referred to as "belly dancing". The concept of "oriental dance" (Oryantal danse) includes dozens of dances from different cultures, different peoples, many of which no longer exist. "Belly dance" (bellydance) is one of the variants of oriental dance, it turned out precisely due to the mixing of various styles of oriental dance. Certain movements of oriental dance originating from the ritual dances of African tribes got into belly dance thanks to the inhabitants of northern Africa, who were often captured as slaves and sold throughout the southeastern part of Eurasia. Slavic girls also made a significant contribution to the development of oriental belly dance, who also left their homeland against their will.

Judging by the surviving historical data, there were various castes of belly dancers. In the streets and markets, Gavazi dancers (like gypsies) and non-Muslim girls performed for the public. As a rule, they did not differ in education. At that time Egypt was in power Ottoman Empire, there was a large Turkish army in the country.
Gavazi dancers could not miss the opportunity to earn money by dancing for the Ottoman warriors. These dances were characterized by defiant clothing and rather frank movements, with erotic overtones. All this caused discontent on the part of the Turkish pasha, and the Gavazi were expelled to the south of Egypt in Esna. Dancers of a completely different level were Avalim. Alma (singular from Avalim) was a dancer who received a special dance and musical education. As a rule, Avalim knew how to play various musical instruments, in addition, they were well versed in poetry, they could perform poems and songs of their own composition, like geishas in medieval Japan. Anyone who wanted to have one of the Avalim had to pay for this pleasure, which was by no means cheap. Temple priestesses and girls from good families were also trained in belly dancing. In such a dance, all movements were aimed at managing one's own energy, the dance helped to solve spiritual problems, improve health, and not only one's own. Clothing, respectively, was more closed. The purpose of such a dance was to awaken sleeping energy or, on the contrary, to calm it down. A woman could perform such a dance only for one man - her husband or in a temple ritual.

In the 80s of the 19th century, belly dance, then called the dance of Salome, became widespread in Europe thanks to a talented performer - Mate Hari. At that time, it was considered unacceptable to mention the words "female thighs" and "belly" in polite society. The dancers, as a rule, performed in long dresses, the hips were emphasized by a scarf. Much later, a change in the dance image began. For the first time in Hollywood films, dancers appeared with an open stomach, an embroidered bodice and a belt at the waist. Egyptian dancers partly changed this look by lowering the belt from the waist to the hips below the navel. All this made it possible to see the movements of the dance much better. In the 20s of the 20th century, Egypt began to make films in which dancers also participated. This was the beginning of the development of choreography in the Middle East, since before that belly dance was improvised from start to finish. At this time, Islamic sentiments intensified in Egypt, which led to a tougher attitude towards belly dancing. However, two dance centers formed in the Middle East - Bahrain and Libya, where there were no strict rules regarding this dance. In Turkey, belly dancing developed more in the cabaret style, the costumes of the dancers were more open and seductive than in other styles. Many of the well-known dancers influenced the style of belly dancing, using a veil, sword or snakes as accessories, but they could not have a decisive influence on this. ancient art- belly dance has been formed over many centuries, and each of the eastern countries and nations has brought something of its own to it.
Today, there are about 50 main types of Arabic dance, 8 major schools - Turkish, Egyptian, Pakistani, Botswana, Thai, Bhutanese, Aden and Jordanian, as well as many small ones. Among these Schools of Arabic dance, practically only the Jordanian School develops "non-sexual", purely dance direction- dance "for his man." In other Schools, the direction of open involvement of all men and the open struggle of dancing with female spectators for male attention and energy. The Europeans, who had their own idea of ​​what a belly dance should be, added their touch to its creation - in oriental clubs and other entertainment venues in Europe and America, girls dance in the form that is now considered "classical". The modern dance image was complemented by Hollywood choreographers in films of oriental themes and emigrants from the countries of the Middle East, Egypt, and India. Thus, oriental dances were born from grains of the most valuable thing that was in the dance of every nation, creating magical, unique, multifaceted dances that are now danced almost all over the world.

2.3 Indian dances. Bharatanatyam (Bhangra, Bollywood)

Bharatanatyam is a dynamic, earthy and very clear dance style. It has a variety of movements with an emphasis on stomping, jumping and turning. The main figures are balanced poses with outstretched arms and legs, which gives the dance some linearity. Beauty and strength, slowness and speediness, pure dance and pantomime are equally felt in this dance. This style is equally suitable for both solo and group performance.
Professional dancers have a deep understanding of the ideological and philosophical content of Indian myths and legends, and, moreover, they are fluent in dance technique. Transfer of various forms poetic text is a real test of the professional skills of a dancer. She plays the part main character works and depicts its various states. To be able to express the smallest shades of feelings, the dancer must be a truly creative, inspired person. It is the dancer's ability to convey the plot of the dance at different semantic levels that attracts the attention of the audience. In a solo performance, the individuality of the interpretation depends on the age of the dancer, her training, artistic taste, experience, knowledge and talent.
It is widely believed that the name of the style Bharata Natyam means "Indian dance". This misunderstanding stems from the general acceptance of this classical Tamil Nadu dance style both in India and abroad. However, his devoted fans note that this name appeared no more than fifty years ago. Previously, it was called sadir kacheru (sadir - dancer, kacheru - spectators), then chinnamela (small audience, unlike periyamela - a large number of people), then dasiatta - from the temple devadasi (dancers) who performed it. A more plausible version is that Bharata consists of the first syllables of the following words: bhava (feeling), raga (melody) and tala (rhythm) - and it seems to unite the three pillars on which the style is based. There is another hypothesis according to which the Bharata Natyam style, strictly adhering to the precepts of the Natyashastra, got its name in honor of the sage Bharata, the compiler of this ancient book.
Bharata Natyam has its roots in Hinduism, and more specifically in Hindu myths and rituals. This is especially evident in the texts selected for performance, in the sculptures of dancers in ancient Hindu temples, and in the very philosophy of this dance style. Sculptures in South Indian temples tell how music and dance were passed on to people by the gods and goddesses themselves.
Therefore, it is clear that the spiritual significance of Bharata Natyam cannot be ignored. Hinduism is called a "living religion". Every myth has a morality that simply teaches the ethics of everyday life and its connection with the transcendental. Events develop on a very simple, human level, which led to some simplification in the performance of the dance; in this interpretation, the sublime may seem very mundane.
Until the beginning of the 20th century, dance was an integral part of temple rites. Traditionally, the temple was patronized by the local ruler or the highest representative of the local government. The dancer, her gurus and their musicians were highly respected and were kept by the temple. During religious processions, the dancer stepped in front of the wagon, on which the image of the deity was carried. She knew perfectly well the temple ritual, the rules of sacrifices and prayers, and played an important role as the bearer of offerings to the image of the deity. The dancer was revered as the wife of the god, and her most important duty was to participate in the ceremonies associated with his cult. This was reminiscent of the position of the high priestesses in the temples of ancient Greece. She was called devadasi, the servant of the god. The dance itself, besides complex ritual ceremonies, was performed on other occasions at appropriate times, under favorable circumstances, such as on the occasion of a festival, coronation, marriage, the birth of a son, or entry into a new city or home. The area around the temple was considered the only convenient place where people could gather to watch the dance. The dancer herself was a rich and respected person.
During British rule, the dance begins to lose its ritual purpose. Devadasis began to dance at the courts of princes and in the homes of wealthy landowners. Poets ornately sang of the greatness of their patrons, and dancers performed dances to their poems. The temple dancer became a court dancer, often in disrepute. The difficult political situation in the country and a new understanding of socio-cultural values ​​by educated and wealthy Indians had a negative impact on their attitude to the art of dance. The social status of the dancer fell, a shadow was cast on the art itself, and society was deprived of the opportunity to enjoy Bharata Natyam for many years.
Perhaps it was the threat of the complete disappearance of Bharata Natyam that became the reason for the scope of the movement for its revival and the return of the dance to its former glory. The initiative of Balasaraswati and Rajalakshmi was picked up by Rukmini Devi and I. Krishna. The Madras Academy of Music made a great contribution to the revival of dance by providing Balasaraswati with a platform for public performances. The excessive bias towards eroticism was soon corrected, and good taste and aesthetic subtlety returned to Bharata Natyam's performance. The first public performance of Rukmini Devi in ​​1935 marked the irreversibility of the return to the old.
Bharata Natyam is a multifaceted art form. It includes music, poetry, drama and mime. Considering the most important aspect of this style, namely nrittu (pure dance), one should first of all take into account the position of the body and hands, the movements of the dancer in conjunction with the musical context. Rhythm, the main component of the dance, is woven into the melody, so it is important to know what kind of music and what rhythms accompany the nritta. Nritta is the heart of the dance style and nritya is its soul. Melody, rhythm and poetry are his constant accompaniment and source of inspiration.
According to the Abhinaya Darpana, which Bharata Natyam adherents still adhere to today, there are ten basic postures of the body. However, Nattuvanars (dance teachers) rarely use Sanskrit terms, preferring to use the simpler Tamil terminology in class with students. Therefore, instead of ayat, they usually use apaumandi, which in Tamil simply means "half-sitting." In the same way, muramandi means "fully seated", a squatting position in which the dancer sits on her toes with her knees apart. From this position, the performer goes into motita, when the knees alternately fall to the floor, or parshvasuchi, when one knee rests on the floor, or samasuchi, when both knees rest on the floor. Gurus and dancers may interpret and perform these positions in different ways. However, purely visual perception of the main postures gives a clear idea of ​​the style boundaries of this dance. This is the main structure within which the dancer works.
The system of adavu, a series of static postures linked together in such a way as to create movement, was first clearly formulated about forty years ago. Teaching them was accidental, in some schools this situation has survived to this day. The students often studied the subject as a whole, considering each movement separately only when it appeared in the choreography. The lack of good manuals and excessive haste in completing the course on the part of teachers still lead to insufficient mastery of the ABC of style by students. As a result, dancers often have a rather vague idea of ​​how to construct a dance style. Fortunately, now the gurus have begun to systematize their programs, which has allowed students from different schools to use them.
Rukmini Devi was the first systematizer of the teachings of Bharata Natyam. She developed her system of "development of adavu", so that the student gradually moved from simple movements to more complex ones: from static figures to figures performed in motion; from movements performed in araimandi, to movements in more complex positions, then to turns and jumps, and finally to figures with a very complex combination of hand and foot positions. Her contribution to the teaching of Bharata Natyam is immeasurably great, and the variety of movements and figures of this dance style nowadays owes much to her talent and creative genius.
During training, it is also very important to adhere to a system in which the student masters each movement, passing through three speeds of its execution. This gives her a sense of balance and allows the dancer to master the basic rhythm at a very early stage of training.
The combination of figures in the dance allows you to quickly change the direction of movement of the body. Leela Samson. Bharat Natyam. Some figures seem energetic, others soft, some are performed in place in the rhythm of the dance, others fall out of it, some positions provide for greater freedom of movement to the sides, while others are performed by the dancer with the specific purpose of moving forward from the depths of the stage. Turns and jumps allow movement throughout the stage space and movement on the floor. All this provides the choreographer with rich opportunities for composing a variety of compositions. A good dancer can dance even a small combination of nritta very effectively. The performance of long combinations does not testify to the skill of the dancer, it rather speaks of her endurance and self-control.
Bharata Natyam is based on the Karnataka music system and its rhythmic cycles or talas. The musical accompaniment must contain the rhythmic potential for a pure dance and the corresponding literary content for a story dance. The mridangam, the main percussion instrument of southern India, has one body, unlike the northern tabla, which consists of two separate parts - with a lower and a higher register, each of which is played with one hand. Syllables, or rhythmic sounds, mridangama are inherent in Bharata Natyam, they are pronounced or sung as an accompaniment to the abstract parts of the dance - nritta.
As in music notes are called "sa-ri-ga-ma-pa-dha-ni", so in dance there are drum syllables: tat-dhita, taka-dhimi, naka-jham, tadhin-jina, etc. Various combinations of these phrases during their sounding give fragments of pure dance - nritta - piquancy and expressiveness. Combinations of such phrases are called jati, and in any dance performance, the virtuosity and skill of the nattuvanar is determined by the correct construction of these jati into complex rhythmic figures in a certain time cycle.
The word tala comes from the word for the "surface of the palm", which beats the rhythm. There is a hypothesis regarding the word "tala", according to which it consists of the first syllables of two words: tandava and lasya, which romantically implies a fusion of masculine and feminine principles or forms of rhythm. There are seven talas. Each of them can use any of the five jati variants, which gives us a total of 35 different talas.
In the past, the dancer was accompanied by an orchestra behind her on stage. It included one or two nattuvanars who played cymbals and sang songs, a boy whose only task was to maintain a monotonous monotonous sound, or shrutu (pitch), with the help of a small box, and a clarinet player. The clarinet, once very popular, was later replaced by the flute. The Abhinaya Darpana demanded this, and this situation continued until the 20s of our century, when stage conventions changed. AT
etc.................

We are absolutely right when

We consider not only life, but

And the whole universe like a dance

The unique phenomenon of dance arose from the need of a person to express his inner emotional structure, a sense of belonging to the world around him.

Without a mathematical education, a person felt that everything that exists in time is subject to rhythmic laws. In animate and inanimate nature, any process is rhythmic and periodic. Rhythm is an ontological characteristic. It was natural to perceive the Cosmos as majestic, harmonious, rhythmically organized.

Having made his body pulsate in accordance with cosmic rhythms, a person felt his inclusion in the structure of world existence. Primitive dance arose before music and existed initially to the rhythm of the simplest percussion instruments.

Rhythmically organized body movement has a strong influence on the subconscious, and then on the consciousness. This feature of dance, used in dance therapy today, is rooted in the ancient tradition of ritual dances. Rhythm is associated with human muscle reactivity. Slave traders knew about this, transporting a large number of black slaves in the holds of ships: a dance provoked by percussion instruments calmed the periodically arising unrest among the slaves.

Among the ancient peoples, military ritual dances took place in powerful rhythmic forms. This led to the merging of the participants in the dance action and the audience in a single rhythmic pulse, which released an enormous amount of energy needed in military affairs. It has long been noticed that group rhythmic body movements lead to the appearance of a mystical feeling of kinship, the unity of people with each other. Therefore, many peoples have in their history dances built on the principle of a circle, dances in a circle, weaving hands on each other's shoulders or simply a hand.
holding hands. Dance gave the necessary energy to experience important life events.

The dance had a pronounced ritual character, whether it was part of a religious cult, whether it served as a means of communication (domestic dances and dances of festivities), whether it was a magical dance-spell, etc. It has always been strictly built.

The semantically related words "ritual" and "rite" express the idea of ​​expressing the internal in the external ("to dress"), strict order and sequence ("row" = system). The semantic moment of the ritual consists in its striving for a certain ideal, which is a form-building element. Archaic dance rituals were not products of free artistic creativity, but were a necessary element of a complex system of relationships with the world. Dance has always had as its goal the connection of a person with powerful cosmic energies, the location of influential spirits of nature. If the ritual ceased to satisfy, then it died and a new, more promising one was formed in its place.

Dance, as part of a religious cult, could provide entry into a special mental state, different from the ordinary, in which various kinds of mystical contacts with the world of spiritual energies are possible. Some religious thinkers define such dance cults as an attempt (essentially mechanical) of a breakthrough to higher spirituality, the return of spiritual intuition, a sense of the fullness of being, lost in connection with the metaphysical catastrophe that befell mankind at the dawn of history. The consequence of this fatal event for a person was a break with God and the eternal painful search for the return of the former harmony with oneself and the world.

Totemic dances, which could last for several days, were complex multi-act actions, aimed at assimilation to their powerful totem. In the language of the North American Indians, the totem literally means "his kind." Totemic myths are stories about fantastic ancestors, whose descendants ancient people considered themselves to be. A totem is not just any animal, but a creature of a zoomorphic species, capable of taking the form of an animal and a person. Totemic rituals are associated with the corresponding myths that explain them. Like the crocodile dance. He (the leader of the tribe performing this dance) “... moved with some special gait. As the growth
At a slower pace, he clung to the ground more and more. His arms, stretched back, depicted small ripples emanating from a crocodile slowly sinking into the water. Suddenly, his leg was thrown forward with great force and the whole body began to twist and twist in sharp bends, reminiscent of the movements of a crocodile looking out for its prey. When he approached, it became even scary. (Koroleva E.A. Early forms of dance. Chisinau, 1977)

The bushmen's rock paintings depict their favorite dance of the mantis grasshopper, which was their totemic creature. In one of the drawings, fantastic little men with the heads of grasshoppers are light and weightless in the dance, surrounded by heavy figures of people flapping to the beat of the dancers.

Totem dance rituals were addressed to a totem, a divine being that had a great influence on the existence of an ancient person who believed in him, helped to gain strength, cunning, endurance and other qualities inherent in a particular totem, enlist his support.

But this is not all that concerns the internal structure of the ritual dance. As V. Tyminsky suggests, the main thing lies in that sweet, mystical state that occurs a few hours after the start of the dance. It resembles drug intoxication from one's own movement, when the boundaries of reality become transparent and the second reality hidden behind them becomes just as perceived. "Man in the dances and art of antiquity was, as it were, the embodiment of the subconscious of the Universe." (V. Tyminsky. Refreshing blood of Makoma. Magazine "Dance". 1996. No. 4-5). Dance takes you to another plane of being. It is difficult for an observer from the outside to understand the outward senseless cruelty of Makoma's dance, a dance to exhaustion, to death: “They have been dancing for a day now. Their cries of fatigue are like growls. Eyes sparkle ecstatically. Only the insane can withstand such inhuman tension. Some, covered in blood, from exhaustion, collapse onto the stone of the cave, and the quiet women, stepping majestically, cover the lifeless with reed stalks and wipe the sweat and blood with ostrich feathers. However, the end of the dance is still far away. In this phenomenon, the apparent destructiveness, the illogicality of what is happening is striking: the dance of young men doomed to death, unable to withstand the inhuman tension, as if there was not enough
testing in the real world. What was the vital meaning of such a cruel confrontation between man and himself?

What exists at the phenomenological level in ugly, paradoxical forms for the mind, then has its own hidden inner mysterious logic. Rational thinking is powerless in this case, it is an area of ​​intuitive knowledge that opens up through the experience of this reality.

This dance also remains outside the aesthetic categories, for example, beauty as “excitation of pleasure from beautiful forms” (F. Nietzsche). Dance can be ugly, angular, abrupt, etc. But these are not those definitions in general, this is not the approach. Such a dance is life itself, its very truth, this is the unfolding of a myth, this is the life of a myth. Interestingly, many peoples performed this dance on special occasions - war, famine or some other disaster. So, it gave them strength, helped to overcome difficulties. This is not the only example that can be cited as an illustration of this topic. The scientific literature describes such events in various peoples.

Women's ritual dances were widespread, especially in the Upper Paleolithic era. Most often they were associated with the cult of fertility. The performers depicted with the help of the plasticity of movement and the pattern of the dance some plant or animal useful for the tribe. Belief in the magic of women's dance was very great, therefore, along with men's military and hunting women's ritual dances, which were part of the overall ritual action, existed. These dances sought to ensure a rich harvest, victory in war, good luck in hunting, and protect against drought. They often contain elements of witchcraft. In women's dance, the magic of movement was combined with the magic of the female body. The naked female body, as an attribute of ritual dances, is found everywhere, even in the harsh climatic zone.

In more archaic cultures, there is a cult of a dying and resurrecting beast, especially popular among hunting tribes. Indeed, if the cult of a dying and resurrecting god, popular in agricultural cultures, reflected a spontaneous desire to propitiate the “fertility demons” with the help of magic rituals, then for hunters, rituals aimed at reproducing
commercial animal. An important element of these ritual holidays was self-justification, an appeal to the spirit of the animal with a request not to be angry with people who were forced to kill him. People believed that after death the animal is resurrected and continues to live.

The rite is explained by myth, or myth manifests itself in ritual. One can trace the connection between the ritual and the myth about the dying and resurrecting gods that exist in many ancient cultures (for example, Osiris, Adonis, etc.). A feature of the structure of these rites is three-particular: allocation to some isolated space; further - the existence of a period of time during which various kinds of tests take place; and, finally, a return in a new status to a new social subgroup. The deaths that took place during these ritual ceremonies were not perceived tragically, there was hope for a return from the realm of the dead, a revival in the future.

The myth of the dying and resurrecting god is characteristic of the agricultural cultures of the Mediterranean. The rhythm of this myth reflects the periodicity of events in nature: the renewal of the world with the change of seasons. A drought or crop failure caused by the death of a god was replaced by renewal, a rebirth of nature associated with the rebirth of a god. These are the so-called calendar myths. This is reported in the myths about Osiris, Isis, Adonis, Attis, Demeter, Persephone, etc.

In ancient Egypt, the myths associated with the cult of Osiris were reflected in numerous mysteries, during which the main episodes of the myth were reproduced in dramatic form. The priestesses performed a dance depicting the search for the god, mourning and burial. The drama ended with the erection of the djed pillar, symbolizing the resurrection of God, and with it all of nature. The dance ritual was part of most of the sacred cults of Egypt. At the temple of Amon, there was a special school that trained priestesses-dancers, whose whole life was spent in dance. These were the first professional performers. The astronomical dance of the priests is also known, which depicted the harmony of the celestial sphere, the rhythmic movement of celestial bodies in the Universe. The dance took place in the temple, around an altar placed in the middle and representing the sun. Plutarch has a description of this dance. According to him, at first the priests moved from east to west, symbolizing the movement of the sky, and
then from west to east, which corresponded to the movement of the planets. With the help of gestures and various types of movements, the priests gave an idea of ​​the harmony of the planetary system.

Already in ancient Egypt and ancient Greece, there were various areas of dance art. In addition to ritual dances, everyday dances, dances of holidays, as well as sports dances, which had the goal of building strength and dexterity, were quite developed. Consideration of the diversity of dance genres is a topic beyond the scope of this article. In this case, dance is of interest as a reflection of myth and the participation of dance rituals in sacred rites dedicated to the worship of deities.

According to Lucian, orgies in honor of the god Adonis, the so-called adonii, were held in the sanctuary of Aphrodite, the first day being devoted to mourning, and the second to joy over the resurrection of Adonis. In the myth and cult of Adonis, the symbolism of the eternal cycle and the unity of life and death in nature can be traced.

In honor of the goddesses Demeter and Persephone, the Eleusinian mysteries were held annually in Attica, symbolically representing the grief of a mother who lost her daughter, wanderings in search of her daughter. The myth reflects the mystical connection between the world of the living and the dead. The passions of Demeter converge with the bacchanalia of Dionysus.

The two deities Dionysus and Apollo are manifestations of the same deity. There is a legend about how the two brothers Dionysus and Apollo resolved the dispute over their spheres of influence. Bacchus (Dionysus) voluntarily yielded the Delphic tripod and retired to Parnassus, where the women of Thebes began to perform his mysteries. Power was divided in such a way that one reigned in the world of the mysterious and the other world, owning the inner mystical essence of things, and the other (Apollo) took possession of the sphere of human social life, being a solar verb, he manifested himself as beauty in art, justice in public affairs.

Man is like two-faced Janus, contains two abysses: light and darkness. "Know yourself and you will know the universe." The cult of Dionysus and the cult of Apollo are different manifestations of the human soul, which merge as well as Bacchus and Apollo in the Greek cult.

In the element of the Dionysian mystery, a person is transformed, he returns to the element of the world, which is alien to division and isolation.
leniya. Everything is one. In an intoxicating dance, a person throws off his public clothes and feels his unity with other people. “From now on, listening to the good news of world harmony, everyone feels that he has not only united, reconciled and merged with his neighbor, but simply simply made up a single whole with him, as if the cover of Maya had already been torn and only miserable tatters are rinsing in the wind in front of face of the first principle. (F. Nietzsche. The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music. In: Poems and Philosophical Prose. St. Petersburg, 1993.)

Interestingly, the participants in the mysteries had the same clothes and did not have their own names. As if getting into a different reality, a person becomes different, loses his individuality. Rhythmic body movements produced by mysts contribute to a sense of harmony and the greatest expression of all their forces, merging into a single pulsating organism.

Crossing the boundaries in orgic ecstasy, sinking to the bottom of the elements, a new field of knowledge was opened, a new world of images, subject to other laws that have a different significance. This is perceived as the only truth, next to which the world generated by culture, existing according to the laws of beauty, seems to be a lie, the world of phenomena, hiding the thing-in-itself.

In a state of ecstasy, which is neither sleep nor wakefulness, it is possible to contemplate the spiritual world and communicate with good and evil spirits, as a result of which the highest knowledge is acquired, related to the basis of the foundations of being.

In the structure of mythological consciousness, dance was of great importance. In ritual dances, a person communicated with the cosmos and realized his attitude to the world, in the dance the myth "breathed" and manifested itself in various dynamic phenomena.