DANC 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Contemporary Ballet, Black Death, Bsc Young Boys
5 Sep 2016
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Document Summary
One of the strongest pieces of evidence that dance existed in early cultures was discovered in a series of rock paintings depicting dance. These paintings depict harvest dances, ritualistic dances and commutative dances. People used rituals to worship and appease the gods and believed that these rituals held magical and spiritual powers. The occasion of birth, marriage, or death required that a dance ritual be performed in conjunction with the event. The most important rituals that occurred in these societies revolved around fertility. (for food and children. ) Ritual dance was passed down or taught in the absence of a common verbal language. There was no narrative in the early dances of the primitive period. Movements or steps were natural, not technical, and included running, hopping, skipping. Primitive music- chanting, bells, rattles, early variations on drums and reed instruments. Costumes or clothing were often animal skins, hides and fur, and feathers.
