Ecstatic dance

. Detail from a Paestan red-figure skyphos, c. 330–320 BC. Ecstatic dance is a form of dance in which the dancers, sometimes without the need to follow specific steps, release themselves to the rhythm and move freely as the music takes them, leading to trance and what is said to be a feeling of ecstasy. The effects of ecstatic dance begin with that ecstasy, which is described as being experienced in differing degrees. Dancers are described as feeling connected to others, and to their own emotions. The dance has been described as a form of meditation, sometimes used to help manage stress and to move towards a state of serenity. In the ancient and widespread practice of shamanism, ecstatic dance and rhythmic drumming are used with the intention of altering consciousness in spiritual practices. Ecstatic sacred dances are known also from religious traditions around the world. Modern ecstatic dance was revived by Gabrielle Roth in the 1970s and formalised in her 5Rhythms practice; it is now found in variants across the western world. Attitudes to ecstatic dance have varied widely. In the 1920s, musicologists such as Paul Nettl and Fritz Böhme considered it primitive and unrefined. More recently, it has been compared to dancing in raves and in club culture, the anthropologist Michael J.…

. Detail from a Paestan red-figure skyphos, c. 330–320 BC.]] Ecstatic dance is a form of dance in which the dancers, sometimes without the need to follow specific steps, release themselves to the rhythm and move freely as the music takes them, leading to trance and what is said to be a feeling of ecstasy. The effects of ecstatic dance begin with that ecstasy, which is described as being experienced in differing degrees. Dancers are described as feeling connected to others, and to their own emotions. The dance has been described as a form of meditation, sometimes used to help manage stress and to move towards a state of serenity. In the ancient and widespread practice of shamanism, ecstatic dance and rhythmic drumming are used with the intention of altering consciousness in spiritual practices. Ecstatic sacred dances are known also from religious traditions around the world. Modern ecstatic dance was revived by Gabrielle Roth in the 1970s and formalised in her 5Rhythms practice; it is now found in variants across the western world. Attitudes to ecstatic dance have varied widely. In the 1920s, musicologists such as Paul Nettl and Fritz Böhme considered it primitive and unrefined. More recently, it has been compared to dancing in raves and in club culture, the anthropologist Michael J. Winkelman and the musicologist Rupert Till finding in these forms elements of ritual, spirituality, and healing. The philosopher Gediminas Karoblis relates early ecstatic dance to religious ritual, stating that all well-executed dance borders on ecstasy. File:S.E.C.C. shaman dancing HRoe 2008.jpg|Shamanism, America File:Nestinar.bulgari.jpg|Anastenaria, Bulgaria File:Whirling dervishes, Rumi Fest 2007.jpg|Sufis, Turkey File:Santeria Centro Habana.JPG|Santeria, Cuba File:The Ritual Dance of the Shakers.jpg|Shakers, America File:Caetité baianas.jpg|Candomblé, Brazil File:Trance and dance in Bali Bateson Mead still 3.jpg|Kris dance, Bali

20th century attitudes

The musicologist , writing in 1929, granted that ecstatic dance had emotional power "expressive of some psychic exaltation, some intensified emotion", and that the "ordered rhythm" on which it was based was hypnotic, inducing a meditative state and the "dissolution of consciousness", but argued that it was a "primitive" form of dance, a precursor to "higher", more structured dance forms. Nettl added that ecstatic dance was both religious and erotic, giving examples from ancient Greece, medieval Christianity and Sufism. In his 1926 Tanzkunst ("Art of Dance"), the dance theorist Fritz Böhme similarly asserted, without giving examples, that ecstatic dance lacked "artistic refinement", being limited to "a natural, organically grown expression."

Philosophy

According to philosopher Gediminas Karoblis, in early cultures, ecstatic dance was linked to religious ritual, releasing the dancer from the egocentric self, undoing self-consciousness and connecting to the absolute. In Karoblis's view, trance dances can be either ecstatic or magical. He considers that the trance of the whirling dervishes is genuinely ecstatic as it glorifies God, whereas shamanistic dance is not, being instead magical, as it is intended to induce effects in the world. Karoblis notes that all dance borders on ecstasy , as the catharsis that it produces, if good, cannot be controlled or "technically calculated", yet dancers depend upon it.

Psychology

Mary Jo Spencer wrote of Pompeii's Villa of Mysteries Maenad: "She does not dance in ecstasy; she is the dance." ]] The psychoanalyst Mary Jo Spencer used the image of the ecstatic dancer (a Maenad) depicted in the Villa of Mysteries, Pompeii when explaining the appearance of the dance as a symbol for the psyche. She described in the fresco "a nude woman with a flowing scarf turning in a contained but ecstatic dance, much like the description of the dervishes: she does not dance in ecstasy; she is the dance". This was in the context of a client who presented a continuing "motif" of dance, which appeared whenever "a major shift in attitude" was imminent.

Mindfulness

The nursing researcher Yaowarat Matchim and colleagues write that while mindfulness meditation arose in Buddhism, practices that provoke mindfulness are found in wisdom traditions around the world; such practices include ecstatic dance as well as yoga, prayer, music, and art.

Parallels

The anthropologist Michael J. Winkelman suggests that shamanism and modern raves share structures including social ritual and the use of dance and music for bonding, for communication of emotions, and for their effects on consciousness and personal healing. The musicologist Rupert Till places contemporary club dancing to electronic dance music within the framework of ecstatic dance. He writes that "club culture has elements of religion, spirituality and meaning. Its transgressional nature is partly a reaction to the history of repression of traditions of ecstatic dancing by Christianity, particularly by Puritan and Lutheran traditions." He notes that the scholars of music Nicholas Saunders and Simon Reynolds both discuss electronic dance music culture "in terms of trance rituals and ecstatic states."

Documentation

In their 2003 documentary Dances of Ecstasy, the filmmakers Michelle Mahrer and Nicole Ma portrayed ecstatic dances from around the world, with traditional dances by the San of the Kalahari desert of Namibia, and by the Yoruba of Nigeria; the modern annual Firedance celebration in the Santa Cruz Mountains, California; by Gabrielle Roth; the whirling Zikr dance of the Sufi dervishes; the Hadra ritual danced by Moroccan women, brought by immigrants from Ghana and Senegal; the modern Rainbow Serpent Festival in Australia; the Candomblé ritual in Brazil, derived from Yoruba, Fon of Benin, and Congolese traditions; and the shamanistic Kut ritual of Korea.

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1349637609 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.