Considerations and Analysis on Dance as Communication and Education by an Anthropologist from a Cultural Scene in Lisbon

Considerations and Analysis on Dance as Communication and Education by an Anthropologist from a Cultural Scene in Lisbon


Francislei T. Moreira

1- Preparing the scene for the body that dances:

The present text proposes some reflections on the activity known to human being as Dance. The methodology applied in this study involves a brief revision of literature related with the concepts on the body, culture, non - verbal communication and dance through the perspective of the Cultural Anthropology as well as in the area of Education. The analysis under an anthropological prism is based on my own experience through participant observation next to the sample of students with whom I have worked at a college level for a considerable number of years. Added to this methodological instrument of the Cultural Anthropology, I have applied an exercise on personal anthropology proposed by Pockock, which serves as an reflection “on the nature of human nature … that is an individual construct derived from a common cultural trunk” (1973: 1-2). From this exercise I have obtained testimonies from the students that disclose much of the cultural values related to the perception of the masculine and feminine body as well as how dance came to influence these same values through the creativity and learning processes.
We can start by trying to define Cultural Anthropology as the study of the humankind - our physical characteristics as beings, and our unique non-biological characteristics we call culture. Anthropology is divided in three sub disciplines: biological anthropology (physical), cultural anthropology (social) and archaeology. (ucsb.edu, 2000:2).
And what about the professionals who have chosen to study and to unveil the secrets of social groups? In the article “an Anthropologist in the School”, Viegas Tavares, through sharpness and good humour, proposes an answer to this question by reflecting on the collective imaginary in relation to the professional who has for occupation to observe and to understand the human behaviour when he writes: “As a matter of principle, one imagines an Anthropologist as an expedient and daring looking scientist, Indiana Jones style who looks for any strange thing in unknown places, among exotic peoples with strange language, fierce behaviours, naked and fierce in appearance, with wild boar canine tooth of pierced through the nostrils and ears among others supposed originalities.” Later in the text, the author defines the anthropologist as “… open individuals, equal to any other person…” And, that”… tries to understand the other person, especially if considered an exotic one in order to understand his/her own society…” (2004:1-2).
It is not necessary any more to travel to any exotic place to apply anthropology. The urban environment, and its references, such as the school, may very well field for observation of the human behaviour. An activity also relegated by many as not important, the dance, can be our matter in order to try to understand the function of the activity itself within a specific social group. By integrating the relationship between the Anthropology of Dance and this human physical activity within the social context, I have attempted to understand the human behaviour along my own professional experience. This has included the comprehension of the social function of both creative movement in the fields of the non -verbal Communication and Education.
The term Anthropology of Dance is relatively new in the field of Social Sciences, even though studies related to the social function of dance have been published since 1909 (Hanna, 1999). The seminaries organized for Franzisca Boas, in 1944, on the function of dance, stimulated a number of studies, including the ones by her own father, Franz Boas, who in 1955 recognized the importance of the dance by presenting its symbolic and expressive aspects. In 1960, in the article “Panorama of Ethnology in Dance”, Gertrude Kurath, proposes a new light as how dance must be faced in society. From this article a new generation of scholars directly to dance as performers (Dunham, Primus, Youngerman, Williams, Hanna, Jennings and Kealiinohomoku, among others), were the first ones to receive Doctorate degrees Cultural Anthropology and specialized in Anthropology of Dance.
Judith Hanna, with a personal history in dance as professional performer, has published studies in the area since 1965 and in one of these works, analyzes dance through some human behaviours such as: “physical, cultural; social; psychological; economic, political, e communicative (1999: 4)
In the physical aspect, the human body works energy through muscular impulses to the stimulations received from the brain. In this parameter, the movement and the organized energy become the essence of the dance. Within the cultural and social aspects, the dance activity can comment and reflect systems of thought and values of a certain social group. Through the psychological prism, the dance produces all an implication of cognitive and emotional experiences that may affect a person or a group of individuals.
As far the e economic factor is concerned, we must take into consideration individuals people who make a living through the activity analysed in this paper. Those in question involve professionals such as dance instructors, historians, performers, technicians and people who pay as spectators, or still, those who pay to receive dance education, be it for leisure, health matters or for any another reason.
In the political arena, dance may be “seen of a forum to articulate attitudes that can generate attitudes and values in the society.” (Hanna, 1999:4). As for communication, dance can be studied as a complement of the non - verbal language. Scholars in sociolinguistic field, such as Ray Birdwhistell, referred by Lomax (1968:229) explains: “Human move and belong to the movement communities exactly as they speak and belong to speech communities… there are gesture and dialects languages that are learned by members of a culture as a speech are learned…” (Hanna: 1999:4)
In one another analysis, the body can be perceived both as the physical and the social one (Douglas, 1970; Polhemus, 1975, 1978, 1980, 1999). This latter concept deals with all the symbolic representation of elements cultural since the incorporation of a person in a social group is “inevitably corporal”.
Polhemus sees dance is part of a cultural process related with movement; imbued gestures of symbolic meaning that transmit all types of information. (1999:173)
The various symbolic representation, for him, “exceed the limits of verbal language” (1998:173), and use the human body as a means of expression. This point of view leads us to think and define a term that is closely to dance: culture.
The term culture, from an anthropological perspective, is related to “everything that the members of a social group (any social group) has - everything in common that they share and that contribute to and to generate the feeling of what we identify as “ours”. Culture is the glue that keeps people together.” (Polhemus, 1999:171).
Later on, the same study, the author also establishes a relationship with the way that we use and we move our bodies as a strong cultural element. Mead had already made this relationship when in two different studies (1942 and 1951) at the Bali Island she affirmed that the corporal learning, in the Balinese culture, is different from the way westerners learn to move their bodies. In Mead’s perspective corporal education is intrinsically linked to cultural aspects. For the anthropologist dance was part of these learning elements.
The movements used in specific ceremonies, not only in Bali but in other societies as well, are distinct, that have culturally incorporated all a learning process throughout. This process can be by imitation or a technique that is passed through an established and applied didactics, as for example the so-called “Dance Education”. This aspect shall be developed further in the text.
As already referred earlier, dance is closely related with the cultural factor as analysed in the various studies in the area of the Anthropology of Dance. (Buckland, 2002; Carter, 1999; Kaeppler, 2002; Williams, 2002; Kealiinohomoku, 1974, 1980, 1984; Polhemus, 2002; Moreira, 1987, 2002). It is necessary for scholars related to Social Sciences to perceive that the idea of the dance as a universal activity needs to be revised. Through the cultural analysis of the human movement, some investigators have come to understand that ritualized movement was not considered dance, from our cultural point of view, since there was not in the vocabulary of some social groups a specific term to define the activity that brings together movement, rhythm and expression. Hanna cites some examples: “Many societies have multiple words for different dances without using a generic term. In Japan, for example there are dances of men known as Utamai (song dances), for example. The other male dances are Azuma Asobi, Kumenai and Yamato. The Odori dance focus on the feet movements, while Mimo-sea or female dances tend to be quiet ones emphasizing the hands (Carl Wolz, 1971). In the Hawaii Islands, a simple word has a number of references:” The dance; the dancers, the verb to dance, song and chant used for the Hula” (Pukui and Elbert, 1957:82). The Pueblo Hopi Indians of North America call dance its work and similarly, among the Kuma of the New Guinea, men perceive dancing as a “duty” and “work” “(1979:18)
By taking all of the above as reference it is imperative to continue this reflection by trying to define the term “Dance” itself.

2-In Search of a Definition on the term Dance

Dance has been defined and redefined in dozens of books meaning, for example,” one of the more basic activities by human beings” (Clark and Crisp, 1981:7), or for Felföldi as, “… a ceremonial behaviour (not daily) individual , rarely verbalized (2002:63). For Turner (1984), as understood by Hugues-Freeland, Dance, “is an activity as part of the e body that cannot be sociologically understood without reference to the notions such as order, measurement and proportion.” (2002:113).
For the responsible of the first department in Anthropology, the United States of America, Franz Boas, cited for Hanna (1979:8), defined it as “the rhythmic movements of any part of the body, the swinging of the arms, torso movement or the head, or movement of the legs and feet” (1955:344).
Two definitions on dance, through the anthropological framing, appear as the clearest, precise and substantiate my proper perception: The first one, proposed by Polhemus, declares: “Dance is a stylized, highly redundant schema of a people’ overall physical culture which is itself the embodiment of that particular people’s unique way of life – their culture in the broadest sense of the term. Dance is the metaphysics of culture.” (1999:174).
A scholar who has dedicated much attention to the cultural aspect of the dance, Joann Kealiinohomoku, defends that: “Dance is a transient mode of expression, performed in a given form and style by the human body moving in space. Dance occurs through purposefully selected and controlled rhythmic movement; the resulting phenomenon is recognized as dance both by the performer and the observing members of a given group. (1965:rev.1970). By accepting the cultural factor as a point of identification of codes, people fit in the cultural scene as well as in order to perceive the movement that allied to rhythm might be considered as dance. We must take into account the social function that this activity may unchain.
Since the folkloric dances, the ritual of the Prom (as in the United States) or Graduation Ball (in several European countries) to the Wedding Party Waltz dance, this body activity discloses that Dance is almost an indispensable part at social events, carrying a great symbolic weight.
The cultural events just cited above legitimize the status of the person in the social group. In almost all the ceremonies of rite of passage (Gennep, 1960), such as marriage or the conclusion of a university course, the dance is a relevant part of social impact. The paper of the dance, in Ghana, in the African continent, for instance, is paramount at funerals, since the ritual related with death is celebrated as a homage to the diseased person , therefore, the moment that dance brings in must be of joy. (Glowacki and Bigot, 1994).
Dance may have a poignant social function in some religions. For example, the ritual dances of the African-Brazilian religion, the Candomblé, are basic in the religious services for each Deity has a specific dance. The learning of the Deity’s dance is one of the first aspects of the religion that the practitioners are exposed to during the initiation process. (Moreira, 2002)
Along with the social function of the dance come all the economic factors, which we must also take into consideration. May I suggest that we analyze a familiar social and academic event, for example, such as the Prom or Graduation Ball, where dance is the central activity? We will notice how much of economic factor will be involved then. Since the expenses with the occupancy of the space for the Ball, costs with special garments, more formal than the custom, all the way to the catering industry, we will be involved in a socio-economic study, because of an event where people gather to celebrate an achievement through dance. This observation substantiates the economic behaviour considered by Hanna (1979). Albeit the evidences and studies, many times people find irrelevant this human activity that in follow us throughout our lives.
Much of this is due to the prejudice related with the body that dances, especially when we deal with the field of the Education. The acceptance of dance is considered as a non-commitment scheme especially if it is seen as a kind of entertainment. On the other hand, when dance becomes an academic discipline there is a total way of perspective. The female body may dance, since culturally, people in Western societies, with a great incidence in Latin countries, have been conditioned to associate dance as a feminine activity. Due to the cultural values soccer and other virile activities have been directed for male youngsters. (Polhemus, 1999). Despite this factor, even nowadays, a great number of professionals related to physical activities at primary and secondary schools, due to lack of Dance Education, and for those that have had it, there is a lack of perception on the value that this activity may bring in the overall development of the body. In addition, dance complements, through the interdisciplinary process, elements related with soccer, handball, and athletics among others activities.

3- Dance Education and its contribution in the Development of the Teaching/Learning Process.

Dance in the education context may through the interdisciplinary process, foment an all around learning development, as defended by Steiner (1919), and then followed by Laban (1990). Rudolf Steiner (1861- 1925), created a new type of pedagogy specifically conceived for the children of the labourers of the Waldorf factory. The methodology was an all inclusive form of education also known as holistic. (Pink, 2001)
As for Rudolf Laban (1879-1958), this theoretician has had his name linked to the area of the pedagogy and analysis of movement. For him dance was an activity that contributes in a substantial way in the bio-psycho-social-motor structure. This vision has also been defended by Sousa (1980).
Sousa defends the diffusion of the dance in education to stimulate “expression of thought, tensions, images, disposition, sensations that are transformed into action.” (1980:83).
All the elements listed above add the student as elements that help him/her in the personal and interpersonal development. Through the action and dynamics of movement, the student finds room to explore, not only the motor possibilities, but also the creative potentiality. The feeling of rhythm, the exploring and the awareness of space, the relationship with his/her own body and the contact with classmates, help in terms of integration and socialization process. By following a developed and appropriate didactics a conscientious facilitator/teacher is aware of the benefits of dance activity. This professional also knows how it can help in the process of an interdisciplinary/holistic learning, how it includes not only the physical aspect, but also the social, intellectual and can also motivated and stimulate and satisfied student. Concerning this matter, “Holism does not mean an attempt to know everything, but it assumes that the dance is essentially meaningful in its sociocultural context. It implies functional relations within a system but does not assume total interrelatedness nor relationships of equal importance.” (Hanna, 1979:19)
Dance Education that Sousa also relates with Creative Dance can go beyond the aspect of the expressivities of the body. Through my own experience in the area of creative movement, I have perceived what Sousa defends, in fact, applied, to children. However, when we deal with young adults, as students enrolled in of Physical Education or Human Kinetics college courses who find in the curriculum a subject such as Dance there is relevant aspect that we must consider. Those students shall not, in the period of a semester, or 20 hours of practical classes, as a miracle, learn the techniques and attitude of a professional dance. In many cases, it does seem that we have to return to childhood time.
When a young adult commences his/her college studies in the specific courses mentioned above, there is an expectancy of an awareness of body rhythm notion, allied to coordination of isolation of body parts that must have been developed since primary schools. Through applying the role of participant observer in the classroom environment to collect data as field study, what I have registered, is exactly the opposite.
4- On the strategy of the Applied Anthropology, the Fieldwork and Dance Education:

Some years ago, when Dance was introduced as a subject in the curriculum of the of Physical Education and Human Kinetics courses at a Private College in the Great Lisbon area, I was assigned to be the chairperson and main professor. It was common, on the first lesson, the absence of the majority of male students. Through written testimonies, I got to know that there was fear of the loss of their masculine identity since the male students, in general, considered dance as a female activity for and the idea of an effeminate dancer is still part of a cultural reference. After an open talk and when they found out that the professor presented, through a proper didactics, in terms of differentiated technique for males and female, as for body posture as well as other aspects to exploring strength and elevation there was a more receptive way to dance education.
The consideration and analysis of that cultural scene to decode the behaviour of that social group before me, my anthropologist side had that to be in tune with the one of the facilitator/professor who presented an activity rhythmic. For that matter, it was necessary to make use of a subdivision of the Social Anthropology: The applied anthropology.
Applied Anthropology may be defined as “a used resource for professional anthropologists in programs that have as a main objective to propitiate changes in the human behaviour in order to improve contemporary problems in the social, economic and technological aspects.” (ucsb.edu:2000:2). In this specific case, through the application of a special program in creative body education, dance opened new concepts on the body behaviour and social values related to students, especially for the young male ones.
The applied strategy was the use of the concepts proposed by Laban, to work “the beneficial effect that creative activity of dance has on the student” (1990:18).
In Laban’s perspective, school provides, as far as Dance education is concerned “conscience of some principles that govern the movement”, as well as that it may “preserve spontaneity of the movement and keep it alive until the age to leave school and, in the future, the adult life”. Another aspect is “to foment the artistic expression in the scope of the primary art of the movement, when two objectives must be followed: one, is to help to the creative expression of the children [which is also my own belief] and that it may be applied the young adults to represent adequate natural dances to their natural gifts respecting the degree of their development. Another (aspect) is to cultivate the ability to take part in the superior unit of collective dances directed by the professor.” (1990:18)
Laban still professes that the re-education of the body comes with a sensation of pleasure that can be felt through the freedom of fluid movements. For him, “fluency of the movement is controlled when the feeling of it is inward bound, when the movement itself is initiated at the tip of extremities of the body, progressing in towards the centre of body” (1971:48).
The factors related with the pedagogy that Laban proposes in this discovery of the body through the movement are: the exploration of the space, the rhythmic units of time (fast, normal or slow), weight, related with energy or muscular force involved in the movement or explored and the fluency, through the flow of the movement.
All the elements mentioned above, are still subdivided in various categories, that I truly advise those interested in this area to explore through the bibliographical references presented in the end of this text.
The discomfort and fear of attending dance classes has is diminished in the past few years. Perhaps due to the “grapevine” comments among the students themselves, especially those groups who have already had gone through the experience and also due to the final result that the students have presented at performances that also serve as practical evaluation. There has been a considerable transformation in the idea that dancing on a theatre stage is not an activity for professionals (as Nachmanovitch refers in the opening citation). But rather, that dancing is also “a male activity.”
For me, this acceptance of the dance that I have accompanied along the years, through the education process, especially for the Latin male counterpart is highly relevant, since any type of behaviour change must take into account the social role and imaginary as far as being a man or being a woman in a social group.
In relation to the dance, Polhemus, observed the following one: “men’s dance is a crystallization of what it means to be a male member of their culture. The women’s dance style is a crystallization o what it means to be a female member of that culture. Indeed, in some tribal societies the cultures which the men and women dance are so different that it is as if the two sexes came from different worlds – which are, of course, precisely the case.” (1999:177). The same author still makes reference to unisex culture , in relation to the dance, when the discotheques created cultural conditions so that the male or female bodies answered almost r equally to the rhythmic stimulus.
The cultural acceptance to Dance education on the college campus where the experience that has been related here has demonstrated successfully as the general attendance to the classes have become a highly positive factor. The empirical result, though, still presents a great gap in the body preparation, related the rhythm, motor coordination and other aspects studied by Laban when the semester begins. This lack of body awareness has much to do with what has not been developed during the years of basic education nor at the secondary school.
The students in the age range of 20 to the 30 years old, many for the first time, start to know their skill of space exploration, movement flow, rhythm, as well as the creative process through movement, that later on, culturally comes to be recognized as Dance.

5 - And, as the curtain falls: the final considerations at the backstage.

There is much more to be discussed and evaluated as the performance comes to an end, or when it is time to close an article.
The essential here was to propose a certain reflection on the parameters of Dance in the education process, which I believe has been carried through. My professional involvement in Dance with the counterpart of the Social and Cultural Anthropology throughout these years has stimulated in me, an increasing will to clarify the benefits that Dance brings to the student since earlier years of life. In addition, it is my belief that the students who have been exposed not only to the experience but learned the methodology Laban has left us as a legacy shall pass on this information when become facilitators/educator on body education.
A good number of former students who have already entered the professional arena in Portugal (in the mainland as well as on the Madeira and the Azores Islands), have developed successful Student Dance groups. It brings me pride and much satisfaction, to hear these testimonies as well as the ones that were written at the time of the conclusion of the school year. It is gratifying to read reflections of life experience:

On the fluency, a student wrote:

“With the help of the lessons throughout the semester, some research in books and watching video cassettes of dance , I started to imagine that it was possible to carry through all the movements that music made me feel…such as the standardized steps and the domain of the body in turns , basic jumps, positions and displacements.”

In relation to creativity another student had this to say:

“This was, doubtless, one task that the professor submitted us and to which we had to give our best, ranging from interpretation, imagination, to the creativity as well as to the way the movements on stage were carried through.
The dance in the future will be part of the work that f many of us must be prepared to facet various situations and this task was an excellent opportunity to live deeply this type of work”.

And, as far as body awareness goes, a student wrote:

“… soon after receiving my music I was supposed to work with, to being total sincere, I almost panicked. Although it was a song with mostly the same rhythmic structure, it was still something difficult for a beginner such as me, to develop something creative. However, I recalled a Modern Dance class where we were taught to explore all the motor possibilities of the human body, using dynamics, space exploration and the body rhythm in movement. It was from these aspects that I started to develop my own choreography.”

There is a lot more to be done in relation to the Anthropology of dance as well as to the Dance Education. However, both life and new students present new challenges all the time in respect to professional growth and social interaction. So, let these new opportunities come so that we may continue another reflection process such as this one.

Francislei T. Moreira received his Master Degree in Anthropology of Dance, from the New York University, in 1986. This Master Degree and has been recognized by the College of Social and Human Sciences at the New University of Lisbon, in 2002.



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