HOW DANCE REFLECTS CULTURE

The dance has always been with us, even before the arrival of written

language and modern history, when our earliest cultures evolved to make

use of oral and performance methods to pass the stories from one

generation to the next. Many historians believe that social, celebratory and

ritual dances are one of the essential factors of the development of early

human civilizations. Dance, like all forms of cultural expression, reflects

the society in which it exists and it also provided a form of social

affirmation and a means of expressing national or tribal loyalty and power,

and it was a part of religious ritual, providing a direct means of

communicating with the spirits, just like Ethnic dances found among the

ethnolinguistic groups scattered all over the Philippine islands. These

dances, which are integral to the community’s way of life, are: the ritual

dances, which connect the material world to the spiritual; the lifecycle

dances, which celebrate an individual’s birth, baptism, courtship, wedding,

and demise; and the occupational dances, which transform defense and

livelihood activities to celebratory performances. Also rituals support the

spiritual and social life of the indigenous Filipinos, closely adapt to nature,

believing in the spirits that keep their environment fruitful and their selves

alive, the ethnic Filipinos authorized these rites “always with instrumental

music, chanting, and often dancing” as part of communal life cycles, but

they also serve as a popular medium of dramatic expression and

entertainment that reflects the people’s nature, culture and aspirations.