Dance as a Display

By: Robert Morouda and Lowel Nocedal

 Dance as entertainment, dance as display
Egyptian paintings, from as early as
about 1400 BC, depict another
eternal appeal of dancing.
Scantily clad girls, accompanied by
seated musicians, cavort enticingly
on the walls of tombs.
They will delight the male occupant
during his residence in the next
world.
 Entertainment, and the closely related theme of display,
underlies the story of public dance.
 In the courts of Europe spectacles of this kind lead eventually to
ballet.
 Dance as Dramatic expression or Abstract

Theater Dance generally falls into 2 categories

1. Purely formal or dedicated to the perceptions of the
style and displays of skills
2.Dramatic or dedicated to the expression of emotion of
the character and narrative actions.
The early French and Italian ballets of
the 16th and 17th century dance was only a
part of spectacles involving singing,
recitation, instrumental music and
elaborate story design
 Dramatic Dance
expresses or imitates emotion, character, and
narrative action, and purely formal dance, which
stresses the lines and patterns of movement itself
The type and function of dramatic dance vary
considerably, including full-length theatrical works
(in which dance is used to tell a story and present
specific characters),
 hunting dances (in which the dancers’ movements imitate
those of a particular animal).
 courtship dances (which may contain only a few pantomimic
gestures, such as a lift, a curtsy, or a mock kiss, to convey
meaning).
dance movements are often closely related to everyday forms
of physical expression, there is an expressive quality inherent
 in nearly all dancing.
This quality is used extensively in dramatic dance to
communicate action or emotion.

 for example, the aggression in stamping movements, the

exhilaration communicated by jumping, and the dragging
motions of despair. 

 in a death scene, for example, where the killer assumes a

ferocious expression and imitates strangling a victim—or it
can function as a symbol
 ballet to represent dancing or in pointing to the fourth
finger to represent marriage.

 Dance movements are often accompanied by other

elements, such as masks, costume, music, acting, singing,
recitation, and even film, to help communicate the
dramatic content.

Dance, space and subjectivity , core an example of the

significance of body/ space relations to dance can be seen
is the exposure and display of the body in an erotic
manner