The Mythology of Dance

The Mythology of Dance
Author: Harry Eiss
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 430
Release: 2013-09-18
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1443852880

The lights dim and soon the theatre becomes dark. The audience conversations end with a few softly dissipating whispers, and the movie begins. Nina Sayers, a young ballerina, dances the prologue to Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, a ballet expressing a story drawn from Russian folk tales about a princess who has been turned into a White Swan and can only be turned back if a man swears eternal fidelity to her. However, this is not that ballet. This is the beginning of Black Swan, a controversial movie employing symbolism in a complex interweaving of dance and film to reveal the struggles and paradoxes of everything from a female rite-of-passage to questions about where artistic expression should demand self-sacrifice and whether such sacrifice is worth the price. The dance floor is the stage of life, the place where physical actions take on the symbolic meanings of mythology and express the deepest archetypes of the human mind. This book explores how dance gives shape to those human needs and how it reflects, and even creates, the maps of meaning and value that structure our lives. Though the volume looks at all the forms of dance, it focuses on three main categories in particular: religious, social, and artistic. Since the American Musical and subsequent Musical Videos have both reflected and influenced our current world, they receive the most space—such acclaimed performers as Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Judy Garland, Ricky Nelson, Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson, such important composers and lyrists as Gershwin, Rodgers-and-Hammerstein, Porter, Berlin, Webber, Bernstein, the Beatles, and the Who, and such choreographers as Graham, Balanchine, Robbins and Fosse are examined in particular detail.

The Ecstasy of Being

The Ecstasy of Being
Author: Joseph Campbell
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2017
Genre: Dance
ISBN: 9781608683666

A wide-ranging exploration of art, dance, and myth that honors the work of Campbell's wife, Jean Erdman

The Mythology of America's Seasonal Holidays

The Mythology of America's Seasonal Holidays
Author: Arthur George
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 326
Release: 2020-07-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3030469166

Every year we celebrate a cycle of seasonal holidays. The ancient Greeks called this cycle “The Dance of the Horae,” after the mythical divinities who represented the seasons. What myths sit at the foundation of our own holiday celebrations? This interdisciplinary book explores the myths and symbols that underlie our major seasonal holidays and give them their meaning. Arthur George also shows how America’s own mythmaking has shaped some holidays. This mythological approach reveals how and why holidays arose in the first place, how and why they have changed over the centuries, why they have remained important, and finally how we can celebrate them today in a more meaningful manner that can enrich our lives and better our society. George devotes particular attention to the depth psychological aspects of holidays and their corresponding myths, as well as to the insights of modern biblical scholarship for key holidays such as Easter and Christmas.

Dancing with the Gods

Dancing with the Gods
Author: Monidipa Mukherjee
Publisher:
Total Pages: 96
Release: 2021-09-13
Genre: Dance
ISBN: 9788194643388

This book is an ode to the mythological heritage of Bharatanatyam. The visual narrative captures the rich heritage of this temple dance and its original exponents, the Devadasis or 'handmaidens of the deity'. Its repertoire of movements and moods bring alive the fascinating stories of Hindu gods and goddesses and their kaleidoscopic lives. In the following pages, the authors have traced the myths and legends that are cherished in our performing arts, to delight the culture-curious reader. And what is interesting is that in these stories, the reader will discover the inter-connectedness of ancient mythologies around the world. Perhaps such discoveries go a long way in validating the role that art plays in connecting civilizations. The book is designed to engage the reader without pedagogy or scholastic strictures, but with a lightness of touch, that entertains while it informs. Because the vision here is to weave information, anecdotes and trivia, together in the spirit of a popular cultural ranconteur. Replete with rare photographs curated from the Sohinimoksha World Dance and Communications archives, complemented by a lucid narrative that wraps facts in the language of romance and adventure, this book promises to be a collector's item for those who value the legacy of India's most celebrated dance form. For glimpses of some live performances by Sohini Roychowdhury, and her Sohinimoksha World Dance troupe, celebrating the music, dance, mythology of India and the World, go on-line to 'Dancing With The God.... with Sohinimoksha World Dance' at https://youtu.be/naR7p6SKiko

The Dancing Goddesses: Folklore, Archaeology, and the Origins of European Dance

The Dancing Goddesses: Folklore, Archaeology, and the Origins of European Dance
Author: Elizabeth Wayland Barber
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 590
Release: 2013-02-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0393089215

A fascinating exploration of an ancient system of beliefs and its links to the evolution of dance. From Southern Greece to northern Russia, people living in agrarian communities have long believed in “dancing goddesses,” mystical female spirits who spend their nights and days dancing in the fields and forests. In The Dancing Goddesses, archaeologist, linguist, and lifelong folkdancer Elizabeth Wayland Barber follows the trail of these spirit maidens—long associated with fertility, marriage customs, and domestic pursuits—from their early appearance in traditional folktales and harvest rituals to their more recent incarnations in fairytales and present-day dance. Illustrated with photographs, maps, and line drawings, the result is a brilliantly original work that stands at the intersection of archaeology and folk traditions—at once a rich portrait of our rich agrarian ancestry and an enchanting reminder of the human need to dance.

Dance and Ritual Play in Greek Religion

Dance and Ritual Play in Greek Religion
Author: Steven H. Lonsdale
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2001-07-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780801867590

In private and in public life, the ancient Greeks danced to express divine adoration and human festivity. They danced at feasts and choral competitions, at weddings and funerals, in observance of the cycles of both nature and human existence. Formal and informal dances marked the rhythms of life and death. In Dance and Ritual Play in Greek Religion, Steven Lonsdale looks at how the Greeks themselves regarded the act of dance, and how dance and related forms of ritual play in Greek religious festivals served a wide variety of functions in Greek society. The act of worship, he explains, often implied engaging in collective rites regulated by playful behavior, the most common forms of which were group hymns and choral dances.

Śiva in Dance, Myth and Iconography

Śiva in Dance, Myth and Iconography
Author: Anne-Marie Gaston
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 242
Release: 1982
Genre: Dance
ISBN: 9780195625950

In this book, Anne-Marie Gaston, a professional exponent of several Indian classical dance styles, combines her knowledge of the oral and literary traditions of Bharata Natyam with an extensive review of Saivite sculpture. She demonstrates that sculptural depictions of Siva, and his manifestations in dance, have a common root in mythology, and shows the interdependence of the two arts through an examination of symbolic stances and postures of the hands and feet. Beginning with a brief historical survey of the dance in India, Gaston discusses its secular-religious functions and the extent to which changing social norms have affected the form.

They Dance in the Sky

They Dance in the Sky
Author:
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Total Pages: 154
Release: 1987
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 9780618809127

A collection of legends about the stars from various North American Indian cultures, including explanations of the Milky Way and constellations such as the Big Dipper.

Myth Performance in the African Diasporas

Myth Performance in the African Diasporas
Author: Benita Brown
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Total Pages: 174
Release: 2013-12-24
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0810892804

Diaspora studies continue to expand in range and scope and remain fertile terrain for investigating multiple techniques of myth creation in dance performance, history as performance, dramatic narrative, and staged rituals in the field. Similarly, research in postcoloniality, gender/sexuality, intercultural, and literary studies, among others, all engage and feature core components of performance and myth in articulating and understanding their fields. This sharing of similar components also demonstrates the interrelatedness of these fields. In Myth Performance in the African Diasporas: Ritual, Theatre, and Dance, the authors contend that performance traditions across artistic disciplines reveal a shared—if sometimes varied—journey among diasporic artists to reconnect with their African ancestors. The volume begins with a historical and aesthetic overview of how dramatists, choreographers, and performance artists have approached the task of interpreting African myth. The individual chapters reveal how specific artists, dramatists, and choreographers have interpreted African myth and what performative approaches and traditions they have used. Focusing on theatre practitioners from the nineteenth century through the present, the authors examine performative traditions from Canada, the United States, the Caribbean, and Latin America. Drawing upon research in theatre, dance, and literary texts, Myth Performance in the African Diasporas will be crucial to academics interested in African performance viewed through the prism of myth making and spiritual/ritualistic stagings. Besides those interested in diasporic studies, this book will also be useful to scholars and students of history, drama, theatre, and dance.