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Dance Baby, Dance

Author evawhite on October 14th, 2008

They say that dancing is the vertical representation of horizontal desire, sort of like a subtle form of foreplay. Perhaps it is. Someone also described dance as the wedding of movement to music; certainly it is a form of wordless communication and art from that predates history.

Dance has evolved a long way to its present forms, and is perhaps representative of an atavistic instinct in all of us to express ourselves. Dance of a kind is present even in animals; take for instance mating rituals of birds, such as the peacock that shows off his magnificent plumage to his rather dowdy looking mate and literally prances around in dance, trying to convince her that he is the best bet to father her chicks.

In more primitive and tribal societies, dance is representative of courtship or a means for young people to select a mate. Dance as a means to herald new seasons, as rites of passage, as means of appeasing the Gods, as a celebration, as mourning, it takes many forms and communicates many different situations. Folk dances came into being to represent these different landmarks of life and became a way for the common people to derive entertainment, to celebrate festivals and religious occasions; in short dancing was social occasion to meet and greet , a convivial occasion to get to know your neighbor and share in joy and sorrow.

Now dance has evolved and become refined to an extent that it has taken on formal structure, where different kinds of dance are identified by their respective rhythms and steps. Classical dance takes this evolution a step further in that the dance becomes more difficult to perform and more specialized. Dance in this form, say ballet, becomes more of a virtuoso display for spectators to marvel at and take pleasure from.
Among some of the most popular kinds of dances, the waltz is stately and decorous (though in the days when it first came into being it was considered scandalous), the tango can be erotic, the salsa can be sensuous and fun at the same time (which probably explains it’s amazing popularity today).

Today what we understand as dance can mean anything from standing in one spot and moving a bit, to some really gymnastic gyrations which resemble an aerobic workout more dance! Whichever way you look at it, dance is as inextricable a part of our social existence as anything else.

I thought this youtube video about the evolution of dance was good fun; take a look:

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Comments (2)

Entertainment

Music Therapy

Author evawhite on July 4th, 2008

For me, the term ‘music therapy’ sounds odd, simply because for me music is something that gives me joy, something that I have to have in my life all the time. For music to be termed as therapeutic or to have a medicinal value of some sort simply seems, like I said, odd!

But music therapy is a systematic and organized therapy and there are training courses to this end. Off the top of my head I would say that perhaps music would be useful to relieve stress or to put you in a better frame of mind, taking your mind off your problems; certainly it does that for me. Music therapy can do that and much more apparently: it promotes wellness, eases pain, helps in expression of feelings, enhances memory, helps improve communication skills and also helps in healing or physical rehabilitation. It can also, like the picture indicates, help relieve stress in newborns and help them stay healthy.

Now I would imagine that in case of music therapy what is one man’s meat may well be another man’s poison. By that I mean, that while one person find sound of a gurgling stream wonderful and stress relieving, I for one would actually find it stressful because I would keep thinking “Water’s being wasted somewhere, how do I stop that!”
I would also imagine that there are cultural connotations to music. For instance while a Chinese person may find Chinese music wonderful and uplifting, a person like me who has no knowledge or familiarity with Chinese music would have a fairly indifferent reaction to it thereby negating any therapeutic value of the music.

It is therefore that music therapy is highly individual oriented. It can include activities such as singing, listening, playing instruments, composition, moving to music, and music and imagery exercises. So, music therapy is developed on the basis on the subjects’ individual weaknesses and strengths, keeping in mind the effect that the music will have on that particular individual.

Music therapy also has general applications; like music is said to relive pain during dental procedures so a lot of dentists play music. Often certain work environments have music playing because it is seen to reduce stress while working. Music frequently accompanies meditation and yoga and it always accompanies aerobic and other exercises because it motivates you in your goal of mental and physical fitness.

If you are really interested in the idea of music therapy and would like to incorporate it in your everyday life, take a look here ; there are some interesting pointers about how you can use music to relive stress or when you need stimulation etc. Perhaps music therapy is not quite as odd as I originally thought. Your thoughts?

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