ceremonial dance

The tradition & historical record

Sacred dance is the use of dance in religious ceremonies and rituals, present in most religions throughout history and prehistory. Its connection with the human body and fertility has caused it to be forbidden by some religions; for example, some branches of Christianity and Islam have prohibited dancing. Dance has formed a major element of worship in Hindu temples, with strictly formalized styles such as Bharatanatyam, which require skilled dancers and temple musicians. In the 20th century, sacred dance has been revived by choreographers such as Bernhard Wosien as a means of developing community spirit. ¹

The theologian W. O. E. Oesterley proposed in 1923 that sacred dance had several purposes, the most important being to honour supernatural powers; the other purposes were to "show off" before the powers; to unite the dancer with a supernatural power, as in the dances for the Greek goddesses Demeter and Persephone; making the body suitable as a temporary dwelling-place for the deity, by dancing ecstatically to unconsciousness; making crops grow, or helping or encouraging the deity to make them grow, as with Ariadne's Dance as described in the Iliad; consecrating a victim for sacrifice (as with the Israelites circling the altar, or the Sarawak Kayans circling a sacrificial pig); paying homage to the deity present for an initiation ceremony; helping warriors to victory in battle, and appeasing the spirits of the enemy killed in battle; averting the dangers associated with marriage, at a wedding ceremony; and at a funeral or mourning ceremony, purposes such as driving away the malevolent ghost of the dead person, or preventing the ghost from leaving the grave, or frightening off any evil spirits attracted by the corpse, or temporarily and invisibly bringing the dead person back to join in the dance, or simply honouring the dead person. The dancer and scholar Harriet Lihs in 2009 divided religious dance into dances of imitation, such as of animals thought to be spirit messengers, or of battles; "medicine dances", i.e. ¹

Indigenous ceremonial dance rituals around the world appear to preserve forms that were widespread in ancient times. For example, processionals and circle dances seen in indigenous dance today were used in ancient Egypt and among the Hebrews. In ancient Egypt, dancers impersonated a deity such as the goddess Hathor, taking on the deity's attributes and interpreting the divine world for those watching. In ancient Israel, the Hebrew Bible mentions dancing during religious worship. The prophet Miriam led dancing following the crossing of the Red Sea during the Exodus. During the return of the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, King David danced "before the Lord with all his might". Dancing is mentioned as something familiar, implying it was a common practice. Sacred dance is described in the Bible by verbs meaning dancing, rotating, jumping, skipping, and whirling. The dance was accompanied by hand-drums (tambourines), cymbals, flutes, pipes, lyres, harps, and lutes. The Hittites are shown in a sacred processional dance in a c. 1200 BCrock inscription at the sanctuary of Yazılıkaya, near their city of Hattusa, in Cappadocia. ¹

Judaism observes the festival of Simchat Torah, which includes dancing in synagogues. The Hasidic movement, which dates from the 18th century, practices dancing in a religious context. ¹

Some Christian traditions make use of liturgical or worship dance, but it has long been controversial within the church. It has been supported, sometimes fervently, by both priests and Christian scholars; and opposed, sometimes stridently, by others who for example wrote some 157 tracts against dance between 1685 and 1963. The early church was largely in favour of dance, with the eminent Church Father Augustine arguing that Christian dance ought to be orderly according to a reasoned rhythm, in harmony with the Jewish tradition, but in contrast to ecstatic Greco-Roman dance. A typical early Christian dance is the 2nd century AD circle dance in the Acts of John which states that "Grace danceth. I would pipe: dance ye all. The whole world on high hath part in our dancing." Circle dance is used, in its more meditative form, in worship within religious traditions including the Church of England. In northern Greece and southern Bulgaria, in the annual celebrations for Saint Constantine and Saint Helen, dancers perform the Anastenaria, a fire-walking ritual, as the climax of three days of processions, music, dancing, and animal sacrifice. ¹

Indian classical dances such as Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Odissi, and Mohiniattam can be traced to the Sanskrit text Natya Shastra. They are a traditional drama-dance expression of religion, related to Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Shaktism, pan-Hindu epics and the Vedic literature. As a religious art, they are either performed inside the sanctum of a Hindu temple, or near it. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Sacred dance”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

ceremonial dance is major category or classification of dance forms or dance styles, where the purpose is ceremonial or ritualistic, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 4 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ²