BRIEF HISTORY AND

NATURE OF DANCE
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WHAT IS DANCE?
• An act or instance of moving one's body rhythmically usually to music: an act or
instance of dancing.
• Dance it comes from the German word “damson” means “to stretch” or “to drag”
• It developed as a natural expression of united feeling and action.
• It is considered the mirror of the society because it responds to historical and
religious events as well as social and political statements.
• Features:
– Movement of body which includes hands, arms and head. •
– Movement from one space to another.
HISTORY AND
DEVELOPMENT OF
DANCE FROM THE
DIFFERENT PERIOD
ERAS OF DANCE
DANCE DURING THE PREHISTORIC
PERIOD
It had been a major form of religious ritual and social
expression within primitive culture.
It was used as a way of expression and reinforcing
tribal unity and strength.
It is based on superstition and infused with magic.
Shamans as lead dancers acted as physicians and
religious leaders and kept tribes healthy, prosperous
and safe.
PRIMITIVE CULTURES
• The term ''primitive cultures'' was used by the first
anthropologists to describe non-European groups of people
and their customs because they believed, and not always
correctly, that they were closely related to prehistoric
cultures.
• As the term has a somewhat biased and negative
connotation, especially when used in comparison to Western
culture, contemporary anthropologists use other words, like
''bands'' and 'tribes.
HOW WAS DANCES USED IN
PRIMITIVE CULTURES
• Based on paintings and figurines dating back as many as 30,000 years ago and
inferences made from later historical periods, anthropologists and sociologist have
concluded that dance was likely used for a variety of purpose.
• First, it was used for celebrations tied to changes in the calendar marked by
important festivals or major changes in life, like marriage.
• Second, dance was likely used for religious purpose during rites performed by
specialized shamans or priests. It was also likely used as a method of healing which
was connected to religious beliefs.
• Lastly, dance was used as a means of self-expression, communication and bonding.
Whether people danced to bring about rain, honor their dead or celebrate a
successful hunt, they were communicating an idea and re-establihing the social
order by participating in the practice.
PRIMITIVE CULTURE
DANCE ERA IN THE
PHILIPPINES
IGOROT
• There are six Igorot ethnolinguistic
tribes living in Luzon's mountain
terrains: the Bontoc, Ifugao,
Benguet, Apayo, and the Kalinga
tribes, which retained much of their
anito religions. Their lives have been
centered on appeasing their gods
and maintaining a harmonious
relationship between spirits and
man. Dances are usually linked to
rituals for a good harvest, health,
prayers for peace, and safety in
war.
MORO
• The Moro people are the
various usually unrelated
Muslim Filipino ethnic
groups. Most of their
dances are marked by
intricate hand and arm
movements, accompanied
by instruments such as the
agong and kulintang.
LUMAD
• The non-Islamized
natives of Mindanao
are collectively
known as the Lumad
people. Like the
Tagakaulo, they still
practice worshiping
anitos through dance.
 DANCE DURING THE ANCIENT CIVILIZATION
ANCIENT EGYPT
 3,300 BCE (First Dancing.). It is It is believed that the first people to dance were the Egyptians. Archaeologists
discovered paintings of dancing figures in rock shelters and caves.
 As a way of expressing religious service and teaching ancient myth, three (3) major dancers were evolved:
(1) the king;
(2) the priests who performed magical dances;
(3) virgin dancers who were trained to perform
during ceremonies led by the priests.
 According to the International Encyclopedia of Dance, dances were performed “for magical purposes, rites of passage,
to induce states ecstasy or trance, mime; as homage; honor entertainment and even for erotic purposes." Dances
were performed inside and outside; by individual’s pair but mostly by groups at both sacred and secular occasions.
 Dance rhythms were provided by hand clapping, finger snapping, tambourines, drums and body slapping. Musicians
played flutes, harps, lyres and clarinets,Vocalizations included songs, cries, choruses and rhythmic noises.
 Dancers often wore bells on their fingers. They performed nude, and in loincloths, flowing transparent robes and skirts
of various shapes and sizes. Dancers often wore a lot of make-up, jewelry and had strange hairdos with beads, balls or
cone-shaped tufts; Accessories included boomerangs and gavel-headed sticks. The hieroglyph for heart was a dancing
figure.
 DANCE DURING THE ANCIENT CIVILIZATION
ANCIENT CRETE

The Cretan civilization (3000-1400 BC) was a

cultural link in the ancient world between Egyptians
and Greeks.
Cretans used dance to perfect their military training
which made excellent.
 DANCE DURING THE ANCIENT CIVILIZATION
ANCIENT GRECE
 Dance was not just for religious and military training but also a form of entertainment and
display.
 Plato immensely gave importance to dance in education as stated in the education on the Laws.
He highlighted the two kinds of dance and music: the noble (fin and honorable) and the ignoble
(imitating what is mean or ugly).
 Ancient Greece drove a sharp distinction between the Apollonian dance and the Dionysian
dance. The former – the Apollonian dance – was accompanied by guitars called lyres, lutes and
kitharas. It was a ceremonial dance incorporating slower cult dances performed during religious
festivals, as well as martial and social dances performed during communal events and funeral
practices. The Dionysian or Bacchanalian dance, associated with the cult of Dionysus, is about
passion, panic and desire. It is an “orgasmic” dance with breathtaking moves whose purpose is
to connect all to a frenetic dance vibration.The synthesis of the Apollonian and the Dionysian is
the art of dance. The tension between these opposites played an instrumental role in the
shaping of the ancient Greek theatre and the birth of tragedy in the evolution of the arts for
civilization.
 DANCE DURING THE ANCIENT CIVILIZATION
ANCIENT ROME
Gave less importance to dancing which eventually became
an integral part of the corruption in the latter days of the
Roman Empire resulting in the condemnation of dance by
early Christians.
Dance was primarily performed for religious, social and
entertainment. However, theatrical entertainment was
prohibited but still existed and was performed within church
during religious ceremonies.
DANCE DURING EARLY RENAISSANCE
• As the arts and sciences flourished in the European Renaissance, dance quickly rose to
preeminence. Dance increased in sophistication and social importance through the 14th
century, but unfortunately no choreographic descriptions survive from this century. It is from
preserved music tabulatures and literature, such as Boccaccio's Decameron, that we know the
names of these lost dances, which include the balli, carola (carole), stampita (estampe, istampita,
stantipes), salterello, rotta, trotto and farandole. Only treatises from later centuries give us any
hint as to what these 14th century dances might have looked like.
• The 15th century is the first period in western history to have dances documented well
enough for reconstruction. Several surviving manuscripts describe the dances of the
aristocracy, for whom dance was an important courtly pastime. The dances from the northern
courts (primarily Burgundy – a large area north of the Alps including some of present-day
France, Germany and the Netherlands) tended to be conservative and Gothic. Southern
France (Provence) was more innovative, while Italy was the hotbed of the avant garde.
DANCE DURING EARLY RENAISSANCE
• The primary dance of the Burgundian court was the stately Bassedanse. This was a memorized
sequence of steps performed as a processional, danced to music in "perfect" (i.e. triple) time.
One surviving Burgundian dance source is the beautiful handwritten Brussels manuscript,
penned in gold and silver ink by an anonymous scribe. The Italian courts also danced the
Bassadanza (as they spelled it), although it was lighter in spirit and somewhat more intricate
than the Burgundian Bassedanse. But the epitome of Italian court dance was the Ballo. The 15th
century Balli was beautifully designed choreographies for a set number of dancers that
featured a wide variety of steps, figures and rhythms. Unlike the Bassadanza, the music and
dance phrases of the Balli were inseparable.
DANCE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES
AND THE RENAISSANCE
 1400 (Ballet Comes into Play). Ballet started in this year in Italy, but didn’t really become
popular until around the year 1500. Ballet gained its popularity when a lady of the arts,
Catherine de Medici, married King Henry 11 and threw festivals where they would perform
ballet dances. Ballet is believed to be the main core of every single dance style.
 A vast dance movement occurred throughout the courts of Europe in the 15th and 16th
centuries. During these times, new court dances performed by the nobility came about as well
as the rise of the art of ballet in Italy and France.
 Several other dance forms continued to sprout and spread across several countries.
COURTS OF EUROPE

 Renaissance dances belong to the broad group of historical dances. During the Renaissance period,
there was a distinction between country dances and court dances. Court dances required the
dancers to be trained and were often for display and entertainment, whereas country dances could
be attempted by anyone. At Court, the formal entertainment would often be followed by many
hours of country dances which all present could join in. Dances described as country dances such
as Chiarantana or Chiaranzana remained popular over a long period – over two centuries in the
case of this dance. A Renaissance dance can be likened to a ball.
COURTS OF EUROPE
 Knowledge of court dances has survived better than that of country dances as they were
collected by dancing masters in manuscripts and later in printed books. The earliest surviving
manuscripts that provide detailed dance instructions are from 15th century Italy. The earliest
printed dance manuals come from late 16th century France and Italy. The earliest dance
descriptions in England come from the Gresley manuscript, c.1500, found in the Derbyshire
Record Office, D77 B0x 38 pp 51–79. These have been recently published as "Cherwell Thy
Wyne (Show your joy): Dances of fifteenth-century England from the Gresley manuscript". The
first printed English source appeared in 1651, the first edition of Play ford.
 The dances in these manuals are extremely varied in nature. They range from slow, stately
"processional" dances (bassadance, pavane, almain) to fast, lively dances (galliard, coranto,
canario). The former, in which the dancers' feet were not raised high off the floor were styled
the dance basse while energetic dances with leaps and lifts were called the haute dance. Queen
Elizabeth I enjoyed galliards, and la spagnoletta was a court favorite.
CHRISTIANIZED FILIPINOS
• Pre-Colonial
– Before the recorded history of the Philippines, before the Spanish conquistadors conquered and
Christianized the populace, from the earliest occupation of this volcanic archipelago, the people danced.
They danced to appease the gods, to curry favor from powerful spirits, to celebrate a hunt or harvest, to
mimic the exotic life forms around them. They danced their stories and their shamanic rituals, their rites
of passage and their remembered legends and history.
– Rural dances include such favorites as the high-stepping Tinikling, which mimics a bird, and the Gaway-
Gaway, which features the movements of children pulling the stalks of the gaway roots during a bountiful
harvest. The pagan tribes, the Higaonon, Subanon, Bagogo, and others who have inhabited the Philippines
for thousands of years, preserved their customs and symbolic dances. Partly through isolation, they kept
their culture free from the influence of the waves of immigrants who settled the archipelago over the
centuries. Today, tribal dances like Dugso (a dance of gratitude for a good harvest or a male heir, danced
with ankle bells), Sohten(an all-male war dance) and Lawin-Lawin(another male dance which mimics a
swooping, soaring eagle) are carefully documented and kept alive in performance by Filipino folk dance
troupes and cultural institutions, such as the Parangal Dance Company
NOBILITY Baroque dance is the conventional name given to the
style of dancing that had its origins during the seventeenth
century and dominated the eighteenth century until the
French Revolution. Louis XIV was a major influence in its
development and promotion. Even at the age of fourteen,
Louis was an accomplished dancer: as the sun god Apollo in
the ‘Ballet de la Nuit’ (1653), he became Le Roi Soleil, an
image that he was to cultivate throughout his life. His
courtiers were expected to dance in his new style at the
formal balls, and they performed in court ballets, in rather a
similar fashion to what was considered appropriate to Stuart
court masques. During 17th century dancing had not only a
great social importance, but could also carry political
importance.

In 1661, Louis founded the Académie Royale de Danse. This academy was responsible for devising a
system of notation (first published by Raoul Auger Feuillet in his book Chorégraphie in 1700) to
enable dancing masters more readily to assimilate the new style of dancing and to learn new
dances.
ACTIVITY 1
DANCE MAP
Instructions: Create key
concepts that resembles
the different eras of
dance and organize it
using a chart. Key
concepts created should
be able to answer the
following questions. (You
can use any shape and
pattern as long as the
key concept created will
not be more than 10
words
DANCING TOWARD
THE 21ST CENTURY
Modern History
DANCE DURING THE LATE 16TH AND
17TH CENTURIES (1501-1700)
1600 (Masque Dancing). Masque dancing started from elaborate pageants and
shows in the 16th century. Masque dancing involved intricate costuming and
stage designing that also incorporated singing and acting as well as dancing. It
was often used as a court entertainment.
A period in the history of dance in Italy, France, and England which was
considered to be pleasantly deep and rich. France became the forerunner in
dance during this period,
Dance increased as a court amusement and later transformed into professional
entertainment.
DANCE DURING THE 18TH CENTURY
(1701-1800)
1795 (Classical Persian Dancing). This style of dance evolved from
courtroom dancing. An era influencing Persian dance was the Qajar
Dynasty which lasted from 1795 to 1925. Dancers would perform
artistic and lively dances for the Shah. The music is usually played by
a small band.
1800 (Tippity Tappity, Time for Tap). Tap dancing originated from
African tribe dancing. Tap dancing makes percussion sounds because
of dancers most commonly wearing leather shoes with two pieces of
metal and clip and clap against hard floors. Tap is still very popular to
this day.
DANCE DURING THE 19TH CENTURY
(1801-1900)
1890 (Merengue Dancing). It is a Caribbean dance style that involves
partners holding each other in a tango-like position and moving their
hips side to side.
1900 (Jazz and Acro). It involves doing smooth and flexible
movements, and lots of back bending and tricks. Both styles are
widely popular to this day. Ballroom dances also emerged during
this period like Cotillion, Polonaise, Quadrille, Waltz and Polka.
20TH CENTURY DANCES (1901-2000)
Described as a period of “dance fever” wherein the young and old alike were not
limited to express emotions through dance.
1950 (Contemporary Dance). Contemporary dance is a style that combines jazz,
ballet, and modern dance. It can be many different styles, but most of the time it
is melancholy and or intense.
1970 (Hip Hop Dance). There are many styles of hip hop that include breaking,
popping, locking, and more. Street dance was performed both in night clubs and
on the streets. It is associated with funk, breakdancing, and hip-hop.
 Several social dance movements also evolved such as castle walk, tango,
foxtrot, Charleston, Lindy Hop, Rumba, Mambo, Cha-ChaCha, Samba, Bossa Nova,
Boogaloo and Twist.
Popular fad dances also emerged like YMCA and Macarena.
21ST CENTURY DANCE (2001-
PRESENT)
2018 (Dance Nowadays). Today's dance style has taken a
turn towards more hip hop dances. Small and popular
dances that involve hip hop and that most everyone can
achieve include the whip and nae nae, Gangnam Style (it’s a
little old), shooting, and more.
ACTIVITY 2
Arrow It Out!
Follow the arrows and supply
the blank portion of the Mind
Map. Possible answers are
inside the box. Write the
letter of your choice.
VIDEO ANALYSIS
• Go to this link,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-rSdt0aFuw
• Write your insight about the video.