argumentative essay
Listen to the Body Talk
Isadora Duncan, known as one of the mothers of modern dance once said, “If I could tell you what it meant, there would be no point in dancing it.” Some information needs more than just words to get the message across. Long before words, people were using dance to communicate meanings; all over the planet, dancers appeared on ceramics and caves as far back as the Prehistoric and Protohistoric periods (Garfinkel 85). In modern times, the power of communicating with words seems to be more highly prized than the power of communicating through dance. But dance is still a part of modern life even if words seem to be the popular medium of choice in communication. Dance is a significant form of communicating culture.
There are many different ways to communicate. Whether it’s drawing a picture, writing a letter, over the phone, through an email, or face-to-face, communication is the sharing of information; Dr. Ortiz, a professor of communication at Scottsdale Community College defines communication as “a process by which two or more people are exchanging messages with the goal of sharing meaning.” Dance is a type of interpersonal communication that uses facial expressions, gestures, eye contact, kinetics and other nonverbal elements of communication, and occasionally, verbal elements such as musical accompaniment, chanting, singing, and other vocalizations.
Dance uses all of these tools, in various combinations, to communicate history. Many cultures around the world use storytelling, through the medium of dance, to preserve and communicate their history and cultural identity. For example, in Hawaiian culture, hula dancing is not just a quaint tourist attraction, but also a 2000-year-old form of storytelling that has been used to recount epic tales of their history and legends (Ho’omanawanui 86). Hula was proclaimed, “the heartbeat of the Hawaiian people,” in the nineteenth century by Ali’I Nui (king) David La’amea Kalakaua (Ho’omanawanui 86). The Hawaiians felt that the Hula was so important to preserving their culture that they continued to pass on the traditions and teachings of it in secret when it was banned in the 1830’s for being “lewd and lascivious (Ho’omanawanui 86).” The Native American tribes also perpetuated their history and culture through the storytelling medium of dance (Miller 4). Native Americans still meet at powwow dances to tell stories of their warriors, myths and legends that make up their cultures, not only to celebrate their traditions but also to remember them and to share them with the future generations (Miller 4). Dance is so fundamental to perpetuating cultural identity that the U.S. government tried to ban and suppress Native American dance in an attempt to assimilate them into the white man’s culture.
The Argentine Tango is a source of social history and Argentina’s culture. Tango’s own history begins the in bordellos and bars of Argentina in the 1880, where the alienated underclass of immigrants and creoles danced to songs about discontent and passion (Castro 290). By the early 1900s it became a part of pop culture, became more accepted by the rest of society and recognized all over the world (Castro 290). But even today, in a way that cannot be truly expressed by words alone, when there is a tango to be danced, the expression in the music and the movement still express the alienation and passion of the gauchos.
Dance can also communicate traditions because it is apart of so many historical events both personal and public. The waltz is a traditional ingredient at many celebrations throughout life. A girl’s Quinceanera in Mexico, which can be likened to a U.S. girl’s sweet sixteen or debutante coming out party, traditionally signifies a girl’s sexual maturity, that she is ready for marriage. This rite of passage usually includes a party with dancing, the most important dance being the waltz she dances with her father, her last dance as a little girl, symbolizing the passing of her childhood to womanhood. When a woman marries, she will dance a waltz at her wedding with her husband, symbolically marking a new chapter in their lives with a dance. The waltz is also a part of ringing in the New Year. New Year’s Eve balls in Europe, the U.S. and other parts of the world will celebrate the holiday each year with the Viennese Waltz. Traditionally waltz is also the last dance of the evening.
Whether it happens to be a waltz or the chicken dance, dancing takes place and is the focal point of other significant moments in life that communicate culture and custom. The high school prom is important to many adolescents; and even if only their parents realize it at the time, the senior prom marks the passage of American adolescence, graduating high school and moving on to college. The homecoming dances traditionally take place at the beginning of the fall semester and, when students “come back home” from summer vacation and resume their studies. In the movie “Footloose,” the main character, Ren, is campaigning for a high school senior dance in his town. When Ren is before the town council, he quotes scriptures from the bible that are about times to dance. We also makes a speech about it being, “our time to dance,” meaning it’s time for his senior class to celebrate where they are in life. Dance punctuates these rites of passage and defining moments that humans share, thereby communicating the traditions that make up cultures.
Social skills are also communicated through dance. Senior lecturer at the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Yosef Garfinkel, notes that in pre-urban and pre-state societies, dancing was “an activity that organizes individuals and collectively disciplines them” (85). He also noted, “Those who participate in the dance accept the rules of the community and its rules” (85). Social skills help people interact with others successfully within a culture even now, in modern times. This can be seen in the way dance affects children’s social behaviors. In the film, “Mad Hot Ballroom,” three different fifth grade classes of New York City’s public elementary schools are taught ballroom dancing and prepare for a competition. There is a noticeable change in the students as the film progresses, they carry themselves more confidently, come to class on time with their shirts tucked in, and treat each other and the teachers with more respect as they learn their rumbas and foxtrots. One of the teachers gets emotional when she is interviewed because she is so proud of how they’ve become, “little ladies and gentlemen.” In Korea, there was a study done with three kindergarten boys who, according to their teachers, showed social isolation, and were diagnosed by a pediatric psychiatry hospital as having maladaptive behaviors such as, hitting, table banging, biting, and throwing temper tantrums (Lee et al. 42). The boys were included in a group of kindergarten children that did not show maladaptive behaviors and they were all taught a program which “focused on dancing and touching peers to the words of a song” (Lee et al. 42). After sing, touching, and dancing to the “Hokey Pokey” and “Put You Finger in the Air” over a period of thirty-five sessions, the three boys’ frequency of inappropriate behaviors when down and their appropriate response behaviors when up, both considerably (Lee et al. 42). According to an article in Early Childhood Education Journal, “When dance is integrated into the curriculum, particularly when learning about other cultures, children benefit in many ways: body awareness and control, personal confidence and esteem, and cultural understanding and respect” (Lutz and Kuhlman 40).
Unfortunately, even though dance is an integral part of transmitting culture, this capability is virtually ignored by the general public. In a random survey that was taken of people on the street in Phoenix, when asked if they thought dance was a valuable way of communicating culture, most people said, “no.” And the fact that dance is only taught as an elective class in high school, or it’s something that has to be learned as an extra curricular activity, is proof that society doesn’t realize the potential dance has in communicating culture. At best, the general public appears to view dance as entertainment.
But dance is more than just entertainment. “Dance is found in almost every society and has always been as much a form of social and religious expression as it is a creative one” (Garfinkel 84). Maybe in the 21st century, the United States, dance can be considered entertainment, but presently, in Afghanistan and Indonesia dancing is being banned in order to disestablish certain religious beliefs that don’t align with the governments’ beliefs (Talamantes 356). Maybe we’re missing out valuable meanings and insights cultures by undervaluing the messages that only dance can convey.
Works Cited
Castro, Donald s. “The Soul of the People: The Tango as a Source for Argentine Social History.” Studies in Latin American Popular Culture 9 (1990): 270-296.
Footloose. Dir. Herbert Ross. Paramount 1984.
Garfinkel, Yosef. “The Earliest Dancing Scenes in the Near East.” Near Eastern Archaeology 66:3 (2003): 84-95.
Ho’omanawanui, Ku’ualoha. “Kanaka Maol; Empowerment Through Literature.” American Indian Quarterly Winter/Spring (2004): 86-91.
Lee, Sang Bok, et al. “Encouraging Social Skills Through Dance: An Inclusion Program in Korea.” Teaching Exceptional Children 34.5 (2002): 40-44.
Lutz,Tamara, and Kuhlman, Wilma D. “Learning About Children Through Dance in Kindergarten Classrooms.” Early Childhood Education Journal 28.1 (2000): 35-40.
Mad Hot Ballroom. Dir. Marilyn Agrelo. Paramount 2003.
Miller, Heather Andrews. “Dance Reflects Tradition and History.” Windspeaker June 2006: 4.
Ortiz, Dr. Joseph. Personal interview. 18 July 2006.
Talamantes, Maria. “Performance of Identity: The Pelegonga Andir of Tista, Bali.” Asian Theatre Journal 23.2 (2006): 356-373.
Isadora Duncan, known as one of the mothers of modern dance once said, “If I could tell you what it meant, there would be no point in dancing it.” Some information needs more than just words to get the message across. Long before words, people were using dance to communicate meanings; all over the planet, dancers appeared on ceramics and caves as far back as the Prehistoric and Protohistoric periods (Garfinkel 85). In modern times, the power of communicating with words seems to be more highly prized than the power of communicating through dance. But dance is still a part of modern life even if words seem to be the popular medium of choice in communication. Dance is a significant form of communicating culture.
There are many different ways to communicate. Whether it’s drawing a picture, writing a letter, over the phone, through an email, or face-to-face, communication is the sharing of information; Dr. Ortiz, a professor of communication at Scottsdale Community College defines communication as “a process by which two or more people are exchanging messages with the goal of sharing meaning.” Dance is a type of interpersonal communication that uses facial expressions, gestures, eye contact, kinetics and other nonverbal elements of communication, and occasionally, verbal elements such as musical accompaniment, chanting, singing, and other vocalizations.
Dance uses all of these tools, in various combinations, to communicate history. Many cultures around the world use storytelling, through the medium of dance, to preserve and communicate their history and cultural identity. For example, in Hawaiian culture, hula dancing is not just a quaint tourist attraction, but also a 2000-year-old form of storytelling that has been used to recount epic tales of their history and legends (Ho’omanawanui 86). Hula was proclaimed, “the heartbeat of the Hawaiian people,” in the nineteenth century by Ali’I Nui (king) David La’amea Kalakaua (Ho’omanawanui 86). The Hawaiians felt that the Hula was so important to preserving their culture that they continued to pass on the traditions and teachings of it in secret when it was banned in the 1830’s for being “lewd and lascivious (Ho’omanawanui 86).” The Native American tribes also perpetuated their history and culture through the storytelling medium of dance (Miller 4). Native Americans still meet at powwow dances to tell stories of their warriors, myths and legends that make up their cultures, not only to celebrate their traditions but also to remember them and to share them with the future generations (Miller 4). Dance is so fundamental to perpetuating cultural identity that the U.S. government tried to ban and suppress Native American dance in an attempt to assimilate them into the white man’s culture.
The Argentine Tango is a source of social history and Argentina’s culture. Tango’s own history begins the in bordellos and bars of Argentina in the 1880, where the alienated underclass of immigrants and creoles danced to songs about discontent and passion (Castro 290). By the early 1900s it became a part of pop culture, became more accepted by the rest of society and recognized all over the world (Castro 290). But even today, in a way that cannot be truly expressed by words alone, when there is a tango to be danced, the expression in the music and the movement still express the alienation and passion of the gauchos.
Dance can also communicate traditions because it is apart of so many historical events both personal and public. The waltz is a traditional ingredient at many celebrations throughout life. A girl’s Quinceanera in Mexico, which can be likened to a U.S. girl’s sweet sixteen or debutante coming out party, traditionally signifies a girl’s sexual maturity, that she is ready for marriage. This rite of passage usually includes a party with dancing, the most important dance being the waltz she dances with her father, her last dance as a little girl, symbolizing the passing of her childhood to womanhood. When a woman marries, she will dance a waltz at her wedding with her husband, symbolically marking a new chapter in their lives with a dance. The waltz is also a part of ringing in the New Year. New Year’s Eve balls in Europe, the U.S. and other parts of the world will celebrate the holiday each year with the Viennese Waltz. Traditionally waltz is also the last dance of the evening.
Whether it happens to be a waltz or the chicken dance, dancing takes place and is the focal point of other significant moments in life that communicate culture and custom. The high school prom is important to many adolescents; and even if only their parents realize it at the time, the senior prom marks the passage of American adolescence, graduating high school and moving on to college. The homecoming dances traditionally take place at the beginning of the fall semester and, when students “come back home” from summer vacation and resume their studies. In the movie “Footloose,” the main character, Ren, is campaigning for a high school senior dance in his town. When Ren is before the town council, he quotes scriptures from the bible that are about times to dance. We also makes a speech about it being, “our time to dance,” meaning it’s time for his senior class to celebrate where they are in life. Dance punctuates these rites of passage and defining moments that humans share, thereby communicating the traditions that make up cultures.
Social skills are also communicated through dance. Senior lecturer at the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Yosef Garfinkel, notes that in pre-urban and pre-state societies, dancing was “an activity that organizes individuals and collectively disciplines them” (85). He also noted, “Those who participate in the dance accept the rules of the community and its rules” (85). Social skills help people interact with others successfully within a culture even now, in modern times. This can be seen in the way dance affects children’s social behaviors. In the film, “Mad Hot Ballroom,” three different fifth grade classes of New York City’s public elementary schools are taught ballroom dancing and prepare for a competition. There is a noticeable change in the students as the film progresses, they carry themselves more confidently, come to class on time with their shirts tucked in, and treat each other and the teachers with more respect as they learn their rumbas and foxtrots. One of the teachers gets emotional when she is interviewed because she is so proud of how they’ve become, “little ladies and gentlemen.” In Korea, there was a study done with three kindergarten boys who, according to their teachers, showed social isolation, and were diagnosed by a pediatric psychiatry hospital as having maladaptive behaviors such as, hitting, table banging, biting, and throwing temper tantrums (Lee et al. 42). The boys were included in a group of kindergarten children that did not show maladaptive behaviors and they were all taught a program which “focused on dancing and touching peers to the words of a song” (Lee et al. 42). After sing, touching, and dancing to the “Hokey Pokey” and “Put You Finger in the Air” over a period of thirty-five sessions, the three boys’ frequency of inappropriate behaviors when down and their appropriate response behaviors when up, both considerably (Lee et al. 42). According to an article in Early Childhood Education Journal, “When dance is integrated into the curriculum, particularly when learning about other cultures, children benefit in many ways: body awareness and control, personal confidence and esteem, and cultural understanding and respect” (Lutz and Kuhlman 40).
Unfortunately, even though dance is an integral part of transmitting culture, this capability is virtually ignored by the general public. In a random survey that was taken of people on the street in Phoenix, when asked if they thought dance was a valuable way of communicating culture, most people said, “no.” And the fact that dance is only taught as an elective class in high school, or it’s something that has to be learned as an extra curricular activity, is proof that society doesn’t realize the potential dance has in communicating culture. At best, the general public appears to view dance as entertainment.
But dance is more than just entertainment. “Dance is found in almost every society and has always been as much a form of social and religious expression as it is a creative one” (Garfinkel 84). Maybe in the 21st century, the United States, dance can be considered entertainment, but presently, in Afghanistan and Indonesia dancing is being banned in order to disestablish certain religious beliefs that don’t align with the governments’ beliefs (Talamantes 356). Maybe we’re missing out valuable meanings and insights cultures by undervaluing the messages that only dance can convey.
Works Cited
Castro, Donald s. “The Soul of the People: The Tango as a Source for Argentine Social History.” Studies in Latin American Popular Culture 9 (1990): 270-296.
Footloose. Dir. Herbert Ross. Paramount 1984.
Garfinkel, Yosef. “The Earliest Dancing Scenes in the Near East.” Near Eastern Archaeology 66:3 (2003): 84-95.
Ho’omanawanui, Ku’ualoha. “Kanaka Maol; Empowerment Through Literature.” American Indian Quarterly Winter/Spring (2004): 86-91.
Lee, Sang Bok, et al. “Encouraging Social Skills Through Dance: An Inclusion Program in Korea.” Teaching Exceptional Children 34.5 (2002): 40-44.
Lutz,Tamara, and Kuhlman, Wilma D. “Learning About Children Through Dance in Kindergarten Classrooms.” Early Childhood Education Journal 28.1 (2000): 35-40.
Mad Hot Ballroom. Dir. Marilyn Agrelo. Paramount 2003.
Miller, Heather Andrews. “Dance Reflects Tradition and History.” Windspeaker June 2006: 4.
Ortiz, Dr. Joseph. Personal interview. 18 July 2006.
Talamantes, Maria. “Performance of Identity: The Pelegonga Andir of Tista, Bali.” Asian Theatre Journal 23.2 (2006): 356-373.
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