LITERATURE, MUSIC, AND DANCE. (continued 2)
Reading edition
We are not well informed in regard to the local distribution of dance types among primitive people but enough is known to allow us to state that, as in decorative art and in music, areas of similar dance forms occur. The joint dances of the Pueblo Indians in which participate a large number of dancers dressed alike and in formation, are quite foreign to the North Pacific coast where the single dance prevails. In the formal woman’s dance of the Northwest Coast, the dancer stays in the same place with hands raised to the height of the face, palms forward and trembling. The body movements are carried on by gentle bending of the knees and slight swaying of the body. The Koryak dancer who holds the drum, moves in quite another way, swinging his body from the hips and beating the drum (see fig. 73, p. 79). Joint dances of the two sexes are rare and the dancers do not often so move that their bodies are in intimate contact. We find more frequently either single dances or a number of performers who repeat the same movements. The effectiveness of the dance is increased by the order in which the dancers stand and move.
Symbolic movements are perhaps even more frequent than purely formal dance. They are used not only in accompanying song but also in oratory, and the muscular play accompanying lively conversation of both the speaker and the hearer is a manifestation of the relation between language and symbolic movements. These are also standardized in each cultural area. The number of organically determined gestures is very small. Most of them are culturally patterned. Many are so automatic that they are called forth immediately by the form of thought. In other cases the speaker enhances the effect of his words by appropriate gestures and the meaning of song is often brought out more vividly by significant movements. Thus the chorus of the Indians of the Pueblo of Laguna sing:
“In the east rises the sun youth, Here westward he moves with life and vegetation. Carrying them in his basket while he is walking along.”
When this song is sung the singer faces westward and moves forward. The word “vegetation” is expressed by pushing the hands alternately upward; “basket” by describing a wide circle with both hands and bringing them together in front of the body. The gesture expresses the act of carrying in a basket. The word “walking” is indicated by stretching the hands out forward in front of the body and waving them up and up.
The Kwakiutl sing as follows:[167]
“I am going around the world eating everywhere with Cannibal-at-the-North-End-of-the-World. I went to the center of the world; Cannibal-at-the- North-End-of-the-World is crying “food”.
The dancer accompanies this song which is sung by a chorus, with movements. His arms tremble from right to left. To the words, “I am going” the arms are stretched out to one side; “All around the world”, they swing around in a round circle; “I,” the shoulders are alternately brought forward and backward; “eating everywhere”, the right hand stretches far out as though it was taking food, and is then brought to the mouth, while the left describes a wide circle, indicating “everywhere”; “Cannibal-at-the-North-End-of-the-World”, both hands are bent inward and the finger tips moved toward the mouth, meaning “the eater”; “I went” is expressed as before; “Cannibal-at-North-End-of-the-World is crying ‘food’ for me”, the sign of the cannibal spirit is made; then the arms are stretched far backward, the palms turned downward, and the head is lowered, this being the cannibal spirit’s attitude when crying “food”. “At the center of the world”, when these words are sung the dancer is in front of the fire and looks up to the rear of the house in the characteristic attitude of the cannibal, the rear of the house being the center of the world.
The further development of movement accompanying the song leads to true pantomimic and ultimately to dramatic performances.