Dance as it relates to Culture

by Victoria Gronauer- Dancer

Victoria says - The essence of most dance techniques comes from the isolation of a particular limb or area of the body. Much of our world's cultures can be seen in these isolated techniques. Not only are dance styles isolations of specific limb and torso movements but, much of these isolations came about as a result of the restrictions imposed by clothing.

It is very hard to separate movement from culture and clothing. Therefore, much of a country's history can be seen in the dance style of that country.

As was the style of Siam (early Thailand), the movement was restricted to include very little torso movement due to the fact that very little of the torso, waist or thigh was ever exposed. The beauty of the Siamese culture came from emphasizing the nails, headdress and feet. This is common of much of Asian dance movement because the restriction of the torso was a way of freeing the rest of the body to the graceful and fluid continuance of movement.

I think that this was rooted from the movement first being a reverence to the 'entertained' before an entertainment tool.

Flamenco shows much emphasis on the display of the back just as classical ballet shows emphasis on the elongation of the lines of the legs and feet. Jazz loves the shoulders and hips. Salsa emphasizes the hips and knees and Hula, the knees and elbows.

If you break any dance movement down to the core movement, a specific isolation will emerge as well as much of the history of the land.