The Circle, the Score, the Pulsation, the Group Body

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Check in

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Unit: The Circle

 

Theme: The Circle, the Score, the Pulsation, the Group, the Body

 

Introduction

 

The circle is a frame or formation that has contained dance since ancient times. For this reason is has also being the shape used to provide dance medicine for our early human communities. To this day, the circle provides an opportunity for a type of communal embodied integration that is emotionally and psychologically healing. Dance rituals, for instance, which as stated by Halprin (2015) are dances with a purpose, have traditionally been created to affect the world. Thus, the circle, the procession, the conga, and other forms of dance rituals, have given shape to communal healing gatherings. Dance movement therapists have adopted the circle as a viable way of providing a frame for group therapy.

 

 

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III

 

Learning Objectives

 

• Understand how the Cartesian model affects the body-mind connection
  
• Explain how the arts affect the integration of human experience
• Gain an awareness if the importance of dance for humans
• Experience organized movement, or score, as as a tool for human cohesion
• Reflect on the movement experience as a group
  

 

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IV

 

 

Main Lesson

1

The Circle: Joseph Campbell

 

2

 

Book Link:

Primitive Expression and Dance Therapy: When Dance Heals

 

Question 1

Click on the link above; scroll down to page 3. Read page 3.

According to the author, France Schott-Billman; how do Western dualism and Cartesian separation affect  humans?

 

Question 2

        How can the arts, specifically dance,  help in integrating human experience?

3

 

Human Evolution

Keeping Together in Time

Pages (7,8) Reflecting on these matters ... "Boundless loss"

& (13,14) Community dancing ... At first blush

 

 Question 3

According to McNeill (1995), what elements of community dancing make dance a uniquely human experience of cohesive performance?

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A Note to Remember

The circle is an emblematic example of the way humans have organized themselves to share their inner sense of self, each other and the space in dance. Modern concepts have separated mind and body as if they are two different entities. This has created generations of disembodied people who have forgotten how to integrate body, mind, the community and a higher sense of being. However, this can be fixed by creating new dance rituals where a score and a sense of purpose can

 

 

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VI

Case Studies

1

 

Mass Body Pulsation /Rock Concert

 

Metallica

Metallica is an American heavy metal band. The band was formed in 1981 in Los Angeles by vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrumentals and aggressive musicianship made them one of the founding "big four" bands of thrash metal. 

In September 1991, 1.6 million rock music fans converged in Moscow to enjoy the first open-air rock concert to be held in the former Soviet Union; it was part of the Monsters of Rock series. In this video one can witness testimonies of the control the KGB, the main security agency for the Soviet Union from 13 March 1954 until 3 December 1991, tried to exercise on the crowd. KGB stands for Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti, which translates to “Committee for State Security.” On December26, 1991, the Soviet Union disintegrated. 

What is important about this video is the pulsing of the crowd to the sound of rock, which Jordan Peterson explains in the video below.

 

 (2:00 - 4:00)

 

 Peterson

 Jordan Bernt Peterson is a Canadian psychologist, author, and media commentator. He began to receive widespread attention in the late 2010s for his views on cultural and political issues, often described as conservative. Peterson has described himself as a classic British liberal and a traditionalist.

 

(15:30 - 19:06)

2

Circular Mass Body/ Sufi Male Dance

 

Zikr 

 

Zikr is a form of devotion, associated chiefly with Sufism, in which the worshiper is absorbed in the rhythmic repetition of the name of God or his attributes. Zikr is the sacred phrase "La Ilaha, El Allah Hu" spoken or sung aloud, and means "There is no reality, except God." Zikr, which means "Remembrance," is intended to take the practitioner beyond intellectual belief into spiritual experience. Many Sufi schools use movement and dance as part of their spiritual endeavors. In fact, it appears that all indigenous cultures have used sacred dance to reverence the Divine and to facilitate ecstatic states.

3

 Mass Body: Eastern-Cuba Conga

 

Los Hoyos

 

 

Lani Milstein (2014) says that Santiago’s conga has its roots in 17th century exhibitions by the various cabildos (mutual aid/slave nation societies). Authorities designated a time at the end of the sugar harvest when slaves were allowed to play their music and dance in costume in the streets. The large population from Saint-Domingue that had come to Santiago following the Haitian Revolution became one of the most prominent communities in the city and in the emergence of carnaval. Other highly visible groups contributing to carnaval included slaves from the central Congo and Calabar (Cross River State, Nigeria) regions of Africa (in Cuba, those descending from the latter are known as Carabalí.) The early 20th century also saw a large influx of migrant workers into Santiago from Jamaica, Haiti and other parts of the Caribbean—hence Santiago’s moniker, “the most Caribbean city on the island.”

 

Miami's historian Mercedes Sandoval in one of her classes explained that conga comes from the Abakua (from Calabar), whom at the end of their ritual, would come out to the streets and dance in line around the block. Milstein adds that the movement associated with conga, called arrollando, (which translates as running-over) is a march characterized by exaggerated hip swaying, and is not found anywhere else in Cuba, though similar movements are found across the Caribbean. All these elements combine to form something special that you won’t find outside of Oriente, the eastern region of the island. 

 

 

Question 4

After watching these videos; why do you think dance is important for humans?

 

 

4

 

 Ana Halprin: Modern Ritual & the Score

 Planetary Dance

 

Anna Halprin (1920-2021) was an American choreographer and dancer. She helped redefine dance in postwar America and pioneer the experimental art form known as postmodern dance and referred to herself as a breaker of the rules of modern dance.

In 1980, Anna Halprin—already one of America’s leading dance pioneers—and her husband, Lawrence, a renowned landscape architect, undertook a workshop in Marin County, California, called “A Search for Living Myths and Rituals Through Dance and the Environment.”

At that time women were being murdered on the trails of Mt. Tamalpais in Marin County. The “Trailside Killer” had just claimed his fifth victim. In response, the Marin County sheriff closed all the trails on Mt.Tamalpais to the public and posted warning signs all around the mountain’s feet to keep people out.

The participants in Anna and Larry’s workshop identified Mt. Tamalpais as the environmental, recreational, and spiritual center of Marin County. Their feelings of fear, rage, and impotence in the face of the killings burst out. They desperately wanted to do something to express their feelings and somehow to reclaim their mountain. Over her life, Anna had experienced glimpses of the power of ritual dance—a dance done to accomplish a purpose. She turned to ritual dance, as a way to accomplish what the workshop participants wanted.

In 1987, the Planetary Dance took place.  That year, there were 40 different Planetary Dances in close to 40 different countries around the world. The Planetary Dance literally circled the earth, beginning in Australia and proceeding through the Americas and Europe to end in Asia. By now, decades later, the Planetary Dance has been performed many, many hundreds of times in hundreds of locations around the world. Every Planetary Dance every year is “A dance for peace among people and peace with the Earth. “ In addition, each year the Planetary Dance has a special theme.

 

 

 

Question  5

 

After watching Halprin's Planetary Dance, how does the score facilitate the ritual dance?

 

 

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VII

Activity 

 

a) Go to your group and create a movement phrase  to create a sense of pulsation and group body. 

b) Share your session with the class.

c) Explain in which way would your dance/session heal your clients.

b) Reflect on the exercise as a group, and post your reflection, (as a group), on Discussion Board.

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VIII

Glossary

dance score

mass body

mass body pulsation

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 Sources

Melstein, Lani (2014). La Conga: Santiago de Cuba’s Badge of Honor. https://revista.drclas.harvard.edu/la-conga/

Planetary Dance: A Story.  https://www.planetaryphilosophy.com/planetary-dance/planetary-dance-a-story/

Jordan Peterson: Truth in the Time of Chaos - full documentary. https://youtu.be/EjqXXengN1s

 

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