Huwebes, Marso 24, 2011

PARASOL DANCE

The History of the Parasol Dance

Dance boasts a long-standing history in Japanese culture. Its roots extend deep into Shintoism, but it branches out into several different forms. Parasol dancing is one form of Japanese dance, which has a historical place within the geisha scene as well as certain types of Japanese theatre.

1. The Dance

The dance involves a Japanese parasol, and dancers wear brightly colored kimonos and wooden shoes. Girls move around in shuffling steps to a Mikado song (one in 4/4 time). Counting during the dance is generally done in twos for one measure and in four for two measures. A parasol dancer may dance alone or in a group of four. The dance starts with the parasol opened and held over the head, with the dancer's hands at chest level. As the dance progresses, the parasol is moved about.

2. Mythology of Japanese Dance

Japanese dance in general has its roots in Shintoism. The first Japanese dance was connected to the legend of Amaterasu Omikami, the sun goddess who is said to be the ancestor of the Imperial family. Amaterasu's brother, Susanoo, destroyed her garden. In despair, Amaterasu locked herself in a cave, casting a cold darkness over the entire world. Finally, Amenouzume no Mikoto, the goddess of the dawn, decided to performed a dance in front of the rock cave where Amaterasu hid. The dance was so preposterous that the other deities could not stop laughing, thus drawing Amaterasu out by her curiosity.

3. The Geisha

Historians often attribute the parasol dance to early Japanese female entertainers, or geisha. The term "geisha" is often misused in Western culture. Female geisha originally worked in Japanese "pleasure quarters," but their role was notably different from that of the prostitutes who worked in the same quarter. The geisha were not primarily meant to fulfill physical desires. Instead, they were performing artists, whose appeal existed through their art form. Many geisha performed the parasol dance as a sensual act for wealthy men.

4. Noh Theatre

Noh, or nogaku drama, is one of the oldest forms of Japanese theatre. Traditional plays present old stories about the supernatural or the everyday world, and may either be drama-based or dance-based. Dance plays, or furyu no, focus on aesthetics over plot advancement. Although these dance plays do not usually involve parasol dancing, they have a connection to another branch of Japanese theatre: kabuki.

5. Kabuki Theatre

While noh theatre generally involved an all-male cast, kabuki theatre originally started as a female form of entertainment. Female entertainers would act as both male and female characters in plays concerning everyday life. Kabuki plays were more similar to the dance plays of noh theatre than the drama plays, as dancing was a prime aspect of the first female kabuki shows; but these plays also incorporated an entirely new style of dance.

The original plays, dating back to the 1600s, were often seen as too erotic and sensual, and many of the women involved had connections to prostitution. Eventually, women were banned altogether from kabuki theatre for several centuries. Female roles still expressed some form of sensuality, however, even drawing some inspiration from the movements of female geisha. This is likely when kabuki theatre first introduced parasol dancing into its plays and performances.

Parasol Dance

The Japanese Parasol dance has simple choreography and uses an umbrella as a prop. The dance is from the theatrical Kabuki, and is often performed in a group. In groups of four, the dancers face the audience. The opened parasol is held over the head by both hands, with the handle at chest level. The dancers stand approximately four feet away from each other to avoid collision of parasols.

· Shuffle feet forward, starting with the right foot

· Twirl the parasol over the head while shuffling forward

· Turn around clockwise while remaining in the same spot

· Twirl parasol over right shoulder

· Repeat the above steps, this time turning counterclockwise

· Move parasol to left shoulder

· Twirl parasol overhead while returning to original spot

· End by facing audience once again.

Another version of the Parasol dance is a bit more complex.

· Step out to the side with your R foot

· Pull in your left foot next to the right

· Slightly bend knees, and then straighten

· Tilt head to right side, with parasol resting on right shoulder

· Repeat the same sequence, this time to the left side

· Shuffle step clockwise into circle (one circle per group of four)

· Repeat counterclockwise, returning parasol to right shoulder

The History of the Parasol Dance | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_6739393_history-parasol-dance.html#ixzz1GxbfcvrH

http://dance.lovetoknow.com/Japanese_Dance_Moves

Huwebes, Marso 17, 2011

Tarantella

Tarantella, couple folk dance of Italy characterized by light, quick steps and teasing, flirtatious behaviour between partners; womendancers frequently carry tambourines. The music is in lively ⁶/₈ time. Tarantellas for two couples are also danced. The tarantella’s origin is connected with tarantism, a disease or form of hysteria that appeared in Italy in the 15th to the 17th century and that was obscurely associated with the bite of the tarantula spider; victims seemingly were cured by frenzied dancing. All three words ultimately derive from the name of the town of Taranto, Italy.

History

In the region of Taranto in Italy, the bite of a locally common type of wolf spider, named "tarantula" after the region), was popularly believed to be highly poisonous and to lead to a hysterical condition known as tarantism. The stated belief in the 16th and 17th centuries was that victims needed to engage in frenzied dancing to prevent death from tarantism using a very rhythmic and fast music. The particular type of dance and the music played became known as Tarantella. The oldest documents mentioning the relationship between musical exorcism and the tarantula are dated around 1100^.John Compton has proposed that ancient Bacchanalian rites that had been suppressed by the Roman Senate in 186 BC went underground, reappearing under the guise of emergency therapy for bite victims. The tradition persists in the area, and is known as "Neo-Tarantism.” Many young artists, groups and famous musicians are continuing to keep the tradition alive. The music is very different—its tempo is faster, for one thing—but has similar hypnotic effects, especially when people are exposed to the rhythm for a long period of time. The music is used in the therapy of patients with certain forms of depression and hysteria, and its effects on the endocrine system recently became an object of research.

Courtship vs tarantism dances

The stately courtship tarantella is danced by a couple or couples, is short in duration, is graceful and elegant, and features characteristic music. On the other hand, the supposedly curative or symptomatic tarantella was danced solo by a supposed victim of a "tarantula" bite; it was agitated in character, lasted for hours or even up to days, and featured characteristic music. However, other forms of the dance were and still are couple dances (not necessarily a couple of different sexes), usually either mimicking courtship or a sword fight. The confusion appears to arrive from the fact that the spiders, the condition, its sufferers ("tarantolati") and the dances all have similar names to the city of Taranto. The first dance originated in the Naples region and spread next to Apulia, Basilicata and Calabria, all part of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The Neapolitan tarantella is a courtship dance performed by couples whose "rhythms, melodies, gestures and accompanying songs are quite distinct" featuring faster more cheerful music. Its origins may further lie in "a fifteenth-century fusion between the Spanish Fandango and the Moresque 'ballo di sfessartia.'" The "magico-religious" tarantella is a solo dance performed supposedly to cure through perspiration the delirium and contortions attributed to the bite of a spider at harvest (summer) time. The dance was later applied as a supposed cure for the behavior of neurotic women ("'Carnevaletto delle donne'").The original legend tells that someone who had supposedly been bitten by the tarantula (or the Mediterranean black widow) spider had to dance to an upbeat tempo to sweat the poison out.

There are several traditional tarantella groups: Cantori di Carpino','Officina Zoé, Uccio Aloisi gruppu, Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino, Selva Cupina, I Tamburellisti di Torrepaduli.

The tarantella is most commonly played with mandolin and/or accordion. Guitar, flute, fiddle and clarinet are also used.

Tarantism

Reportedly, victims who had collapsed or were convulsing would begin to dance with appropriate music and be revived as if a tarantula had bitten them. The music used to treat dancing mania appears to be similar to that used in the case of tarantism though little is known about either. Justus Hecker (1795–1850), describes in his work Epidemics of the Middle Ages:

A convulsion infuriated the human frame. Entire communities of people would join hands, dance, leap, scream, and shake for hours Music appeared to be the only means of combating the strange epidemic lively, shrill tunes, played on trumpets and fifes, excited the dancers; soft, calm harmonies, graduated from fast to slow, high to low, prove efficacious for the cure.

The music used against spider bites featured drums and clarinets, was matched to the pace of the victim, and is only weakly connected to its later depiction in the tarantellas of Chopin, Liszt, Rossini, and Heller.

While most serious proponents speculated as to the direct physical benefits of the dancing rather than the power of the music a mid-18th century medical textbook gets the prevailing story backwards describing that tarantulas will be compelled to dance by violin music^]. It was thought that the Lycosa tarantula wolf spider had lent the name "tarantula" to an unrelated family of spiders having been the species associated with Taranto but since the lycosa tarantula is not inherently deadly in summer or in winter^[, the highly poisonous Mediterranean black widow (Latrodectus tredecimguttatus) may have been the species originally associated with Taranto's manual grain harvest.

The Tarantella is a dance in which the dancer and the drum player constantly try to upstage each other by dancing longer or playing faster than the other, subsequently tiring one person out first.

How to Do Tarantella Dance Steps

TARANTELLA DANCE