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Anca Giurchescu Power of Dance Anthropology of Dance
Anca Giurchescu Power of Dance Anthropology of Dance
Anca Giurchescu
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Sun Feb 3 18:02:49 2008
THE POWER OF DANCE AND ITS SOCIAL AND
POLITICAL USES'
By Anca Giurchescu
Introduction
Elaborating upon the social aspects of dance (or dancing), makes reference to its
most general and comprehensive features, because dance is in essence a particular
form of social interaction. Even if dance can be artificially separated from its social
context and considered solely in its physical features as an independent artistic
means of expression: the social component is implicit to the dancing person as an
individual and as a member of a socio-cultural community. From this perspective
dance structure may be considered as a culturally determined "program" where
social, historical and environmental factors interlock with the physical,
psychological and mental features of the individual (Giurchescu 1984: 35).
Considered as a psychosomatic entity, the dancer is the "soul and body" of dance.
He or she is the dance.
If we intend to go beyond a dance description and answer to the question
WHAT is dance (not only how it is performed) dance should be studied in two
ways: one is situated on a syntactic level and is made up of all social events
existing in a given community, that is, dance is studied as a living phenomenon,
here and now; the other is situated on a paradigmatic level and is comprised of the
philosophicallideological, socio-political, economic and cultural systems which
function in a given community. In other words, to answer questions on the role and
significance of dance, the study of dance must include both perspectives: dancing
as an integral part of a network of social events, and dance as part of a system of
knowledge and belief, social behaviour and aesthetic norms and values. That is, an
anthropological perspective should be correlated with the more analytical
choreological one; together they comprise the analysis of a dance system and the
structural make up of a dance in its formal features.'
' This article is based on the keynote speech "The power of dance symbol and its socio-
political use" which opened the section on "Dance and its socio-political asspects" at the
17th Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Ethnochoreology, Nafplion, 1992 and
published in the Proceedings (Loutzaki 1994: 15-23).
As a former senior researcher at the Institute of Ethnography and Folklore in Bucharest
(1953-1979) most of the comments and examples concerning both the social role of dance in
rural and urban settings and the political-ideological use and abuse of dance, stem from
empirical knowledge acquired under the Communist regime and since 1990 in post-
Communist Romania.
The study of dance in its choreographic features has been a necessary theoretical and
methodological approach, which helped to disclose rules of grammar, define concepts and
provide tools for dance structure and form analysis. See Kaeppler 1972; Report of the IFMC
Study Group for Folk Dance Terminology 1974; Dabrowska and Petermann 1983.
Is it only a one to one relationship between structure and significance, or can one and the
same significance be carried by different dance types? This kind of inquiry in Romanian
traditional culture shows that there are relations of interdetermination between the dance's
pertinent traits and its significancelfunction.
110 / 2001 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC
The power of dance rests in acts of performance by dancers and spectators alike, in
the process of making sense of dance rather than in the cultural products of those
processes, and in linking dance experience to other sets of ideas and social
experiences. (Blacking 1984: 20).
The fact that dance is not reducible to any other form of human activity reveals its
significance and justifies its existence. Therefore dance has always been an important
symbolic instrument in ritual contexts, in art events, in social communication and
political action. It follows then, that studies of dance should have a double
orientation-towards the people and towards their practices.
In 1976, in a village of southern Romania, people over forty considered the urban up-to-
date dances performed by the youth as meaningless practices, as disorganised, wild jumping.
Conversely, for the youngsters modem dancing made a lot of sense: it served both as symbol
and instrument of social change from the rural culture, represented by local folk dances, to
urban culture symbolised by a more international repertoire.
The concept of "cultural text" was introduced by I.M. Lotman in his studies on cultural
semiotics (Winner 1976, Sukman 1978).
GIURCHESCU THE POWER OF DANCE / 111
Each of these constituents may, for theoretical and analytical purposes, be studied as
autonomous means of expression.
' A Romanian-speaking population of north-east Serbia, which settled in Denmark and
southern Sweden in the mid-1960s. (Giurchescu 1989)
For example, during the Communist regime, a folklore ensemble has recreated on stage the
ritual of swearing brotherhood (of the region Banat) to support and reinforce the political
idea of brotherhood and harmony amonithe minority in Romania.
At the election for the Roma party in 1991-when a famous accordion player was a
candidate because he taught of young musicians-no political speeches were
held. Instead, thousands of participants expressed their enthusiastic approval by playing
music and dancing for hours on a stadium in Bucharest.
112 / 200 1 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC
marital status, profession, outsider or insider, and other criteria. Research on the
system of premarital ceremonies in Romania, for example, demonstrates that the
common dance event, the "village dance", functions as a "show-case" for both the
prescribed patterns of interaction between young men and girls, and for the marital
strategies carried out by fa mi lie^.'^ With regard to gender roles, it should be
stressed that the whole event develops under male domination, while the girls are
in a submissive position to both the family and the young men.
Moreover, due to its instrumental power, dance may be used for
structuring, maintaining, or changing a social system in accordance with a given
group's ideology and socio-political interests. For example, dancing at the event
called hora is used by the Vlach population living in Denmark in two antithetical
ways: firstly, to create a symbolic framework in which the unity of the group is
reinforced and the symbolic bonds with their homeland traditions are strengthened;
and secondly, to remodel the social group and prepare the youth for achieving a
higher socio-economic status and integration into Danish society without loss of
identity.
Rules of behaviour, functioning in everyday life, are symbolised and
reinforced in the framework of a dance event by the placement of the onlookers in
space and of the dancers in the dance formation. For example, in northern Romania
(Maramure~and Oa? areas) men and women are segregated and children, grown-
ups, and old people are placed around the dance space according to a prescribed
hierarchy. Their proxemics allow very little personal space. People are tightly
linked together, symbolising social closeness, which also characterises the family
and neighbourhood everyday life.
The use of space also functions as a metonym for social hierarchy. In the
Romanian dance culture (and in many others) the space in front of the musicians is
considered the space of honour which conveys prestige status and public
recognition for the dancers and their actions. Moreover, the social structure of the
village is symbolised by the arrangement of the participants in the dance space, the
places being inherited from older members of the families (in Oas). The placement
of the dancers in a chain dance formation is a metonym for social and artistic
hierarchy. For example, in the Vlach chain dance hora the leading dancer is
followed by his family or friends ranged according to prestige status and age, the
chain being closed by a relative of the leader. Compact groups of best friends
cannot be split by an "outsider". Youngsters are massed at the end of the chain,
while small children are carried in the dance with great pride by their parents.
It is a common practice that a very skilled dancer becomes the leader of
his age group in all kinds of events and social activities during a whole year. In
many dance cultures movement patterns are definitely ascribed to men or women.
The attributes connoted by these movements may translate into
superioritylinferiority, dominant/subordinate, aggressivelsubdued or publiclprivate
types of relationships."
lo Research has been carried out over a longer span of time in Maramurev, northern Romania
(Giurchescu, 1986). More recently, similar research has been done among the Vlach
minority living in Denmark (see note 8).
" Transformation of social status is expressed and enforced by the way people dance and
behave at a dance event. In order to show emancipation, for example, women may adopt
men's vocabulary of movements, they may lead the chain, they even may participate in
rituals prescribed for men, and refuse to obey the "old fashioned" rules of etiquette. See also
114 / 2001 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC
the studies dedicated to those categories of dances which have a gender and age group
affirming function, such as Hip Hop (Torp 1986).
GIURCHESCU THE POWER OF DANCE / 115
As long as a group manifests its cohesion by segregating the "in-group" from the
"out-group", and succeeds in remaining different, it is able to maintain its
identity.12
There are two modalities for group identification: a subjective one, which
refers to ideology (the conscience of a common origin), and an objective one,
which includes material markers: language, way of dressing, religion, beliefs, food,
dancing, music making, etc. (Royce 1982: 20-21). From this perspective the role of
tradition and traditional symbols is very important. Tradition gives stability, the
awareness of belonging to a certain group and to a certain place. For example,
urbanised peasants return periodically to their villages, just as the Vlach living in
Denmark do because they need the contact with their homeland. The same need for
roots justifies the organisation of traditional dance events in urban settings. A
Vlach told me: "We bring with us to Denmark the moroi (spirit of the dead) and
the hora (dance event), but all weddings, baptisms and burials are done at home, in
the village".13
Traditional symbols may also function to differentiate groups. From this
perspective of national and international festivals, which at an ideological level
aim to unify people, are in fact used to strengthen local and regional identity via
the originality and authenticity of their performances that are symbols for
differentiation.
'' Dancing is an important marker of Vlach ambivalent identity: on the one hand, by
performing their chain dance hora, the Vlach create boundaries which both unify the group
and separate it from outsiders. On the other hand, by inviting orchestras from Beograd and
performing staged suites with dances from all the former Yugoslav republics, the Vlach try
to hide their ethnic identity and appear as Yugoslavs or Serbs. However, during the bloody
ethnic and religious battles in former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, when the Vlach wanted to
assert their ethnic identity and limit non-Vlach participation in dance events, they hired only
musicians from their homeland to play only Vlach dance melodies.
l 3 Research carried out in the early 1970s in the outskirts of Bucharest revealed the existence
of several dancing spaces where people from different social layers, but coming from the
same province (such as Oltenia, Transylvania, Moldova, Banat), gathered to dance together.
The repertoire was comprised of a few regional dances reduced to standardised patterns, thus
enabling everybody to participate.
116 / 2001 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC
common historical past, a common world view and way of living (Mesnil 1997:
26). Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, in Central and South-Eastem
Europe, folklore (as a product of the Volksgeist) was used in politics to symbolise
the nation-state and to strengthen national awareness: "Rural expressive culture has
become emblematic of national identity and folklore performances have played a
large role in presenting and articulating this association" (Dubinskas 1984).14In
contemporary Romania, traditional symbols are manipulated to bring the past into
the present, thereby supporting the concept of permanence, and to illustrate the
principle of "unity in diversity" with reference to a unitary national culture as
expressed through the diversity of its regional forms. What is deliberately forgotten
in the reconstruction of the historical past are the frequent cohabitation with
migratory populations and the great capacity of oral tradition for integration and
adaptation of foreign elements.
Manipulationof symbols
It should be stressed that it is not the insiders of a given culture, but rather the
outsiders, who define and use concepts such as folklore, tradition, authentic,
representative and national. Defining folklore is in essence a question of selection
made by a decision-making group in accordance with the ideology and political
interests of that group. It designates aspects of culture which may suit the group's
aims and principles.
who could not be controlled and directed made their own choices, such as local
patriotism, prestige status, aesthetic satisfaction, or entertainment.15
Manipulation of concepts
It may be argued, from a theoretical point of view, that vernacular folklore and
stage-adjusted folklore exist in indivisible and unbroken continuity. However,
considering the practice of symbolic transformation and manipulation, it is
necessary to formally separate the here and now processes of folklore from
selected products (dance, music, costumes) that are performed within the
framework of a spectacle, and which are generally called "folklorism".
The passage from folklore to folklorism in South-Eastern European countries is in
essence a symbolic transformation from social to artistic significance, and from
variation to fixed forms. Folklore and folklorism can exist as two simultaneous
systems of communication, mutually influencing each other.16 The major
difference between folklore and folklorism lies in the fact that folklore is a non-
controllable process, while folklorism results from strictly guided selection and
transformation of folklore. Therefore folklorism was, and still is, used in cultural
politics as an important instrument for education and social change. In order to
legitimate folklorism, the Communist cultural management equated folklorism
with folklore by covering up their basic difference and presenting all forms of
folklorism as "present day folklore" and "folklore of the socialist epoch.
Conversely, the uncontrollable, living tradition was marginalised, being considered
subject to pollution and disintegration. According to this theory, real and authentic
folklore should exist only in the artistic and crystallised forms as presented by
professional and amateur ensembles." Because it bears such connotations as
originality, purity, and genuineness, the concept of authenticity was, and still is,
invoked to support this theoretical confusion. However, authenticity is a romantic
construction. If authenticity has the connotation of "truth", then every performance
which makes sense for the people is implicitly authentic. Conversely, in the
context of a stage performance even the closest reproduction of a folklore model
still remains an imitation.
l5 In Hungary, for young people who opposed the rigidity of the Communist regime as
expressed in stereotyped symbols, improvisation became the most important trait of folk
creation. The wide-spread ranchas movement (free performance of traditional dance and
music) was governed by the principle of improvisation.
l6 In the context of festivals, performances on stage may exist side by side with free dancing
off stage, thereby providing the opportunity for people to experience and compare these two
contrastive situations. An obvious border between them is shown by the fact that in
principle, everybody may participate in the free dancing, but only selectedltrained dancers
perform on stage.
" For the vlach of former Yugoslavia, for example, the term folklore designates only stage
folk dances, those which are taught by an instructor, while the local, traditional dances,
those defined by specialists as t i e folk dances, are not given a particular term. They are
only common horas.
118 / 2001 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC
l8 This information, which represents the insiders' point of view, may provide an empirical
background for further generalisation.
l 9 In fact, in both rural and urban settings not only one but several modes of choreographic
expression are shared by people in a variable balance: local-traditional, modern-
international, theatrical performances of folklore and art or cultivated dance performances.
In the village Certeze (district Oa? Northern Romania) dancing in a pavilion called
ciupercci (mushroom) still exists as a ritualised social interaction with premarital functions.
The topography of the village and its kinship structure is symbolically represented via the
inherited spot where the young man dances. The dancing space is the realm of men: no
young woman is allowed to enter without being invited. For overcoming inferiority and
subordination, girls use spells and witchcraft in order to be invited to dance and get married.
GIURCHESCU THE POWER OF DANCE 1 119
giving him or her pride and social prestige. Hence, he or she expects to be
rewarded for performance (payment, awards, travel abroad). If
expectations are not fulfilled, an ensemble may disintegrate and the
disappointed artists will only seldom reintegrate themselves into the
common traditional dance event-the village dance.
5. The competitive character of festivals, however, reinforces awareness of
the artistic value of their local tradition. The search for originality results
in the revival of obsolete dances, some of which may be re-actualised in
traditional social contexts.
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[Footnotes]
11
"Hip Hop Dances": Their Adoption and Function among Boys in Denmark from 1983-84
Lisbet Torp
Yearbook for Traditional Music, Vol. 18. (1986), pp. 29-36.
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References Cited
Power and Charm. Interaction of Adolescent Men and Women in Traditional Settings of
Transylvania
Anca Giurchescu
Yearbook for Traditional Music, Vol. 18. (1986), pp. 37-46.
Stable URL:
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A Comparative Analysis between the "Cålus" of the Danube Plain and "Cålu#erul" of
Transylvania (Romania)
Anca Giurchescu
Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, T. 34, Fasc. 1/2. (1992), pp. 31-44.
Stable URL:
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LINKED CITATIONS
- Page 2 of 2 -
Method and Theory in Analyzing Dance Structure with an Analysis of Tongan Dance
Adrienne L. Kaeppler
Ethnomusicology, Vol. 16, No. 2. (May, 1972), pp. 173-217.
Stable URL:
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"Hip Hop Dances": Their Adoption and Function among Boys in Denmark from 1983-84
Lisbet Torp
Yearbook for Traditional Music, Vol. 18. (1986), pp. 29-36.
Stable URL:
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NOTE: The reference numbering from the original has been maintained in this citation list.