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The Desire To Dance

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The document is a student paper analyzing the origins and purposes of dance throughout history. It discusses how ancient peoples used dance for spiritual purposes like communicating with gods and ancestors or ensuring health. Dances were seen as having power and were often performed by shamans during healing rituals. While styles of dance have changed over time, the underlying purpose of connection and communication has persisted across cultures from ancient times to today.

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The Desire To Dance

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34 views3 pages
The document is a student paper analyzing the origins and purposes of dance throughout history. It discusses how ancient peoples used dance for spiritual purposes like communicating with gods and ancestors or ensuring health. Dances were seen as having power and were often performed by shamans during healing rituals. While styles of dance have changed over time, the underlying purpose of connection and communication has persisted across cultures from ancient times to today.

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the desire to dance

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The document is a student paper analyzing the origins and purposes of dance throughout history. It discusses how ancient peoples used dance for spiritual purposes like communicating with gods and ancestors or ensuring health. Dances were seen as having power and were often performed by shamans during healing rituals. While styles of dance have changed over time, the underlying purpose of connection and communication has persisted across cultures from ancient times to today.

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34 views3 pages

The Desire To Dance

Uploaded by

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The document is a student paper analyzing the origins and purposes of dance throughout history. It discusses how ancient peoples used dance for spiritual purposes like communicating with gods and ancestors or ensuring health. Dances were seen as having power and were often performed by shamans during healing rituals. While styles of dance have changed over time, the underlying purpose of connection and communication has persisted across cultures from ancient times to today.

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Zaugg 1

Broxton Zaugg

Professor Amanda Sowerby

Dance 1010

5/17/2020

The Desire to Dance

We see it in movies. We have a Television show dedicated to it. Some do it

professionally while others do it for fun. Dance is everywhere, in every culture and every century

we as mankind love dance, But why? For something so prevalent in our culture, dance is

something that generally most of us don't know about.

Dance has changed and evolved over centuries, and dance as we know it today is very

different to dances performed by ancient peoples. Today dance is seen as entertainment more

than anything else, but dance has a much deeper and more meaningful origin than one would

expect. Ancient peoples used dances to “connect with the spirit world of ancestors and gods, a

means of ensuring health and good fortune and a vital part of major events in the community”

(Lihs 8).

Dances were believed to have power or to invite power into one's life. One example of

this is the performing of Medicine Dances.These dances were performed to restore health, and

also to protect from disease or illness. These diseases and illnesses were often believed to be

caused by spirits. Ancient peoples believed that dances should be performed by Shamans.

“Shaman, refers to a practitioners who canwill his or her spirit to leave the body and journey to

upper and lower words, seeking the underlying causes of events” (Lihs 9). These Shamans would

perform healing on a spiritual level through the power of dance.


Zaugg 2

Though all the dances at ancient times were different, they all had a similar purpose. This

purpose was to connect with their gods or ancestors. One example of this, is the Yoruba people

of Nigeria. They would use dance as a “direct channel of communication with ancestors” (Lihs

12). This form of outreach was prominent in many cultures throughout the world. They would

also use dance to pay respects or serve those who are out of reach. These dances of respect were

found in many cultures including, the Indian, Jewish, Native American cultures, and many more.

These dances of respect were done to convey messages that could not be expressed through

words or writings.

Dance throughout the ages has served higher and holier purposes. They were used to

draw power, communicate, and pay respects to the gods and ancestors. Today we are losing the

culture and the meaning of these dances, many of the dances that were practiced anciently are no

longer practiced, or lost altogether. Many different cultures are having a hard time getting the

rising generation to embrace the dances practiced by their ancestors. Even though it is hard to

preserve these dances and traditions, there are some cultures that still teach and perform these

dances.

Dance is an ancient and unique art form that has always and will always be used to

communicate and connect. In ancient times, people were trying to connect with their gods and

ancestors, but today dance is performed more to connect with each other and with oneself. As we

continue with our evolution of dance, the ideas, the moves, and the reasons for dancing may

change, but the underlying purpose never will. We dance because we want to connect and

express on a deeper level.


Zaugg 3

Works Cited

Lihs, Harriet R. ​Appreciating Dance: a Guide to the World's Liveliest Art​. ​4th ed. ​Princeton

Book Company, Publishers, 2018.

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