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It is unlikely that there will be someone who has never felt the desire to move to the music: at a disco, a concert or alone with himself, to a melody that captured the heart. Perhaps dancing is a deep need of our soul?
Mankind learned to dance in ancient times, at the very dawn of its history. For our distant ancestors, dance was a means of communicating with the gods. True, the plots were earthly: rain for the harvest, good luck in hunting … “Initially, the dance had a sacred meaning,” explains Aida Ailamazyan, a psychologist and teacher of the musical movement. – The tribe had its own totem in the form of an animal and worshiped it in ritual dances, identifying itself with this same bear or tiger and copying the nature of its movements. Such a dance was performed not for the dancers themselves and not for the audience, but for the deity. The sacred function required the dancer to enter special states of consciousness. “It was an ecstatic practice of going beyond the personality,” adds Alexander Girshon, a specialist in dance movement therapy.
Over time, the sacred side of human culture has separated from the secular – approximately in the same way as the soul and body are divided in our minds. In cult rituals, dance was significantly replaced by chants and sacred music. And secular balls, entertainment carnivals, masquerades have become a real celebration of the body and dance.
express sexuality
Even in the most puritanical or Victorian times, the ball provided an exceptional opportunity for people of the opposite sex to touch each other, to enter into close bodily contact during the dance. And in everyday life, such touching was taboo. “In the history of civilization, couple dances were also part of sexual culture,” Alexander Girshon comments. – In this sense, dance is a demonstration of oneself, the choice and testing of partners. It is a meeting through bodily, non-verbal communication. The same role was played by the pioneer discos of the Soviet times and club parties of our days continue to play.
Dancing is also a way to live your sexuality. “After all, a person is also an erotic creature,” Alexander Girshon explains. – Few manage to exclude this side of their nature from life. And after them there was no one left.
Curbing, control over sexual energy is one of the fundamental moments of most modern religions with their institutions of monasteries, fasting system and regulation of sexual life. “For example, the main criticism from Christian, church positions was directed against social (secular) dances, and not dance as an art, and dates back (mostly) to the XNUMXth-XNUMXth centuries,” explains Alexander Girshon. “There are at least two reasons for this. The first is pragmatic: the need to dissociate itself from pagan movements, where dance is part of the rituals. The second is ideological: the opposition between the soul and the body, which is so important in Christianity. That is, not the dance itself, but the freedom of the body and its manifestations – that’s what was rejected. So the dominance of the mind over the animal principle symbolizes the victory of the soul over the body.
But the body inevitably demands compensation. “A person always finds a way to deceive a taboo,” says psychologist, dance therapist Alexandra Vilvovskaya. “Carnivals, for example, arose as a need to circumvent the prohibitions of the church.” Hiding behind a mask (as if “it’s not me, but someone else”), it was possible to give vent to the daily curbed sexuality, freely express it without fear of condemnation.
Useful addresses
- 5Life Dance School, www.5life.net
- School of Argentine tango Elcentro, www.elcentro.ru
- Center for Musical and Plastic Development named after S. D. Rudneva “Geptakhor”, www.heptachor.ru
Feel the body
Why has dance become so popular today? “Modern culture is experiencing a very strong need to regain its corporeality,” says Alexandra Vilvovskaya. – The popularity of appeal to the body – fitness, wellness and in general the cult of health and youth, the surge in the popularity of spas and other similar services, the increasing popularity of dancing – all these are attempts to make up for the lack of physicality. Modern man is characterized by “separation” from his body. Therefore, sometimes even in the dance we touch each other, but we do not allow ourselves to fill this contact with feeling. We feel the other body, but we don’t feel it.” We have to re-learn to perceive the body (with all its needs and manifestations) as a value, learn to feel it. And dance gives us that opportunity.
In harmony with the floor
The dance (as a rule) requires a clear gender identity. “At present, men and women (with varying degrees of comfort) have to play mixed social roles,” explains psychophysiologist Vita Kholmogorova. “In dance (pairs and not only) this division is very clear, he puts everything in its place.” It fills us with a sense of harmony, brings awareness of belonging to one’s gender. This gives us the key to harmonious interaction with the opposite sex – at least in the process of dancing.
Turn on the fun
“The main engine of both amateur and professional dance classes is pleasure,” Alexandra Vilvovskaya is sure. – Dance responds immediately to many human needs. It’s beautiful, it gives you the opportunity to communicate, to be among people. And this is movement, because movement is natural for a person. Through pleasure, dancing for many becomes at least a favorite hobby, a great addition to the rest of life.”
The key to the pleasure of dancing lies in psychophysiology, Vita Kholmogorova believes: “The movement has succeeded – and the brain immediately receives a positive signal. Dance generally gives powerful signals of reinforcement, the feeling of “I can.” In the process of dancing, all internal rhythms are coordinated in the body: heartbeat, breathing, pressure in the vessels, vibrations … And as soon as all systems begin to work smoothly, obeying a single rhythm, this relieves tension in the whole body. Something similar happens when a person, for example, drums his fingers on the table – he needs some kind of repetitive rhythmic action to coordinate systems.
Dance for two
Ballroom dancing fascinates many. In particular, because in them the relationship between a man and a woman appears in the ideal form desired by our disunited world, Stanislav Popov, president of the Russian Dance Union, is convinced.
“There is a bewitching beauty in ballroom dancing, as the audience says, “not from our life.” Many people feel that dancing gives them the opportunity to touch something more beautiful than our everyday life. For me, it has always been like this: I remember how in the fifth grade I asked my mother to sew a jacket to go to the dance floor. Then, in the newly opened Luzhniki, people in jackets and ties came to dance foxtrots and waltzes. The dances were couples and the couples were beautiful. Later, a shake, a break appeared … as if a reflection of what is happening with the modern institution of family and marriage. Today we are more divided, and looking at the exciting dance of partners, at their perfect, well-coordinated movements, many feel nostalgic for this ideal of close relationships.
To heal means to make whole
“During dance classes, those parts of the brain that used to “sleep” are included in the work,” explains Vita Kholmogorova. – The work of the right and left hemispheres is synchronized. All sensory systems are activated: we learn to simultaneously hear sounds, feel the rhythm, track movements, and due to this, the perception of the world becomes wider, more voluminous. Dancing also improves our connection with ourselves.”
It is connected with the sensual side of our nature, with the movement of emotions, not thoughts. “Passion for dance expands our consciousness, our existence acquires greater integration, integrity,” Alexander Girshon continues. – The contradiction between intellectual, analytical and sensual ways of perception is removed. In addition, dance gives us the experience of acceptance on a deep, non-verbal level, and this can be acceptance in many ways: acceptance as agreement with a partner, acceptance as approval of a group or community, acceptance as pleasure for oneself.
“I want to dance!”
Many of us felt this need in ourselves, watching with admiration the graceful steps of ballerinas or the polished movements of hip-hopers. Or maybe you should say to yourself: “I can” – and let the dance into your life? “To start dancing means to be open to change, to start changing from the inside,” Alexandra Vilvovskaya is sure. – Any changes in the life of an adult require determination, and not everyone is ready for them. But in dance, a person comes into contact with the real self. This is a very important and rare experience. And those with whom this contact happened are grateful to the dance precisely for this.
Dance as psychotherapy
“He teaches us to understand the language of our body, helping us to find integrity and find contact with our life resources,” says psychotherapist, specialist in dance movement therapy Guzal Loginova.
“Dance is a communication that takes place on three levels: dance with oneself, with other people and with the world. The task of the therapist is to create a safe space for the therapeutic relationship. It is in it, analyzing relationships on the example of movements with a dance therapist or other people (when it is a group work), a person can learn to interact with others and with himself. The dance therapist helps him feel, understand the cause of symptoms, pain, various bodily discomforts or restrictions in movement.
The dialogue with oneself is restored, the person learns to understand the language of his body, develops the ability to use movement to express the full range of feelings. One of the tools of this method is dance improvisation: these are moments of exploration and expression of emotions, fantasies, dreams, memories by means of symbolic movement. The fact is that when we move spontaneously, we express ourselves accurately and honestly: in this movement, the unconscious becomes visible, takes shape; we reunite with it and gain access to our inner psychological resources. As a result, additional opportunities for self-knowledge and gaining personal integrity are opened up. And that is the main goal of psychotherapy.”