Duncan's Ecstasy in Dance: Final Ritual

I

 

 

(00:00 - 10:28)

Question 1

Which was Nietzsche's idea about Ancient Greek mythology?

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II

Ethos is a Greek word meaning "character" that is used to describe the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize a community, nation, or ideology. The Greeks also used this word to refer to the power of music to influence emotions, behaviors, and even morals.

 

 

(00:00 - 9:25)

 

Based on the video above, answer the following questions:

Questions

2. Why is Dionysus an important reference in Greek art?  

3. Why should ancient rituals be considered art?

(min. 5:00 - 7:00)

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 III

Ecstasy

For Duncan and Wigman ecstasy connoted a meaning beyond the self. Its intention was not to "express" a subjective state of mind, but rather to communicate the essence, the character, the being of a given phenomenon, an object or a relationship. Duncan and Wigman in step with the painters Wassily Kandinsky and Ernst-Ludwig Kitshner, Emile Nolde and other associated with an expressionistic movement in art and literature, were informed by a Dionysian ethos made popular by Nietzsche. 

Both had a vision of dance as a Bacchic experience that transgressed traditional western divisions of mind and body of present and past. Wigman contends: "Dancing is an expression of higher vitality, confession of the present, experience of being, without any intellectual deviations." And in 1903 Duncan premises: "But the dance of the future will be the one whose body and soul have grown so harmoniously together that the natural language of that soul would have become the movement of the body."

Ecstasy, Primitivism, Modernity: Isadora Duncan and Mary Wigman by Melissa RagonaAmerican Studies. Vol. 35, No. 1 (Spring, 1994), pp. 47-62 (16 pages).
http://access.library.miami.edu/login?url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40642584

 Question 4

After reading the above paragraph, in reference to Duncan's quote (last sentence), what would you say was Duncan's vision of dance?

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IV

 

ACTIVITY 1

Students explore ritual within the context of Duncan's ideas about dance.

 

Movements to be explored:

1. Circle formation

2. Stump; salute to the earth

3. Stump; salute to each other

4. Stump; salute to the sky

5. Acknowledgement of the earth (shift weight to the right)

6. Acknowledgement of the earth left (shift weight to the left)

7. Acknowledgement of the sky (turn to the right extending arms towards the above). 

8. Acknowledgement of the sky to the left (turn to the left extending arms to the above).

Students Work in Groups and reinterpret the ritual in their own way.

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V

Activity 2

Students add to their solo phrases, their own version of the ritual explored in class.

 

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 Students Making Up

Based on the 8 ritual moves above, create your own 8 movement phrase. Record it and post it on Discussion Board.

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STUDENTS' WORK

Daniela Flores 

I think it was so beautifully put when Duncan said "But the dance of the future will be the one whose body and soul have grown so harmoniously together that the natural language of that soul would have become the movement of the body." and I think that her vision was to allow alignment of mind, soul, and body to be one and that allow for me to create movements that felt comfortable in all those areas and explore new movements too that can align to Duncan’s idea.