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| ISBN-13: | 9780486148700 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Dover Publications |
| Publication date: | 12/03/2012 |
| Series: | Egypt |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 176 |
| File size: | 24 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
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Ancient Egyptian Dances
By Irena Lexová
Dover Publications, Inc.
Copyright © 2000 Dover Publications, Inc.All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-486-14870-0
CHAPTER 1
THE TREATISE
INTRODUCTION.
Much has been written about the ancient Egyptian dances.
As far as I can remember, the oldest essay dealing with this subject was written by J. Gardner Wilkinson in his book: "Manners and customs of the ancient Egyptians", (London, 1837; Part II, pages 328-340). In an abridged form this essay appears in the book by J. Gardner Wilkinson: "A popular account of the ancient Egyptians", (new edition I.-II. London, 1874; Part I, pages 133-140).
Credit is due to Wilkinson in the first place for the vast pictorial material he has made accessible. The short essay in Part I, pages 133-140, may be summed up as follows: The dance consisted of a succession of figures in which the performer endeavoured to exhibit a great variety of gestures. Men and women danced at the same time or in separate groups, but the latter were preferred for their superior grace and elegance. Some danced to slow airs, adapted to the style of the movements, others preferred lively steps regulated by an appropriate tune. Sometimes when dancing the women accompanied themselves on lutes or pipes. Men always danced with great spirit, bounding from the ground more in the manner of Europeans than of an Eastern people. Dances were accompanied by music, consisting sometimes of several instruments (harp, lyre, lute, guitar, pipes, tambourine, &c.) at another time by clapping of hands only, or by snapping of fingers; in the street by beating the drum only. Graceful attitudes and gesticulations were features of the general style of ancient Egyptian dancing. Some postures resembled those of our modern ballet, e. g., the pirouette was appreciated by the Egyptians thousands of years ago. Sometimes they danced in pairs holding each other's hands, turning their faces towards each other or averting them. Sometimes men and women performed a solo, marking time with the feet. The quality of the dance obviously depended on the talent and the art of the dancer and on the taste of those for whom it was performed. Comical gestures of clowns were permitted as well, so long as they did not overstep the limits of decency. The dances of the lower classes had a tendency to pantomime, and labourers delighted in grotesqueness and eccentricity more than in grace and elegance.
Women dancers were dressed in long loose robes made of fine transparent material, which permitted of observing the figure and movements of limbs. At times they wore a narrow ornamental girdle. Sometimes the women are represented without any indication of dress and appear to be perfectly nude, but it is difficult to say whether this is not simply an impression caused by the outlines of the dress having been effaced, or if the painter omitted to paint them on account of their transparency.
To banquets and festivals the professional musicians and dancing girls were also invited to entertain the guests by music and dances, which was considered an indispensable condition of good entertainment. In the houses of the rich, slaves were kept, whose duty it was, in addition to other occupations, to divert their masters and their guests with the art of dancing. But it was not customary for a well bred ancient Egyptian to indulge in the dance in public or in private, — that was the privilege of the lower classes. Dancing, however, was a part of education as well as music.
The Egyptians danced also within the temples in honour of their deities, and outside them during religious festivals. This custom was borrowed from them by the Jews, who neither considered it incompatible with the dignity of religion.
* * *
This oldest treatise on the Egyptian dancing is quite modest. The author confines himself to facts gathered from ancient Egyptian pictures, and never attempts even to classify the dances.
Note: In a new edition of Wilkinson's work,1) Birch literally reprints Wilkinson's chapter on the dance from the first edition of his book, and supplements it with a paragraph on pictures of dances from the walls of tombs in the Old Empire and with a final remark.
Adolf Erman: "Aegypten und aegyptisches Leben im Altertum, neu bearbeitet von Hermann Ranke" (Tübingen, 1923), writes:
Dancing was not to be omitted from any of the ancient Egyptian festivals, because to the Egyptian it was a natural expression of joy. The farmer, bringing sacrifice to the god Min in Gebtiu at harvest time, always danced. Dancing went on during the festivals held in honour of the great goddesses of joy Hathor and Bastet.
We have little knowledge of these popular dances; at harvest festivals of the Old Empire, men danced having previously put aside their dress except the belt, performing quick movements and holding canes in their hands, clapping them together.
More frequently we meet with dances performed by women of the household, by which they diverted their masters and mistresses. Judging by the old pictures these dances are very quiet and restrained. The dancers followed one after another, hardly lifting their feet from the ground and moving their hands; sometimes other women beat time clapping their hands, at others they were accompanied by airs on harps and pipes.
But in this period already more lively dances are met with, which may be compared with our present day ballet. Also pair dancing occurs, and a picture dating from the Sixth Dynasty has been preserved in which girls, dancing with canes ornamented with little gazelle-heads, are divided — as it seems — into fours. More complicated dances, performed by men, occur rarely. One of such dances consisting of three sections has been known from a tomb, dating from the end of the Fourth Dynasty. The dancers, dressed in belts trimmed with long tassels, are facing each other, holding each others' hands and executing the same movements. In the first section they are lifting hands and feet opposite each other; in the second, they are standing on one leg and bending the other at the knee like storks; in the third one they exhibit a back to back position as if they wanted to flee in opposite directions. Each section of this dance bears its particular name, because the Egptians saw certain meanings in them. Such dances are not very far remote from our tableaux vivants. These we encounter in one of the Beni Hassan tombs; in one of them two girls are depicted, one representing a king, the other his defeated enemy. On the other one a girl represents the wind, the two others a bush and grass respectively swayed by the wind. The participating girls are dressed in men's short aprons, the customary dress of women dancers in the Old and Middle Kingdoms showing the body covered as scantily as possible. The dancers wear necklaces, bracelets, rings on their feet and garlands on their heads. The chest is covered with ribbons. Their hair has sometimes been braided into a pigtail, the end of which has been weighted with a ball so as to ensure a graceful line during the dance.
The girl servants diverted their masters and mistresses also with games, neither were acrobatic performers lacking. The span was a known accomplishment to them. One of them, drawn from a Beni Hassan tomb, so controlled her body, that being bent backward in an arch and not touching the ground with her hands, she was in a position to carry a companion on her body. Another one with her head turned downward is being carried by her companion, two others are being whisked about by men, touching the ground only by heels. They are dressed in the customary long robes.
The dancers of the New Kingdom exchanged the men's apron for long transparent linen cloaks, which more revealed than concealed the body, or wore a narrow belt round their hips only. Dances of this period were more refined. Whereas previously the dancers were accompanied by music, now hired women dance at the banquets beating time themselves with tambourines or castagnettes in quick tempo.
* * *
This essay is accompanied by four pictures only (fig. 46, page 175, fig. 120-122, pages 280-282), but in the notes exact references are made to many pictures, which Wilkinson has omitted from his work.
For my part, there is only one objection to this essay. The author in his description considers our picture fig. 32 to be an illustration of three quiet postures instead of three phases of the same movement, and it does not occur to him that this posture — according to the physical law of balance — is altogether impossible. Correct comprehension of this picture would have led the author to a different interpretation of other pictures as well.
A. Wiedemann: Das alte Aegypten (Kulturgeschichtliche Bibliothek, herausgegeben von W. Foy, I. Reihe: Ethnologische Bibliothek 2, Heidelberg, 1920) devotes an independent chapter to the dance (pages 371-375) with two pictures (fig. 73, page 373, and fig. 26 on the attached plates) and four hieroglyphic signs, representing dancing men (page 371).
Although persons of higher standing did not themselves dance for pleasure, dancing was of considerable importance to the Egyptians. As shown by hieroglyphic signs, representing joy and its expression, the Egyptian, when giving way to the feeling of happiness, could not resist bounding and performing other movements, which especially in festive moments certainly were not arbitrary. So for instance on the arrival of the king and other persons of importance such bounds were executed by two men, armed with boomerangs, while three others likewise armed were beating time. At religious processions women danced around the sacred barge naked, or dressed in cloaks open in front, to the accompaniment of music, in order to chase away the demons by their complete or partial nudity. The participation at such ceremonies was rigorously observed and lists of participating temple servants have been preserved.
Also the king or his representative was obliged to dance at harvest festivals in honour of Min, the god of fertility. The often depicted king's haste with the sacrificial gift to the deity cannot be considered as a sacrificial dance. The speed simply demonstrates the zeal with which the king hurried to offer his sacrifice to the god.
Also the religious dances during funerals were of importance to the Egyptians. Women in long robes, playing musical instruments and lashing the air with branches, took part in the procession, while before the tomb a dance was performed for the benefit of the departed soul. Men provided with high caps made of rushes moved about in quiet steps; women clapping hands marked time. Sometimes the movements were livelier, the dancers rotated quickly and raised their feet high. At other times the dancers, conducted by a leading dancer, sped quickly forward bearing sacrificial instruments.
The movements of women dancers were considerably livelier than those of men. They fell in with a festive step, but then thrust about their hands and feet with all their might. Such dances are still customary at funerals in Egypt and in adjacent countries as well. The aim of the dance was not merely to cheer up the soul of the deceased, but also to chase away evil spirits who might harm the dead person, and for that reason the Egyptian, when still alive, often expressed the wish that dances should not fail to be included in burial ceremonies. The model which the dancers participating at funerals were following was the god Bes, who sometimes alone, sometimes with his companions, protected the young Sun from his enemies through dancing. As he was of a dwarfish figure, the Egyptians considered the burial dances especially efficacious if executed by a dwarf.
Also at banquets women danced to entertain the guests. Dressed rather in long than short robes or aprons, sometimes they were completely naked or had a narrow belt round their hips. Often they moved slowly, playing musical instruments, ordinarily in groups of two or more, seldom singly. Men dancers who were conspicuous through physical training, comical postures and movements seldom performed at banquets. With such dances they diverted the public in the streets for tips.
* * *
A carefully compiled list of literature dealing with ancient Egyptian dances, which has been attached to this essay, deserves special notice.
Louise Klebs, Die Reliefs des alten Reiches, Die Reliefs und Malereien des mittleren Reiches, Heidelberg, 1915, 1922.
The authoress presents a complete list of all known pictures of dances from the Old and Middle Kingdoms, classifies them historically and describes them briefly.
* * *
The classification of the dances evokes my doubts regarding her opinion that slaughtering of cattle in the Old Kingdom was accompanied by dancing in the same manner as in the Middle Kingdom dances were performed to a dying person or to a corpse, lying on the death-bed. Pictures of dancers in the vicinity of such scenes appear to me to be purely accidental.
Historically the classification of ancient Egyptian dances in the way the authoress has carried it out evokes serious doubts, because of its logically erroneous judgment.
Pierre Montet in his book entitled "Scènes de la vie privée dans les tombeaux égyptiens de l'ancien empire" (Publications de la faculté des lettres de l'Université de Strasbourg, vol. 24, 1925) devotes a chapter to dancing on pages 365–368, the contents of which are as follows: From the fact that women dancers are as a rule depicted in a row under a line of musicians it does not follow that they danced to the accompaniment of music. The musicians are men; since women dancers have too short dresses, the master of the tomb would hardly allow other men to look at them. Women beating time with their hands always accompany women dancers. The vicinity of men musicians and women dancers can be explained by natural association of views by the artist who created the ornaments of the tomb.
In earlier times the dance consisted of a group of women with hands folded above the head, proceeding forward in time, so that one may rather speak of a march than of a dance. Later the movements of the women became more unrestrained; standing on one leg they inclined their bodies backward and lifted the other leg forward. Sometimes they held instruments provided with little gazelles' heads, striking them together and so beating time. Later on more space in the tombs was reserved for pictures of dancing; new dances appear with particular names given to them, which sometimes are written on the pictures.
The reason which M. Montet brings forth for his assumption that dancers were not accompanied by musicians, is not convincing. It is true, that from the pictures originating in the Old Kingdom it cannot be judged whether the dance was accompanied by music or not, but from the pictures of other periods, representing women dancers accompanied by music, one can assume that the same conditions prevailed also in the Old Kingdom, except in the ceremonial funeral dances.
We also know, that nudity was not so rare and so exciting a phenomenon to the ancient Egyptians as it would be to us to-day. That women danced at banquets adorned with jewels and girdles concealing nothing is attested by pictures fig. 13, 45, 48. The dancers wore short skirts not to exhibit their bodies, but in order that their legs should have complete freedom of movement, which would not be possible, if they were dressed in the usual women's dress, the long narrow robe. It is also possible to assume that dances, even in the oldest times, were not confined to the gestures depicted on pictures of tombs of the Old Kingdom. The artists selected these postures either out of incapacity to paint other dancing postures more difficult to draw, requiring quick perception (see fig. 13, 40), or drew the pictures from patterns, or copied old models out of indolence instead of artistically creating new ones.
NATURE OF THE MATERIAL AND WORKING METHODS.
As allusions to dances in ancient Egyptian literature are very rare, pictures are almost the exclusive source of study of the Egyptian dances.
In present day art the painter is required to depict what he sees in just the way that he sees it, and if he happens to lack a model to give his figure a natural gesture or movement, that is to say a gesture or movement which is not impossible or intolerable, in order to avoid in the spectator the impression of something unnatural. The Egyptian creative artist, however, when drawing a human figure, was bound to observe certain prescriptions not in accordance with present day requirements. He did not draw as he saw, but as the prescription ordered him. Consequently, if the spectator wants to understand the ancient Egyptian paintings, he must know the respective prescriptions to understand what attitude or movement the Egyptian artist intended to illustrate by his work. That is why it is necessary to get acquainted with the important methods of depicting the human body.)
(Continues...)
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Table of Contents
Contents
DOVER BOOKS ON EGYPT,Title Page,
Copyright Page,
INTRODUCTION TO THE DOVER EDITION,
PREFACE.,
I. THE TREATISE,
INTRODUCTION.,
NATURE OF THE MATERIAL AND WORKING METHODS.,
CLASSIFICATION OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DANCES.,
THE ELEMENTS OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DANCE.,
COSTUMES OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN WOMEN AND MEN DANCERS.,
ANCIENT EGYPTIAN WOMEN AND MEN DANCERS.,
NOTE ON THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN ART OF DANCING.,
NOTE ON THE EGYPTIAN DANCES, AS PERFORMED BY MODERN WOMEN DANCERS.,
SUPPLEMENT,
BIBLIOGRAPHY.,
II. SKETCHES,
LIST OF PICTURES AND THEIR ORIGIN.,