1; an art form generally accompanied by music, with rhythmic movements as the main means of expression
2; dancing
3; the ancient courtiers made a specific dance posture during the pilgrimage to pay homage to the emperor, a kind of etiquette.
I. What is dance?
Dance is very closely related to our lives. Early in the morning, in the city's street park, a group of middle-aged and elderly people, some with the drums and gongs in the twisting "rice-planting songs", some follow the rhythmic music dance "disco", there are people in the beautiful melody of the "fitness dance"; evening, in the theater you can enjoy the performance of the dance or dance drama works, you can also go to the ballroom or the gala to dance; festivals can be in a number of parks and other tourist attractions, such as the "garden" to lift the force of the "garden tour! During festivals, you can also see folk dance performances in some parks and other tourist spots. If you have the interest and need, you can also go to various dance training classes to learn ballet, folk dance, and national standard dance ...... to improve your dancing skills.
In simple words, dance is an art of human movement. However, this human movement must be the human movement that has been refined, organized and beautified - the human movement that has been danced. In addition, belonging to the category of human movement there are many kinds of art, such as acrobatics, mime, human sculpture, rhythmic gymnastics and so on. Therefore, dance is different from other human movement art is the main aspect: it is to dance movement as the main means of artistic expression, focusing on the expression of language and text or other means of artistic expression is difficult to express people's inner deep spiritual world - delicate emotions, profound ideas, distinctive character, and man and nature, man and society, man and man and the conflict between people and the people themselves, to create a vivid dance image that can be perceived by the people. To create a vivid dance image that can be perceived by people, in order to express the aesthetic feelings and ideals of the dance authors (choreographers and dancers), and to reflect the aesthetic attributes of life. In addition, due to the characteristics of the human body's movements, which flow and change without stopping, it must exist in a certain space (stage or square) and a certain time; and in the dance activities, generally have to be accompanied by music, wear a specific costume, some dances also have to hold a variety of props, and if the performance is performed on the stage, the lights and sets are also according to the art historians' testimony, the earliest art produced by human beings is dance. In the ancient times of mankind has not yet produced language before, people use movement, gesture expression to convey a variety of information and emotion, thought exchange. Later, after the development of various sounds into language and tones, poetry and music were produced one after another. In labor, due to the manufacture of tools, the human hand gradually became dexterous and clamped, and the birth of painting and sculpture. With the evolution of mankind, the ability to think and the level of knowledge of things improved, music, novels, drama and other arts have been created one after another. So, dance as one of the oldest art, its source from where?
Myths and legends of ancient China and ancient Greece say that human beings learned dance from the emperor of heaven, or human beings were inspired by the goddess in charge of dance to create dance. We know that the ancient ancestors did not understand the concepts of God and man as clearly as modern people do. At that time, people often regarded people with extraordinary talents, people with wisdom and strength beyond the average, or people who made great contributions to mankind as the incarnation of gods or people who could communicate with the gods. Now, we know that all kinds of gods are created by human beings through imagination based on their own images. It is God who creates dance, and in the final analysis, it is we, the human beings, who create dance. So how did man create dance?
Some scholars believe that people by the instinct of imitation, dance is a rhythmic movement of various beasts of action and habit of imitation. Some dances are also imitations of the dynamic images of some natural scenes, such as the swaying of willow branches, the tumbling of the waves, the wind's fluttering rotation and so on, people can imitate them to dance.
Some scholars believe that, in the origin of art, imitation, though important, is not the real cause, and that the cause of art is the "impulse to play," and that play is a manifestation of the human nature of confession. Play is the expression of a confessed humanity. It is also the sign of man's final departure from the animal kingdom. The playfulness here refers to man's aesthetic needs, that is, to take pleasure in illusion. For example, man imitates the dance of animals, it is through this game of illusion to obtain pleasure and vent their emotions.
Other scholars believe that, due to the thinking of primitive people can not distinguish between subjective and objective boundaries, that all natural objects are the same as their own souls, and thus gave rise to totem worship, primitive religions, sorcery rituals, etc., and these activities can not be separated from the dance, and even the dance is the main content of the sorcery activities and the most important means of expression. Therefore, it has been asserted that "all dancing is originally religious".
Many scholars from the primitive people in order to survive the need to reproduce the next generation as a very important thing, and the dance is the choice of spouse, courtship and love training of the main ways and means, so that the dance originated in sexual activities. Some scholars, however, believe that dance not only expresses human love, people's all kinds of exciting emotions, people's life has a great significance of emotions and activities, will use dance to view. There is no other art behavior, can be like the dance of the transfer and excitement of all human beings, China's ancient music and dance theory: "clear move in the line in the words, the words are not enough so contempt; contempt of the lack of so singing; singing of the lack of, do not know that the hands of the dance of the feet of the dance of the also." This also vividly illustrates the dance is the expression of people's most excited emotion product.
There are many scholars in China who advocate the theory that dance originated from labor, because labor is the first need for human survival and development, and it is also labor that creates human beings themselves, it is labor that makes human beings detached from the animal world, and it is labor that creates human society. In the dance of primitive people, the expression of hunting and planting and all kinds of labor life occupies the largest proportion.
We believe that the above theories of the origin of the dance, have some truth, but are not very complete and comprehensive, because the dance activity is a social phenomenon in human life, its origin and the composition of all things in the world are not a single, but with a variety of factors, so people advocate the "labor synthesis", that is, the dance originated in the survival of mankind, the development of labor practices and a variety of other life practices, the dance is the origin of human society and the development of human society. Labor practice and a variety of other life practice needs, if a little more detailed, the dance originated in ancient mankind in the survival and development of labor production (hunting, farming), sex, fitness and combat drills and other activities simulation reproduction, as well as totem worship, sorcery, religious rituals and performance of their own emotional thought of the inner impulse of the need. It is one of the earliest art forms in human history, combined with poetry and music. Indispensable. Therefore, it can also be said that dance is a spatial, temporal and comprehensive dynamic modeling art.