The Relationship Between Dance and Politics Essay

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art form, dance provides the means by which to fuse political and creative power. The body can communicate political ideology, subverting social norms in subtle ways. Dance frequently communicates issues related to race, class, gender, and power. Dance can also be used to either reflect or change values and norms.

For example, ballet was born in the Baroque court of Catherine de Medici, who recognized the potential for dance to symbolize the bringing about of order in a chaotic world ("Baroque Court: Catherine de Medici"). A similar function of dance can be found among the Bedoyo of Java, for whom dance undertook a cosmological as well as a political pertinence: creating or exhibiting order in a world that was otherwise chaotic or unpredictable. Dance reveals the potential for human beings to be disciplined and use their bodies to create order, as opposed to allowing themselves to slip into temptation. In this way, dance shows the interface between sociological, psychological, and political power.

In a more overt and direct way, dance functions as a political art in that dance can bring together the diverse and contrasting worlds of the wealthy and the poor in ways that would otherwise not be possible. This can be seen especially among the courts of kingdoms like those in Europe as Catherine de Medici sublimated the art forms common among the masses and used them to create the seeds of ballet. Often, dance forms are born among the disenfranchised and the people in power subvert those expressions and appropriate the dance forms as their own. In modern societies, the line continues to be drawn between "high" and "low" forms of dance, as with any other form of art. The types of dance signal stations in society, as the square dancing of hillbillies is considered entirely separate from ballet or tango.

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Louis XIV used dance to promote his own political power ("Louis XIV: The Sun King," n.d.). As a ruler, the King was uniquely able to dictate what types of dance were acceptable in court, thereby determining the caliber of creative expression. Similarly, dance can convey social norms and ideals. In Ghana, the Asante rulers espoused forms of dance that stressed certain social values such as "coolness," ("Asante Court: The Asante of Ghana," n.d.). People in positions of power can use dance to manipulate the prevailing aesthetic norms, and the prevailing aesthetic norms can influence social, political, and behavioral norms.

Dance also conveys ideas related to cosmology. This is especially true in the dances of the Bedoyo of Java, which use physical motion and discipline to convey the harmonious patterns in the universe. While not inherently political, the concept of creation order out of chaos can assume tremendous political overtones as exhibited in the baroque court of Catherine de Medici. Dances that act out myths or spiritual stories can be used to reinforce the political power possessed by rulers, which is one way dance can serve political functions. The similarities and differences between the Medici, Louis XIV, the Javanese, and….....

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