Chapter 3Dance of the Realm

he professor is dancing. With a kind ofdignified gusto, he leans into the music,the moonlight catching in his whitehair, his bent knees taking up the strainas his sandaled feet palpate the groundand his bare arms carve almost visiblewaves in the dense air. He is a heavysetman who moves like an athlete. \7rap-ped around his waist and torso is agreen, black, and gold-striped Asanterobe, a long rectangle of cloth with onecorner thrown over his left shoulder.When his fluid but vigorous body move-ments shake this corner loose, he flingsit back over his shoulder without miss-ing a beat; the gesture becomes part ofthe dance.

Professor Albert Mawere Opoku isseventy-six years old. He is dancing tothe music of a small group of musiciansin the garden behind the Hotel Georgiain Kumase, the second largest city inthe west African nation of Ghana.Thirty years ago the professor foundedGhana's national dance ensemble. Hehas taught at universities in Ghana and

in the United States. For the last monthhe has been helping to organize a majorfestival ofhis people at the palace ofthe Asantehene, the elected king of theAsante (pronounced ah-Shan-ti ). Nowthe proGssor is making eye contact withthe group's lead drummer, a man whohas been playing three drums more orless simultaneously. In response to theprofessor's glance the drummer picks upthe pace, adding yet another layer to theintricate mix of percussive patterns thatspeak to dancers in a language under-stood by all those who participate inAsante culture. "You're looking good sofar," the drumming seems to say, "nowlet's see what you can do with this."And the professor, his joy transparent,responds with his whole body.

During a break in the music ProfessorOpoku chats with the leader of thegroup, a musician and composer namedKo Nimo. The word is that tomorrow'sfestival will bring together more thanfifty thousand Asante from all overGhana to reaffirm their identity as a

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people. Ko Nimo acknowledges "theprot'' as his mentor, reGrring to him as"a library on fire" because he is one ofrhe last of his generation with a compre-hensive knowledge of Asante traditions.The professor, Ko Nimo says, comesir..m an Asante clan with close ties to:he palace: "He knows who we are and'.vhirt made us. He wants to make sure:har all this outlives him."

t)ne of the Asantehene's proudest::iles is "master of the music and thei;:rms," u'hich is another way of saying':r.rsrer of the dance," since drumming.:.J Jancing are all but synonymous to::-- -{.ante. Drums in Ghana come in,.. -rrpes and sizes and tonal variations,-

-: :hc largest and most impressive,-....; j tontomfrom drums, are the per-- -.:::e> of chieftaincy. If, as the Asante- ..

jrums are what make a chiei" thet::r-i.,flcJ tbntomfrom is the chief of::

-:-.:. F.ntL)mfrom drums may be. . .'. .::.e l.lr more than a hundred years.::::. :- h.,lltru'ed out from a single, care-'-...

..-...oned tree trunk and stands

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about five feet tall with finely carvedfluting all around like a Greek column.Stretched across one end is a thin sliceof elephant ear whose tension is con-trolled by wires attached to seven wood-en pegs. The drumsticks are cut fromspringy branches, with short tips thatslant back at a forty-five.degree angle.

Fontomfrom drums are used for war-rior or heroic dances. In the hands ofaccomplished drummers, they can bemade to "talk." The Asante languageis one of a family of west African lan-guages that use pitch to distinguishmeaning. By rhythmic and tonal mimic-ry the drummer can carry on an elabo-rate dialogue with the dancer, whomay be a member of the Asantehene'sentourage, a lesser chief who has cometo pay homage to the Asantehene, orthe Asantehene himself.

At one time, being a good dancer wasone of the qualifications for election tothe post of Asantehene. The king of theAsante is expected to dance before hispeople on certain occasions to display

his royal virtues and to honor his ances-tors who are also the heroes of Asantehistory. In one dance, the fontomfrombeats out a challenge heard and under-stood by all: "Some men fight, somerun away. !7hich kind of man are youl"The Asantehene responds with a chore-ographed display ofstrength and virilitrthat says, "Tiy me and see!" He jumpsin the air, hops on one foot then theother, shifts his weight from side to siJe.plants his left foot and pivots around ir.stamps the ground. He extends his rightarm in a sweeping gesture whose mean-ing is clear: "You are my people; i gatheryou all together." Then he clenches hisright hand into a fist and brings ir dorlnon top of his left hand, which signifies"l sit on you, I am your chief." Hismovements, while energetic, are nevcrhurried or jerky because, as the prtries-sor says, "a king is more majestic t'henhe moves slowly, elegantly. It s'as rl'rcsame at the court of Louis XIV."

For his most impressive entrances thtAsantehene rides in a palanquin u..r'er.

of wicker and carried by members ofhis court. But this does not hinder hisdancing since in west Africa, as in mostof the world, dance involves the wholebody. Seated in his palanquin, theAsantehene dances to remind his peo-ple of the victories that he and hisancestors have won, beginning with theAsante war of independence against thekingdom of Denkyera in 1700. Holdinga sword in his right hand and a musketin his left, he mimes an entire campaignin which the Asante, dividing theirarmy into three columns, confused theDenkyera with deceptive maneuvers,feigning attacks on first one, then theother flank, before striking a decisiveblow where the enemy was weakest.Staring first to the right, then to the[eft, the Asantehene rears back in thepalanquin before thrusting his upperbody forward and slashing out withhis sword.

Dancing at court is not the Asan,tehene's responsibility alone. Chiefs atevery level maintain ensembles of drum-mers and dancers to do honor to theirown position and to pay homage tothose higher up in the hierarchy. Andtheoretically, anyone can step out ofthecrowd and dance before the court. Butcritical standards are high; a dancer whofails to live up to them-by making aninappropriate hand gesture or by failingto bare his shoulders in respect or bythrusting the pelvis forward and back-ward in a lascivious manner instead ofmoving it decorously from side to side-may fall victim to "drum censorship."Suddenly, in midbeat, the drummerscease playing. In the awful silence, theinadequate dancer has no choice but toshrink back into the crowd and make

n1IL

way for the next soul brave enough totry his or her best before the caretakersof Asante culture.

In the history of its people, the courtof the Asantehene-like other royalcourts around the world-has beena center ofpower, patronage, andpageantry. Wherever rulers have gaineddominion over large territories and largenumbers of people, communities of thetalented and ambitious have sprung upto help them rule. These communitieswere typically organized in a pyramid ofpower, with the ruler in the royal palaceat the top and his or her ministers,advisors, retainers, and hangers-onarrayed in more or less clearly definedranks below. In one sense, all thesecourtiers enjoyed a life ofprivilege,abundance, and leisure; wealth wasone index of a ruler's power, and life atcourt was often a lavish round of feasts,sports, and other pleasurable activities.But in another sense, a courtier wasalways on duty. In the days when a posi-tion at court was both a mark of royalfavor and a badge ofauthority overthe less fortunate, a courtier's clothes,speech, manners, and bearing attestedto his or her status at all times. Indeed,virtually every event at court, eachsolemn ritual, each entertainment,was an occasion to demonstrate rank.On many of these occasions, dancingof some kind was central to the displayofpower. Dancing at courts everywheretends to be deliberate, dignified, mea-sured, hierarchical; training is requiredto do it properly, and, throughout histo-ry, public embarrassment (or worse)has awaited those who fail to meet thecourt's high standards.

Most of the courts that once deter-

mined the destinies of entire peopleshave either vanished entirely or losttheir hold on the levers of power.Some-like the Asantehene's court inGhana, the royal courts ofcentralJava,and the emperor's court in Japan-havesurvived the transition to other forms ofgovernment because the ideals ofbehav-ior embodied in their court rituals cameto be viewed as emblems of a cultural,even a national, identity. In other cases,courdy ideals survived the demise of thecourt itself; this is what happened inWestern Europe where the court dancesofthe kings ofFrance evolved froman instrument of political control tobecome the basis of theatrical and socialdancing in the lWest; long after the fallofthe Bourbon dynasty, the legacy ofelegant movement passed down from theballrooms of Versailles can be seen onballet stages throughout the world.

I thousand miles north of Kumase,A

",

about the time the Asante werebanding together to throw offthe yokeofthe Denkyera, a courtier at Versaillesdescribed the shattering embarrassmentof a young man who had suffered theFrench equivalent of drum censorship:"This young man, who up to then hadattended court little or not at all . . . hadbeen asked ifhe danced well and hadreplied with a smugness that madeeveryone eager to find fault. They weresatisfied. He lost his countenance at thefirst bow: He was out of step from thestart. He tried to hide his mistake bydrooping to one side and waving hisarms: This proved even more ridiculousand prompted laughter which sooncame in bursts and then turned to jeers

despite the respect owed the presenceof the King, who could hardly keepfrom laughing himself. The followingday, instead offleeing or keeping silent,he claimed that the presence of the Kinghad upset him, and promised to outdohimself at the ball to follow. . . . As soonas he began to dance at the second ball,everyone stood up pushing to see, andrhe jeering grew so loud that it led toclapping. Everyone, even the King,laughed heartily, and most of them ex-pl.-rsively, in such a manner that I doubts'hether anyone else ever suffered thehke. After that, he disappeared, and didnrrr show his face for a long time."

The year was 1692, the king wasLouis XIV the dance was the minuet,and the would-be courtier's failure was:l.r minor contretemps. Louis had foundf, ',ra! to control the obstreperous nobil.::',' of France, by structuring his court

quite literally around the dance floor.The use of dance as an instrument of

political power in Europe had roots inthe court spectacles of fifteenth-centuryRenaissance Italy. The newly invigorat-ed study ofclassical literature providedmythical characters who were immedi-ately recognizable to educated audiencesand endlessly adaptable stories thatcould be recast into allegories withcontemporary significance. The specta-cles performed at the courts of ltalianprinces came to be called balli (from theItalian word for "dance," ballare).Likeall such entertainments, the ballirequired enormous expenditures of timeand money; the talents of painters, setdesigners, costumers, musicians, libret-tists, and dancing masters were broughttogether to produce a spectacle thatmight never be repeated after a singleperformance. The dancers were

Louis XIV may have swted coming to hisfather's huntinglodge atVersailles in 1661 ,whenhe was twenty-tlvee yems old". Therenovations that created tlw granl chateouwe know today were begun in 1668, whenPiene Patel painted this bird's ey uiew inwhich the king's cariage, follawed closellby the queen's, is seenanivingfor auisit.At this time the chatcau was still a modestcountty estate; it had about twentJ roornsand a dormitory for men.

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The Ballet Comique de la Reine (1581)at the Louwe is considcred to be the first courtballet. h was choreographedby Balthasm deBeaujoy eulx, an Inlian oiolinist, composer,and. choreographer, who carne to Paris with agroup of violinists obout 1555, and mafu acareer of organiTrng fetes at the court. Hebecame a personal servant to Catheine deMdicis.

courtiers whose participation in theseextravaganzas was a public display oftheir own status as well as an acknowl-edgment of their dependence on theprince of the realm. To succeed at court,a man of ambition had to be as accom-plished in dancing as he was in riding,fencing, and fine speech. The properbearing for a courtier, according toBaldassare Castiglione, who wrote thebook on it (IICortegiono, 1528), was to"preserve a certain dignity, albeit tem-pered with a lithe and airy grace ofmovement."

Like Renaissance music, painting,and literature, dance evolved under thestimulus of the new humanistic scholar-ship. Dance manuals with detailedinstructions on how to perform thenew, complex ballroom dances began toappear as early as 1444. Some of thepostures that courtiers struck in thecourt spectacles consciously imitatedmodels from classical sculpture. Thetaste for elaborate court spectacles,along with the know-how to producethem, was brought to France byCatherine de M6dicis, daughter of thepageant-loving Lorenzo II, duke ofUrbino. In 1533 she married the manwho was to rule France from 1547 to1559 as Henry II; after his death sheremained a power behind the throne foranother thirty years during the reigns ofher three sons. It was an era ofdynastic,religious, and civil wars. Legitimacy wasin the eye of the beholder. No princewith pretensions to greatness couldafford to maintain a less lavish courtthan his rivals. In a competitive frenzy,the royal houses of Europe were soonemptying their treasuries to outdo eachother in the production ofcourt specta-

74

cles, which in France were known asballets de cour.

The spectacle that set the standardfor all subsequentballets d.e cour wasthe "Ballet Comique de la Reine,"*'hich was staged for a royal wedding atthe Louvre on October 15, 1581, duringthe reign of Catherine's son Henry III.Grateful to be chosen for a part,courtiers rehearsed for as long as twou'eeks under the eye of the king's danc-ing master. Combining steps also usedin the ballrooms of France and Italy,they worked their way through complexf-loor patterns that held symbolic mean-ing for knowledgeable spectators: forexample, two equilateral triangles with-in a circle signified Supreme Power.

Alternating with these dances wereinterludes of music and songs, declaimedpoetry, mime, acrobatics, and ingenioustheatrical effects created by speciailyconstructed mechanical devices. Onememorable device was a three-tieredgold and silver fountain on wheels, litbv a hundred candles and spouting per.fumed water, that carried the queen andeleven gorgeously costumed high-bornladies, representing naiads, around theJance floor. Later that same evening acrrurtier impersonating Mercury, mes.senger of the gods, descended from theceiling in a mechanical "cloud" accom-panied by a clap of thunder, followed inlue course by Jupiter, king of the gods,mtrunted on an "eagle," to do honor torhe m,-'rnarch of France. Some ten thou-s:nJ people ofquality are said to havep.rckeJ the Louvre's Great Hall to see:his performance, which began at ten in:re evening and lasted till half past two:r the morning.

Until the second half of the seven.

teenth century little distinction wasmade in Europe between what we calltheatrical and social dancing. By theage of two the future Louis XIII couldalready do "all sorts ofdances ro themusic of a violin"; at four-and-a-half hedonned a mask "to dance a ballet" forhis father. The pressures of ruling didnot dim Louis's enthusiasm for dance.After succeeding to the rhrone in 1610the king undertook a number of roles,noble and comic, male and female, inballets de cotrr thar. he himself helpedwrite.

His son, the future Louis XIV wassimilarly groomed to take his place inthe center of the dance floor; gossipsnoted that the young Louis loved danc-ing so much that he spent more time athis dancing lessons than his grammarlessons. He was four years old when hesucceeded his father as king in 1643; hiswidowed mother was regent, but for thenext eighteen years the real power inthe land was the prime minisrer,Cardinal Jules Mazarin, who also super-vised the young king's education. In1649 opposition to Mazarin's policiestook a violent turn, the mob took to thestreets, and the court, with the youngking in disguise, fled Paris. Once therebeilion against the regime was sup-pressed, Mazarin orchestrated a courtspectacle designed to impress all ofEurope-but especially the restivenobility of France-with the pre-eminence of the young monarch whosename was soon to become synony-mous with the "divine right" of kings.A medal minted at his birth had pro-claimed him "Orbis Solis Gallici" ("TheRisen Sun of Gaul"). Fourteen years lat.er he appeared in "Le Ballet de la Nuit"

performed at court during Carnivalseason in February 1653. Among hisroles, which he repeated six times insucceeding weeks, was Le Roi Soleil(The Sun King), around whom maskedcourtiers circled like so many planetsrevolving around the sun in the stillcontroversial cosmology of the lateNicolaus Copernicus.

Of course, the young Louis was actu.ally portraying Apollo, the Greek godwho had passed into the allegorical con-ventions of Christian Europe. But theintent of the symbolism was losr on noone; to the end of his reign Louis XIVwas apostrophized as the Sun King,and he lived his life as if the universerevolved around him. "ln exercising atotally divine function here on earth,"he wrote in his memoirs, "we must ap.pear incapable of turmoils which coulddebase it."

What Louis did, in practice, was toenshrine himself as an object of wor-ship, not just for the common peoplebut also for the higher nobility who hadlong been accustomed to rhinking of theking of France as no more than "firstamong equals" atop the feudal system.Louis built a number of elegant palaceswhere his world might do him homage,but the central temple of the Sun Kingcult was Versailles, which he construcr-ed in a drained swamp eleven milessouthwest of Paris, at a safe distancefrom the fickle mobs of the capital.A new city was created to house thetwenty thousand people attached tothe court. But anyone who was anyonefought for the privilege of living in thepalace itself, which had aparrmenrs fora thousand titled gentlemen and ladiesand some four thousand servants. And

75

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Oppo.sirc: The /r,rrrr.'in-r..rr'-r,ltl LrliiJ f 1\',r-r L.' RlrSoleil (The.\rrn Krng) in Lt F.rllet Jt l.r \uit, /,rr-formed at cottrr dtrrurg (..rlrtrr iil icrri,,n nr Fclrrtr,trJ'1653, ALthrntgh rhi.s rr.rs rhi r.',li rA.rr .rirlr!' r() srnrb,rli:rhls reign, he also JanceJ ,rher lrrrrr-r in corirr balle rs,tncLudntg c g\'f-s\ i)r'tr{nr relbr, a r ilLrgc rnrriJ, rrnJ amonke^t.

This page: The choreoglr4th"t of larga goups need notbe limited to ddnccrs. Louls XIV"s "Grande Carrr.,usel"(Left) celebrated the birth o/ hls son, the Dauphin , in1 662 , and goqL'e the Place du Corrousel rn Paris it.sname . The /e.stirritie .s, secn here in a contemporarlpainting, inuoLued hundrads of horsemen riding in care-fully designed formdtions. The Tuileries Palace , in rhebackground, was destroled b1 fire in 187 1 . Courtspectacles that are direct descendants of the GrandeCarrousel are still found in Europe. An example ts thismilinrl nttoo in front of Edinburgh Castle (below) .In the United Sntes, holidq parad.es and pageants likethe half -time festiuities at football gomes carry fctrwardthe tradition t.,/ mass choreogaphy estnblished in theRenaissonce courts of Europe.

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In the branle (left) , which opened all formal cowt balls before theeighteenth centurJ , couples joined a linked line in order of socialrank, wirh those of highest rank coming first. In the danses i deuxthat followed, one couple danced at a time before the uitical eyesof the assembled guests. This engraving, by Israel Silvesve in thesecond half of the seaenteenth century , shows a branle at theLouure.

The allemu'rde (below left) , a sixteenth-centurJ cowt dance proba-bly originating in Switzerkmd and Germany, was characteriTed bya frgrue in which the gentleman tumed the ktdy under his arm, andc)ice uersa. This is an illustration from Simon Guillame's doncingmanual of 1770. The allemande step familiar from Americansqurae d"ancingmay haue been sugestedby this dance.

J ean Ballon ( 1 67 6-1 7 39 ; below right) began choreographing theballets of Louis XIV from about 1700. Before then, he hadbeen adancer and, since 1691 , a member of the Pmis OpdraBallet. It wasBallon who choreographed the ballet in whichMofie Camargo mad.eher debutin 1726.

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78

A weddingrecepaon at the French court forthe sister-in-law of Herwy III, in a paintingof c,1582 b1 m wrl

The fiue positions of the feet seen in thisemly diagrun are the foundation of classicalballet technique. Based on the turnout of theIegs firx defined in 1588, the five posirionswere codified at the end of the seuenteenthcenturJ by Piene Beauchamps, LouisXIV'sdancingmaster.

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arm's length while exchanging discreet-ly flirtatious glances. To dance a properminuet required schooling at the handsof a dancing master, who typically alsotaught fencing and etiquette to would-be courtiers. It was important tomaintain a "noble carriage," to keep thetorso upright as a still center ofgravitywhile movements of the head, forearms,wrists, fingers, legs, and feet flowed intoeach other without awkward breaks.Even the "reverences," or bows, whichthe lady and gentleman exchanged tobegin a dance were highly stylized. Astime went on, the minuet grew slower,more sedate, and more mannered untilit became (for eighteenth-century com-mentators like Voltaire) the very modelof the effete amusements of a terminallydecadent court.

When the young Louis XIV dancedthe role of the Sun King in 1653, he wasexpressing the pretensions of the House

80

of Bourbon to absolute power. The reali.ty, as we have seen, was something elseagain. Cardinal Richelieu, prime minis.ter to Louis XIII and Mazarin's mentor,had spent nearly twenty years bolsteringthe royal authority. But neither civilwars nor administrative reforms couldstrip the nobility of its feudal preroga,tives until Louis XIV built Versailles.By detaining the peers of the realm inan elegant playpen-cum-prison, the kingcut them offfrom their natural bases ofpower in the provinces. These strong-willed men, quick to take insult andever ready to avenge their honor atsword point, became in effect wards ofthe state. It is not clear that Louis setout to emasculate an entire class oftitled troublemakers by ensuring theirattendance at an endless round ofcourtfetes and hunts and balls and ballets.But it is on record that he believed"people love spectacles; by these we

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hold their minds and hearts more oftenperhaps than by rewards or benefits."

It was Louis XIV who drew the firstclear line between amateur and profes-sional dancers. In 1661 he established aRoyal Academy of Dance to systematizethe rules governing the kind of virtuosodancing that he admired and that helamented "few among those of ourCourt" were able to do. Pierre Beau-champs, the king's own dancing master,stressed the five basic positions of thefeet on which classical ballet techniquerests. (The precise placement of the feethas varied over the years, but the funda-mentals of the technique are traceableto Louis's academy.) To make it easierto train new dancers and teach new bal-le$, an entire hierarchy of steps andsequences was worked out and assignednames like balanc6 and entrechat thathave survived to this day (although themovements they refer to may have

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:i.rnseJ). The opening of the Paris--pir;r in i671 gave the newly codified:. urr Jance a public showcase under::.e lirection of Beauchamps and Jean3:prrsre Lully, an inspired music master.'.:rl celebrated dancer) whose librettists

.:.cluJeJ Corneille, Racine, and Molidre.Even as the French aristocracy began

:- l.',se its purpose and vitality as a:..rss. the ideal of the manly courtier'.,.:s rransferred to the proGssional stage::. rhe figure of the donsew noble, who:','picallv portrayed heroes or gods out ofGreek and Roman mythology. In ama-:eur productions at court, female rolesi:J .riten been played by young boys; inioS I professional female dancers made:herr debut at the Op6ra and were an:r'rmediate hit, a ballerina named La-F..ntaine being acclaimed "queen of thei.rnce" in her first season.

The political system centered on\ersailles survived the death ofLouis

XIV in 1712, but without his command-ing presence the center could not hold.Having reduced the nobility to thestatus of supernumeraries, the Frenchmonarchy was exposed to the anger andfrustration of the middle and lowerclasses whose taxes supported the struc-ture of the state. The Revolution of1789 swept away much of the old order.Never again would a European mon-arch's person be accorded semidivinestatus. Late Bourbon manners, dress,and diction, once considered the touch-stone of Europe's rulers, became pro-verbial in the next century for ineffectu-al foppery. Yet the ideal ofthe courtier,as expressed on the dance floors ofLouisXIV's France, endured as a model ofnoble deportment in painting, sculp-ture, opera, and ballet-a model fromwhich succeeding generations in post.Revolutionary Europe drew bothpleasure and inspiration.

Louis XIV attends the theater atVersailles.The production is Les F6tes de I'Amour etde Bacchus (1678). Here, one can see theorigin of the relatiorchip between performerand. audience that cane to characterizeclassicalballet. The king's position is centraland unobstructed, mtd the action is orientedtowmd that central viewing point.

81

I t was always an exciting and danger-I ous place. The great officers of thekingdom, even the King himself, weresubject to rapid changes offortune.Their patronage was a way to powerand wealth, attracting supplicants andfollowers, but patterns of alliance wereever-shifting, and a prosperous groupmight quickly find ttself in difficulties.Around the King and court, menmaneuvered, calculated, spied on eachother and were spied upon. Alliances bymairiage, trade or favor were made andbroken. A large number ofsupportersshowed a man's power; they also costhim money."

These words might have been writtenabout the Versailles of Louis XIV andhis successors. In fact, they describeKumase, the capital of the Asante, as itwas in its heyday in the early years ofthe nineteenth century.

A century earlier, a confederacy ofsmall states calling themselves Asantegained control of the region aroundKumase. The survival of the Asante as

8Z

a distinct people is due not only to thelegendary prowess of their armies-whose emblem was the many-quilledporcupine-but also to their geniusfor political organization. One of thefounders of the confederacy was a priestnamed Anokye, who along with the firstAsantehene, Osei Tirtu, constructed astrong but flexible polity that combinedelements of centralized empire, feudal-ism, and representative democracy.The Asante ruled their confederacywithout benefit of an indigenous writtenlanguage (although they staffed theirtreasury with literate Muslims). Theymade a fetish of cleanliness; Europeantravelers commented on the broad, well-swept streets of their villages and towns.The official currency of the land wasgold dust. Expanding by war or bydiplomacy backed by the threat of war,the Asante established dominance overmost of the area of modern Ghana; onlythe encroachment of the better-armedBritish in the late nineteenth cenruryended their power.

Aboq,e: Reception for the British Embassyat Kumase, 1817, fromT. E. Bowdich,Mission from Cape Coast Castle toAshantee (London, 1819) . Bowdich wrotethat upon entering the city, "more than ahundredbutds bwst at once on our aniual,with the peculiar air of their seueral chiefs."

Opposite: Asantphene Kwaku Drn II receiu-ing a Brirish fficial at his palace, 1884 (left)Each chief has his oum umbrella; and, as atVersailles, the claser a courtier is to the king,the more status he has. As is the ualition inmany royal courts, the ruler is seated on araised dais. The Asontehene's palace , con-structed of wood and clay, was the largestbuilding, or rather group of interconnectedbuildings, in Kumase. It was not on\ thepnnary residence of the kingandmany of hiswives utd servants, but part of it also seruedas the forum in which the council of the realmdecided important matters. At right, the greatcotntymd, c.1890.

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The wnbrellns used to shade the Asanteheneond senior chiefs anl signal their appearancein public are arnong the most striking mticlesof Asonte regalia. Their pwpose is not onlJtokeep the chief physically cool, but to signrfyhis spirianl coolness, or dwo, as well. Thewnbrella-bearer makes the umbrella "darlce"to the music of the drums cmdhoms in thechief s entowage. At aBig Adae in Kunvsein 1991 , the Asantehene Ottunfuo OpokuWare II (nght) uld a group of senior chiefs(below) are shaledby wnbrellns.

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84

A chief and.his court (lcft) arrive at the assembly growdin Kmtase for a Big Adae. Eorh chief wems his most qnwterobes and gold jewelry (below right) . Alrnost as corupicuottsas the wnhellas omong Asonti regalia me linguist snffs withelaborate gold fininls (below left) , which are canied as a bolgeof ffice by chiefs' spol

When the British got their firstglimpse of Kumase in 1817, they wereimpressed by its generous layout, and bythe golden treasures of the Asanteheneand his court: "The sun was reflected,with a glare scarcely more supportablethan the heat, from the massy goldornamenrs, which glistened in everydirection." Modern Ghana, whichachieved independence in1957, rook itsname from an ancient west Africankingdom that was first mentioned in theeighth century by Arab travelers whoknew it as "the land ofgold"; theydescribed the king of Ghana holdingcourt literally weighed down with goldnecklaces and bracelets; the hair ofhisattendants was "plaited with gold," andeven his watchdogs wore collars of "goldand silver."

Most of the land under Asante con-trol at the beginning of the nineteenthcentury was tropical rain forest, sodense that sunlight penetrated to theforest floor only where the Asante hadcleared farms and living spaces and thenarrow footpaths that connected theirsmaller villages to the larger towns.They built their capital Kumase on ahill overlooking a river. In the earlynineteenth century it supported apopulation of twenty thousand. Of itstwenty-seven major streets, the largestwas half a mile long, and fifty to ahundred yards wide, and lined withclay-and-wattle buildings whose ourerwalls were sealed with white plaster.These were maintained by leading chiefsand court functionaries who conductedbusiness in airy rooms entered directlyfrom the street. The most impressivebuildings, some of them rwo srorieshigh, belonged to the palace of the

86

Asantehene. Formal audiences andcouncil meetings took place in a GreatCourt, which was connected to othercourts and buildings by passageways andgalleries. As at Versailles, numerousattendants, court officials, royal con-sorts, and servants had apartments inthe palace complex.

The unity of the Asante nation wassymbolized by a Golden Stool, carvedin wood and encased in sheets ofgold, which, according to tradition,descended from heaven in 1700 ontothe knees of Osei Tirtu, who becamethe first Asantehene. No one, not evenan Asantehene, has ever sat on theGolden Stool, which enshrines the spir-it of the Asante people. Although hecombined in his person the powers ofhead of state, head priest, and comman.der in chief, the Asantehene was neveran absolute monarch. Any man whobelonged to the royal clan by descenr onhis mother's side was a candidate forsuccession. When the office fell vacant,a new Asantehene was named by acouncil of subordinate chiefs, who werethemselves named to their positions bycouncils of lesser chiefs, who in turnowed their authority to lesser councilson down to the village level. On eachlevel a place ofhonor was reserved for awoman known as the "queen mother,"who represented the women of hercommunity, played an important rolein nominating new chiefs, and oftenserved as a power behind the chief, inthe manner of a Catherine de M6dicis.If the performance of any chief,including the Asantehene, was foundwanting, he could be removed fromoffice by the vote of those who hadelected him.

On certain occasions fixed by theAsante calendar the entire hierarchy ofchiefs, subchiefs, elders, and court func.tionaries gathered in Kumase at thepalace of the Asantehene. They camewith their retinues, resplendent in theirbest robes and finest gold jewelry, toratify the ties of political and religiousauthority that held the communitytogether-a web of mutual obligationsmade manifest through the exchangeof gifts and services, ritualized flightsofrhetoric, and the display ofobjects ofsymbolic value like the Golden Stool,but most of all through the dynamicsymbolism of dance. The festival thatthe current Asantehene, OtumfuoOpoku !7are II, has declared to be aBig Adae (Ritual Day) continuesthis centuries-old court ceremony; ittakes place at the hilltop palace com-plex in the center of Kumase, a moderncity with a population of four hundredthousand.

A century after the British subduedthe Asante (they sacked Kumase twice,in 1874 and 1896), the court oftheAsantehene remains a force to be reck-oned with. The national government inAccra, Ghana's capital on the Atlanticcoast a hundred miles south of Kumase,recognizes the authority of the tradi-tional institution of chieftaincy incertain legal and cultural matters. Butwhile the Asante region is the country'smost prosperous, comparatively fewAsante have been welcomed into poli-tics on the national level. As a result,the last few years have seen a renewedinterest in chieftaincy among rheAsante, a development that ProfessorOpoku views with some skepticism:"Successful Asante have money and few

outlets for their ambitions. So they wantro be chiefs even if they know nothingabout our traditions. At the same timethe court has money problems, so youget people buying a stool, buying theiru'ay in. Not only do these people notknow how to dance, they don't evenknorv enough to appreciate good danc-ing. Without knowledgeable patronss'ho understand the culture, how canthe best survive? Happily, there are stilla t-eu'chiefs with close ties to the peoples-ho take their political, cultural, andspiritual responsibilities seriously." Theprrrt-essor also worries that the dancesrhat helped to define Asante identity fornearly three centuries are being forgot-ten br- a younger generation that is morernrerested in imitating the moves of\lichaelJackson: "l don't mind telling\!)u, we are in deep trouble. The Britishctruldn't stop us from dancing, but theTV might."

The present Asantehene, a British-rrained lawyer who was taught the req-ursite dances after his elevation, has:nlited all Asante to join him in observ-:ns the Big Adae; and he has called.rpon all Asante chiefs to reaffirm in:.rsrrn their allegiance to the GoldenS:ool. The public display of the stool,-.rl .rrher regalia is designed to reassure::.e assembled nation that their hal-.. rvel treasures are in good hands.

The puhlic part of the ceremonies.':li l.e held adjacent to the palace com-r-c\ trn the assembly ground, a fan-::..irel e\panse of red-brown earth with:..'. Lou' rLrstrums at one end: a circle of'.,.:..:eu.ashed concrete for the Asante-.-.::'.c .loJ a smaller concrete square for::.; i.reen mother. Other than these and, -:.i rcJ anJ velltlw canvas canopies

along the periphery to keep the sun offvisiting dignitaries, the area is withoutdecoration. No flags, no banners, noposters, no triumphal arches, no frillsof any kind. The only markings on thebare earth are parallel lines of whitelime laid down around rhe perimeter atright angles to the outer edge, as iftodefine so many parking spaces. Betweeneach pair of lines a small wooden signon a stake bears the name of the partic-ular chief whose enrourage will soonoccupy that space: "Amantinehene,""Agogohene," "Adansihene, ""Kenyasehene 2," "Essumej ahene, ""Acherensuahene." Each of these menwill sit surrounded by his own entou-rage, including musicians and dancers.But when the moment comes to payhomage to the Asantehene, each willknow exactly where in the hierarchy hefits, with lesser chiefs going first and themost powerful and prestigious goinglast-the exact opposite of the progres.sion at Versailles, where the king dancedfirst and others followed in decreasingdegree ofstatus.

According to the professor, everycourtier has a responsibility to passalong the traditional songs and dancesto the next generation. The Asante-hene's head drummer, a man ofeighty-two who carries the entire courtrepertoire in his head, had a son whoshowed promise on the drums but endedup as an accountant in chicago; thehead drummer is now training his twoyoungest boys, twelve-year.old twins.Even before they learn the dances oftheir people, the professor says, Asantechildren are told stories that make plainthe central role that dancing plays intheir world: "There's the one about a

greedy chief who thinks only of him.self and who is cautioned that his stoolhas a taboo against dancing. So hesays, 'Don't worry, I understand, nodancing.'His sons, who have been soneglected by their father that they arestarving, dig a tunnel under the palace,and one day while the chief is takinga bath, they start drumming; he can'rhelp himself, he starts moving to thebeat and someone says, 'What are youdoing?'and he says, 'Oh, the water wasso cold I was just shivering.'And theperson telling the story mimics thedrum with his voice and acts our rhechiefs movemenrs, and the childrenlearn to imitate him. The whole ideaof a chief who can't dance is so silly, itmakes them laugh."

There is a quality of life known andprized throughout tropical Africa thatthe Asante call dwo. This can be trans.lated as "spiritual coolness" or "innerpeace" or just plain "cool." It does notrefer to air or body temperature, al-though a metaphoric connection to thelarge-leaved shade trees that dominatethe main streets of even the smallestAsante villages can hardly be acciden-tal. The professor remembers gatheringunder such a shade tree as a child witha group offriends to learn new dances.His grandniece Esther Bclateng, whoat the age of five danced for QueenElizabeth II when that monarch visitedGhana in the 1950s, says that when youdance at court (or for that matter any-where else) the important thing is to berelaxed, to stay flexible, to remain cool."The opposite ofcool is nervous," shesays. "'S7hen you start dancing and youfeelcool, you feel like the whole worldbelongs to you."

87

The Buddhist monument of Borobuhn ( c . 800) in Central J ava manifests the cosmic mountainn mandala pkn. The massive structure has nine leuels , or terraces , with bas-relief s lining thegalleries that sunound earhlevel. The images relate the story of the Buldha's life and the liqtesof his disciples; some depict dance postures that sugest the astonishing continuit1 of dance formsin Indonesia.

I ava. the fourth larsest island in thetl irland nation of lridonesia, is one ofthe world's most densely populatedareas, with over 1500 persons per squaremile. Six hundred and twenty mileslong and 125 miles across at its widestpoint, its population of over a hundredmillion shares the mountainous landwith over fifty active volcanoes, seven-teen ofwhich have erupted in recentyears. Mt. Merapi near Yogyakarta incentral Java erupts every five years or so,causing death and destruction, but alsocoating the all-important rice fieldswith fertile volcanic ash. The devastat-ing eruption of Krakatoa, which blew upin the strait between Java and Sumatrain 1883, was heard two thousand milesaway. Earthquakes and tidal waves areall-too frequent occurrences. Whatthese disasters have in common is thatthey are recurrent, yet, unlike seasonalstorms and floods, there is no way topredict when they will occur next.Perhaps it is not surprising that peoplewho live at such close quarters with nat.ural violence should cherish a courtaesthetic that is rooted in the cultiva-tion of a profound tranquillity.

Following a dynastic split in theeighteenth century, two competing roy-al courts were established in central Javafifty miles apart, one at Yogyakarta andone at Surakarta. Each court has evolvedits own versions of the classic Javanesecourt dance, the sublimely tranquilbedoyo. This dance commemoratesa three-hundred-year-old traditionaccording to which a Muslim ruler ofthe state of Mataram, the ancestor ofbothJavanese royal courts, was rituallymarried to the goddess known as theQueen ofthe Southern Sea, who taught

88

LilNAL T\\\

Bedoy performance (aboue) in the main pendopo of the sukan's pal.a.ce atyogyal

him this dance. Javanese traditionslinking royalty and divinity go backeven further, to the god-kings oftheninth and tenth centuries who devel-oped a unique blend of Buddhism andHinduism and built the island's twogreatest monuments, neighboring tem.ple complexes at Borobudur (Buddhist)and Prambanan (dedicated to the Hindudeity Shiva.) A thirteenth-centuryruler ofJava was extolled by a courtpoet as an incarnation of both Shiva andBuddha. After adopting Islam the rulersof Mataram were provided with genealo-gies linking them to allprevious gods aswell as to the line of Mohammed.

As a danced ritual attributed to anindigenous ocean deity, performed ata Muslim court and incorporatingHindu myths with overtones of Budd-hist quietism, bedoyo appears to be atypical product of the Javanese aptitudefor combining disparate, even oppos-ing, elements into a harmonious whole.lUhile some bedoyos are consideredmore sacred than others, all are per-formed to proclaim the glory of theruler, to affirm the court's ancestral tiesto a divine source of power, and to em-body clear teachings about the Javaneseway of life-how to compose your innerlife, how to present yourself to others.

Everything about bedoyo suggests thepublic projection of the disciplined self.It is danced by nine identically dressedwomen whose synchronized movementsand indistinguishable facial expressionssignify that they are not nine individu.als but rather nine different aspects ofone individual or of some abstract ideaor theme. Nine is considered a "perfect"number. Depending on the commenra-tor, the dancers are said to represent

90

the nine orifices of the human body orthe nine human desires or nine constel.lations or the nine ceremonial gates ofthe palace.

A focal point of every Javanese palaceis a permanent structure built especiallyfor court dance and spectacle. So im-portant is the enactment of rituals oflegitimacy in this part of the world thatone scholar has referred to the tradi-tional nations of southeast Asia as"theater,states." The courtiers of LouisXIV would have had no trouble under-standing the connection between state-craft and stagecraft. In Yogyakartacourt dances are performed in an open-sided rectangular pavilion-called apendopo-with a high peaked roof sup-ported by carved black and gold pillars;similar structures can be found in bas-relief on the walls of ancient Javanesetemples, along with carved figures ofdancers whose graceful postures aresimilar to those seen in today's courtdancers.

As with all court dance, preparationsfor bedoyo are elaborate and time.con-suming; it takes several hours just todress the dancers in the costume ofaroyal bride. Each dancer wears a velvetbodice embroidered in silver-gilt thread,a scarfsecured around the waist by agold belt, silver.gilt or gilded leatherarmlets in the shape of dragons on theupper arms, a gold or silver-gilt breastplaque set with tiny diamonds, and,tightly wound around the legs, a lengthof diagonally striped batik whose freeend falls to the floor and passes betweenthe ankles like a train. The dancer'sbare feet move soundlessly over the mar-ble tile floor to the fluid sounds of acourt gamelan-a predominantly per.

cussive orchestra that includes a varietyof tuned gongs, cymbals, xylophone-like instruments, a drum, a flute, and atwo-stringed lute.

The essence ofbedoyo is balanceor equilibrium, which is a quality theJavanese prize highly. Much of the timethe nine dancers move in unison. Toinitiate each slow-motion step, a dancerarches her instep and curls her toesupward as she lifts one foot just percep-tibly off the ground. Knees turned outand slightly bent, she replaces this footon the ground heel first and shifts herweight forward to the toe in a continu-ous movement that seems to invest theeveryday act of walking with aestheticsignificance. As in ballet, the basic stepsare highly stylized and are referred toby name; in the gedruck, for example,the dancer balances on one foot whilescooping her batik train back out of herway with her other heel and then tap-ping her toe on the floor behind thesupporting foot.

Like the geometric figures of LouisXIV's ballers de cour, the stylizedmovements and smoothly flowing floorpatterns of bedoyo have symbolic signif-icance: for example, the transition fromasymmetrical to symmetrical grouping(three rows ofthree dancers each)represents a change of inner state-from a conflict between flesh and spiritto a reconciliation of all aspects ofthe human being. At other times thedancers may depict scenes from the his-tory of the dynasty or from the classicHindu epics, rheMahabharatc and theRanaywta, which have never lost theircurrency in Muslim Java. But even whentwo of the dancers separate from theother seven to enact a love duet be-

Opposite: Pendopos at the emly-seventeenth-centwry royal pal.ace of Kasephuanin Cirebon, West Jaua. In Indonesia, the pendopo is used in architectural settingsranging from modest homes to elegant palaces, as weII as in Hindu temples andIslamic mosques. AtYogyal

No account of the performing mts panonizedby the royalcowts of Jaua woul.d be complz.te without a mention ofwaJangkulit, or shadow play. The puppets (left) , made ofbuffala pmchment, are monipulatedby alone puppeteer sothat an overhead.lanp tlvows their krcy shadows on a whitecotton screen . The stones come from Indic , mostly Hindu,sources 4s well as indigenous legends. As can be seen fromtlwse two nineteenth-cennny examples from Cirebon, WestJaua, the stJlized form of the puppets reo:r"als a kinship toboth bedoy o cmd way ang wong.

The elaborate dance droma called wayang wong (below andopposite) was first described in the eighteenth centwy; dw-ingits "golfun age" in the ear\ decades of this centwl per-formances at cotlrt could last up to fow days , with longscenes of riunlized combatbased on episodes from theMahabharata. The influence of the shadow puppets isstrong: the sulnn is considered the puppeteer of the perfor-mance, and some sukans acanlly collaborated with theircourt Uterati in uniting the stones , composing the music andchareographing the srrictly disciplined movements. These areperfomwnces at tlv Yogyal

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East of Jaua in the Indonesian archipelago is the far smallerisland of Bali , which, unlike irs larger neighbors , neaer forsookHinduism for Islntn. BaLi is known for its astonishing uarietlof dance forms, some of which o+,erlnP with Jauanese dances.The destruction of the royal courts of BaLi in the early twentiethcenturJ led to the dispersal of cotLrt dancers into the oLillagesand countrlside. Here Balinese waJang u'ong dancers, c.1930,perform a scene from the Ramayana.

94

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conflict has been submerged in an ele-gant style of movement that once servedas a standard against which the bearingand manners of Javanese nobility mightbe measured.

From the early nineteenth century,u'hen Dutch commercial interests con-solidated their political and militaryhold on Java, the two royal courts re-doubled their competition in the onlyarena allowed to them: the arena of cul-ture. The language and etiquette ofthecrrurts became ever more refined; beau-riful pools and gardens (symbols ofhealenly bliss in Islam and emblems ofrhe rulers' association with the Queenof the Southern Sea) were constructed;:nJ the custody and ritual display ofrhe rt'rval heirlooms, considered to haveireat spiritual power, became even more:mpr)rtant. These heirlooms, or pusaka,,r hich had been divided between the:\fo crrurts when the dynasty split, range::,.m gold crowns to gold-leafed umbrel-.,t. i,r ceremonial daggers to classic;..urr dances like the bedoyo.

There is a deep-running paradox in-

r\'.lnese culture concerning the nature: pon'er. On the one hand, power is

- nnecred to specific possessions; in a:.:rrle ,l'er succession in the late seven-:..rth century, a contender for their.rL\r'rB u'hose father had lost both his.::rv and his treasury nevertheless tri-,:-.rheJ because he possessed certain: ..:.rk.r. On the other hand, true (i.e.,:::::rLral) power is held to be invisible,...-:ervasive: ifyou need to flaunt it,.

-: ntusr not have it. In striking a bal-,:.,i l^cr\\'een these two opposing,::::uJes, the Javanese courts competed:. :,ilrr)ns of what was held to be the-:.i

.,i ancient Javanese culture. \Uith

material resources unmatched elsewherein their society, and with the leisure tostudy the traditional arts and embellishthem, the courts of central Java focusedattention on a history and a spiritualheritage that all Javanese could look towith pride.

Unlike the court dances of theAsante and Bourbon France, the dancesof the Javanese courts were not original-ly open to outsiders, even those asso-ciated with the court. Until 1918 thebedoyo at Yogyakarta was performedonly by female relatives of the sultan;it was even forbidden to teach classicdance outside the palace walls. In fact,other than invited guests, few Javaneseever saw the court dances. Their perfor-mance was considered a sacred trust,necessary to the well-being of the peo-ple and the continuity of the dynasty,but out-of-bounds for all but the highestdignitaries; even the costumes and seat-ing arrangements of the spectators werehierarchically coded. Those of lowestrank wore black and sat nearest to thepalace kitchen; those of highest rankwore white and sat nearest to theruler-whose throne was elevated sothat his head was higher than any spec-tator's or performer's.

Commoners have never been al-lowed to view or learn the court dancesofSurakarta. But during the reign ofSultan Hamengku Buwono VIII (1921-39) the court dances and spectacles ofYogyakarta were opened to the people.In a momentous step analogous to LouisXIV's founding of his Royal Academy ofDance, a school was created outside theYogyanese court where anyone couldstudy what had once been the exclusiveprovince of the nobility. The goals were

to invigorate court arts by exposingthem to new influences; to raise thestandards of popular dance forms bybringing them into contact with highlydeveloped court forms; and to reinforcean historically rooted Javanese con-sciousness against the modernizing pres-sures of Western colonialism. Hundredsof performers were recruited from thedomain of Yogyakarta to learn thedances and the movement styles associ-ated with such spectacles as wayangwong. The mosr accomplished of theseperformers became full-time servantsof the court; and many thousands ofJavanese got their first look at the cen-turies-old treasures of their culture thatthe court ofYogyakarta had maintained.

The next sultan, Hamengku BuwonoIX (1940-88), was a leader in the fightfor independence against the Dutch.The struggle brought together leadersfrom Java, Sumatra, Bali, and the otherislands that now make up the nation ofIndonesia. But it was by no means cer-tain in 1945, when independence wasproclaimed, that the different islands,with their distinctive peoples, histories,and cultures, would continue to seek acollective future. Although the sultanwas a lover ofdance and a choreogra-pher himself, he worried that localtraditions hke the court dances atYogyakarta would weaken his people'sallegiance to the central government, sohe suspended all performances at thepalace. Deprived of their principalpatron, dances like the bedoyo mighthave died out except for the efforts offormer palace servants who now taughtoutside the court.

The present sultan, HamengkuBuwono X, has revived performances at

95

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the palace and given new life to Java-nese dance in general. He believes thatclassic dance, especially bedoyo, is anindispensable asset of his court. In hisview such dances represent a "tool oflegitimacy" because they express val-ues-a code of behavior and a spiritualheritage-that "continue to color thelife and customs of Javanese societytoday." Taking the dances out of thepalace has inevitably led to changes.Some have been shortened and simpli-fied to appeal to modern tastes; theperforming arts in general, and dancein particular, have become major touristattractions in Java. Innovative choreog-raphers have mixed stylistic elementsfrom different regions (and even com-bined them with Western steps andmusic) to create new hybrids that ex-cite some audiences while dismayingtraditionalists like Romo Sas, chore-ographer and dance master to theYogyakarta court.

Romo Sas, who considers himselffirst and foremost a palace servant,deplores the new emphasis on crowd-pleasing physical virtuosity in dance, atthe expense of traditional content thatthe Javanese see as both practical andspiritual: "Dance is tending to become aform of entertainment, when it shouldbe a means of education. For example,anyone who learns how to dance auto-matically knows how to sit the sila way,decorously, legs crossed and fingerscrossed Javanese style. The etiquette ofthe dance tells us how to sit, how towalk, how to kneel, how to get alongwith other people, how to adapt to oursituation in life."

97

Bugaku performed by a Shinta prieston the terrace of the ltsukushima-jinjashrine, Miy ajima I sland, J apan.

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adamaro Ono is also a palace ser-vant. His job is to play gagaku ("ele-

gant music") at the Imperial Court ofjapan. The austere, stately dances per-formed to this music are called bugaku.Members of Ono's family have been per-forming at the emperor's behest for closeto twelve hundred years. His is the thir-ry-ninth generation in an unbroken lineof court musicians.

Gagaku and bugaku represent theivorld's oldest continuing tradition ofcourt music and dance. For centuries,rhese performances were a closely heldsecret ofthe palace, heard and seen onlybv members of the aristocracy, govern-ment officials, and official guests. Sincethe end of the Second World \far per-tormances have been open to the publicin a theater on the palace grounds. Eventbr the Japanese, the glacially pacedgagaku and bugaku are an acquiredtaste. Yet more than fifteen thousandpeople apply for admission each year.Since the performance hall holds onlyselen hundred and there are only aboutthirtv performances a year, a lottery isheld to determine the lucky ticket win-ners. The losers can console themselvess'irh a compact disk of the music, sales..f \\'hich have been rising. In Ono'swt'rrds, "there is a boom, something likentrsralgia," for gagaku and bugaku.

Outsiders who try to understand:ntrJern Japan are struck by the appar-.i'rr cLrntradiction between the Japanese:pperire fbr the new (whether in elec,::..nics, economics, or politics) and::elr concern with preserving the past.lhrs c,.'ntradiction is itself nothing new.:rcept tbr a three-hundred-year period: :s..lation from the world that ended

::. -:6S. the Japanese have characteristi-

cally adopted new ideas without lettinggo of tradition. Often, today's noveltybecomes tomorrow's tradition and takesan honored place in the ever-expandinggallery ofJapanese culture. A classicexample is the way Japan enthusiastical-ly adopted Buddhism, imported somethirteen hundred years ago from theAsian mainland, while keeping up therites of Shint6, the indigenous religion.Many Japanese families maintain twohousehold shrines, one Shinto and oneBuddhist. At the Imperial Court, thesame impulse can be seen in thesurvival of gagaku and bugaku, whichbonded native traditions and exoticforeign novelties into something funda-mentally Japanese.

The word Shinto can be translatedas "continuity." Shintd has no founderand no set scriptures, no myth of cre-ation-out-of-nothing, no apocalypticworld-ending. From the first Japanesehistorical records in the fourth century,Shinto is already there, channeling theenergies of its people toward the worshipof myriad divinities, ranging from tute-lary spirits and deified ancestors to per-sonalized forces ofnature and abstractconcepts such as purity and truth.The first Japanese emperors known tohistory were both political and religiousleaders; and through centuries ofpoliti-cal upheaval in which the ImperialCourt was often little more than a pawnof powerful warlords, the religious roleof the emperor has remained crucial tothe self.image of the Japanese.

The imperial family claims descentfrom Amaterasu, the sun goddess,whose favor is necessary to a successfulrice harvest. Disgusted by the boorishbehavior of her brother, Amaterasu shut

herself up in a cave and the world fellinto darkness. To lure her out, the god-dess Ame-no-uzume danced half,nudeon an overturned tub before theassembled divinities; her antics soamused the gods that their laughterawakened the curiosity of the sun god-dess, who peeped out ofthe cave andwas drawn back into the world. Ame-no-uzume became the patron of musicand dance in Japan-the Land of theRising Sun-and dance as "entertain-ment for the gods" became a part ofShintd ceremonies. But in the seventhcentury, when Buddhist dance-dramaprocessions and gorgeously costumedbanquet entertainments were intro-duced from Korea and China, theImperial Court of Japan quickly em-braced the new imports.

Over the centuries these were adapt-ed to Japanese taste and combined withsurviving Shint6 rituals to make up asuite ofspectator dances, known asbugaku, for performance at court func-tions and religious festivals. \ilfhat ismost remarkable is not the survival ofthe native Shinto elements but thepreservation, in something approachingtheir original form, of the importeddances and music. The original Chineseand Korean forms have long since diedout on the mainland, where they areknown only through literary and picto-rial sources. The Japanese, however,saved what they borrowed, as if to pro-claim their pride in recognizing qualityno matter what its origin.

In the Imperial Palace theater,gagaku and bugaku are performed on asquare platform (measuring just undersix yards per side) covered in green bro-cade and resring on a slightly larger

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This page: Thirty-four fignes perform Bugaku dances across an ouersiTescreen (aboa,)e) by Hmabusa ltcho, a Japanese painter who worked in Edoin the ecvly eighteenth centurJ . Bugaku screens were fashionable in bothtemples md at court since at least the fifteenth centur), although no earlyexamplcs suruiue . This is one of a pair that was probably contmissioned bya nch merchant or miliwy ruler eager to acquire the traditional trappingsof the anstocracy . A hanglng drum like the one uisible in the screen canbe seen right, behind abugaku dancer performing in the theater in theImperial P alace, T oky o.

Opposite: Bugaku dancer at the lwashimizu-htrchimangushrine, nearKyoto, Japan.

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square ofblack-lacquered wood. A redrailing runs all around the larger square.During dance performances the orches-tra sits in an alcove behind the stage,between two huge drums. Some bugakudances depict legendary battles, othersenact encounters with divine personagesor mythical beasts like the phoenix; onefamous set-piece shows two dragons frol-icking. The splendid cosrumes includelong flowing robes of solid blue or deepcrimson, gold-brocade leggings linedwith scarlet silk, elaborately embroi-dered breastplates, black. lacquered"stovepipe" hats or golden helmets, cere-monial swords, lances, and shields, andspectacular face masks: the two dragons,for example, frolic in hairy blue maskswith sharp silver fangs. But whatever thesubject matter, the dancers move almostimperceptibly through simple geometricfloor patterns punctuated by longpauses in which the performers strikesignificant poses. Although most piecesare choreographed for rwo ro eighrdancers, they are actually a series of"solos" in which a single character maybe represented by four identicallydressed dancers who repeat identicalmovements in the four cardinaldirections.

Repetition is as basic to the bugakuaesthetic as is the deliberately slow tem-po. One Japanese commentator hascompared the performing of bugaku tothe process of making color woodblockprints: "When color printing is beingdone, the platen revolves several timesputting on colors: first yellow, then blue,then red, and in the end black. Thesame idea is applied in the performance,repeating the same melody and the samepatterns several times . . . the element of

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sound and the element of movement arepiled up on top ofeach other and createintensity."

The musical accompaniment alsoworks on the principle of achievingmaximal effect with minimal material.Musicians are expected to play theirinstruments-drums, lutes, flutes, harps,reeds and pipes-as if they were them-selves dancers, although they usuallyremain seated. For example, the playerofthe biwa, a short-necked, four.stringed lute, will lift his arms jusr soas he runs his ivory plectrum across thesilk strings to produce both a pleasingsound and a pleasing gesture. Andthe pounder of the large drum that setsthe tempo will shift his weight fromheel to toe as he strikes the drumhead,making a grand gesture out of whatmight otherwise be a metronome-likeoperation. A centuries-old instructionmanual gives some idea of the refine-ment of movement and posture thatgagaku and bugaku strive for. In certainpieces, dancers are urged to emulate"tinted leaves blown about in a storm ona mountain in autumn," while in otherpieces they should resemble "a willowwaving in the spring breeze."

The unchanging nature ofgagakuand bugaku over the centuries manifeststhe role that the Imperial Court has playedin Japanese history. The court rerainerswho developed these arts had rime roshape and reshape each element ofeachpiece until they were satisfied that some.thing of lasting beauty had been cre-ated. At the brilliant eleventh centurycourt described in The Tale of Genji(recognized as the world's firsr novel),emperors and nobles nct only attendedperformances but took an active part in

them. But from the end of the twelfthto the middle of the nineteenrh centurythe Imperial Court at Kyoto functionedsolely as a symbol of Japanese unitywhile real power was wielded elsewhereby military leaders known as Shoguns.Although some Shogunate courts spon.sored music and dance performances oftheir own, the survival of the ImperialCourt depended on the perception rhatthe soul ofJapan resided in Ky6to.The regular production ofgagaku andbugaku, with due artention to all thenuances, was essential to this percep-tion, even if only a handful of peoplewitnessed the performances. TheJapanese not only revere the past, theyfeel a sense ofduty to keep it alive.

During the Onin Rebellion(1467

-77) Kydto itself was sacked, andcourt musicians and dancers scattered totake refuge in shrines and monasteries.Some stayed away even after order wasrestored, and to this day their descen-dants perform gagaku and bugaku atimportant shrines throughout Japan.When the Tokugawa Shogunate consol-idated its power in the early seventeenthcentury, the rhird Shogun organized agagaku and bugaku festival in Ky6to in1626 to impress the people and theemperor with the power of the newrulers ofJapan. In 1661 the Shogunateplaced the production of court musicand dance on a firm financial footingand ordered a competitive examinationevery three years to maintain a pool oftalented performers.

Having preserved their ImperialCourt in a kind of suspended animationfor so long, the Japanese turned toKyoto when the Shogunate lost powerin the middle of the nineteenth cenrury.

The precipitating event was the failure,,f g,-rvernment forces to defend the..runtr-v against the incursions ofEur.rpeans. Rallying under the slogari''Revere the Emperor! Drive Out theB.rrt'ariansl" a broad political alliance:esrt'rred direct imperial rule. In 1868:he emperor's residence was moved fromNrartrr to the Shogunate capital of Edo,'.r hich n'as renamed Tokyo.

In the rush of modernization that:.,Llou'ed, rhe Gagaku Department of the^nperial Household Agency was reorga-rl:eJ, irnd performers were required to.e-rrn Western music, including polkas.r:J rnilitary marches. The emperor.r.... ..r,lered his musicians to compose'I clrern-sr)'le music with traditional:rel..Jies; one of these compositions:'. ..h'eJ into the Japanese national.:.:hem.

l.rpan's defeat in the Second World','..'.:

nearlv brought about the end of-

rr rkrr anJ bugaku. There was agitation'.i rrch cclntinues in some quarters) to

, ^,rnltrn the performances as an expen-..'..

.rnachtonism. But the Japaneser:":rcoce tor tradition won out, and in-

Ii5 the colrrt musicians and dancers.i .:: Jeclared Important Intangible-: '. ernment Properties, more common-. . sr.,\\'o as "living national treasures.":.

.:r-neek tour of the United States in-

-:r l.rought worldwide acclaim andr:r.:',r.eJ inrerest in Japan itself.

I .i.rv, Tadamaro Ono sees no more-:..: : tbr eagaku and bugaku to die out-

. .:. :,,r rhe Japanese to turn their backs:. ::'.r rea ceremony or the N6 theater. .-:.

-r1.... in his view, reflect "the: ::.i.c national character." Court

^'-:.- .roJ Jance continue to be passed

. .. :. ::,'m gcncration to generation of

palace servants by a time.honored pro-cess of oral instruction. The familieswho have been entrusred with the tradi-tion choose the most talented boys fromeach generation to be trained; theirtraining in all the details ofgagaku andbugaku may begin as early as the age offive. Ono himself was skeptical aboutthe efficacy of this early selection whenhis turn came to judge the youngermembers of the family. "However," hesays, "it must be done to keep the tradi.tion, and our family, alive."

A lH;m:,'"*i;ff ::T increas.chiefs arrive at the assembly ground out-side the Asantehene's palace. Theyarrive by bus or car or on foot fromnearby houses where they have spent thenight. Each chief is wearing his mostornate robes and gold jewelry, and eachcomes in procession with as many atten-dants as his rank and purse warrant. Theattendants range from small boys andgirls to women in high heels and white-haired men in rradirional black-leatherAsante sandals. In their everyday livesthey are farmers, teachers, students,office workers, homemakers. Today theycarry chairs and heft brightly coloredumbrellas and large fringed canopies,and beat drums and strike clapperlessmetal bells with sticks, and dance andsing as their chief leads them towardtheir assigned area, where they arrangethemselves in a U-shaped formationthat constitutes a temporary court.

Soon there are some fifty of thesecourts, side by side, around the perime-ter of the assembly ground. At the bendofeach U, shaded by an array offancy

umbrellas held up by young arrendants,sits the chief flanked by his most impor,tant counselors. The others in theentourage take their places along botharms of the U, with a row of youngerchildren sitting on the ground and oneor two rows of older people on stools orfolding chairs behind them. Everyonefaces the narrow aisle between the armsofthe U and everyone sits as close to.gether as possible, which reduces thedistance between the people on the farends and their chiei whom everyoneaddresses with the honorific "Nana."

The drummers and other musiciansstand in a knot behind one arm oftheU and lay down interweaving rhythms;a few people at a time-a man and awoman, two men, three women-get totheir feet, slip off their sandals or highheels as a sign ofrespect to the chief,and begin dancing in the space withinthe U. They bend their knees andelbows, turn slowly clockwise in placewith their eyes closed, take small stepsthat keep contact with the ground, shifttheir weight gracefully from hip tohip, and move in a counterclockwisedirection between the open end of theU and the closed end where the chiefsits, while making arm-and-hand ges-tures that proclaim: "l depend on you"and "Wherever I go, I belong to thisland" and "We are one people." Fromtime to time, the chief stands up anddances down the aisle toward the musi-cians, whose efforts he rewards with ahandful of paper money while the rest ofhis entourage claps and cheers. Ifa chiefis derelict in his duty to his musicians,a drummer may beat out a complaint:"Nana, I have been drumming all morn-ing, Ineedadrink."

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Royal drums (left) in the entranceway totlw Asantehene's palace, c.1890. Theskulb mdbones decoratingthe drwns meof defeated enemies. Prior to tlv Britishsubjugation of tlw Asante in the late nine-teenth centurJ, war wos one of tlw mostimportant actiuities of the snte, as it wasfor LouisXIV. Bebw, Asante dancers(on tlv lpft a queen mother) on tlw grotmdsof tfu Asantehene' s pal.ace, 199 1 . Behindthe dancers are the fontomfrom drums oftlv Asantelvrc.

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Asante dancers (aboue) in Kumase dress.ed in red during the mouming period for arecentb deceased chief , 197 2 . Dutcingplays a significant role in funerals amongthe Asante . Left, the Asantehene' s headdrummer in white, then inhis early eighties,drmces on the grounds of the Asantehene'spalace , 1991 .

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Adubs ond chiLdren alike practice dancemoaes at the Big Adae inKumase.

At first it may appear that each littlecourt is an island of dance and musicapart from all the others. Bur as the dayprogresses, a surprising pattern emerges:the entire assembly area, which holdsmore than fifty thousand people, hasbecome one huge dance floor. Proces-sions of lesser chiefs (accompaniedby their musicians and dancers) windthrough the packed crowds to payrespects to their superiors in the hierar-chy; when two processions encountereach other, their heralds shout "AgohJAgoh!" ("Make way!") and the atten-dants who hold the largest and mostcolorful umbrellas over the most impor-tant chiefs twirl them like pinwheelsand flap them up and down in a kindof dance within a dance. The sound ofdrumming comes from all directions.Only when the Asantehene finallymakes his appearance in his palanquin,in a grand procession accompanied byall the court regalia, do the events of theday come into focus. Significantly, theplace ofhonor at the head of the proces-sion goes nor to the Asantehene himselfbut to the Golden Stool, the symbol ofthe nation, which is held aloft by itsown bearer and shaded by severalumbrellas and its own fringed canopy.Once the Asantehene has taken his seaton his rostrum, the exchange of visitsbetween lesser and greater chiefs-andthe sharing of dance and music that isan essential part of Asante life-resumes.

Professor Opoku is sitting in thedining room of his hotel, sipping a coldbeer and looking back over the day.Despite his apprehensions about thefuture of Asante traditions, he is not atalldispleased with what he saw. Onemoment especially stays in his mind. A

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young man was dancing a very expres-sive adowa-a dance named after thegraceful movements of the pigmy ante-lope-before the queen mother and hercourt. Seeing how well he danced, thequeen mother got up to join him.Immediately, the young man begandancing in a properly respectful, subor-dinate position. \Uith her hand gesturesthe queen mother said to him: "Brother,support me, and let's do it well." Andthe young man linked his two index fin-gers in front of him, like two links in achain, to indicate: "\0(/e are together, wecannot be separated, we are one peo-ple." Then came the moment that theprofessor relished. \ilhen sweat brokeout on the queen mother's face, one ofher women attendants took a cloth andu'iped the queen mother's face while shedanced. "And what was really so beauti-ful," the professor says, "was that theu'ay she did it, it too became a part ofthe dance."

Courts come into existence as instru-rnents of political, military, spiritual,and cultural authority. Their primarypurpose is to manifest power. Whilerhis may be accomplished in the shortrur-r by brute force, long-term survival.lepends on the ability of a court toretlect the needs and aspirations of thepopulation at large. By providing a:ecure home for those who look afterrhe society's spiritual and cultural well-l.eing, a court may outlive its military.rnJ political power. In its administra-:l'e structure and in the content of its:crt.'rrmances, court dance typically.ntt'odies the hierarchical organization

r rhe court itself. Court dances, like:her court arts from painting to archi-

:r.rure. tend to be conservative in the

literal sense; they conserve arritudesabout life that were deemed essential tothe society in the past. But dependingon the attitude ofthe courr, they canalso change in response to majorchanges in society.

Courts and court dances are expen.sive, and ultimately it is the people whopay the bills. !7here court forms, likeballet and bedoyo, are encouraged tomigrate outside the court, new partici-pants, spectators, and patrons becomeinvolved. Schools and academies,museums, orchestral societies, publicgrant-giving agencies assume the burdenof support that was once the monopolyof the court. Ballet might have diedwith the Bourbon dynasty if Louis XIVhad not entrusted its future to his RoyalAcademy of Dance in 1661, and if theballets offered to the public had notfound an enthusiastic audience amongthe middle and upper classes of eigh-teenth-century France. The subsequentdevelopment of ballet into an art ofworldwide appeal raises the question ofwhether other court forms may follow asimilar course. In Yogyakarta, the estab-lishment of a dance academy outsidethe court has let loose creative energieswhose impact on the classic courtdances cannot be predicted. Bugakuhas appeared on Japanese television andtoured the world, but its protected sta-tus as a "national treasure" would seemto restrict opportunities for furtherdevelopment. The court of theAsantehene continues to provide a focusfor the self-image of the Asante people;adaptations of court dances figureprominently in the programs of Ghana'sNational Dance Company, and a com-munity of Asante who live in New York

City has organized around an electedchief who takes his place proudly in thehierarchy that culminates in the courtof the Asantehene in Kumase.

Whether or not courts and theirdances survive would seem to dependon how successful they are in holding upa mirror to their society. The power ofdance to communicate the past gloriesof a community-and by so doing tobind that community closer togetherin the present-is eloquently expressedin the words of Professor Opoku: "Allour public occasions end in dance.\Uhen you hear the drums, it sweetensthe inside of your head, as we say in theAsante language, like sugar, and youbecome aware that you belong to a greatpeople."

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