Dancing shoes - Park One(Primeval to Polka)

Cameron Kippentoeslayer2000@yahoo.com.au

In the beginning

Early man seems to haveenjoyed dancing, first byhimself, then withother men and eventually,and sensibly, with women.

The earliest dances wereprobably celebratory, toenhance fertility, to honoura victory, or rejoice in a

bountiful harvest.

Dance is an important part of civilisation and brought with it its own language

Prehistory

Dance predates written culture and was thought to function as a key way to communicate identity and custom and in this way preserve the tribe’s continuity.

In many primal cultures music and dance formed part magical or religious rituals as well as celebratory events.

The “dancing sorcerer (circa 10,000 BCE)

Dancing in antiquity

Dancing was manifest in ancient temple worship, in Greece, in the Middle East and in India.

Dance also formed part of wedding ceremonies and contained reference to appropriate nuptial behaviour.

Ancient Egypt

The Belly Dancers (Awalim) were dancing girls who would combine their womanly charms with prostitution.

During festivals to worship Isis and Osiris, and Apis followers openly danced to musical complement.

Ancient Greece

Dance became very popular among the Greeks and they considered it a healthy pastime akin to aerobics.

Aristotle (384 BCE – 322 BCE) ranked dancing with poetry and said that certain dancers, with rhythm applied to gesture, could express manners, passions, and actions. Veiled dancer from Myrina

circa 150–100 BCE

The Roman Empire

In the early centuries of the Roman Empire dancing was frowned upon because it was considered an erotic and licentious inducement. The developed a dance form which emphasised less aesthetic, spectacle and mime. Gestures were crude as social dance declined and religious dance continued.Ovid later recommended dancing to all girls who were in love and dancing has remained a major part of courtship ever since.

Ovid (43 BC – AD 17/18)

The beginning of social dancing

This became a feature of

European life in the late

twelfth century.

Distinctly the pastime of

nobility it featured only

on special occasions.

The "carole" or "carola" was a popular Court dance

Ring Dances

The first detailed descriptions of dancing date from 1450 in Italy.

It become a popular pastime with the masses which required no audience, commemorative occasion or training.

Dancers went hand-in-hand and a leader sang the ballad.

The Dancing Plague

Between the 13th to 16th century large populations of Europe were afflicted with frenzied dancing.

People gathered together and danced until they dropped with exhaustion or sometimes death.

Choreomania was initially thought to be caused by

spider bites

The Dance of Death

The parade was led by a figure representing death and became established after the Black Death (1373).

It is thought the dance of death reflected rituals performed by primitive peoples, who had also danced to acknowledge the passing of the seasons of the year and of a human life on Earth.

Folk Dance

Battle dances including thesword dances wereperformed throughoutEurope.

Village people performed fertility dances including Morris Dancing. On certain saints' days women also danced in churches.

Dances shoes

Apart from ceremonial shoeswhich were found in tribaldancing from North America toAustralia there appears to be nospecial shoe requirement forEuropean dancing until after the11th Century in Europe wheremore and more social dancingbecame the prerogative ofaristocracy.

Greensleeves

By the sixteenth century court dancing was well established and the tune Green Sleeves was popular.

Green Sleeves is considered by many to be the oldest dance tune to have survived into modern times.

‘My Lady Greensleeves’ by Dante Gabriel Rossetti(1864)

Ballroom Etiquette

During the 16th century ballrooms became popular and being dressed for a ball all the more so. The best finery was the order of the day and more and more the noblemen and women wore special ballroom slippers. These became known as the “dancing shoes” or “pumps.”

The Dress (Grand) Ball

Napoleon's legacy to culturedEurope was the fashionabledress balls that were he heldin his honour.

As soon as Paris succumbedto dancing for pleasure thenpopularity for such occasionsswept through the civilisedworld.

Neo-classicism

A superb opportunity to display the peacock arrogance of the male and men wore military style boots. Women by contrast wore slippers every bit as delicate as modern ballet shoes.

Empire Shoes were low heel pumps, sometimes worn with ribbons wrapped around the ankle

Popular Dances

After the political upheavals of the 18th and 19th centuries, dances once performed by the aristocracy alone, became popular among ordinary people.

By the mid-19th century, popular dances attracted many participants who performed minuets, quadrilles, polkas, and waltzes all of European origin.

The Waltz

The waltz gave new freedoms to couples with its gliding, whirling movements.

Partners held themselves temptingly close.

The turning action to fast music tempo was thought to cause intoxication

Johann Strauss I (1804 – 1849)

The Waltz

The old people downright denounced it and young people, danced it non stop.

Waltz - Dirty Dancing

Byron claimed: ‘Lewd grasp and lawless contact between dancers in public would not leave much to mystery to the nuptial night .’

To its critics the Waltz was "will corrupting", "disgusting" and "immodest.”

Despite moribund protestations the Waltz became the fad dance in 1855.

Lord Byron (1788 –1824)

Demise of the Waltz

The Great WarPeople stopped dancing because it was

mistakenly thought to be a German dance.

The Polka

Not to be outdone by thefashionable Europeans,

American,John Philip Sousa introduced theworld to the military two step.

Set to a march like tempo the dance

involved marching and skipping.

Less intimate, more novel andThe Polka celebrated the newfashion of militaria.

John Philip Sousa (1854 –1932)

The Cakewalk

Scott Joplin

(1867 - 1917)

For the amusement of the rich in the southern states of North America black folks were encouraged to lampoon formal dancing styles.

Set to energetic rhythms of ragged music dancers demonstrated both agility and athleticism as they competed for attention.

Prizes of cakes were offered to those dancers who displayed the greatest creativeness.

Ragged music became Ragtime and was the forerunner of Jazz.

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