Kaitlyn Parmely- DANCE

All primitive art is religious. Dance is the most basic form of art because all that one needs is there body in order to participate in the ritual. Dance is the most universal art of all of the arts. It uses body movements, drama, and can include song, but also needs an audience to participate in order for the dance to be understood. Dance being referred to as a magical art, a divine performance or a religious act is the desire of one to express themselves and tell a story. In class we watched the clip of the ritual dance from the movie Bounty, but the first thing that came to my mind was how dance is incorporated in a Baptist church. Atendees of the Baptist churches clap their hands, sway their bodies and hands back and forth while singing songs in their holy sanctuary praising God. In the last chapter of our book, Theology of the Arts by Van der Leeuw he talks about God's creation and how it is lived out through people today through God's creation and we cannot realize it until after it has already happened. God's creation of churches, and spiritual places relate to the creation of building, and through those buildings people are able to praise, dance and use words and music to praise God in the way that they desire. God's creation of giving man the ability to build, gives people a place to come together and perform rituals to commune and discuss explainations of God's stories. Dances and body movements that are used in the church when singing gospel songs, etc. give people a chance to praise God and do their ritual dance in a 'holy space' and live through God's creations in more than one way; especially through the use of arts.