Amanda DeSalme-Dance

I was looking through Van der Leeuw's text, trying to find a quote about dance to blog about, and had trouble connecting to anything. I love to dance, but I never really connected it with religion. Van der Leeuw states that "There was a period-and for the so-called primitive peoples this period still exists-when art and religion stood so close to each other that they could almost be equated. Song was prayer; drama was divine performance; dance was cult" (VDL, 11).
Dictionary.com defines "cult" in these ways:

1.	a particular system of religious worship, esp. with reference to its rites and ceremonies.

2.	an instance of great veneration of a person, ideal, or thing, esp. as manifested by a body of admirers: the physical fitness cult.

3.	the object of such devotion.

4.	a group or sect bound together by veneration of the same thing, person, ideal, etc.

5.	Sociology. a group having a sacred ideology and a set of rites centering around their sacred symbols.

6.	a religion or sect considered to be false, unorthodox, or extremist, with members often living outside of conventional society under the direction of a charismatic leader.

7.	the members of such a religion or sect.

8.	any system for treating human sickness that originated by a person usually claiming to have sole insight into the nature of disease, and that employs methods regarded as unorthodox or unscientific.

I think Van der Leeuw is referring to the 1st definition provided here. The word "cult" can have some negative connotations nowadays.
When I think about primitive cultures dancing, I imagine drums and singing and a fire, with people dancing around the fire. This kind of dancing would probably be a very spiritual experience. I think I'm so used to the modern school of dancing, taking ballet classes and such, that I forget how liberating it can feel to just let loose and let your body move to music. Maybe I haven't seen enough live music lately. I used to be too self-conscious to really let loose when moved my music. Why is our culture like that? We don't really improvise that much. Improvisation is my favorite part of jazz and other forms of music, so why shouldn't I apply it to dance as well? Sure, sometimes I'll dance around my room like a silly imp to some groovin' tunes, but it hasn't been a spiritual thing for me. It's just been...fun. Our modern culture has really separated dance from religion. It's a shame.

My new goal: to go see some live shows and liberate myself from my sense of self so I can just...dance!