Tommy Faulconer: Blog 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGGcU1KbL9Y

In class, we have discussed several different circumstances in which dance becomes a communion with the divine, and one that has consistently stood out to me is the need for the dancers to give themselves over to the rhythm in order to connect to the holy. I feel that the dance linked above does just that. In the video, there are four dancers who's dance is not choreographed, and they are moving their bodies together. It is the fact that they are simply moving with the rhythm of the music that brings them a spiritual experience from the piece. They are not focused on choreography but on the movement and the rhythm. In my opinion, this puts them in a trance-like state similar to the ecstatic dances described by van der Leeuw. The dancer becomes so focused on the rhythm that they lose sight of the audience and are moving at one with the music and the divine. It is refreshing to see a performance so beautiful without being choreographed by anything more than the body, the soul, and the rhythm in tune with the divine.