Yoruban Dance- Ricky Chen DANC163 Brown

 

            I enjoyed learning about the social, spiritual and communicative values of dance in Yoruban culture. Dance is not simply just an art form, but also a reflection of society and culture. Thus, there is much more emphasis on the dancer when he or she performs such dances because the dancer must convey and carry the cultural weight and significance of every move.

            The article sets out to explain the idea of complementary opposition that is the principal driving force of Yoruban society. It is described as the balance of good and the bad to create completeness in life, iwontunwonsi. This symmetrical balance is reflected in dance because each dancer must portray calmness (inner balance) and stance (exterior balance). I believe that such balance is not only necessary in dance but necessary in life when we must achieve composure and calmness when dealing with changes in our surroundings. After the article describes complementary opposition in Yoruban culture, it continues to compare this philosophy of good and bad to the western thinking of binary opposition, the idea of good opposing evil. I never thought about categorizing these philosophical ideas according to geographic regions, but it appears to be true that Eastern philosophies often advocate complementary opposition, such as ying and yang. Dance also has a specific role in Yoruban spiritual beliefs: spiritual dances. In spiritual dances, there is a sacred distance between the audience and the dancer while the dancers pay tribute to the “hot and cool” deities.

            The most interesting fact I learned in this article about Yoruban dance culture is the idea of individuality and identity—stance. In the context of complimentary duality, the dancer interacts with the divine overseer while interacting with self. In dance, each dancer shows improvised movements that portray their individuality and personality. In Western dances, audiences observe a tendency for dancers move in synchronized and organized choreography, rigid within a certain framework and structure. However, Yoruban dance force allows freedom of expression of self and freedom of all body parts—democracy of the body.