Comparing Sexual Visibility of Dance

Last night traditional Cretan dancers came and performed. I couldn’t help but smile the entire time because I was moved by how beautiful it was. As they were dancing I was comparing everything in my head to other traditional dances I’ve seen within different cultures. I noticed how formal it was, in relation to the position the women had with the men. The women mostly tapped their feet and appeared to be accessories to the men, because the men’s movements were depicted physically stoic and audibly loud. They were stomping their feet in unison and raised their bodies high in the air. Although the women may have appeared less of a visible object in the dance, when the men geared up to leap from a standing position they all had to put their arms around another to create a formation they could push off of. In that way, the women added to the heightened visibility of the men and without them it might have not been as successful. Star and I talked after and she mentioned that position of the hand holding, and said the women clung their whole hand to only one finger on the hand of the men. Its also interesting to note that although the men had more solos, the dance could not have been completed without the women being there. This is to be said for other cultural dances around the world. I think it speaks a lot about the culture and how intimacy is reflected within dance. In Latin culture the merengue is extremely intimate to be witness to. What does that say about Latin culture in comparison to Greek? What about sexuality makes it to the stage? And why is it that certain cultures allow sexuality to be visible within traditional dance--performed as representative of that culture. Star also said that dance has the ability to reflect passions of war and violence. Although decorated in clothing, the men stood tall and stomped their feet loudly with a piercing stance. Latin dances have the tendency to be more fluid and almost improvisational. You and your partner are feeding off each others energy and creating a being through how your bodies interact. Is Cretan dance structured and formal because the island is small and they need to appear powerful? In this way, dance is the easiest way to communicate attitude because dance is a language, the audience no matter the background can interpret the message.