Performance, transformation and community: contra dance in New England

Article Abstract:

A study of contra dance in the Pioneer Valley area of New England indicates how the dancers as part of a tradition form a community that has very defined interaction and levels of relationships. The history of dancing shows how participants absorb roles which come from the repetitive and recognizable patterns of dance. The contra dancers community starts from the local level and exists till a national level where members of the community may not even have met. The community is complex because of the multiple interaction between beginners, casual participants, proficient dancers, musicians and the organizers and also because of the interactions within each of these groups.

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Dance and the politics of orality: a study of the Irish 'scoil rince.'

Article Abstract:

Cultural critic Allegra Fuller Snyder believes that the importance of dance to a society takes the place of literacy as a form of communication. Snyder cites the role of dance in conveying signification through movement and costume in the same way that the written word informs. However, the faulty generalization in this concept is demonstrated in the role of the traditional Irish dancing school in restricting the form of national dances to preserve the oral poetic tradition connected with the dance. Innovations of Irish dance traditions were subsequently introduced that maintained its link with oral poetry.

Analysis, Ireland, Popular culture, Folk poetry

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Dance, myth and ritual in time and space

Article Abstract:

Rituals and ceremonies have been commonalities of all human races and dance encoded both myth and ritual. Danced rituals underwent constant change through revival and syncretism as well as helping bind a community together and empowering individuals to understand their place within the community. Rituals and ceremonies also facilitated transformations, both at the personal and the community level. Danced rituals had the most power.

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