Note: Comment on film of Shango rite. Use of space in Shango reminiscent of West African ancestral Yoruba dance. Spirit takes space and begins to grow from pile of clothes, as it comes out of the earth. Alan Lomax: Africa has synchrony with shoulders and pelvis, arms seem to be free. Juanita Elbein: Not only arms but feet and pelvis express specific movements related to myths of identifying gods. Orishas have their own dance patterns. Head is residence of inner mystic spirit. Chicken blood placed on head of priestess. Group of elders participates by singing and palm rubbing, an ambivalent gesture, both honoring and propitiating the orisha. Cooking takes several hours, during which orisha sits still, covered in blood and feathers, mourning for the dead animal. After several hours she gets up. Daybreak salutation. She will be taken to be cleansed. Head of animal placed on altar. Sacrificial animal must have shown consent by eating leaves. Movements of men and women adepts are different. Women receive the gods, it is very rare for men to be possessed. Title holders are men| men have economic and disciplinary roles. Kings are never possessed. If woman possessed by a male god, she dances a warrior dance and rides a horse. Female goddess movements are undulating and feminine. Differences between Bhatia and Africa. Bahia has more group dances. African dancing is more virtuosic. In Brazil, three or four Shango priestesses danced at one time, in Africa only one Shango came. Women appear to dance similarly, men differently (with slower movements). Voluminous, body-concealing male costume may partly explain this. Elder men in Bahia appear more like Africans. Bahia dancing more fluid, African dancing more abrupt, acrobatic. Bahia men don't dance much (in ritual), Nigerian men dance more. Yoruba king (chief) doesn't speak in public. Bahia ritual is a coming together, in which each cult house represents all Yoruba land. There are no separate temples, as in Nigeria. Condensation of functions as well - Bahia doesn't have kings, so civic social functions are transferred to priesthood. Lineages not pure, there is intermarriage. Curing ceremonies as psychotherapy. No black magic as in Haiti. Can white people dance? Didi (Juanita's husband): "No tienen ritmo" -- (they have no rhythm), tense muscles| black men are relaxed. Social dances (as opposed to cult dances) have lost polyrhythm. There is not much couple dancing in Africa or Brazil. Except in Brazil, the gafieira, similar to the tango and not considered proper