Alan Lomax and Forrestine Paulay discuss Dance and Human History (Part 1)

Note: Lomax and Paulay comment on dance film footage. Michael Del Rio and Andy Kaye heard briefly in these sessions. Fred Astaire combined European step and ballet (some posing of the arms, turning, and crossing the midline) with African influences (sliding, wide steps, playful attack, variation, semi-bent position at times). Alan Lomax: African dance more bent over, Fred tends to be up in the air. African and European unison dancing compared. Africans fluid looking in a group; in ballet emphasis is on holding an erect position. East Asian style characterized by very controlled precision, using three dimensional space, a sustained slow pace, and a high degree of successiveness with an independent focus on feet and toes. Feet independent from legs, arms do another whole gesture. Rice planting film footage shows a similar sustained, slow pace, with little flicking peripheral gestures. Work rhythm same as rhythm of the dance. In Europe, a village is a social center for an assembly of peers, where everyone owns houses and can sing ballads -- in China, a village is an assembly of subordinates. Southern Europe versus northern Europe (cloggers). Andalusian dancer characterized by high acceleration, posing. Cloggers' arms relaxed, casual appearance. Both would be coded erect, but Latin dance features extreme emphsis on erect stance and more tension in the body, also continuous turns, large movements, and complementarity between men and women. Fred Astaire has neither the steady intensity of Andalusian dance style nor the intelligent moderation of English clogging. In European dancing (including Astaire), feet define the territory. Fred glides across the floor with the longitudinal foot movement of ballet, as well as going down (a bit of African). Alan Lomax: More like telling a story. Forrestine Paulay: Tremendous variation. Turns cover space - not turning in place as in Andalusia. Astaire has palm presentation. Cloggers' palms are neutral. Alan Lomax: He is carrying a stick like a West African dancer carrying a baton. Eurasian dance is a precise way of using whole body in complex movement in space. Millions come out to watch formation of bodies in European sports. In Western Europe there is simultaneous movement, not spiraling. Life-or-death importance of timing in the toreador?s pirouettes. They watch footage of a Polish couple plowing, the man holding the plow, the woman the reins of the horse. "A beautiful example of complimentarity, control of the animal, and maximal use of the land." Remarks on Hungarian footwork, women showing beautiful, hand-made petticoats. Greek dancing and clogging have a bounce. Venezuelan Creole is an African re-stepping of European patterns. Its playful changes of speed, steps high up off the ground, and elastic arm movement are very African, though the clothing is European. Posture less erect than the European norm. Woman quite aggressive and aloof, stick in hand. Malay group is where you find oblique entrance and the seated dance, as though being carried in a canoe. Movements smooth. Malaysia is the water area: breath control - song phrases here are the longest in the world. Bronze was first smelted here. Work movement is sustained and curvilinear. Candle dance, Sumatra. Seated audience watching is unique, as if they might also be in canoes. Plains Indians have longitudinal foot gestures indicating presence of horses, rigid body posture, jerking shaking to produce aesthetic effect of movement of feathers. Alan Lomax: Making feathers and things move and shimmer occurs circum-Pacific. Narrow amplitude of foot movement noted. Stamping, a critical feature of the dance, emphasized by bells on ankle. Alan Lomax: They are enacting animals by using jerky bird movements; they are the hunter and the hunted at the same time. Plains Indians' hoop dance. Fast driving energy, maintain crouch. Tracking, moving across the terrain and changing direction. Jivaro have unusual side stepping and some foot crossing, though without the use of plough. Alan Lomax: The Jivaro are the most individualized people in the world; one man, wife, and couple of friends against the universe. Whole life spent in murder and trying to seduce other men's wives in corners. Only more miserable people are the Yanomami. Jivaro have nearest thing we have to a straight walk in the dance. Jivaro drummer and pipe. Step film. Digging is the connector of real gathering, Australians, Negritos, and others use feet as tools. Film footage of woman planting with her feet, and of Australians digging for water with feet. Tropical origins of humanity. Rituals of dust and earth in Africa (traces of this in Christianity). In northern lands the earth is frozen, feet are shod. Forrestine Paulay on reconnecting with the earth. She remarks that some therapies involve increasing foot flexibility.